New charger but..

Eastwood said:
raylo32 said:
I know all about being careful with capacitors... but good reminder for those reading along. And I am not planning to open it since it doesn't provide output unless connected to a battery and charging it... so no way to easily check the voltage as it is adjusted. Maybe from some internal solder connections but having the battery connected just creates more ways for this to go wrong.
Click to expand...

Well when I adjusted the pot the charger is off and then before powering on I would put the cover back on and power ON, then manually test through the discharge port to get the exact voltage. I had to do this about 15 times to get it right :lol:
Click to expand...

I adjusted mine, opened up and plugged in. Even with that, I had to open it up a second time since there was a little voltage drift. The second time, I adjusted, tapped on the pot a few times, unplugged and plugged it back in, and fine tuned it again before closing it back up.
 
I guess better to be safe than sorry. But that won't work for me since on mine there is zero output voltage when powered on and not connected to a battery.

Eastwood said:
Well when I adjusted the pot the charger is off and then before powering on I would put the cover back on and power ON, then manually test through the discharge port to get the exact voltage. I had to do this about 15 times to get it right :lol:
Click to expand...
 
The seller means from the outside with the provided user controls. These guys are hacking the chargers voltage output by removing the tamper screws and adjusting the potentiometers inside.

john61ct said:
The seller there says voltage is not adjustable, only current
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The small keychain pocket knife has a few spark dents already. Mostly from stripping live wires.
 
I use the one hand rule when working with live circuits, including house wiring. A big spark generally won't hurt you (unless molten metal lands on you); but current flowing through your body will.
 
So the jury is out on whether I need to adjust the ST charger or not. I did a couple charge cycles with the ST and the battery BMS stopped flashing which I took to mean the charge had terminated... and when I popped the battery into the mount and powered up my bike the voltage was lower than expected. But then I charged the same battery on my Grin Satiator and noticed that the BMS stopped flashing during the charge tapering period, but it was still charging and tapering. That charge terminated at the correct voltage and there is no doubt because the charger tells you when it is complete. So I suppose I just need to leave the battery on the ST charger longer to get the full charge (or "full" 90% charge)... but there is no "charge complete" indicator. So I still haven't figured out how to determine that. I need to ping the seller and ask. It does have a "charging" indicator LED. perhaps that turns off or turns green when complete? Looking for a manual now.
 
raylo32 said:
So I still haven't figured out how to determine that. I need to ping the seller and ask. It does have a "charging" indicator LED. perhaps that turns off or turns green when complete? Looking for a manual now.
Click to expand...

Just open up the charger and measure the voltage going to the battery with the battery plugged in.

I'm not really sure what the fear is related to the capacitors in these supplies. Capacitors at that voltage level aren't any more dangerous than touching your battery terminals with your fingers. Your skin is somewhere between 1000-100K ohms. It's not like an old school TV, where caps might charge to 25kV; 60V isn't going to do anything unless you touch the terminals together with your screwdriver and that only creates a big spark, like MadRhino's pocket knife. Work with one hand if you still have concerns. :shock:
 
I think I just figured it out. I have been following the recommended method of connecting the battery to the charger and then plugging the charger into the mains. So it comes up displaying the red "charging" indicator. I just plugged it in again without a battery connected and noted that the LED was green. So I believe I need to wait for it to turn green to get a full charge... like many other chargers. But then some are different where the LED turns off or whatever. It would have helped to have the manual, but I think I am good to go now.
 
Backwards. Plug in battery then plug into mains. Correct, you shouldn't need a manual. But most chargers have a little inscription on the case to explain the particular way the LEDs work and what they mean. If I visit my workshop I see some chargers that flash while charging, some that are solid red while charging, some flash fast if the battery is bad, some have different flash modes (like three flashes and pause, etc.) some turn out when fully charged, some turn green when fully charged, etc. Simple enough but you need to know what it is. That's all.

ZeroEm said:
manual :shock: only instructions was to plug in charge and turn it on then plug into battery.
Click to expand...
 
Here are pics of my charger. The "Cautions" explain how you should sequence your connections of battery and main power. It also says to read the instructions... LOL... There ARE NO instructions. The second pic shows the LED indicators which, unlike every other Li-ion charger (tools and such) lacks a description as to how to interpret them.

ST1.jpg

ST2.jpg
 
raylo32 said:
Here are pics of my charger.
Click to expand...

Thanks for posting the pic. I think I'm going to add a switch to my charger to toggle between 58V and 58.8V (for when I want to balance). Usually if I charge my 52V pack at 5A to 58V, it will settle down to 57.7 or so after pulling it off the charger, which it just about right for my purposes. Currently I used my 5A charger to charge to 58V before a ride, and my 3A charger to balance, but I can just add a switch and not have to swap. :thumb:
 
This charger is set for 90% in Low and 100% in high. I have not yet charged the battery to termination at either level but I will try next week now that I am 99% sure that the charge LED will turn green when finished... and I usually use the Grin Satiator anyway. I have several profiles set up in that, 100% for long rides, 85% for typical rides, and 60% for storage.

Interesting that the battery BMS blinks during bulk charge but stops blinking whilst tapering. I had not noticed that before while using the Satiator since I just looked at the Satiator's native display for charge status.

E-HP said:
raylo32 said:
Here are pics of my charger.
Click to expand...

Thanks for posting the pic. I think I'm going to add a switch to my charger to toggle between 58V and 58.8V (for when I want to balance). Usually if I charge my 52V pack at 5A to 58V, it will settle down to 57.7 or so after pulling it off the charger, which it just about right for my purposes. Currently I used my 5A charger to charge to 58V before a ride, and my 3A charger to balance, but I can just add a switch and not have to swap. :thumb:
Click to expand...
 
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