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[BrianTRice@gmail.com]

Here are some failure conditions I've found:
- Invalid inputs may result in the charging controller "crashing".
  If this happens, unplug the chargers and wait several seconds for everything to turn off before plugging back in again. This should reboot the controller to the last settings.
- Terminating the charge unattended (slow charging to 112V triggered this for me recently) sometimes results in a CAN error which requires unplugging the chargers and waiting for the bike to reset (10 seconds or so).
  This seems harmless so far, probably due to some message timing issue across firmware versions or something.

[Doctorbass]

I wonder how fast the wind will spin that fan when you're at highway speed...

Got my Zero to reach 175km/h ( dash display during a run) and these fan still work like a charm!  dontr forget that on the back of these there is the original heat sink fins that restrict the airflow bi building pressure on the back of these...

I drove 2380km last week at 500km/day and So far so good these have eated fly, debrit, leaf and high pressure water and still work perfectly like i was expecting!! and they keep the front charger unit to about 35-40 Celsius max   even with outdoor temp to 30 celsius no wind with direct sunshine to it.

Doc

[ashnazg]

Is this thread still the best place to keep up with progress?  Or is a Facebook page getting more updates?  I've only been using this thread to keep up so far.

[togo]

This is pretty good, but I get the impression they are more responsive to questions on f-book.

[Doctorbass]

For those who ask or wonder,

I’ve been using my pan design for now over 2500km and here are the facts :

-The chargers only transfer  VERY MINIMAL heat to the battery. The battery itself heat A LOT more when being used or charging. I will prove that by measurement in the next weeks.
-The Charger pan drain water perfectly and all installation inside are made to support debrit if they can enter to the pan however there is minimal area where debrit can enter look for yourself
-If the bike suspensions are adjusted and tuned LIKE THEY ALWAYS SHOULD, the pan clearance to the ground is ok even for use with passenger on the bike. IT IS IMPORTANT TO READJUST THE PRELOAD IF YOU HAVE THE POWERTANK ANDALSO IF YOU HAVE THE CHARGER PAN
-If Diginow include proper wire lenght between the chargers and the Zero the pan installation is easy to install.
-The bike center of gravity remain very good with the charger pan and it handle as well or even better with it.
-The air gap between the top of the chargers in the pan  is about 1cm  while the air gap between the stock 1.3kW charger is 1mm this make a huge difference in thermal isolation as the charger pan have air convection that help draining the heat by convection.
-The Stock 1.3kW charger hottest surface is the closest to the battery ( on top of the charger) while the charger pan hottest surface is on the bottom an dthen cooled by the surrounding pan itself.
- I discussed withmy friend  Luke, The Key designer of the Zero battery and he said that even with the stock 1.3kW  charger the cell to cell thermal transfer is calculated to spread all the heat over the entire battery so the bottom cell and the top cell of the monolith should not have very big temp difference meaning that  the battery act like an entire volumetric heatsink so the battery temp does not have a hot spot.
-The heat transferred to the battery is equal or less important with the charger pan even at 13kW than the heat transferred by the stock 1.3kW charger due to the air gap and convection difference between both and the location of the hottest surface area of the two chargers design.

Doctorbass

[originalspacerob]

Sounds great Doctorbass. That all makes sense. I have a question or an observation. Benswing is doing his ride right now and he has his three chargers under the battery. He has been having heat issues. I can see a pan under the bike but not sure if its the Diginow pan or not, or if its another design. I know they are Diginow chargers inside the pan from his description. He has been having major heat issues while on his trip. He usually has to switch to his elcons because he will notice the battery heating up during the charge. Going from 95-99F to 124F and then the chargers back off on the charge rate or stop charging at all. Im guessing maybe he doesn’t have the air-gap like these pans do or he is having other issues causing the heat. One of his last videos the other day the pan got so hot he couldn’t put his hand on it. So it does show a low to heat gets transferred to the pan.

I checked my bike just for information purposes. If I go for a ride at lunch on a 90F day my battery will usually be 99F when I get back to work. When I charge with the stock charger it will stay pretty much right there and not cool anymore even when its above the 80% charge. Once the charge is done it will cool to ambient temps. So heat gets transferred but not more than 99F sitting in a 86F garage using the stock charger. I also checked with the battery at ambient in the same garage and temps and the hottest the stock charger got the battery was 98-99F.

Edit:  After posting this about the stock charger I was incorrect. Today was another example of the garage being about 88 degrees. I came in when the charge was at 100% but still finishing charge. The battery temp was 115 at the end of the charge. On the way home it got to 117 and settled back at 115 while riding.


