Elcon charge interlock feature?

Overlander23 said:

My Elcon PFC 5000 has a ... piggybacked 18g red-wire on the output cable (charge interlock)

But I think I'm missing something. The manual seems to indicate that the little 18g wire provides a 12v source (up to 2A) when the charger is off, and 0v when the charger is on. This cable would activate a contactor coil, or in my case the Soliton-1.

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Don't even think about it - the charger interlock on the Elcon outputs whatever the traction battery voltage is when not charging, and 0v when charging. It's pretty much useless, in other words, unless you just happen to have a contactor with a coil rated for your pack voltage.

A better way to implement a "universal" charger interlock feature is to use a relay with a 120VAC coil connected between line and neutral (so it will work on either 120V or 240V and then use the NC contacts to interrupt the 12V power to the controller (IGN on the Soliton1). That way, whenever the car is plugged into AC power the relay will be on so the NC contacts will be pulled open.

This isn't a foolproof setup - a purely mechanical switch that opens whenever a cord is plugged in, or even if the charging port door is open, is an even better method as it will prevent you from driving off even if there is not AC power present (e.g. - the breaker tripped).

My favorite method of charger interlock is to put a magnet on the inside of the "fuel" filler door and a reed switch inside the filler area. Then opening the filler door locks out the EV. The reed switch will need to be boosted with either a transistor circuit or relay for most applications as they cannot handle much current. (make the transistor an SCR and if you open the filler door after starting the EV it won't shut it off)

Wow, that's dumb... Thankfully I have a 120v Magnecraft relay around to do it right! Thanks for the confirmation.

Tesseract said:

Don't even think about it - the charger interlock on the Elcon outputs whatever the traction battery voltage is when not charging, and 0v when charging. It's pretty much useless, in other words, unless you just happen to have a contactor with a coil rated for your pack voltage.

Click to expand...

Hi Overlander
I know this is totally off-topic but how is your conversion doing?
I have been looking for updates when doing my Range Rover but you seem to have been occupied in somewhere else. I have got a great inspiration from your Blog, so thanks and good luck with finishing your Landie!
Harri and Rangie

I was away from the project for about half a year. I'm back finishing it up, though! So, I'm finalizing the initial charge and balance of the LiFePO4 cells, everything is pretty much fabricated. It's all down to wiring it up and waiting on a few small items.

So far everything seems to be working. Hope to have a full-spec run in a couple of weeks! Glad you like the blog! I have to update it...

glaurung said:

Hi Overlander
I know this is totally off-topic but how is your conversion doing?
I have been looking for updates when doing my Range Rover but you seem to have been occupied in somewhere else. I have got a great inspiration from your Blog, so thanks and good luck with finishing your Landie!
Harri and Rangie

Click to expand...

Tesseract said:

Don't even think about it - the charger interlock on the Elcon outputs whatever the traction battery voltage is when not charging, and 0v when charging. It's pretty much useless, in other words, unless you just happen to have a contactor with a coil rated for your pack voltage.

Click to expand...

wow, I am glad I wasn't planning to connect that 'interlock' to anything. The instructions were so bad I wasn't sure what it would do. Would have smoked my little 12v interlock relay for sure... My Zivan charger has little NC, NO switch that is ok for routing the 12v contactor relay power thru as an interlock, but this would not have been good....

so, it sounds like that interlock wire can basically just be stubbed out and taped up to protect from accidental grounding, and all will be well... right?

The point of the interlock being at the traction voltage, is so the KSI on Curtis's and other controllers can be actuated. I wired it into my Logisystem controller and it's dead simple. While charging the KSI sits at 0 and my controller won't go. While not charging it sits at the battery voltage and the controller is happy.

Bottomfeeder said:

The point of the interlock being at the traction voltage, is so the KSI on Curtis's and other controllers can be actuated. I wired it into my Logisystem controller and it's dead simple. While charging the KSI sits at 0 and my controller won't go. While not charging it sits at the battery voltage and the controller is happy.

Click to expand...

ooohhhh, I guess that makes more sense then. no interlock relay required in that case, right?

I'll have to go look at how my pot-box is wired up to the KSI, and these features can be combined, right? the main contactor 'off' won't send the pack voltage, and the charger will while charging. Just gotta be sure we get the NC and NO connections the right way around, right!

You've got it. You can use other relays on this line, if you want other vehicle states to keep you from driving (Low Voltage? Accelerometer in case of an accident?).

Did you have a typo: The charger won't send the pack voltage while charging. It sends it when it's not charging.

Bottomfeeder said:

You've got it. You can use other relays on this line, if you want other vehicle states to keep you from driving (Low Voltage? Accelerometer in case of an accident?).

Did you have a typo: The charger won't send the pack voltage while charging. It sends it when it's not charging.

Click to expand...

right....
so the pack voltage can be used for the charger interlock, and the pot-box to controller KSI.

The inertia switch I have is 12v (fuel-pump cutoff from ford products I think), so has to be in-line with the main contacter 12v coil.

re-visiting this thread since I am finally re-wiring my Elcon in the upgrade.... if I understand correctly, I can use the Elcon interlock output to my Curtis PB-6 which then runs to the controller KSI interlock. No relay required since the pot box expects pack voltage coming in thru the KSI microswitch.

charger
1. pos + to pack
2. neg - to pack
3. interlock wire -> pb-6 pack + in

PB-6 KSI out to Curtis controller KSI
...and this should tell controller not to 'go' while charger is charging.

right?