A bright spark by the name of Mike Dabrowski is going to build a universal current limited charger, and sell them.
As far as I can tell, this guy is an extremely versatile inventor who knows what he is talking about.
The charger is primarily intended for EQ charging (and limited PEHV charging) of Honda Insight and Civic hybrids.
But, it can also produce higher voltages than needed for these vehicles, up to 360VDC, and might be suitable for any currently available hybrid vehicle, including the Prius NHW10 and later models.
The charger is a 2 stage design and is current limited. The 102s NiMH battery of a Vectrix would be quite happy with the 350mA second stage output.
The big question is this one: Will there be enough demand for these chargers from Prius and Vectrix owners to convince Mike to include a power supply capable of driving the Prius cooling impeller and the Vectrix cooling impellers?
The trickier one of these two is the Vectrix, because of all the complex electronics that are attached to the impeller motors. It is not clear if lower than 12VDC is going to fry them in relatively short order. They stop running somewhere around 8VDC - I tried that for several hours. But TheLaird, who knows 10,000 times more than me about electronics, thinks they will fry if they do not get 12V. Chances are he is right!
The Honda Insight seems to have a fairly weak cooling fan, it draws a lot less current at 12V than the Vectrix (which needs around 4A). But the Insight and the Prius NHW10 fans/impellers can also be safely operated on less than 12V, down to 5V or less for the Prius (I have no Insight or Civic to test what they draw).
I think Mike would like to build a charger that can be used all over the world, suitable for practically any EV or hybrid out there, but it might help to show some interest if you want to make sure that it will be able to run the Vectrix cooling impellers.
This charger is not a pipe-dream; the basic setup has been tested and used by several Insight owners. And Mike seems more than capable of putting something like this together.
The charger would be an ABCool and a Universal Freddy in one.
Mike Dabrowski seems to publish all (or most) his designs and schematics, have a look for yourself at what he is up to: http://99mpg.com/ProjectCars/
Here is the thread about the charger he is developing: http://www.insightcentral.net/forums/modifications-technical-issues/17325-designing-ultimate-grid-charger.html
And here a link to the thread where it all started: http://www.insightcentral.net/forums/modifications-technical-issues/14496-grid-charger-balancer.html
Anyone interested? I really hope so!
Nice.
Would even be good for topping up and balancing my lithium pack
The charger is getting close to production now and pre-orders and deposits are being taken.
See: http://www.insightcentral.net/forums/188811-post772.html
and http://99mpg.com/projectcars/gridcharger/
This charger would be ideal to revive a battery after a long break and to gently equalise it. It produces about the same current that The Laird suggests for the "Universal Freddy" for the VX-1. It's much more complex and expensive than a DIY "Universal Freddy", but programmable in many ways and does not involve having to build much yourself.
This information may be used entirely at your own risk.
There is always a way if there is no other way!