Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[togo]

> Is there a website with specs, prices, etc?

Brandon, get your website back online!

In the meantime, Clay, looks like he's got some stuff at

https://www.facebook.com/digiNowInc/

[Erasmo]

Or get at least an ''Under construction'' page instead of a 404.

[Keith]

Here is the amp draw and efficiency data for the DeltaQ Zero Quick Charger. It is constant current out, about 8.8 amps DC, so the power input varies with both AC voltage and DC output voltage depending on the SOC. No surprises, performance is very consistent, efficiency is high with slight drop off at low AC voltages.

This was going to be easy, my arduino was programmed to measure and collect all the data and send it to serial out so it could be plotted. But it bricked, my second dead Nano, so I did this the old school way, by hand. I wish I knew what killed it, my guess is a switching transient, lots of power nearby. Back to the drawing board.

Here's the spreadsheet https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1qtNmazUpdlHOjmGN-p3wvUzM3L8HxQlRaM5vuaqWkyI/edit?usp=sharing

[Josh]

Doctorbass, you probably want to take a look at my recent post. I'm honestly surprised that you as an expert with tons of experience and a huge variety of charger builds didn't have the idea to just order those chargers yourself in China. Would have saved you at least 2000$. What did you expect to be so special about the DigiNows?

[togo]

I think he got a deal, Josh : - )

[Nuts n Volts]

Doctorbass, you probably want to take a look at my recent post. I'm honestly surprised that you as an expert with tons of experience and a huge variety of charger builds didn't have the idea to just order those chargers yourself in China. Would have saved you at least 2000$. What did you expect to be so special about the DigiNows?

I wanted to ignore this and don’t want to derail this thread, but I think you should spend a little more time learning from these experts before insinuating that Doc or Diginow are making mistakes or doing something wrong.  They both have done great things for this and other online communities.

Thanks for putting these efficiency numbers together guys. It’s always nice to see real world data!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Doctorbass]

I think he got a deal, Josh : - )

Not so...

[Doctorbass]

Doctorbass, you probably want to take a look at my recent post. I'm honestly surprised that you as an expert with tons of experience and a huge variety of charger builds didn't have the idea to just order those chargers yourself in China. Would have saved you at least 2000$. What did you expect to be so special about the DigiNows?

Use your cheaper units like you think you will eventually find out yourself....You said "inferior product" regarding the Diginow did you?..   Good to see you dont have any doubt about what you bought.  Saving money compare to risk of  ruining or badly affect capacity of  a 12000$ monolith battery from Zero due to bad/incomplete  charging profile is different reality. Charging is not only puting volt and amp... 
reality of Bulk charging is one thing, connecting and leaving your charger alone with safety and all protections and care of cells for years  is another. i bought paid  ansd choosed the Diginow to also review it for the rest of the community as a Zero motorcycle approoved charging solution.

 
Doc

[Neuer_User]

[...] charging profile is different reality. Charging is not only puting volt and amp... 
reality of Bulk charging is one thing, connecting and leaving your charger alone with safety and all protections and care of cells for years  is another. i bought paid  ansd choosed the Diginow to also review it for the rest of the community as a Zero motorcycle approoved charging solution.

 
Doc

Just curious: In another thread you mentioned an Elcon power supply for charging that can do 116.4V and 2kW. Do you also need to adjust the charging profile with these, or are they already optimized for the Zero?

[Doctorbass]

[...] charging profile is different reality. Charging is not only puting volt and amp... 
reality of Bulk charging is one thing, connecting and leaving your charger alone with safety and all protections and care of cells for years  is another. i bought paid  ansd choosed the Diginow to also review it for the rest of the community as a Zero motorcycle approoved charging solution.

 
Doc

Just curious: In another thread you mentioned an Elcon power supply for charging that can do 116.4V and 2kW. Do you also need to adjust the charging profile with these, or are they already optimized for the Zero?

Great observation  Neuer_User and it deserve a good response too!
Those are not Elcon but Eltek brand. Eltek is a world wide supplier of server rectifier and solar and smart grid power charging/battery management solution.
Please understand that when you have the experience you can charge a battery with any power supply that does CC-CV IF and only IF you know what you are doing.
It's called Bulk charging, but you have to keep an eye on it while it charge... that's not the same as having a plug that you simply connect to the wall socket and leaving it connected...
Bulk charging require knowing the battery chemistry, how the BMS of that battery work and also know the limitation of the battery and charging profile.
I do both... I bulk charge and also like to have a charger that does everything including the care of the battery that i dont have to bother with.
It is VERY important to understand the difference between both methods and to have experience of charging lithium battery. Personally i have 12 years of experience with that and have my own testing lab for lithium battery.

Doc

[giacomo]

Hello Doc,

I am a newbie about EV and I am trying to learn about charging. I have some questions.

If there is a BMS, isn't it opening and closing the contactor to modulate the charging current of the bulk charger
to effectively make it a smart charger? I was reading about BMS and couple of ways to control the balancing of the cells and
one way is to turn on/off the charger. The other way is to instruct the charger to go low current with CAM control or even analog signaling.
For sure there are more ways and I might got it wrong also .

Thanks for your help,

Giacomo

 

[Doctorbass]

Hello Doc,

I am a newbie about EV and I am trying to learn about charging. I have some questions.

If there is a BMS, isn't it opening and closing the contactor to modulate the charging current of the bulk charger
to effectively make it a smart charger? I was reading about BMS and couple of ways to control the balancing of the cells and
one way is to turn on/off the charger. The other way is to instruct the charger to go low current with CAM control or even analog signaling.
For sure there are more ways and I might got it wrong also .

Thanks for your help,

Giacomo

Hi

That's a good question and it deserve a good response!

Cheap Ebike ( electric bicycle ) chargers work that way, they trigger ON and OFF the charger to not overcharge and keep cell voltage below their limit, until all cells have reached their max voltage.. then current slow down to ideally C/20 with the CC-CV feature of the charger.
Some charger also have small current that will remain ON but that is under what the bleeding resistors current draw to help accelerating balancing state.

The BMS on electric car and the Zero are more complex and way smarter. They have very special algorithm that take account of the temperature, SOC, age and cycles of the battery to adjust current  and enable or not. They even datalog all events in the processor memory.

The Contactor of the Zero drivetrain is not made to trigger ON and OFF at the rate a BMS would require to balance cells. Instead, The OEM Zero chager current  is electronically controlled vis CANbus.

But if you BULK charge a Zero thru the controller DC connections or any other DC input the Zero have, it will remain protected against abnormal value and even if one or more limit( voltage, temp, current etc) is reached the contactor will open to cut the DC charging current input and keep the battery protected.

I suggest reading on the Zero unnofficial manual page to get more info.


Doc

[giacomo]

it make sense . I will read more and come back with more questions .... :p

Thanks,

Giacomo

[togo]

Opening the contactor under load should be avoided, I think, Giacomo.

High voltage arcs, wears out switches early.

[Doctorbass]

Opening the contactor under load should be avoided, I think, Giacomo.

High voltage arcs, wears out switches early.

You are right.

Live make or break on contactor reduce his life alot.  In fact when charging the voltage difference between the battery and the charger is minimal as the charger try to push to 116.5V and if the battery is at 50% soc, it will have 102V so the diff is only 14.5V, not bad at all.. and will not cause severe arc unless current is very high!

Doc