Levo Gen 3 Gen 3 lost power after firmware update, anyone else?

madexe

madexe

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I've lost about 20% of power give or take after going from 8.1.5 to 8.6.
I used to ride in shuttle 60 and 40 acc, I am now riding at 100 shuttle and 100 acc and the bike has definitely lost some kick, plus drains battery faster.
Does anyone know if specialized keeps a changelog of fw updates?
 
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It's kinda unofficial known thing and many riders were reporting it back then (use search) that they felt less power and kick after particular fw updates, your previous fw 8.1.5 was released in 2022 so this might be really what you are experiencing ...

I bet this motor detuning fw releases were happening years back in the time when OTA fw updates were still a thing, imho OTA updates were most probably implemented in the first place just to make sure as much as possible Gen2/3 bikes gets updated (throw some usable features in, to motivate riders into updating even more), to help to keep motor failures down with remotely 'detuning' the motor a bit and hoping no one will notice (very high motor failure rate was a very big issue for spesh) ... Maybe detuning even happened in a smaller steps over multiple fw updates, to make it even harder to notice by the riders ...

If you keep fw updates dealer job only, significantly less bikes gets updated and ultimatly takes much more time and effort comparing to OTA, and if rumors starts circulating, that XX.x update will get you less power and kick, then no one will want to upgrade fw anymore, with OTA you probably already updated ... Now that this Gen2/3 motor problem is almost behind, they decided to ditch OTA fw updates and MC app (which was much better with much more features than current app) and they made fw updates dealer exclusive job again. And with a release of semi-outdated Gen4, I really don't like the direction all this is going ...

In short: Of course you will not find anything about less motor power and kick in a fw changelog/release notes. Or maybe they will just call it 'optimizing' or 'cutting spikes' ...
 
Hey thanks for the reply, I figured it was all a big black box. Pretty bummed.
 
I just had a new motor installed in my same levo, it does seem to have a little less power than before. Any way to fix this?
 
kneecap said:
I just had a new motor installed in my same levo, it does seem to have a little less power than before. Any way to fix this?
Click to expand...
No fix as far as downgrading fw goes.
I upped shuttle to 100 and it felt ok (still not as powerful) but range took a big hit so I went back down to 60.
I guess we'll become stronger?
 
I noticed a decrease in power a while back with the firmware update. Maybe wasn’t as bad because I use shuttle 0, and mostly ride with 70/100. Response is 40
 
I bought my Levo July 2020, in June 2024 the motor finally completely failed after 2 years of increasing symptoms. So it was replaced under warranty, with the latest firmware update. I can categorically say it had the same power as before - I have a very steep hill climb locally, and I only ever got 3/4 of the way up it. With the new motor, I did actually make all the way up, I'm not saying it's more powerful, but it definitely isn't less powerful. In those 4 years, the same comments were appearing on here, saying every firmware update reduces power. Yes I'm aware the torque spikes were reduced, walk speed was reduced then increased. In the mean time the belt was improved, the sprag clutches beefed up, and more seals were added to try and prevent water ingress, so the later motors could cope happily with the designed full power.
By far the biggest failure of these motors is water ingress causing bearing and sprag clutch failure. Power output is irrelevant to this.
 
Tetley said:
I bought my Levo July 2020, in June 2024 the motor finally completely failed after 2 years of increasing symptoms. So it was replaced under warranty, with the latest firmware update. I can categorically say it had the same power as before - I have a very steep hill climb locally, and I only ever got 3/4 of the way up it. With the new motor, I did actually make all the way up, I'm not saying it's more powerful, but it definitely isn't less powerful. In those 4 years, the same comments were appearing on here, saying every firmware update reduces power. Yes I'm aware the torque spikes were reduced, walk speed was reduced then increased. In the mean time the belt was improved, the sprag clutches beefed up, and more seals were added to try and prevent water ingress, so the later motors could cope happily with the designed full power.
By far the biggest failure of these motors is water ingress causing bearing and sprag clutch failure. Power output is irrelevant to this.
Click to expand...
Thank you for your input, but I am not crazy, this thing is a bit less powerful after upgrading.
We can just agree to disagree.
 
madexe said:
Thank you for your input, but I am not crazy, this thing is a bit less powerful after upgrading.
We can just agree to disagree.
Click to expand...

When the software was updated from 8.5.1 to 8.6.0 in May 2024 the following was changed:
The torque response on first pedal stroke has been improved. This results in noticeably better acceleration behaviour for the rider.
Light switch-on behaviour has been optimised for lamps with high power.
Range calculation algorithm optimisation to result in a more precise distance evaluation.
A new fault code added to identify any issues that may occur in the battery CAN communication.

As you can see, software version 8.6.0. has been around for a long time and we have updated literally thousands of motors with no power issues or complaints. I cannot think of a scenario that would cause the issue that you have? However, software update 8.7.0. was released last month by Brose, it will take a month or two to be incorporated into Turbo Studio but if you wait until it is and re-install the new update, it may fix what ever is causing your issue.

In the meantime, just check your brakes aren't dragging, or your tyre pressures have dropped, or you have a wheel bearing becoming tight, or a jockey wheel is not seizing etc, etc. It does not take a lot of drag from something like this to make a big difference in power and range.

Hope this helps.
 
DuncanDoughnuts said:
It is less powerful .... they did this to make the belts last longer .... you need to up the acceleration to 100% to get a real similar.
Click to expand...
Just for the record, the software that decreased the power slightly was done back in 2016. Not recently.
 
How can you see which update version you are currently running?
Got a 2023 levo and looking at the App or directly at the display I’m not seeing any version info.
 
Greeno said:
How can you see which update version you are currently running?
Got a 2023 levo and looking at the App or directly at the display I’m not seeing any version info.
Click to expand...
Hi I was looking at the turbo studio screen at the LBS. Cannot get that info from the app I think.
 
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