Good analysis-type battery charger for 52V eBike batteries?

[victorhooi]

Hi,

I'm looking for a good (ideally analysing) charger for 52V eBike batteries.

I do have the ISDT K2 Air - however, that only seems to go to 6S (6-cells), which I assume wouldn't work with 52V batteries, righ? (I'm new to this - but I'm guessing 52V means 14S, right?)

I also have the Vencon UBA5 - however, I only have the normal version, which goes to 5S - there's a high-voltage model which goes to 60V - but of course, that's several thousand USD...

Is there something like the ISDN range (which mostly seems to cater to RC hobbyists), but scaled up for eBike batteries?

Or what other analysis-type chargers do you recommend I get?

Thanks,
Victor

 

[dominik h]

Hyperion EOS 1420
14S 20A

I used a few years a Hyperion 0615Duo 6S charger and it worked good, bevor I bought a Junsi 4010duo and two ISDT Air8

 

[67RS427]

Hi,

I'm looking for a good (ideally analysing) charger for 52V eBike batteries.

I do have the ISDT K2 Air - however, that only seems to go to 6S (6-cells), which I assume wouldn't work with 52V batteries, righ? (I'm new to this - but I'm guessing 52V means 14S, right?)

I also have the Vencon UBA5 - however, I only have the normal version, which goes to 5S - there's a high-voltage model which goes to 60V - but of course, that's several thousand USD...

Is there something like the ISDN range (which mostly seems to cater to RC hobbyists), but scaled up for eBike batteries?

Or what other analysis-type chargers do you recommend I get?

Thanks,
Victor

I use a RD6024W 60V 24A DC/DC Step Down Power Supply... It can be used for all sorts of things including charging batteries. Works great assuming you have a BMS that will balance while charging.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0B8MXV2PQ

 

[victorhooi]

I use a RD6024W 60V 24A DC/DC Step Down Power Supply... It can be used for all sorts of things including charging batteries. Works great assuming you have a BMS that will balance while charging.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0B8MXV2PQ

Interesting - so basically you're saying the BMS should handle all of the balancing and monitoring - and you can just supply the appropriate DC voltage/current and let it do the rest?

Thanks for the pointer to the Riden power supply - it seems a bit like a benchtop DC power supply - I can try one of those.

However, aren't there other smarts in a LiPo charger? E.g. knowing when to cut off the current, or varying the charge rate over time to preserve the battery? Or what if I want to only charge it to 80%? Or is there still some way or trick to do all of that still with just a DC benchtop power supply?

https://www.reddit.com/r/ebikes/comments/8ikqna

Charging Your Ebike batteries with a Variable Voltage Power Supply

Here is an article that you will absolutely never see on any other normal ebike blog site. For the last year or so I have experimented extensively with charging ebike batteries with an inexpensive …

www.electricbike.com

 

[amberwolf]

If you have a smart BMS, like those from JBD, etc., you can program many of the limits (LVC, HVC, currents, etc).

Shutoff current is something set in the charger itself (the Cycle Satiator from ebikes.ca for instance has programmable profiles that you can specify shut off currents), and if the charger detects that the pack is now needing current again, it will resume. (like if the BMS has shut off it's input because a cell has gone above HVC and it is now balancing it, then when it has brought it down toward where the others are, it will turn the input back on and charging can resume).

Note that a power supply (like the Meanwell HLG-600H-54A LED PSU I use) doens't act quite like a charger--all of the actual charging stuff is the same (CC/CV), but because it is a power supply it doesn't have the low-current shutoff a charger does. You can add other devices that do this if necessary...but a working BMS that is properly designed and setup should shut off its input and cut off current anyway.

BTW, when I looked up the Vencon, it only appears to have a main + and - out, I don't see any reference in it's documentation on those pages or in the images to any kind of individual cell connections (which are required to manage individual cells and do diagnostics of them).

 

[67RS427]

Interesting - so basically you're saying the BMS should handle all of the balancing and monitoring - and you can just supply the appropriate DC voltage/current and let it do the rest?

Thanks for the pointer to the Riden power supply - it seems a bit like a benchtop DC power supply - I can try one of those.

