Print

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

[BelumTerbiasa]

I've seen a lot of reference videos and content for the 3.3/4.6 Diginow Supercharger v2 but not many for the larger kW versions.   Hollywood Electrics' website references it as 6.6 kWs while Diginow website references it as the 7.9 kW unit.   Some surprises with this version as it does not come with a connection for the onboard charger.  I understand that charging with just the 6.6 kW unit would max out a Level 2 J-plug charging station but I thought an onboard charger connection would be included to be used with other accessories when charging at higher powered charging stations. 

I was also accustomed to the Elcon 2500 setup where the J-plug connector could be swapped for a NEMA 14-50 plug but this version appears to need the added j-plug gun ($200) to connect the j-plug connector to the plug tail/accessory (e.g., Tesla, NEMA 14-50).  This would make sense if it was installed where a charge tank would go but seems like added weight/space when carrying it in a top box or side case.

Super excited to put it to use but my Zero S is still making it's way cross country after my move to the East Coast.

[BelumTerbiasa]

Side view - different fans than the 4.6 unit. 

[BelumTerbiasa]

I understand that when using the J-plug setup, two charging stations are needed to get the full 6.6 kW (SCv2) + 1.3kW because one j-plug station maxes out around 6.6 kW but what additional equipment is needed to get the full 7.9 kW from a single 50 amp RV outlet?

Does DigiNow's NEMA 14-50 Tail come with a splitter for the onboard charger or has anyone had to order a splitter separately for their 6.6 kW unit to get the full 7.9 kW out of a NEMA 14-50, Mennekes, or Tesla Tail adapter? 

[KrazyEd]

I am not sure about other areas, but, the ChargePoint 6.6 chargers in Vegas seem to max out at right around
6 KW on my Focus Electric Which claims to have a 6.6 KW charger. This is according to power delivered
stats on ChargePoint App. My SR on the same Charger(s) with on board charger, about 1.3 KW / hour,
On board with one QuiQ shows right at 2.5 KW / hour ticking up steadily until it drops off around 10 minutes
before full.

[anton]

I see you got dongle too

[Ethestral]

I actually wrestled with this recently when upgrading from 3.3 kw  to 6.6 kw. They reason is not diginow or any supplier,  a J1772 is only rated to 7 kw. 7.9 kw is nearly  10% above the load it was designed for.  So while possible to overrun in North  Dakota (during winter), UL or whichever rating body agreed to the specification believes it can not handle the extra power.

This means on a nice warm day in the Carolinas it would be possible to melt the power delivery system and do your own personal impression of a flaming Ferrari 458. That's the one that likes to self combust when you use the brakes and have fuel in it at the same time.

The information I've been given (but not tested) is that in most places where 7.9 kw or greater charging is available you can usually find a normal 120V 15 amp circuit beside it.  This means most RV parks.  While I personally loathe the idea of having to carry a cable around again I can't bring myself to buy the second JPlug socket from Hollywood. Who sells a kit for anyone that wants to JPlug  charge the giant laptop setup hanging u get the frame.  If I buy another 3.3 module from diginow I'll pony up the change for the plug.  As it stands now I'll keep using just the 6.6 (which is awesome!) And jump in the extra 1.3 kw I carry around when at home or at one specific charger near work that has the needed extra circuit.

Hope my rambling was helpful.

[MrDude_1]

  a J1772 is only rated to 7 kw. 7.9 kw is nearly  10% above the load it was designed for.

since 2009 the J1772 spec officially says 80A peak or 19.20 kW...  Prior to that in 2001, it was 32a or 7.68 kW.

Since almost all the chargers we use were made after 2009, the EVSE itself SHOULD allow more power, but the reason they don't is cost.  See the common commercial and residential supply can only give so many amps.  and since the common install is this low, they cheap out on the charger.
Inside the box, the only change is some software and the relay. Outside the box, you have a thick copper wire and the connector contacts. Copper is expensive, so they cheap out and run thinner stuff since they are not running the full current.

