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[shayan]

I'm thinking of getting a diginow setup to work alongside the 6kW chargetank. Whats the best way to get this combo to work on a ZF 13kW pack?
I guess i can only add an additional 3.3kW charger. Has anyone tried this before and if so any instructions on how to go about before i even think of getting a used diginow setup?

-Shayan

[Crissa]

I don't believe the Charge Tank can be complemented with the Diginow chargers.  Aren't they an either-or solution?

-Crissa

[TheRan]

I was curious about this too (not actually interested in doing it, just whether it's possible). The Indigogo for the Diginow does make a mention of the charge tank, they don't say that it is stackable but they don't say it isn't either. Also as the charge tank can be used with the stock charger if the Diginows connect at the same points I guess it should work. Didn't manage to find anyone that had actually tried it though.

[MVetter]

Hi guys. We don't make the Zero chargers anymore. That being said I've never personally stacked both units together on the same bike but I see no reason why they couldn't work together.

The question with a ZF13 pack is that it's 104Ah. 2 of our units put out 64 amps meaning anything over 40 amps will make the bike shut down as that's over 1C. I don't know exactly how many amps the Charge Tank delivers, but I suspect it's somewhere in the mid-high 50s.

This leaves you using a single 32 amp unit, as shayan mentioned. The other option would be custom control boards but like I said we're not making new things, so that's out. Also I'm out of components for extra control boards.

[shayan]

Thanks for chiming in Morgan. I got this question only because i see a few used SC v2 and v2.5 units being sold on FB. The issue with these units, like i mentioned, is that they have 2 chargers and i dont need both of them. Even if i do consider getting one of these, i am not sure if i can use just one of these chargers with the control units they come with. Will that still need any customization on the control boards that they come with?
Also for the current that the charge tank delivers, i have seen upto 57A when connected to some of the 6kW chargepoint stations and that could be its max.

Another thought i had was, if its possible to connect a single 3.3kW diginow unit through the accessory chargeport and get it working in tandem with the onboard charger. So, with this, is it possible to using all 3 simultaneously? Too much to ask for?

[TheRan]

Hi guys. We don't make the Zero chargers anymore. That being said I've never personally stacked both units together on the same bike but I see no reason why they couldn't work together.

The question with a ZF13 pack is that it's 104Ah. 2 of our units put out 64 amps meaning anything over 40 amps will make the bike shut down as that's over 1C. I don't know exactly how many amps the Charge Tank delivers, but I suspect it's somewhere in the mid-high 50s.

This leaves you using a single 32 amp unit, as shayan mentioned. The other option would be custom control boards but like I said we're not making new things, so that's out. Also I'm out of components for extra control boards.

So the Diginow business is yours? Someone mentioned in another thread that you'd "gone out of business", which surprised me as there was no mention of it on your Facebook page, the Indiegogo, and your website is still up and offering the DC chargers for sale. So is the whole business over or have you just quit with the Zero supercharger? Did you ever send out units to retailers who might still have stock or was it just straight to customers?

[MVetter]

Thanks for chiming in Morgan. I got this question only because i see a few used SC v2 and v2.5 units being sold on FB. The issue with these units, like i mentioned, is that they have 2 chargers and i dont need both of them. Even if i do consider getting one of these, i am not sure if i can use just one of these chargers with the control units they come with. Will that still need any customization on the control boards that they come with?
Also for the current that the charge tank delivers, i have seen upto 57A when connected to some of the 6kW chargepoint stations and that could be its max.

Another thought i had was, if its possible to connect a single 3.3kW diginow unit through the accessory chargeport and get it working in tandem with the onboard charger. So, with this, is it possible to using all 3 simultaneously? Too much to ask for?

The v2.5 was really amazing, but we encountered a major issue on the bike side of things that necessitated us to cease production of those and completely isolate the chargers from the bikes and the CAN signals. It is significantly less likely this issue will surface with a v2, and in fact we've never seen it but we can't rule it out.

We connected to the bikes to deliver power in two places (for reasons I won't get into here). One was the Aux port just to the left of the rear shock. We ran up to two units at a time because it's on a 100 amp charge fuse, and 3 units at 96 amps seemed like too much of a close call to risk. The other connection was directly to the bike's controller, the SevCon, via ring lugs.

Like I said, it's doable. All of the v2 models are modular, meaning they're tied together with Y adapters. Most of the v2.5 models were merged together with hard crimps in the pan-mounting and can't be separated without, shall we say, some minor surgery.

So the Diginow business is yours? Someone mentioned in another thread that you'd "gone out of business", which surprised me as there was no mention of it on your Facebook page, the Indiegogo, and your website is still up and offering the DC chargers for sale. So is the whole business over or have you just quit with the Zero supercharger? Did you ever send out units to retailers who might still have stock or was it just straight to customers?

We ceased production on Zero chargers, correct. The IndieGoGo updates allude to it, and in fact I'm packing up the last 3 units from that right now. Like literally boxed up one 5 minutes ago. We have made some DC Fast Charge stations and taken contracted jobs for things. We had a dealer in the UK for the v2.5 units but a lot of things went belly-up after Brandon, my business partner, shattered his spine in July of 2018. 5 fused vertebrae, and a long recovery later, we're able to do cool stuff again but it was a hell of a thing to go through.

