Extract Zero Logs with a Serial Console (PuTTY)

Why Bother with a Console Dump?

The normal way to get logs is the official Zero app: pair over Bluetooth, then Support → Email bike logs, which sends proprietary binary .bin files. That route has two known failure modes:

• The app can crash before emailing. On newer Android versions the app is known to crash after downloading logs but before sending them. The files are usually still on the phone at Android/data/com.ZeroMotorcycles/files/, whether or not the email went out.
• Downloads can silently truncate. We have seen a real MBB .bin of 32 KB where the full MBB EEPROM is 256 KB — roughly 87% of the history missing. The file parses without error, so the truncation is invisible to the owner.

A console dump sidesteps both. Logs obtained over the serial console arrive fully decoded as plain text — no binary parsing needed on the bike's side — and the dump starts with a header like Printing 5806 of 5806 log entries.. that states outright how many entries you captured. That makes it a reliable cross-check against a suspect .bin download, and on Gen2 bikes it walks the full log store.

Side note: BMS logs via the app are only available on 2014+ models (added in app v1.0.8/1.0.9), and BMS extraction over Bluetooth can be very slow — another reason the cable route is popular for battery deep-dives.

Gen2: Connecting by Cable

Gen2 bikes (S, DS, SR, DSR, FX, FXS — roughly 2013–2024) expose a TTL-level serial console on vendor-reserved pins of an OBD-II (J1962) connector. The wiring is not standard OBD-II — an ELM327 scan tool will not work. You talk to the MBB directly with a USB-to-TTL serial adapter and a terminal program, per the ZeroManual Gen2 MBB Console guide.

Where is the OBD-II port?

Serial parameters & PuTTY setup

Procedure: plug the cable into the laptop, note the COM port, connect to the bike's OBD port, key the bike ON, open the terminal, and press Enter once or twice. You should see the ZERO MBB> prompt. Read-only commands work without logging in; a login command exists for configuration changes, but its passwords are not published — forum threads asking for them get answered privately, if at all.

The Dump Commands (Gen2)

Type help to see the menu. The ones you want:

What the dump looks like

Printing 5806 of 5806 log entries..
 Entry    Time of Log            Event                      Conditions
05688  09/08/2012 17:42:28  Discharge level  065 AH, SOC: 46%, I:-13A,
                            L:3426, l:3383, H:3485, B:059, PT:032C,
                            BT:032C, PV:62418, M:Bike On

Early bikes (2012-era) also expose a separate ZERO BMS> console directly on the battery, with its own eventlogdump plus balance / dobalance commands. On later Gen2 bikes each battery's BMS still keeps its own event log, but it's reached through the MBB (and takes longer to access) — direct BMS console access on 2013+ packs is not community-documented.

What About Bluetooth?

Console-over-Bluetooth is done with a relay dongle plugged into the OBD-II port, not the bike's own radio:

• The DigiNow Data Reaper dongle exposed OBD pins 8/9 as a Bluetooth Serial Port Profile (SPP) terminal. It only works on MY2012–2016 bikes: it powers itself from a 3.3 V supply on OBD pin 12 that appears unwired from 2017 onward. On 2017+ a USB cable still works fine.
• ECMCables sold a similar OBDDROID SPP dongle (2013–2016 models) — marked as a discontinued product on the community wiki.
• Don't use an OBD extension cable with these dongles: they draw power from a very delicate small 3.3 V MBB circuit that any extra cable attenuates too much.
• SPP means iOS cannot connect (iOS only supports BLE for this); Android, PC and Mac can. Pairing PINs aren't documented — check your dongle vendor's docs.

Gen3 (SR/F, SR/S, DSR/X)

Gen3 bikes do have a serial console — same OBD-II-port approach at 115200 baud, with the port inside the tank storage compartment (confirmed both by the ZeroManual Gen3 console reference and Zero's own SR/F service bulletin). Owners have built the same DIY cable for MY2020 SR/F. The event-log commands differ from Gen2:

• There is no separate errorlogdump on Gen3 — faults live under the faults command instead. (The exhaustive elde variant is Gen3-only; Gen2 has no equivalent.)
• Honest gaps: whether the Gen3 dump commands need a login first is not documented, and the wiki's real captures show asynchronous DEBUG fault lines printing into the session, which will interleave with your dump. Our parser tolerates that noise.
• The everyday route on Gen3 remains the mobile app (Support → Email bike logs) — those .bin files upload here as usual. Dealers instead use the Zero Diagnostic Utility over a CAN interface, which has "Pull All Logs" built in.

Safety & Caveats

• Community consensus, stated plainly: talking to your MBB or BMS is at your own risk and might affect your warranty.
• Use a 3.3 V-logic serial adapter; 5 V-only TTL adapters are reported not to work — and leave the adapter's +5 V wire disconnected so nothing back-feeds the bike.
• The bike must be keyed ON for the session. Long dumps can outlast the idle timeout (Gen2 default secidle is 7200 s) — the community advice during long extractions is to occasionally blip the throttle to keep the bike awake.
• Stay away from the destructive commands listed above; only run the read-only dumps.
• Common sense (not a sourced procedure): disconnect the cable before riding.
• Gen1 tinkerers probing the MBB board headers directly: watch out for the high-voltage J5 header — it can fry your tools.

FAQ