Failed ESD Charger

Hi The Laird.
That are bad news! Well TT-Tronix had similar problems and opened his charger. Take a look at the german forum.
As he´s around in Visforvoltage using the same nickname as in the german forum.

Tido I hope it´s no problem "outing" you this way.

Greetings Mike

I have a friend who I have sent all my dead chargers to,

hes in the process of fixing one now, I'll put you in contact with him

cheers,
Matt

Hi Sandy,
Sorry to hear about your charger - I had the same symtoms but without the bad smell - just no action when you plug the bike in. It was a dead charger that was changed on guarantee.
If anything I would imagine your new software ought to be much kinder on the charger as the output currents are less - so one would imagine that this would prolong its life?

There is some good information on this thread with some good phots:
http://visforvoltage.org/forum/11322-has-my-charger-died

There is a guy called in this thread called "Heath Robinson" who seems to be pretty well up on the charger - this in fact may be the same guy that Matt is refering to. He was not at all complementary on the design ni the construction. I hope you can find some help from the people on this forum - given all you have contributed...

Good luck

Jonathan

I tried to repair my defective ESD Charger... and had no luck. It took a few hours to remove the mainboard in order to replace some defective parts. The transformators/coils and some Capacitors are in sealing compound :-( Some parts were obiously defective.... Two diodes fell out of the charger when I opened the housing.

So in the end I decided to order a new (Runkie/EVPS) charger from Vectrix, which was a very good decision. It has a few advantages:
+ draws only 5W Standby Power
+ EQ Charge with only 1A instead of 3A... This is healthy for the batteries since the batteries don't get so hot anymore.
+ The parts inside of the charger are more accessible

But there is also one drawback:
- The fan on the charger is quite loud and runs always on maximum speed when charging.

Tido

Lost my charger in March of 2010, although I believe it was the fault of a lightning strike while the bike was plugged in (don't know if it was charging at the time or not). There's something they never mention in the EV brochures!! :-0 We lost our cordless phone system, and the modem to my computer at the same time, so we're pretty sure it was a spike in the line.

At any rate, the company warranted the replacement, and all I had to do was pay for the labor and the transport cost (400 miles to nearest service).

Can't help you with the cause or the cure, but one thing I have learned is not to just leave her plugged in, even with a timer on the circuit. If the weather looks iffy at night, I just forget about riding the scoot and do not charge it until the weather is safe for tender electronics. Surge protectors are NOT a gaurantee that your e-parts won't suffer damage! (everything we lost exept the bike charger was run through surge protectors).

Tat's too strong for irony, so it must beSods' Law- after all the work you people have done to sort the charging issues with the original charger. If it's any help, I've an original dead silver ESD (?) charger that arrived with my 09 Vectrix, when I bought it on ebay. The resurrection process saw it replaced with a Runkey charger (£500)- but beware, it killed 2 sets of temp sensors before it worked properly (software issue- sensors replaced by Vectrix under guarantee).
The dead silver lump is gathering dust in the shed- if anyone wants it for cannibalisation, it's theirs for the cost of the postage from Hants UK. The previous owner (it was a demonstrator for a garage) had opened it in an attempt to fix it, but apart from a bent access panel & some missing screws, it looks like they gave up pretty soon. I can have a gently nose about in its innards if anyone want further information.
Being paranoid, I always charge via a Belkin surge protector, as my guess is that a power spike from an arc welder killed the original unit.
Cheers, Matt

Its not heath robinson but close :)

The part that has failed is the mosfet in the amplified zener reg - its part of the bias supply, there are two (one for the startup, and one for running it) The wirewound resistor that smokes dies because the main reg doesn't start and expects that 5W wirewound resistor to dissipate 50W give or take.

The 50W wirewound resistor that is mounted on the heatsink is supposed to do the hard yards.

The design of these chargers is atrocious. A 50W load to produce a bias supply is lazy design work pure and simple.

Unfortunatly they are as you discovered, a total PITA to work on. I've fixed one for someone and its a very annoying task to put none too fine a point on it.

Another ironic thing is the name of the "carger".
ESD? You are killing me!
No wonder it fails....
(For those not familiar with the term,
ESD stands for ElectroStatic Discharge,
which is for example the sparks that fly
when you pull a sweater over your hear.
Those sparks kill a lot of electronics.
Too funny that it is the name of a bad charger...)

You saw the writing on the board then (carger).

Well, the one I had a look at appears to be in more of a worse state than originally thought - the shottky diode for the PFC had cracked as well, and when it was shipped, it must have shifted enough to break the piece loose and take along some of the die as well.

Problem is that the main board is potted into the charger with white silicon sealant, and when you pull it out, its a real pain to get it to sit right again.

I think the best thing that can be said for the ESD charger is that it's worth a least £5 as scrap! MW

I have the ESD charger in my VX and noticed the other day while not charging, but plugged in, that the charger gives off a lot of heat.
Whould it be in my best interest to disconnect from the mains after charging to possibly give the charger a longer life?
It was almost too hot to keep my hand on the case, are the failures related to constant heat?

Double post after timeout

Whould it be in my best interest to disconnect from the mains after charging to possibly give the charger a longer life?
It was almost too hot to keep my hand on the case, are the failures related to constant heat?

yes it is best to keep the charger disconnected when not actually charging

there are many causes of failure in the ESD charger - but the 50W resistor burning is one of them

I thought as much, since my BMS has never shut off the charger (yet) I have started using a timer on the cord to turn it off.
Excessive heat can never be a good thing, it will probably die after all hope of a replacement is possible.