Hello, we were looking to purchase a new charger for our 2002 E825 gem car. The original zivan charger is missing, and we were looking to convert the car to our lithium ion batteries. Does anyone have recommendations as to which brand is the best charger? Any help would be really appreciated.
You can get a programable DQ which is probably the most versatile charger for li-ion, I would contact @Inwo or @LithiumGods to see if they have any. They can also help with the software and a bigger battery build.
If you want a zivan that you can just drop in to place, I have one on the shelf. You can still do lithium with the zivan, just use 20s pack (about 83V)
Couple caveats on the 00-04 lithium conversions
- 02 should be T2 controller, could be T1. They have an 84V upper limit IIRC, so high voltage is extra complexity, but Michael and Dave are both well experienced there.
- You need weight on front wheels or car will front end will pogo-stick and steering will be a disaster. Over the transmission battery packs are still being worked on, see other threads. Other option is put batteries under the seat and just leave two old lead-acid batteries up front unconnected. Or put a good lead acid, AGM or gel up there, use it to power a stereo and use an external charger.
Thank you for your reply. I’ll ask my boss which route he wants to take (since he actually owns the gem) thanks again for the info. Also cool idea using a gel to power something up in the front, I’ll probably try that.
Gabe and I have 29a J1772 fast chargers available.
Fixed at 86v. Configure your lithium battery accordingly.
$500 includes input port and home EV charging station.
Thank you for your reply. Would you happen to know if there is a charger that can store different voltage settings, and charge different voltage packs. When they say the delta Q has different profiles, is that different voltages or different charging types? Thank you so much for your help.
Yes- the DQ will support different batteries, each having different charge curves. Typically it comes loaded with 5 or 6 different common battery sizes and types but it depends on where the charger originated from.
Depending on your needs and generation of your charger, sometimes the factory profiles can be overwritten and modern profiles loaded (in the case of lithium batteries).
It is a bit tricky to change to a different loaded profile so it is not really meant to change frequently.
What is it that you are trying to do?
I read the question as 'Can the DQ charger be programmed to charge different battery pack sizes and types? Like can it be programmed for a 72v AGM pack and have a program for a 24S lithium pack.
Currently, they are usually programmed for a single battery type(lead, Lithium, etc ) and voltage then a number of programs variations of charging rates, stage transitions, etc are created and available to be selected from.
We have two gems with different voltage packs, and we’re looking for a charger that could charge them both if needed. Also we don’t have a delta q yet, are there better options or is delta q the way to go? Thank you for your help.
Probably kerfuckled there bro…
We have two gems with different voltage packs, and we’re looking for a charger that could charge them both if needed.
Yeah… No. Don’t do this. It is a plan that has high potential to mess up. You didn’t give enough info on what cars you have but it is far better to dedicate and configure an onboard charger for each car.
Don’t do it? But it really could work!
Probably not so easy with something like the standard built-in battery chargers but a bench type charger might work with programmed charge profiles easily selectable from a display. The vehicles would need to be wired to bring the DC battery to a large connector and ideally a contactor installed so the battery power is not always there. Kinda like how the standard EV connectors do it.
So it can be done Egor, I mean Igor, but it would take a bit of extra hardware and work.
Sorry for not being properly clear, the cars are both 2002 E825 Gems. Also the charger would absolutely be on board, the only reason for wanting the extra voltage profiles would be if we upgraded batteries in the future to a different voltage or number of cells, and would rarely change voltage profiles. Thanks for all the help.
There really isn’t that much flexibility with the T1 / T2 controllers. IIRC, 86v is the max on there so 20s Li-Ion pack is your ideal. And, it’s not like you’re going to go through the expense of lithium and leave it at stock voltage…
The DQ’s have the ability to run more profiles, but the Zivan will give you all the finish voltage you need and a properly configured BMS will cut it off and protect the batteries.
Don’t over think it.
@Inwo @LithiumGods I heard you guys have a lot of experience with the delta q. Was wondering, is it possible to put two separate charge profiles for a 3.2v and 3.3v per cell pack on the same delta q, or would they both be charged by the same profile? Thanks for all the help.
Dq holds 10 profiles
.
@Cobalt - What exactly are you trying to charge?
Not confessing to be even close to being the expert, but from what I understand there are specifically designed charge profiles more/less designed for a specific battery type and in some cases a profile is adjusted to work closely with a specific battery.
This is more of a DQ Factory and Battery Manufacturer relationship and we do not have that much of a specific control over the charger. DQ is keeping that level of control close to their chest.
There are quite a few public profiles available for our use. You would need to try them out to see if they provide what level of charge suits your needs.
220, 221… whatever it takes…
Why would you want to cut the charge off that low? LFP charge up to 3.6 v, Li-ion are 4.1 v
For 1/10 volt differences in cut-out voltage, IMO, you’re better off using your BMS for that as the BMS sees every cell (or pair+ in a parallel) and can stop your charger, vs the charger, which can only read the whole pack voltage. If you have one battery running way high, the charger could blow it to bits. Whereas the BMS will stop the party before you have a Fireman’s pancake dinner on your hands.
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Thanks everyone for the input. What jrjava mentioned is what I’m wondering. If LFP charges up to 3.6 can you use the same charge profile for 3.2v cell pack and a 3.3v cell pack, even though they have different nominal voltages or do they require different voltages? Sorry for so many questions i’m still a newbie. We have two cell packs and two gems but haven’t yet decided which pack will be charged by the delta q, therefore my boss wants a charger that can charge both so he can use it for whichever pack he wants.
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Can you give us more details on these mystery packs?
Is this some top secret black ops stuff you can’t/don’t want to mention for fear of it being swiped before you can bring it to market?
Do you have a data sheet? Info page? a picture?
Where do these batteries come from?
We can probably tell you if they will be suitable for use in a car or not.