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[dennis-NL]

Now Diginow just needs to get their prices down.  The current pricing is a little too rich for my taste.

SuperCharger v2.5 3.3kW one unit in the pan = $2035 + shipping
SuperCharger v2.5 6.6kW dual units in the pan = $2425 + shipping
SuperCharger v2.5 9.9kW triple units in the pan = $3435 + shipping

SuperCharger v2.5 3.3kW one unit bare (for FXS owners) = $1735 + shipping

For me I'm fine with initial cost on 3.3kW.
Belly pan and internal cables and control unit and (for me) Mennekes socket.

So also price difference from 1 to 2 is oke.
But from 2 to 3 I don't understand.....

Why adding 1 more differs from 1 to 2 and 2 to 3?
I buy 3.3kW with intention to get some more money and go 1 to 2.
Save some more and go from 2 to 3.
But if this stays I prob go for another party too buy the 3rd one 

[DanielCoffey]

Is it because the third charger adds extra wiring and an extra 7kW charge cable socket?

From folks who use three (or more) chargers on their bikes I remember them saying that chargers one and two are paired into one 7kW socket and three (and four if they have it) go to another 7kW socket. If they want to use that much charging, they have to find a charging station with multiple outlets.

Am I remembering that correctly?

[dennis-NL]

Is it because the third charger adds extra wiring and an extra 7kW charge cable socket?

From folks who use three (or more) chargers on their bikes I remember them saying that chargers one and two are paired into one 7kW socket and three (and four if they have it) go to another 7kW socket. If they want to use that much charging, they have to find a charging station with multiple outlets.

Am I remembering that correctly?

Sounds oke, for America, but in Europe we just need 1 Mennekes, so hope they take that in account.
So our stations mostly can output 10kW and more.

And personally with the usage in Holland I will probably get discussions with other people if I would use 2 sockets for a little bike....

[Erasmo]

Apart from some single phase home chargers about every charging station in the Netherlands is at least 11kW, and with a 22-43kW station just a few kilometres away.

[DanielCoffey]

So that brings us back to Dennis-NL's question of what causes the third DigiNow to cost so much more than the second...

[Doctorbass]

So that brings us back to Dennis-NL's question of what causes the third DigiNow to cost so much more than the second...

The third charger would produce a total of 96Amp of Dc current to the battery. The AUX port can take 70A continuous so it is required to have additional wirring to the controller for the third charger so the two first produce 64Amp to the 70A connetcor and the third charger send his 32A to the additional added AUX port. Also most station give 30 or 32A AC and this is fine for 2 charger but when you ad a third one, it require additional J1772 connector ( for north america user mostly as we dont have the meneke 3 phase system)

So that's what add cost..

Doc

[dennis-NL]

So that brings us back to Dennis-NL's question of what causes the third DigiNow to cost so much more than the second...

The third charger would produce a total of 96Amp of Dc current to the battery. The AUX port can take 70A continuous so it is required to have additional wirring to the controller for the third charger so the two first produce 64Amp to the 70A connetcor and the third charger send his 32A to the additional added AUX port. Also most station give 30 or 32A AC and this is fine for 2 charger but when you ad a third one, it require additional J1772 connector ( for north america user mostly as we dont have the meneke 3 phase system)

So that's what add cost..

Doc

Thanks for explaning this!
Brings me to a new question tho:
I have a 2013 DS with a replaced battery: 12,5kW, is the  wiring/connectors in my Zero good enough for 6,6kW and/or 9,9kW total?
I start with 3,3kW because of initial costs.

[Neuer_User]

So that brings us back to Dennis-NL's question of what causes the third DigiNow to cost so much more than the second...

The third charger would produce a total of 96Amp of Dc current to the battery. The AUX port can take 70A continuous so it is required to have additional wirring to the controller for the third charger so the two first produce 64Amp to the 70A connetcor and the third charger send his 32A to the additional added AUX port. Also most station give 30 or 32A AC and this is fine for 2 charger but when you ad a third one, it require additional J1772 connector ( for north america user mostly as we dont have the meneke 3 phase system)

So that's what add cost..

Doc

Is there any reason to use both inputs (aux and controller) versus just connecting all three chargers to the controller?

[MVetter]

It was born out of convenience. When we used to do dual unit tank installs you could put that much power through the aux without any fear of overloading it. Now that we're running 3 in the pan together consistently we do run everything through the controller, but at first we were splitting because it was convenient and we had some wiring made to that length already. Also it was really cool to be able to buddy charge that way.