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[benswing]

I don't have a DigiNow but rather have a Charge Tank.

If no other benefit comes from this thread (and to my amateur eyes, there is a lot of wisdom in here) I am going to grab my label machine and put a label next to my J1772 plug that reads "Bike On Before Connection".

Pretty sure you don't need to leave the bike on while using the charge tank made by Zero.  That is only an issue with the DigiNow Supercharger.  (I would call Zero customer service to confirm.)


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[Semper Why]

Pretty sure you don't need to leave the bike on while using the charge tank made by Zero.  That is only an issue with the DigiNow Supercharger.  (I would call Zero customer service to confirm.)

I don't expect that I have to leave the bike on during the charging process either. But if I understand this thread correctly, I do need to have the bike switched on when I plug the J1772 into the charge tank. I can then switch the bike off once I have current flowing.

[BrianTRice@gmail.com]

Weekend update: Brandon came by, as promised, and figured out for me (I was going to say helped me figure out, but he did all the work!) what's wrong with my bike. Long story short, it's probably a single resistor (the pre-charge resistor) on the BMS. We briefly discussed just replacing that resistor -- I have a microscope and a good soldering iron at home, and work on surface-mount electronics a lot -- but I don't like the thought that there may be some collateral damage, even something minor, which we wouldn't catch, and would further delay getting the bike back on the road. I'm also not a big fan of riding around with a board that's been stressed in any way, so I'm just going to have my local shop replace the BMS.

MBB and Sevcon both got clean bills of health.

It's good that this failure falls into a known issue, at least!

[Electric Cowboy]

I don't have a DigiNow but rather have a Charge Tank.

If no other benefit comes from this thread (and to my amateur eyes, there is a lot of wisdom in here) I am going to grab my label machine and put a label next to my J1772 plug that reads "Bike On Before Connection".

Pretty sure you don't need to leave the bike on while using the charge tank made by Zero.  That is only an issue with the DigiNow Supercharger.  (I would call Zero customer service to confirm.)


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Both the Super Charger and Charge Tank operate the same in this capacity. Start charging with the bike on, and then turn the bike off after charging has commenced.

[oobflyer]

I had learned from using the Delta-Q's on my 2012 ZF9 (and also now on my '15 SR) that Zero recommended plugging in the onboard charger before plugging in the off-board charger - although I had no knowledge of why.

I have a suggestion to Zero (from a non-engineer) - why not integrate a bright green LED light near the off-board charging port that lights up after the contactor has closed? Green light means 'ready' :-)

This wouldn't help for the ChargeTank users (I like Semper Why's idea - and I'm surprised that this warning -"Bike On Before Connection" - isn't engraved into the plastic around the J1772 inlet), but it would help for anyone plugging in Delta-Q's, or Elcons, or the DigiNow charger.

[togo]

So, if I'm supercharging and the power goes out briefly, or the J plug gets pulled and put back in...the connector will close and my BMS will be destroyed? Or did I miss something in the order of operations from the OP?

Not quite.

Doug's SC did not initiate charging on its own because it thought the bike might be off, however given the timing he had he was able to tell the SC to Force charging while the contactor was open. This is a manual action he had to take at just the right unlucky moment in his hard to repeat timing order just exactly the way he did it.

Without exactly what Doug did and him manually telling the charger to force charge at that one moment it's not possible to repeat. Hunter and I have been trying to reproduce the error and have not been able to, however we have narrowed it down to a very precise timing order and section of code that could possibly allow it.

Frankly, I'm quite impressed Doug was able to do this. We actually had to analyze a lot of stuff to see how it was possible. We're adding in some additional safeguards now that we know how this happened.

But again no, without forcing the charger to start with an open contactor you're BMS will be quite a happy camper no matter what the situation

...

Oh, that is good to hear.

Can't wait to get my supercharger.

Hope the Android app with bluetooth will be available, since wifi on/off/connect is awkward.

[Patrick Truchon]

My Super Charger arrived today and I'm Super Excited and can't wait to try it, but...

After what happened to Doug, I'm cautious and want to take my time to connect everything and make sure that I'm following the right sequence to use it.

Attached is a picture of what I received.

I was told via email that:

We can ship your charger [...] WITHOUT the enable feature, which means that when using the charger, you will have to keep the bike powered on. We are working on improving the reliability and performance of the enabling feature and will ship you an enable capable black box when we are confident in the performance and reliability of the feature.

So I'm guessing that the "black box" on the bottom left is the brain of the operation and is what Brandon is still working on improving.  Smart move to keep the brain modular and easily upgradable...

Everything seems pretty straight forward: the brain connects to the charger and does its thing, the cable in the middle connects to the controller to pump juice to the battery, and the J1772 cable is the input.

One question I have is: is the green / yellow cable a ground to connect to the frame?  If so, is there a preferred place to connect it?

Finally, items that are MIA:

• The NEMA 14-50 and mount
• The App
• Some direct guidance would have been nice too...

[BrianTRice@gmail.com]

Yay! I wish I could say more than that I'm happy that it's shipping and encouraged that a careful approach is now apparent.

I'll double check what DigiNow is sending, particularly the documentation, but the hardware install steps are solid, just mind them carefully and you should be fine. Seriously, keep instructions present and do your work methodically.

Dealers should be extremely knowledgeable at this point so hopefully most stories are uneventful.

[nevetsyad]

Wait, bike on just to start the charge, or bike on for the entire charge?

[GambitDash]

Are we at the point yet where this is solid, or are we still in the first dozen installs? I am not a good early customer, but will happily put my money down when it's all out of beta.

Sent from my SM-G920T using Tapatalk

[mrwilsn]

One question I have is: is the green / yellow cable a ground to connect to the frame?  If so, is there a preferred place to connect it?

If you are doing a top box install you can ground to the fan case like this...



But for a more permanent install Brandon recommends connecting to the J-bolt provided with the kit.  An even better solution is to ground to the bike frame using a star washer after scrapping off some paint.  Then cover up the connection with some dielectric grease to prevent corrosion.  If you want to get really crazy you can also run a ground strap from the chassis of the charger to the same ground point on the bike frame.

[Patrick Truchon]

Thanks for the pointers!  Brian, I know that you've been working on documentation, but I can't find them anywhere.  Would you mind posting a link here?  I really want to do this "by the book".

thanks

[BrianTRice@gmail.com]

Are we at the point yet where this is solid, or are we still in the first dozen installs? I am not a good early customer, but will happily put my money down when it's all out of beta.

First dozen installs, even though it's getting easier and I feel like I'm personally "out of beta". I'm glad you're interested; it's probably okay to wait a bit.

[BrianTRice@gmail.com]

Wait, bike on just to start the charge, or bike on for the entire charge?

Per Electric Cowboy above, the bike has to be on to start the charge and then can be off.

Keeping the bike on during the entire charge is required for some early installs like for Ben's trip. I don't see the relevant piece for Patrick's to act that way so Patrick is probably waiting to be able to turn the bike off during a charge.

[BrianTRice@gmail.com]

Thanks for the pointers!  Brian, I know that you've been working on documentation, but I can't find them anywhere.  Would you mind posting a link here?  I really want to do this "by the book".

thanks

To be clear, I don't have explicit permission to publish on my own. What I've written is roughly "work for hire" (more like pro bono / in kind but the fact is it's their product). I'll send copies and CC DigiNow so that the communication loop is solid.