[TheRan]

What was the issue with the v2.5? Do they all have it and I should just look for a v2 instead? You mention isolating it from the bike and canbus, so would the issue go away if I got hold of just one of the modules and used it externally through the aux connection like the OEM quick charger (assuming this is possible)?

[MVetter]

It seemed to be about one out of every 7-10 Zeroes and there was no way to tell if the bike was afflicted until it nuked a charger or a control board. Or both. A clue was if the on-board charger died because it looks like the bikes are killing those, not that they're crappy units as everyone initially suspected.

[NEW2elec]

Did yall ever find the exact problem location?  Sorry again for my lack of electric terminology understanding.  Was it like a poor grounding to the frame?

[MVetter]

The real tricky part is that none of our bikes were thusly afflicted, so diagnosing the problem was near-maddening. What you're describing would entail digging deep into the wiring harness of a customer's bike, and testing every component for possible failure points. It ran our entire operational budget dry diagnosing it, so if we wanted to, we had no means of working on it further. Very frustrating, really. And it's not like it means the bikes are unsafe, just that it looks like the bikes are killing the Calex units, not that they have super high fail rates.

[shayan]

The v2.5 was really amazing, but we encountered a major issue on the bike side of things that necessitated us to cease production of those and completely isolate the chargers from the bikes and the CAN signals. It is significantly less likely this issue will surface with a v2, and in fact we've never seen it but we can't rule it out.

We connected to the bikes to deliver power in two places (for reasons I won't get into here). One was the Aux port just to the left of the rear shock. We ran up to two units at a time because it's on a 100 amp charge fuse, and 3 units at 96 amps seemed like too much of a close call to risk. The other connection was directly to the bike's controller, the SevCon, via ring lugs.

Like I said, it's doable. All of the v2 models are modular, meaning they're tied together with Y adapters. Most of the v2.5 models were merged together with hard crimps in the pan-mounting and can't be separated without, shall we say, some minor surgery.

Cool, so a single 3.3kW should technically be possible to replace the onboard charger, if not work in tandem with it. I wonder if Zero will release their 3kW chargers as a factory replacement for the default 1.3kW charger. In that case, it would work great. But i have never seen any EV with a factory dub-J setup so far.

[NoMoreIdeas]

Cool, so a single 3.3kW should technically be possible to replace the onboard charger, if not work in tandem with it. I wonder if Zero will release their 3kW chargers as a factory replacement for the default 1.3kW charger. In that case, it would work great. But i have never seen any EV with a factory dub-J setup so far.

Yep, either will work. They should work fine in tandem (I'm doing a similar setup with my own charge controller and the onboard charger).

[MVetter]

Cool, so a single 3.3kW should technically be possible to replace the onboard charger, if not work in tandem with it. I wonder if Zero will release their 3kW chargers as a factory replacement for the default 1.3kW charger. In that case, it would work great. But i have never seen any EV with a factory dub-J setup so far.

Should. That would only put a max of 47 amps through the wiring harness, and the charge fuse is 100 amps. I am ASSUMING the Charge Tank is not attached to the wiring harness aka going through the Charge Fuse and is tied directly to the ring lugs on the SevCon. I've never taken one apart.

edit- I should note that if the Charge Tank is on the wiring harness and going through the charge fuse this could pose a problem. If you blow your charge fuse you will be a VERY sad panda as it's a miserable thing to get to and replace. Arguably worse than the DC-DC converter and I refuse to swap one of those again.

[shayan]

Cool, so a single 3.3kW should technically be possible to replace the onboard charger, if not work in tandem with it. I wonder if Zero will release their 3kW chargers as a factory replacement for the default 1.3kW charger. In that case, it would work great. But i have never seen any EV with a factory dub-J setup so far.

Yep, either will work. They should work fine in tandem (I'm doing a similar setup with my own charge controller and the onboard charger).

Great! Are you using a diginow 3.3kW unit with your own charge controller? Also, if you dont mind, pics would be a great resource here

Cool, so a single 3.3kW should technically be possible to replace the onboard charger, if not work in tandem with it. I wonder if Zero will release their 3kW chargers as a factory replacement for the default 1.3kW charger. In that case, it would work great. But i have never seen any EV with a factory dub-J setup so far.

Should. That would only put a max of 47 amps through the wiring harness, and the charge fuse is 100 amps. I am ASSUMING the Charge Tank is not attached to the wiring harness aka going through the Charge Fuse and is tied directly to the ring lugs on the SevCon. I've never taken one apart.

edit- I should note that if the Charge Tank is on the wiring harness and going through the charge fuse this could pose a problem. If you blow your charge fuse you will be a VERY sad panda as it's a miserable thing to get to and replace. Arguably worse than the DC-DC converter and I refuse to swap one of those again.

Right if the charge tank is attached to the same harness with a 100A fuse it would go kaput. In that case i guess i can only use one of the 3.3kW or the onboard charger with the CT. I would not want to be a very sad Panda