However, aren't there other smarts in a LiPo charger? E.g. knowing when to cut off the current, or varying the charge rate over time to preserve the battery? Or what if I want to only charge it to 80%? Or is there still some way or trick to do all of that still with just a DC benchtop power supply?

https://www.reddit.com/r/ebikes/comments/8ikqna

Charging Your Ebike batteries with a Variable Voltage Power Supply

Here is an article that you will absolutely never see on any other normal ebike blog site. For the last year or so I have experimented extensively with charging ebike batteries with an inexpensive …

www.electricbike.com

Yes, the idea is that the BMS handles the balancing, at least the JBD BMS units I use do and have bluetooth to monitor individual cell voltages. Sometimes smart LiPo chargers can balance quicker (or slower) but it all depends on your charger and the BMS. The Riden Power Supply I linked has a specific battery charging mode. It has certain protections like reverse polarity, voltage cut off, over current and over voltage protection (even temp probe if wanted). It charges using CC/CV and switches between the two when needed. You program the voltage you want it charged to and the desired amps and it takes care of the rest. It will provide the max amps when it can and taper off as the battery gets full. When the voltage gets to your target, it will cut off by itself. So you if you want an 80% charge, that's what you set your voltage to. Simply multiply your number of batteries in series by 4.2v for your charging voltage and say 3.8-3.85v for storage. So for my 52v eBike battery, I charge to 58.8v (14s x 4.2v) at usually 5 Amps or so. For some of my other batteries like my SPIM08HP batteries, I charge at 20amps and set my voltage for my 6s or 8s packs accordingly.

How does RD series power supply charge the battery, CC CV means what, RD6006 RD6024 RD6018

 

[victorhooi]

Ah great - I didn't realise the Riden had those features (able to taper off as the battery gets full).

I might into getting one just to play around with =). Thanks for the pointer!

Alternatively, the Cycle Satiator that amberwolf mentions seems pretty good. Is that a good option to get here? Or are there other smart eBike chargers I should look into as well? (I saw the Luna Advanced, but it looks a little less polished).

For the BMS - I got the battery pack from here - when it arrives, I'm going to see if I can swap out the BMS for something with UART/BT etc. I've heard good things about JK BMS and JBD BMS - however, there's a plethora of options, and I'm honestly confused as to how to narrow it down.

Does anybody have any advice on narrowing it down, knowing my battery and ebike kit (CYC X1 Stealth Gen 3)?

 

[amberwolf]

Any "constant current" or "current limited" PSU or charger will taper down current as voltage rises as battery fills up, it's the nature of how they work.


Which BMS to get depends on the features you want, and the specs you need. So, the BMS should be capable of more current than you will ever draw from it (so that you won't damage it or overheat it), but be set to protect (turn off the output) for an overcurrent at the max discharge limit of your pack as-designed. It should match the number of cells your pack has in series. It should match the chemistry of your pack *or* have programmable LVC / HVC / etc so that you can set it up for the actual cells-in-use limits, or customize those limits to more conservative values to decrease stress on the cells and increase their lifespan (but reduce the available capacity and / or current).

 

[67RS427]

Ah great - I didn't realise the Riden had those features (able to taper off as the battery gets full).

I might into getting one just to play around with =). Thanks for the pointer!

Alternatively, the Cycle Satiator that amberwolf mentions seems pretty good. Is that a good option to get here? Or are there other smart eBike chargers I should look into as well? (I saw the Luna Advanced, but it looks a little less polished).

For the BMS - I got the battery pack from here - when it arrives, I'm going to see if I can swap out the BMS for something with UART/BT etc. I've heard good things about JK BMS and JBD BMS - however, there's a plethora of options, and I'm honestly confused as to how to narrow it down.

Does anybody have any advice on narrowing it down, knowing my battery and ebike kit (CYC X1 Stealth Gen 3)?

I've heard good things about the Satiator but you're limited to 360 watts or just over 6 Amps if your pack is 52v (58.8v fully charged at 4.2v/cell). You take wattage and divide by voltage to get the max amps it will put out at any set voltage. As for the BMS, I only use JBD on my current batteries and love them. Bought them at Battery Hookup with a bunch of other stuff. I have the one linked below on a few 6s and 8s packs as well as the big one capable of over 300 amps for another project. Anything with bluetooth would be best so you can program it to your liking and monitor cells while charging or discharging. Daly is a common one used as well but beware of counterfeit ones that have issues. I use my Riden power supply to charge my 52v pack for my CYC Photon when I want to charge at higher amps or use a standard 2amp brick style one when I'm not in a hurry.

Li-ion/Lifepo4 3s-20s 100a BMS W/ LOW TEMP CUTOFF