Mercane scooter: tinkering with advanced settings

Back on Monday (being back in "the big smoke" where its largely flat) I thought I'd try to apply some of the "undocumented" settings on the Mercane and see how it goes. I fully understand why some of these settings are undocumented as it circumvents many of the design constraints put onto the scooter for very good reasons (like preventing you blowing it up because you're unaware of the good reasons).

Cruise Control is found by entering the normal control menu (after powering it up) where you have 4 LED lights (as above, some blinking, some just unlit telling you the status), short presses of the button move it to different modes, showing as 2 blinking white LED's or 1 (red remains blinking), this is indicating if you are in

1. Eco mode or 
2. Full Power mode (note: unregulated unlocked mode).

To engage cruise control you pull in the brake, then fully activate the throttle, then let go. The 4th LED will now toggle to blinking or off.

To get to the other version of this where you can control some other (undocumented) features you need to do some gymnastics like pressing and holding the brake and the throttle while then putting it into mode change with the longer press. The picture above shows the meaning of the LED's in that sub-menu. Like this:

So with that aside I've found that the cruise control is excellent and I like it a lot, however some of the "aspects" of it may not become obvious (and sure aren't documented in the pamphlet "manual" that accompanies a new scoot. I can just briefly pull the brake lever (just enough to activate the tail light) and it disengages the cruise control and I begin slowing under engine braking. Quite natural to "touch the brake" when you're thinking of slowing down.

If you have the scoot set to "Eco" its pretty much that even on flat ground one is going to just press the throttle [thumb trigger] to "full" and when you feel that slight "shunt" (or you've counted 10 seconds) you can let go and it keeps that speed. Remember, a touch of the brake releases the cruise control.

However what you may not know is that if you have it on 2 LED's and hold the trigger somewhere about half and then hold it super steady (I brace my thumb against the plastic where the key is) then you can also let go (at the 10 sec mark) and it will also engage cruise control at that throttle setting.

Indeed I've found that it works at almost any setting where you hold it, even a basic crawl (interesting note: you can hear the square wave of the PWM as a regular "drone" from the rear wheel). Meaning that there is less need for the "Eco mode" now. My observation is that the battery level (which is an excellent indicator of how much power you're sucking from the battery) can be maintained at the same level as Eco mode in cruise control as it can with the limiter disabled.

Not using Eco (and using the above mentioend judicious application of the throttle and cruise control) has the benefit that you can when needed access more power (say a quick dash across a street, aided by an extra kick if you'd slowed down). In this manner you you can then choose to push the trigger full forward and surge away as needed (very hand after slowing to ride through a bunch of folk on the foot path and then surge away out the other side).

You can then resume at any speed by just holding the trigger just where you want it for 10 seconds.

Once I understood this it occurred to me that the ability to over-ride the speed limitation (basically feed in unhealthy amounts of current as far as the battery and probably the motor is concerned) and the judicious use of throttle in combination with the cruise control would give a great operating mode of operation for an advanced rider.

Tonight I experimented with this and found that holding the throttle at about 1/3rd the way in (past where it actually engages) and holding steady gave me about the same cruising speed as full trigger on the "Eco" mode, but with a difference :- I could stab the trigger and it would surge away. This gave me the benefit of rapid acceleration (well relative right ...) that I do not get on Eco (single white LED) nor on Standard (two LED's).

I found this to be very helpful when approaching a medium grade hill to "charge" it (with more speed) before getting to the hill and using my momentum to keep the motor in the more efficient RPM range (these motors are not as efficient when turning slowly).

As soon as I got near the crest I started backing off (just like I would on my motorbike or in my car) and was rewarded by the Voltage climbing back up towards 50.

My view is that if you do things this way you can take some "surges" for a few seconds (and really I don't recommend more than 10) and then resume riding "normally" and take advantage of the power of the motor.

This is not dissimilar to how we (should) drive our cars (or motor bikes) where we apply the right throttle to suit the situation (and speed limits) and do not treat the throttle as an ON / OFF switch.

I'm going to leave it in this mode for the week and see how it goes with respect to battery life. I already have a feel for how long the battery lasts in my "in town" usage, so it will be interesting.

... and now that the week has passed ...

Ok, its Thursday night, done the normal amount of travel and now still at 47V (10 minutes rested after a quick (and fun) dash to the shops for milk). I'd probably recharge tonight, but I'm confident I'll get to work and back on what's in the battery without pushing it too low.

I'd say that the above strategy is working very well for me with the relatively short (say 800 meter at longest) straights and a bit of dash and thrust crossing major roads, waiting at intersections, and general traffic stuff. It has allowed me to reach (briefly) faster top speeds with slow downs (seldom needing much brakes, just engine braking) and using the brake lever as an "off switch" for the cruise control.

I'm quite sure I could not have;

1. got into my car
2. driven out of the complex
3. driven to the supermarket (waiting at lights)
4. parked
5. walked into the supermarket
6. walked out and then reversing that process

as fast as I got there on the Mercane (I was out and up the street before I could have started the car), rode where cars couldn't go and then just walked right into the supermarket after stepping off at the door and pushing it.

Stuff like bunny hopping bumps, kicking off around tight corners (after backing off) and so on is just shit loads of fun that made it even more enjoyable.

Perhaps one day I'll act my age...