Hi Guys,
Need help. It seems ESD charger failed while charging at the public station at 240V. Some info. I have VX1 with 19 Leaf modules loaded and firmware updated and configured via rs422. It's been running great and today is one of those days I parked it at the charging station. When I came back, the charging stopped and it was almost charged so I drove it back. Since then the charging is not starting. Also, interestingly battery cooling fan is not starting neither charging or driving. Any ideas? Here are screenshots of the diag. I don't see anything abnormal. I can take the charger out and look inside. Anything particular I should check?
ESD charger possible to repair?
Mon, 10/31/2022 - 21:47
#1
ESD charger possible to repair?
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It's a shame that no one replied, this is the sorta discussion that I would love to see. When it happened to me I just bought another one on eBay, but that was back when the Vectrix search actually had some results
______________________
I also own a 2018 Tesla Model 3 and a 2012 Mitsubishi iMiev
Right... Do you still happen to have a broken one that you can sell? Maybe I could make one working out of two?
You might get more response on the Facebook group, or the whatsapp group. If you are not on them the FB groups are https://www.facebook.com/groups/vectrix and https://www.facebook.com/groups/1057357734341359 is the UK group. The Whatsapp group is called Vectrix Worldwide - I can't post the link here (group rules). PM me if you want the link.
Daytona Blue VX-1, 2008. Matt Black VX-1, 2008.
Sorry, didn't keep it, broken junk is hard to keep
______________________
I also own a 2018 Tesla Model 3 and a 2012 Mitsubishi iMiev
There's no harm in taking the charger out and having a look
if you're very lucky, it may just be a plug that's come loose internally. out of the 30 or so dead chargers I have seen, maybe 2 have been due to a plug internally working it's way loose
The other 28 dead units sit on my shelf, waiting for an idea of what to do with them (they have a nice aluminium case, and some nice copper inductors and transformers)
Daily Ride:
2007 Vectrix, modified with 42 x Thundersky 60Ah in July 2010. Done 194'000km
I got some progress and good and bad news. I removed the charger and opened it and found an obvious damage. one of 100uf Capacitors burned. It's in the circuit that it's next to MOSFET and I suppose it's damaged too. I can't figure the p/n for MOSFET, it's IRFxx20, which could be IRFR320, but I'm not sure. Can you help to identify it? Can I buy this small board from you or the complete broken charger?
where are you located K-Tracker?
I have 15 or so dead esd chargers, which I'm happy to part out
The ESD most commonly fails on the boot strap circuit, which provides 12v to the system before the 12v powersupply comes up.
The failure tends to put 60vdc down the 12v line which tends to burn everything
I'll see how the boards look on my chargers
Daily Ride:
2007 Vectrix, modified with 42 x Thundersky 60Ah in July 2010. Done 194'000km
I'm based in Sacramento, CA. I'll be glad if I could make one working out of two.
Is there a way to identify the failure you're talking about? Since it was 100uf 16V-rated capacitor that has been burnt, it could be the issue you're talking about. But then all of them should burn, no?
Kindly checking agin if you can share the details of the debug and if you're in the US and can sell a broken charger.
Apologies for the late response
easiest way to see if the 12v rail is still okay, is to connect the charger to AC, and measure the voltage on the 12v rail (easiest to to across that 16V cap)
I haven't had a chance to take the covers off some of my chargers, I may be able to over the christmas break
Daily Ride:
2007 Vectrix, modified with 42 x Thundersky 60Ah in July 2010. Done 194'000km
Apologies for the late response
easiest way to see if the 12v rail is still okay, is to connect the charger to AC, and measure the voltage on the 12v rail (easiest to to across that 16V cap)
I haven't had a chance to take the covers off some of my chargers, I may be able to over the christmas break
Daily Ride:
2007 Vectrix, modified with 42 x Thundersky 60Ah in July 2010. Done 194'000km
I have vectrix vx-1 parts that you might be interested. We had 3 scooters donated to us, and I had engineering students strip them down to make an electric VW beetle conversion by chaining two motors together. Unfortunately, the battery packs went bad so we scrapped the project and the car was a little slow to accelerate. So I have 2 motor controllers and a charger available, the charger is a 1.5kw, silver color. I think we had some issues with the final charger but weren't sure what the problem was as it worked intermittently. Motor controllers should work fine still though. I do need to get rid of these remaining parts.
Thank you!
After getting much deeper inside I clearly found that ceramic capacitor is not the only issue. It seems it happened exactly what you've explained.
There are two resistors in series, which seemed to overheat and that burned the capacitor next to them. I also found that resistors were disconnected (likely due to the heat).
I could only read one resistor label which is 220 Ohm, but I'm pretty sure the other one is the same. Is it where you'd expect to find the root cause? Or it's the consequence of 60V spike?
I think what happens is at start up, there's sometimes too much load on the 12v before the dc power supply comes online.
The resistors get too hot, resulting in their resistance falling, causing the voltage on the 12v rail to rise.
Positive (bad) feedback loop results in the 12v rail being supplied with eventually 60v, which damages everything.
The resistors look like they got hot enough to melt the solder holding them onto the board.
Daily Ride:
2007 Vectrix, modified with 42 x Thundersky 60Ah in July 2010. Done 194'000km
I still have a pair of functional ESD chargers, If anyone need one, PM or send me email.
R
I wish I could see this reply earlier. I bought ESD charger from Spain and VX1 is fully functional now.