....I noticed that once the case is removed one could easily mix up input/output and corresponding plus/minus wires upon reassembly (by placing the board in reversed). I/O and plus/minus are labeled on the case only....
So which wires are which? I did take mine out and thought I'd remember which wire was line and which was neutral. But then, comparing to the Meanwell supplies I have, which also have blue and brown AC-side wires, the GINOs seem to be the opposite -- brown=neutral, blue=line. Is that correct? My meanwell is blue=neutral, brown=line...
Also, the DC-side wires didn't correspond to the markings on the case, the red + wire came out of the case where it is marked minus, while the black negative wire came out of the case where it is marked + -- so i don't have total confidence that the other side, the AC wires, are properly marked...
The brown wire is marked AC1 on the PCB, while the blue is marked AC2: does anyone know whether these by convention correspond to neutral and line?
If the input AC to the output DC is isolated (hope it is for shock sake), it probably does not matter much which lead is the neutral, that only matters if they also have a third ground lead, which can sometimes be internally connected to the neutral.
Xalu was kind enough to build me a grid charger, with the power supply suggested I this thread, along with a Volt meter powered by a 9V battery.
I finally installed it and balanced my battery.
Back ground info:
My battery was replaced last year under warranty. It is still in good condition. I got the BCM upgrade, because I would rather protect my battery, than us a little more gas.
I usually drive with the least assist as possible. So consequently, the charge indicator is usually 3/4 to fully charged most of the time.
Anyways this is my charge cycle:
I drove the car in higher gears than normal, using the calpod switch, I ran the battery down to 2 bars.
A couple of days later I installed the charger.
Began charging the next day, at 5 am. The voltage was 162.4V
Roughly every hour I checked it was increasing and by 9am it was at 174V. I just stopped looking after 9.
At 3pm it was down to 171V, at which point I had to unplug it because I was leaving home. (Used the Prius)
Came home at 8:00pm and plugged it in again, it still showed 171V?
I unplugged it and disconnected the charger at 10pm, the final voltage was at 170V.
I drove it today for a short errand, the charge indicator was at zero bars for a while, I thought it did not work, but shortly after 1-2 miles the bars went to all full.
Honestly it feels the same, but I fell as though I'm wasting kinetic energy, because when I tap on the brake to regen and nothing happens.
I didn't get to run the battery down.
Well that's my experience. I just wanted to share, and say Thanks to Xalu for building the charger.
Last edited by jerrydelrey; 12-28-2012 at 04:31 PM.
Reason: Clarification added "(Used the Prius)"
Hi all, I just finished my grid charger today, works great so far! See picture below showing readings soon after I plugged it in. The Voltage is on the left meter and current on the right (in mA). After about 5 hours the voltage is now at 168V
Cool. FYI, to anyone else who makes one, I don't think you need a fan for the charger. I made one in a pretty tiny box, no vents, no fan, and it gets a bit warm to the touch, that's all, even after 14 hours. Also, I made no connection to the HV battery fan - no extra 12 volt power supply. It's not absolutely necessary, in my opinion, definitely not necessary if you have an OBDIIC&C gauge and can control the fan from there and do light monitoring... I haven't verified yet, but I think the fan will turn on automatically if you leave the key on when you charge and the pack goes over 100 F. I saw 93 degrees last night after 10 hours, pack started at 71F, after a negative recal, and ambient was about 40F...
[LATER]:
Alas, unfortunately the fan does NOT turn on automatically at 100F. I just grid charged my pack to 105F - the fan was not on. Another thing that occurred to me is that the pack temp might be say 100 F, but one or more cells could, or likely would, be hotter. So, OBDIIC&C users could get away with not having an extra 12 volt power supply to power the fan, but others - others could get away with it probably only with cool ambient temps and shorter grid charging cycles, yet there's no good way to tell for sure how much shorter, since there's no good way to tell for certain the state of charge you're starting from, not having an OBDIIC&C...
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