It should also be noted that in the USA commercial power is only 208 volts AC, NOT the same 240vac that you get in residential.  That's why you get limited to around 6kw or so.

[Richard230]

  a J1772 is only rated to 7 kw. 7.9 kw is nearly  10% above the load it was designed for.

since 2009 the J1772 spec officially says 80A peak or 19.20 kW...  Prior to that in 2001, it was 32a or 7.68 kW.

Since almost all the chargers we use were made after 2009, the EVSE itself SHOULD allow more power, but the reason they don't is cost.  See the common commercial and residential supply can only give so many amps.  and since the common install is this low, they cheap out on the charger.
Inside the box, the only change is some software and the relay. Outside the box, you have a thick copper wire and the connector contacts. Copper is expensive, so they cheap out and run thinner stuff since they are not running the full current.

It should also be noted that in the USA commercial power is only 208 volts AC, NOT the same 240vac that you get in residential.  That's why you get limited to around 6kw or so.

In northern CA the commercial power voltage is 240 volts.  I first became aware of this about 30 years ago when I was managing an utility under-grounding project for the city that I used to work for.  PG&E required all of the commercial and industrial customers within the district to change their privately-owned transformer and other electrical equipment from the existing 208 volts to 240 volts.  All of these customers were quite upset about the cost of this conversion, but they didn't have any choice in the matter if they wanted to continue to receive electrical power. (I just got the complaints.)

[MrDude_1]

  a J1772 is only rated to 7 kw. 7.9 kw is nearly  10% above the load it was designed for.

since 2009 the J1772 spec officially says 80A peak or 19.20 kW...  Prior to that in 2001, it was 32a or 7.68 kW.

Since almost all the chargers we use were made after 2009, the EVSE itself SHOULD allow more power, but the reason they don't is cost.  See the common commercial and residential supply can only give so many amps.  and since the common install is this low, they cheap out on the charger.
Inside the box, the only change is some software and the relay. Outside the box, you have a thick copper wire and the connector contacts. Copper is expensive, so they cheap out and run thinner stuff since they are not running the full current.

It should also be noted that in the USA commercial power is only 208 volts AC, NOT the same 240vac that you get in residential.  That's why you get limited to around 6kw or so.

In northern CA the commercial power voltage is 240 volts.  I first became aware of this about 30 years ago when I was managing an utility under-grounding project for the city that I used to work for.  PG&E required all of the commercial and industrial customers within the district to change their privately-owned transformer and other electrical equipment from the existing 208 volts to 240 volts.  All of these customers were quite upset about the cost of this conversion, but they didn't have any choice in the matter if they wanted to continue to receive electrical power. (I just got the complaints.)

Thats pretty cool, but I bet it cost a fortune... Any particular reason they demanded it?

[MrDude_1]

I've seen a lot of reference videos and content for the 3.3/4.6 Diginow Supercharger v2 but not many for the larger kW versions.   Hollywood Electrics' website references it as 6.6 kWs while Diginow website references it as the 7.9 kW unit.   Some surprises with this version as it does not come with a connection for the onboard charger.  I understand that charging with just the 6.6 kW unit would max out a Level 2 J-plug charging station but I thought an onboard charger connection would be included to be used with other accessories when charging at higher powered charging stations. 

I was also accustomed to the Elcon 2500 setup where the J-plug connector could be swapped for a NEMA 14-50 plug but this version appears to need the added j-plug gun ($200) to connect the j-plug connector to the plug tail/accessory (e.g., Tesla, NEMA 14-50).  This would make sense if it was installed where a charge tank would go but seems like added weight/space when carrying it in a top box or side case.

Super excited to put it to use but my Zero S is still making it's way cross country after my move to the East Coast.

Thanks alot for the pics. Looking at your combined unit, and the previously posted pics of the single unit, I can easily see what each "charge unit" is compared to the heatsink...
I think with a custom skid plate that doubled as a heatsink, you could probably fit 4 of these on the bottom of the bike in place of the stock charger. That would be ideal because you can either keep your storage or get a powertank...

