Charger Swap
I bought this Zivan NG3 charger from a private seller with the clear intention of using both 110 and 220VAC to charge the batteries. This allows the flexibility to use either a normal 110 or 220 volt household socket, or a 220 volt public charger. I was under the assumption that the Zivan could do this until I read the spec sticker on the face, where it states the charger input is only rated for 115VAC at 23 amps max. Even though it was a good deal, it was still a big chunk of change to drop on a charger that doesn’t fit my plans. After calling Zivan/Elcon in Sacramento, I learned that the NG3 can be factory configured to accept either 110 or 220VAC, but not both. The seller would not accept a return, so I posted the charger to eBay, which is still active as of this update. Hopefully, it will be purchased by somebody who has no intention of charging with other than 110 volts.
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It happens that Zivan is a very reputable Italian charger brand that is distributed and serviced by Elcon in the US. After speaking with an Elcon representative who listened to my plans and determined my needs, he suggested their dual-voltage charger PFC 2500. It’s a sealed weather-resistant unit, which accepts both 110 and 220VAC. More importantly, it’s factory configured by Elcon to mate to the exact battery pack in the car, per voltage and amp hour rating, and is also programmed with a custom charging profile. It doesn’t hurt that it’s 50 bucks less than the used Zivan charger, but what really swayed me was the glowing review by Dimitri at CleanPowerAuto, who makes and sells the MiniBMS battery management system I will be using.
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Awesome Mark. Ha, I’m just going to do whatever you do!
JY
Jimmy Young - February 21, 2012 at 2:51 pm |
Your mom might warn you if it looks like I’m gonna jump off a cliff. My mom always did.
markbrems - February 21, 2012 at 3:14 pm |
It’s fascinating from your posts that there are almost always issues that need to be solved. Nothing seems to go right the first time. But you’ve always found solutions that are comparable and often better than you originally planned.
Michael B Schwartz - February 21, 2012 at 6:09 pm |
Doing my homework means I can change *blind trust* to *near-sighted trust*, at least.
markbrems - February 21, 2012 at 6:15 pm |
Have you thought about how to wire the PFC-2500 for both 220V & 110V using the J1772? It should be do-able. But I don’t know if the Elcon chargers support any kind of intelligent signalling that could be used for the J1772.
Joe - March 16, 2012 at 6:28 pm |
Yup. To wit, check out the first two items in the previous post: http://914electric.wordpress.com/2012/02/12/electrical-part-storm/
The simple J1772 receptacle on the car can be wired directly to the Elcon charger, and doesn’t care what voltage is being delivered by the J plug. An custom cable will let you adapt from a regular 110 or 240 VAC house plug to a J plug without any fancy electronics. The only caveat is that a public 240 VAC J1772 charger requires a pilot signal before it will dispense electrons. The adapter box J receptacle from TusconEV can be mounted under the gas filler door on the EV conversion, and has a switch right next to the J1772 receptacle to manually enable the pilot when charging publicly. I’ve already taken it apart to adapt to a smaller water-tight junction box that will fit under my flip-down front license plate!
markbrems - March 17, 2012 at 1:05 am |
If you don’t mind me asking; who did you end up purchasing the PFC-2500 from?
I live in CA; so Elon power is kind of local…
Joe - April 5, 2012 at 7:10 pm |
Hey Joe,
I purchased directly from Elcon in Sacramento. Here’s a link to their contact info:
http://www.elconchargers.com/contact_us.html
You can’t just order one up online, because you need to give them specific info about your battery pack (number of cells, voltage, brand, amp hours, etc.)
Mark
markbrems - April 6, 2012 at 8:34 am |