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[MVetter]

So let me see if I have this right.  I can buy an Elcon 3.3KW charger from EV Components for $500 or I can buy a 3.3KW charger from Diginow for $2,100.  What am I missing here?  This is a no brainer, right?

One has a good chance of making your $8000 battery pack fail catastrophically which, I agree, is a no brainer.

As an update, Brandon has returned to work half-days here with me at the shop. The wheels of production are once again turning except Brandon had to go lay down just now as he picked up an object that weighed more than 5 pounds and made sort of a guttural grunting sound that I've come to learn indicates high levels of pain.

Also I made some control boards and they work!

[dennis-NL]

Is it still possible delivery this month?

[Shadow]

So let me see if I have this right.  I can buy an Elcon 3.3KW charger from EV Components for $500 or I can buy a 3.3KW charger from Diginow for $2,100.  What am I missing here?  This is a no brainer, right?

One has a good chance of making your $8000 battery pack fail catastrophically which, I agree, is a no brainer....

There's a large-ish fuse in the ZF module which will go a long ways to prevent an actual catastrophic failure (read: battery fire) in the event that the contactor fused when trying to open from a prolonged current in excess of 1C rating for 30 seconds. There's an additional medium-ish fuse each on the AUX charging and stock charger harness connections. Already the DigiNow Super Charger V1/V2/V2.5 connections tend to bypass some of those protections. You could fry an MBB or BMS board; I have not seen documented the how or why for those rumored stories but certainly no bikes on fire because of HK-J 3.3kW charging modules (Super Charger V2+).

I'm remembering a correspondence with Electric Conversions whence I asked a similar line of questioning following a quotation. The response was professional and courteous:
Shadow asks ElCon rep

Shadow asks "This is the same unit: http://evcomponents.com/elcon-tc-hk-j-6600w-charger.html at half the cost you quoted me? Did I miss some detail?"

ElCon rep replies

"You can buy the unit from China.  They are made by our factory which provides some of them to companies in China for domestic consumption.  Some of those companies offer them on their website to customers outside of China.  Since they have little to no overhead they can offer them at cost. Our volume pricing is comparable to theirs.  For example their price is $789 USD plus shipping from China. Our single unit price is $1500 plus shipping from Sacramento.  5 pcs $1276.  10 pcs $1050.  20 pcs $824.  50+ pcs $752.  Plus one year repair or replacement warranty from Sacramento.  Plus reprogramming and service from Sacramento.  Plus free tech support by email for as long as you own the charger.  Plus swap out with other chargers at reasonable cost if the charger you bought is not right for you.  Without incurring shipping back and forth from China."

The maximum supported configuration per a discussion on why fast charging failed with a PowerTank and DigiNow configuration by someone at Zero Motorcycles was said to me to be four QuiQ (~900W ea) plus the stock onboard (~1300W for the S/DS?) for my 2016 model year bike with ZF13.0 battery. If you exceed that combined charging capability then it's not been tested by Zero Motorcycles officially. Notably I have no recent information on what impact the 6.6kW 2018 ChargeTank has on newer models and their tested parameters (although notably it is not being sold as compatible with older models).

It appears to be a mixed bag whether when you ask pointed technical questions for DigiNow you will receive a professional and courteous response. Mostly I struggle to overlook the hand-waiving and back-and-forth that transpires about people buying into the DigiNow charging products. The only component which is necessary from the DigiNow system is software on a control box which messages the HK-J 3.3kW module(s) and interacts with the bike to aid going beyond the OEM supported 4xQuiQ+1xOnboard charging configuration.

However you do it, adding more charging capability to your electric motorcycle is probably a good and reasonable thing to do.

[Ethestral]

I don't have the 2.5 on my bike yet (2016 DSR), I do have the 6.6 kw diginow and have for over a year now. I can echo the closing line on the last post.

Adding fast charging, even just level 2 completely changes the way you can utilize this bike. Ride to work and get a call that you need to head out to your dad's 80 miles away by highway. No drama, just pop on a j plug for 10 mins or so and you can fly the whole way there.

Added bonus, once there you don't need an expensive level 2 charger installed out there. Just get the standard range plug (in the us) and a 50 amp feeding circuit. Instead of staying 13 hrs with your family you can run away in less than 2 hours.

It also means riding with some ice bike groups is possible, you just have to be friendly enough with them that they don't mind stopping at places you can top up. My problem tends to be keeping up while on the stock 60/40 tires.