[mrwilsn]

I've seen a lot of reference videos and content for the 3.3/4.6 Diginow Supercharger v2 but not many for the larger kW versions.   Hollywood Electrics' website references it as 6.6 kWs while Diginow website references it as the 7.9 kW unit.   Some surprises with this version as it does not come with a connection for the onboard charger.  I understand that charging with just the 6.6 kW unit would max out a Level 2 J-plug charging station but I thought an onboard charger connection would be included to be used with other accessories when charging at higher powered charging stations. 

I was also accustomed to the Elcon 2500 setup where the J-plug connector could be swapped for a NEMA 14-50 plug but this version appears to need the added j-plug gun ($200) to connect the j-plug connector to the plug tail/accessory (e.g., Tesla, NEMA 14-50).  This would make sense if it was installed where a charge tank would go but seems like added weight/space when carrying it in a top box or side case.

Super excited to put it to use but my Zero S is still making it's way cross country after my move to the East Coast.

Thanks alot for the pics. Looking at your combined unit, and the previously posted pics of the single unit, I can easily see what each "charge unit" is compared to the heatsink...
I think with a custom skid plate that doubled as a heatsink, you could probably fit 4 of these on the bottom of the bike in place of the stock charger. That would be ideal because you can either keep your storage or get a powertank...

Three can fit in place of onboard and only lose a few mm of ground clearance if get rid of fans and mill heatsinks.

To get 4 you would need to stack two thick and you will be losing about 5-10 cm of ground clearance. That assumes you can double stack without fans or heatsink which you probably can't.  With 3 you barely get by without fans and heatsink by using frame/monolith to transfer heat (there is an air gap between bottom of monolith and cells inside so heat isn't being transferred to battery).

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk

[MrDude_1]

Three can fit in place of onboard and only lose a few mm of ground clearance if get rid of fans and mill heatsinks.

To get 4 you would need to stack two thick and you will be losing about 5-10 cm of ground clearance. That assumes you can double stack without fans or heatsink which you probably can't.  With 3 you barely get by without fans and heatsink by using frame/monolith to transfer heat (there is an air gap between bottom of monolith and cells inside so heat isn't being transferred to battery).

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk

Three sounds awesome enough for me. I just like the idea of having the charger and the powertank.

[anton]

Three sounds awesome enough for me. I just like the idea of having the charger and the powertank.

Even with three you are very likely to hit thermal limits as bash plate isn't very good as dissipating the heat out.

[MrDude_1]

Three sounds awesome enough for me. I just like the idea of having the charger and the powertank.

Even with three you are very likely to hit thermal limits as bash plate isn't very good as dissipating the heat out.

If that's the issue, just replace the plate with a thick finned cast or machined heatsink bash plate.

[mrwilsn]

Three sounds awesome enough for me. I just like the idea of having the charger and the powertank.

Even with three you are very likely to hit thermal limits as bash plate isn't very good as dissipating the heat out.

If that's the issue, just replace the plate with a thick finned cast or machined heatsink bash plate.

Anton's right....I forgot that if you run 6 modules then you only need to charge for half the time as 3 so you don't charge long enough to hit thermal cutback on the chargers.  For a 3 module setup you will likely hit thermal cutback without really good heat transfer.  A custom bash plate could probably do it.  For bikes that have a plastic bash plate you will definitely need something custom.  To minimize loss of ground clearance you will also need to mill some heat sink fins on the motor in order to get the third charger to sit at the same height as the two in front.  And also remember that 3 modules will still require 2 J-plugs unless you want to limit yourself to stations that can supply 10kW.

I'm more interested in keeping the lockable storage but also love the idea of ditching the onboard and replacing it with 10kW charger.  However, it's a big mod that most people won't want to do unless they can find someone to do it for them and they can afford the price tag.