I need a fast charger for my Zero Motorcycles, model FXS.
First, my bike is a FXS 2016 with 6.5 kWh battery (in
two 3.3 kWh packs). Each pack contains 28 Farasis IMP06160230P25A cells. The maximum allowed voltage is 28 x 4.15 = 116.2 V. The cells can be charged at 1C, but I will charge a little bit slower.
Here, in Europe, the usual domestic plugs are
220V / 16A (so they can deliver about 3.5 kW). Up to know, I have always charged using the
onboard charger of the bike (720W), and most of the time I am limiting the charge to 80%
using a timer. Indeed, most of my daily usage is less than 40 kms, and I only
charge to 100% when I know that I could need more range. But in some cases I would need to fast charge
in order to increase my range. For me, the perfect charger would be a mobile
one (not fixed to the bike) since I would only use it occasionally. I would
bring it in the top case of the bike when needed. A weight around 5 kgs or less would be
fine. This charger would plug - on the domestic 220V / 50Hz european plug on
entry (16A limited plugs, CEE 7/7), and optionally to a Mennekes Type 2 connector - on the Anderson SBS75XBRN (brown) connector
of my Zero bike on the other side: https://photos.app.goo.gl/QdCoK2Se8DCtK2PA9 A power around 3.3 kW would be great: it would
draw less than 16A on the domestic plug. It could be used together with the onboard
charger (using a domestic plug from another circuit) and give a full charge in
about 1h35min. But in case the available domestic plug is weak
and does not allow to draw 16A, it would be nice to have a switch on the
charger to reduce the charging power. Another nice feature would be to have a switch
to choose between 100% charge and 80% charge (stopping at a lower voltage). It seems that there are already devices able to
do that, but they need to be triggered in order to offer these functionalities. I do not see anything that could be
impossible,
since Zero says in the manual of the bike that we can use
simultaneously up to four Zero quick 1kW chargers (from the Zero's
manual: "The scalable quick charging
feature allows up to four supplemental accessory chargers (in addition
to the
existing integrated charger) to be connected to the motorcycle"). Some more details:
On my bike, the Anderson SBS75XBRN (brown) connector for the external charger has 4 pins. Obviously, the two big ones are for the power. The 2 central thin wires are for some exchange between the BMS and
the charger. But I do not know exactly which signal passes through
these 2 central wires. Update: it seems that the 2 central wires only signal to the bike that a charger is connected.
I would like that the BMS could stop
the charger in case the BMS detects that something is wrong (bad
temperature, bad voltage of one individual cell,...). There are some information in chapter 9.2.5 of this manual,
but it is not very clear for me: https://zeromanual.com/index.php/Unofficial_Service_Manual#Charger_Connections The wiring diagram of the bike could also help. Update: in any case, it seems that the BMS of the bike opens the charging circuit if it detects something wrong.
This device could probably be used in order to switch easily between 4 different charging options: http://www.thunderstruck-ev.com/evcc-basic.html They say in their EVCC-Basic Manual, page 6, that it can store 4 user-configurable settings and
can easily switch from one to another (it only needs a contactor with 4
positions, addressing 4 different resistances). It will be
fine for instance to have 4 settings: