Empulse water-cooled fast charging modification

[Brammofan]

Check out this mod from the Netherlands (I think):

https://www.facebook.com/groups/111611975574686?view=permalink&id=1737082993027568

[HadesOmega]

Oh wow cool faster charging Empulse is becoming a reality!

[shayan]

Any details on this being available in the USA?
I would settle for a 6.6kw total charging power.

[Brammofan]

You could send a message to the person who posted it on Facebook. Other than that, I have not heard anything about anyone trying this in the US.

[Ndm]

I believe it was built by diginow in California, Google the website and email Morgan

[Richard230]

I agree.  That does sound like a Diginow charging system that has been modified to use the Empulse cooling system.  It was originally designed for Zeros which use "passive" air cooling to cool all of their components and the Diginow chargers for the Zero use a fan or two for cooling while they are charging. You can get the charger in 3.3, 6.6 and 9.9 (I think) capacities. They just add up to three of their chargers to make their different charging packages.  I think Diginow is located somewhere in the general vicinity of San Jose, CA. There is a lot of discussion regarding the Diginow on the Electric Motorcycle Forum.

[frodus]

If you read the link, it looks like they aren't diginow. It would appear that Diginow uses that brand of charger, and interfaces to them and modifies them to be compatible.

Lennart responded that they're Elcon / TC Chargers.

[DjZ]

Hey guys,

I think this is barbarossa's bike. He did the modification with the digikey superchargers (post http://brammoforum.com/index.php?topic=3565.15) and told me to talk to Lennart Otten for my mod because he is taking his bike on a holiday trip.

the system charges at a constant rate 9 kw.

 

[Barbarossa]

Hi Guys,

I'm glad to see that you like the conversion.

The planning and implementation of course took some time, but now after 2 weeks motorcycle trip (of which I'm just back), I can only say that the conversion is completely successful.

On some days we covered 400km and met a lot of interesting people.
Incidentally, we have never spent so little money for a motorcycle holiday

After this long test phase with heat and heavy rain, I can give my Ok for this conversion to obstruct him on other Brammos.

Please contact me or Lennart Otten if you are interested.
My workshop is located in Bielefeld Germany and I would need a few days for the conversion.

Chris

[Otten.L]

Hello everyone,

Chris has already mentioned my name, so I thought I might add a few things here and clarify the remaining questions.

We’re a Zero Motorcycles (and electric scooter) dealer in Germany, however our main business (where almost all of our 65 employees work in) is something else and we’re doing all of this out of a lot of enthusiasm for electric vehicles in general.

Chris approached us with the desire of improving his charging capacity while keeping the bike as stock as possible. That’s why we opted for a solution which keeps the original onboard charger (which is a very good one actually). The little amount of space on a Brammo required us to move to a watercooled setup, which turned out to work really great while reducing the amount of space for heatsinks dramatically.

The options in terms of charging power are 2.7 kW (onboard) + either one or two 3.3 kW units for a total of 6 kW or 9.3 kW. The units are split on different phases, so they work perfectly fine on every 11kW+ Type 2 charging station.

To clarify some things regarding the chargers: Those chargers are not from DigiNow, although the chargers are actually the same and manufactured by TC charger in China. ElCon is another name for them as that is a famous seller in the US, but they also buy the same units from the factory in China. Apart from the wires and plugs, DigiNows are no different to ElCons or TC Chargers, it’s all exactly the same. For those of you who like and know how to tinker themselves, here’s my Github with Arduino code to control DigiNows, Elcons and TC Chargers via CAN-Bus. It will work for all of them, however buying ElCons is of course the way cheaper option. I will add a version with a nice Bluetooth App interface soon: https://github.com/Lennart-O/TCCharger-voltage-current-control

In our case the chargers have been preprogrammed to a specific voltage according to Brammos/Zeros specs, so we don’t even need a CAN controller anymore. Makes the whole thing more robust and reliable, as Arduino is not really according to automotive standards. That might also be available through ElCon, just ask them.

If there are any remaining questions feel free to ask.

Kind regards,

Lennart

[Otten.L]

For those of you who don't have Facebook or couldn't see the mod yet I just attached the pictures here as well.

[nunux59]

I'm in love !

[nunux59]

It look like these chargers can be found for not so much :
https://aliexpress.com/item/3-3KW-Elcon-TC-Charger-for-Electric-Vehicle-for-LiPo-LiFe-Lead-Acid-battery-pack-for/32855919611.html

$605 or 525€, it should make a less than $1500€ conversion including piping and type 2 plug if done by ourself, nice !

[Otten.L]

Hi nunux,

although in principle correct, there are a few things to consider:

-in stock configuration they come with the sturdy and big connectors, which will occupy a lot of space and won’t let you pack them as dense as we did
-custom cabling without the connectors (like ours have) is only available in larger quantities
-we did not use the stock cooling plate, but customized plates instead with only one hose connector
-you need to install them under high voltage
-in contrast to a Zero, the Brammo does not have a separate contactor (engaged by the BMS) which will safely disconnect the chargers from the battery in case of failure. Therefore proper programming is essential. One wrong line of code may equal an overcharged and therefore destroyed battery.
-although my code works, there’s obviously not guarantee for it and Arduino isn’t really the best choice for such an application. That’s why we went with preprogrammed units – but you also need to know how to spec those properly.
-if never done before, the mods will require about 2-3 days of work with heavy modifications for bike and equipment (cut parts of the charger etc.). After having done the first job on his bike and now knowing what he’s doing, Chris still needs around eight hours of work for one bike.

So please: only try it yourself if you have proper electrical knowledge, know how to use tools and make electrical measurements and have good technical skills in general. Otherwise it might result in some serious issues.

Kind regards,

Lennart

[Leander]

I could design a new plastic cover (ABS or something else) that fit's over the new charcgers. It could be 3D printed.