Ok folks, I couldn’t stand it anymore. I was just watching the forum until now, but there are a few things which need to be clarified regarding the Diginow chargers. They obviously try to make it look like they just reinvented charging technology, but that is far off reality.
People used Meanwells, Elteks, Emersons, Elcons and whatsoever kind of rectifiers/CC-CV chargers to charge the bikes successfully and fast – you just need to rectify the current, adjust the voltage and that’s basically it. Interesting that no one ever asked before why with Diginow there’s suddenly magic needed to do that. So I went ahead and just ordered some chargers directly from the manufacturer myself out of curiosity, because I couldn’t believe what was told. So those are the exact same units Diginow markets as "Superchargers". Well, I wasn’t disappointed.
Those chargers are manufactured at TC Charger in China, please check the link below. They are available for different voltages and with or without CAN-Bus. I ordered the 3.3kW 96V32A variant and told TC to configure it to a CV voltage of 116,4V, which is perfect for a Zero and the stock value. I went without CAN-Bus, because it’s simply not necessary and just makes the whole system less reliable. (not even Zero is using CAN for their onboard, chargers will stop running as soon as they loose CAN signal) It then just has two pins which can be shortened to turn the charger on and off. By default, AC input current is limited to 16A (perfect for Europe) and the DC output is limited to 32A and there are several input and output protection features.
http://www.tccharger.com/english/Product/T39/57.htmlThe only disadvantage currently is that by standard they come with metal connectors. Don’t get me wrong, the connectors have a good quality and are very strong, but occupy a lot of space which is rare on a motorcycle. They offer custom cabling when ordering more than 20 units a once. (I guess that’s the only modification Diginow has done to the units)
Where it gets really interesting is pricing of those 3.3 kW units:
500$ each for less than 20 pieces, down to
400$ when ordering more than 100 at once. So for a single unit Diginow is essentially charging you a 1200$ premium, for an 11 kW setup with three units the premium increases to 2100$. Must be good times for Diginow.
I’m using them for a few weeks now, they work perfectly fine and totally reliable. They perfectly charge to 100% and apparently trigger balancing. You can easily turn them on and off via the enable contact. I recently added a small switch for that. If you don’t want to be able to turn them on and off, you can just short the two pins. So then there’s actually only two cables, AC in and DC out. Please note that I’m not very skilled regarding cable work and the pics show my first try, so most of you will probably be able to make the thing look way better. The fan is always running and keeps it a low temps, they don’t get hot even after an hour of charging.
So Doctorbass, togo, Erasmo, Ben Rich, Shadow and all the others – I’m sorry that you wasted thousands of dollars for an inferior product, maybe you should ask Diginow for a refund.
I probably just ruined your business Diginow, and I’m sorry for that. But seriously, buying those units for 400$ each, tripling their price for the customers, telling everybody that they are “custom made for Zero†and adding a CAN-Bus system which even decreases reliability just to make it look more like rocket science is something I just can’t keep watching anymore. Obviously you had development costs and you need margins for cables, connectors and your labor, but there is a huge difference between a fair margin and ripping off customers.
With a proper group buy out of the forum and facebook we should easily reach 100 units to get the unit cost down to 400$. Fast charging will finally become available to anyone
Shipping is quite expensive for smaller quantities (high weight, air fright), but larger quantities will be shipped way cheaper by vessel. So forget Diginow, just place an order yourself.
Safe ride,
Josh