With a 13 hour charge time it's simply way more time plugged in looking at it than the grip/grin I have from it at all other times.

[jheth]

Can SCv2 be mounted in another spot on the bike? Although belly pan is a convenient location, doesn't this heat up the battery during charging, same as the stock charger? Many people have said the stock charger is not installed in a good location, for this reason.
Could SCv2 be mounted on the rear-top rack, such that it doesn't heat up the battery, and the charger has much better air cooling too? For me (and maybe others), I only use my Zero for commuting. If/when I have a need for fast charging on the occasional road trip, I may want to ability to install it for the trip, and remove them when I get back home. My need for fast charging would be very rare.

[dukecola]

Can SCv2 be mounted in another spot on the bike? Although belly pan is a convenient location, doesn't this heat up the battery during charging, same as the stock charger? Many people have said the stock charger is not installed in a good location, for this reason.
Could SCv2 be mounted on the rear-top rack, such that it doesn't heat up the battery, and the charger has much better air cooling too? For me (and maybe others), I only use my Zero for commuting. If/when I have a need for fast charging on the occasional road trip, I may want to ability to install it for the trip, and remove them when I get back home. My need for fast charging would be very rare.

Yes. I have 2 diginow modules mounted in rear top case. The case can then be removed when not needed. But, the new pan mount is larger and in reported to not significantly increase battery temp. It has air gaps and fans, something the onboard does not have, plus charging is quicker and complete before too much heat is created.

[MrDude_1]

Can SCv2 be mounted in another spot on the bike? Although belly pan is a convenient location, doesn't this heat up the battery during charging, same as the stock charger? Many people have said the stock charger is not installed in a good location, for this reason.
Could SCv2 be mounted on the rear-top rack, such that it doesn't heat up the battery, and the charger has much better air cooling too? For me (and maybe others), I only use my Zero for commuting. If/when I have a need for fast charging on the occasional road trip, I may want to ability to install it for the trip, and remove them when I get back home. My need for fast charging would be very rare.

The Diginow has an airgap that the stock charger does not have, and it runs for less time... so I think the overall heating to the battery is less than stock, not more.

[MVetter]

Also, very importantly, the hot side of the charger is facing AWAY from the battery. The pan itself acts as the heat sink coupled with cooling fans. The battery will not be receiving residual heat from the physical warmth of the chargers. The battery does naturally heat from the charging process, and according to our testing it's very minimal.

But yeah as others said our chargers only get up to full temperature after ~45 minutes and with fast charging that's generally the maximum amount of time people need to charge anyway. Also there are cooling fans. Maybe you've seen the Hurricane Testing videos we put up recently? New fans are durable as hell!

[Rugby4life]

When charging from 20-80%, my battery temp goes up 4-6 deg C. These readings come from summer time charging in South Carolina so if the set up was prone to cooking the battery, I would have experienced it. The biggest factor I've seen is how hard I was riding right before charging up. Just my personal experience FWIW.

[Electric Cowboy]

Yup, we designed it so the chargers should increase the battery life by a few years Charging like Rugby does between 20% and 80% will Really increase your battery life even more.

Between us and the community, there are now apps which will work on iOS and Android to allow you to control your chargers as well.

On most batteries I would expect to see 4-6 degrees c under most circumstances, this would be due to internal resistance of the battery. If one is touring during the hottest part of the summer I reccopmnd they just keep their Zero at 65mph (104kmh) or lower. Riding much faster than that on the hwy will generate heat in the battery especially below 101v so much so that I would always try to keep my race bikes above 101v to prevent battery overheating AT HIGH SPEEDS.

[togo]

Thanks for chiming in, EC.  Hope you are recovering well.

[dennis-NL]

Any picture of new bellypan with 2 or 3 units in it?
Would like to see position of cooling fan(s).
Morgan was testing a fan in water 

[MVetter]

A cup of water I added a bunch of salt and dirt to 4 hours later and it didn't care. Fan is a beast.

[dennis-NL]

It supposed to be possible to control/monitor Diginow 2.5 with an app.
But in playstore no Diginow app?

[BrianTRice@gmail.com]

Here’s a photo of my self-arranged set of units before I performed final cable routing to sandwich it against the bike.

I was told that the fans were not part of the design, but I found that the fans fit fine and seem to help move air if positioned carefully.