High current charging ROCKS! (900W charger mini-review)

[voicecoils]

Bought the 900W charger from BMSBattery/ECITYPOWER recently for my 72v10Ah Headway pack.

The charger is set for 87.6V and charges at up to 10A DC. It has a nice little display for voltage and current with a toggle switch to go between. It has mounting holes on it's footprint so it can be bolted down to something if needed and also a handle to carry.

No external AC or DC fuses. 110/230 voltage selector at the back. Some kind of small mystery plug at the front.

Here's a small video I made charging showing a Kill-A-Watt meter, Cycle Analyst and the charger display monitoring the charger while I put about 3 Ah back into the pack. I took a shower after my ride and when I came out, the pack was charged!

[youtube]nGh8oDjwHJw[/youtube]

Another longer video showing how the charger behaves when connected to an already full pack. Current quickly decays. (warning, boring video!)

[youtube]Vh70uVBRHlg[/youtube]

Questions?

 

[fechter]

Are you using some kind of BMS with your pack?

 

[dnmun]

how much did it cost and what was the shipping. are you gonna do the modification ping recommended? how hot do the cells get at 10A?

 

[TPA]

I'm using the 600W charger they sell. At 41V it puts out 12A. That is 1C for my 12Ah pack (6 fatpacks), but it takes more than an hour because the amperage tapers off at the end (charge profile).

Charger is cool because it has this bad to the bone fan that runs full blast the entire time, and my pack temperature does not change at all (to the touch, thermometer probably says different).

I use a watts up to monitor it also, I love this charger.

Here is the one he is reviewing (sort of):

http://cgi.ebay.com/EBike-900W-Charger-for-LiFePO4-Li-Ion-Lead-Acid-Battery_W0QQitemZ120464348980QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item1c0c3c1734&_trksid=p3911.c0.m14

 

[voicecoils]

Are you using some kind of BMS with your pack?

The pack is made of two 36v10Ah packs wired in series. Each has it's own 36V BMS. I don't know the details of the BMS but it's never given me any problems and both packs sit happily at 43.8V. The cells are all shrink-wrapped together so I haven't probed them individually yet. I'm not using any protective components between the two packs (diodes etc).

 

[voicecoils]

how much did it cost and what was the shipping. are you gonna do the modification ping recommended? how hot do the cells get at 10A?

I bought a couple of things and the total postage cost was $77 by DHL to Australia. The charger alone worked out to A$212 shipped.

See TPA's ebay link. That's essentially the same charger and looks to cost $140 + $50 postage.

What's the ping modification?

I'll have to check how warm the cells and BMS get, they're inside my bike box.