[jbman]

Hey, folks. Has anyone had trouble working with Elcon in CA recently? After exchanging some emails, they said they could reprogram my charger for me, so I shipped it and it was signed for last Tuesday. 2-3 day turn around they said. I'm still waiting, and they told me it's not even programmed yet. Is this typical, or should I be concerned?

 

[jbman]

That would be incredible. Could you tell me a bit about that before I ask them to just send it back? This is there most recent reply today:

"We programmed and tested your charger but it didn't work because the internal hardware is different than what is stated on the outside.

We will have to figure out what the actual hardware is and then reprogram it. It should take a couple of days."

Sounds like stalling to me, but whatever.

 

[jbman]

The voltages and current rating are determined by the hardware so it is possible to put in a program that won’t run.

As far as doing it yourself you would need some hardware and skills such as soldering and using Arduino software.

I believe everything you need to know is already on this forum under Elcon firmware facts.


https://www.diyelectriccar.com/forums/showthread.php?t=134225&highlight=Elcon+firmware

I read through some of that thread earlier, and I decided that I didn't have time to dig in to fully understand all of it right now. The car has been down for two months due to a charger issue, and with work and school full time, it will be down for at least another two before I have time to really dig in. In the interest of getting the car back on the road, I purchased a 1 year old Elcon 2500 PFC charger from eBay with the understanding that I could send it to them to be reprogrammed.

This was labelled as the 144v model, and was configured for charging lead acid batteries. I believe the highest algorithm was for 206.6v, and the bottom was 73.8v. All of that was on the label. I asked for 96v, 100v, 144v, 196v, and 200v algorithms, all of which were within the bounds of what was already on the charger. That's why I'm kind of confused about them having trouble with the hardware...

That all being said, I'm going through the thread here and there in case they try to drag it out.

 

[jbman]

Yes, the voltage range is determined by the parts inside such as the transformer. It’s usually written on the transformers with paint. Someone could have gotten the cover mixed up with another charger if they had more than one. I would ask the person that sold it to you. I have never interfaced with Elcon before but I heard they were kind of short with their communication.



What was wrong with your old charger? We could possible fix it. We have fixed quite a few. The programming seems daunting but it is not that hard. You need to build a little driver board and connect to an arduino and then load the arduino code from a computer. Them plug into the charger and download the code into the charger.

The old charger is a 3.3kw TC charger. It’s set up for CAN, but it doesn’t work properly. Randomly shuts off, loses communication, etc. TC has not been helpful thus far, and I started to dig into the charger but that’s in another thread.

As far as the Elcon charger, they just told me they finished yesterday and that it’s shipping today. Good enough.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[jbman]

That is the same thing as an Elcon. Both manufactured by the same company. The can be reprogrammed to use enable instead of can or vise-versa

This is the new style of charger, and it has full CAN control. I can set voltage and amperage directly from my BMS. It's not just on/off like the old ones. I have already been down the road of trying to get them to repair/reprogram this charger, and they won't touch it with a 10 foot pole, probably because it's potted imo. The only option they gave me was to buy another one at cost as a replacement. That's their "warranty".

 

[jbman]

The old ones can be CAN control as well. It's just a software load and they work the same way. You command it voltage and current. The on/off models are like your current one and don't have the CAN interface.

I've not played with a new one but I imagine they aren't too different.

I wasn't aware that could be done without a module to interface with the charger. That's neat. You can look at the other thread, where I posted a few pictures of the innards so far.