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[mistasam]

This is a super noobie question, but will the bike still work correctly without the onboard chargers?  Are they needed for regen?  And if it's possible to remove them, how would I go about doing that?

[Erasmo]

What bike exactly do you mean?

[mistasam]

Oh boy, sorry bout that haha.  I have a 2015 Zero SR, but I'm wondering about the possibility of doing this on any Zero.

[BrianTRice@gmail.com]

Regen flows from the controller, not the onboard chargers. The onboard chargers do seem to have some relationship with the battery closing the contactors which I cannot explain properly.

[mistasam]

Regen flows from the controller, not the onboard chargers. The onboard chargers do seem to have some relationship with the battery closing the contactors which I cannot explain properly.

Nice!  I remember someone saying you could potentially remove the onboards and just leave them at home, I guess to save some weight and have more ground clearance.  I'm just curious if anyone's done it, and how straight-forward it is.

[evtricity]

Yes, you can remove it easily and save 7 or 8kg. I've had my charger off the bike (2014 SR)  for 18 months of road and track riding.

When you want to charge you just lean the charger up against the side of the bike and plug in the connectors (AC plug to wall, DC connection via Anderson plug to battery and canbus plug to engage/disengage contactor.

[mistasam]

Man thanks!  That sounds super easy.  I have a buddy with a DSR who wants some more clearance for off-road use, so this should help a lot.  Shedding some weight would be nice, too!

[KrazyEd]

Similar line here, but, opposite desire. I have a 2013 FX because I wanted the lighter weight.
Unfortunately, this also means that I have far less battery. Rated at 5.7, but, fully charged, 5.336.
Because of this, I am often picking up short charges during my running around. The charger on the
FX is only half the power of the S / DS / SR / DSR.  650 watt vs 1.3 KW. Does anyone know if the
FX Charger(s) are the same physical size with weaker internals, half the chargers, smaller?
I have read of people building external chargers using similar Meanwell chargers in paralell and
series. Just wondering if I could put more powerful charger in place of stock charger.

[protomech]

2013 FX uses a pair of meanwell HLG-320H LED controllers in series. S/DS use 2 series-pairs of these in parallel.

Data sheet says these supply 6A DC for the FX, and a pair weigh 8 pounds.

You could add another pair to double your 120V charge speed.

Or you could replace them (in a tailbag) with a more power-dense charger. A pair of the Eltek Flatpack S 48V rectifiers also weighs 8 pounds, and can supply 37.5A, about 6 times as much power as the stock 2013 charger .. should be able to charge the bike in 1.5 hours from a 240V supply. And you could still use the meanwell HLG320 for home charging.

http://electricmotorcycleforum.com/boards/index.php?topic=5763.0

[KrazyEd]

Thank you for the reply.
I have the external charger from Zero now.
When both plugged in, is about 2.5~3 times as fast as
onward alone. Didn't really want to add more weight
or complexity while out and about.  I think that I have to
give it some thought.