Gaozhao Charger Investigated (non-OEM from China)

I'm curios by nature so I want to find out more about this charger that came with my battery. I'm not an electronic engineer so if you also are curios, feel free to join 8)

I bought a battery from China (ebay) and the deal included a charger:
Gaozhao for 48V LiFePO4 5A.
Most text on the charger is in Chinese, and there was of course no manual included.
There are to LED in front, I asked the seller what they indicated:
The Right LED is for Power to the charger on/off = red/nothing
The Left LED is for charging/charging ended = yellow/green
Not hard to figure out, but anyway nice to now for sure.

Reading on the back of the charger it says:
PWY4805 (appears to be the model number = Power+something+48V+5A)
AC 220V 50/60HZ
DC 60V-5A

It also has an CE marking but it is not the Community of Europe approval mark, it is of course the China Export mark.

The 220V plug is the worst and most dangerous plug I have ever seen, and MUST be replaced before use. The male plug on the battery is also dangerous, if you are wearing a gold or silver ring on your finger and by accident touch the plug, your finger ring will become a toaster. So now we know what CE (China Export) stands for. I have changed all plugs on the charger, those for the battery is now Andersons.

It is delivering approx. 300W to the battery, so at approx. 60V and 5A it seems to match.

It is noisy, and the fan inside is a normal 12V fan found in any desktop PC, so I'm going to change it for another more silent model, inside or outside.

There is a fuse next to the cable going to the battery, that's good (soldered - not good), but I can't read how many Ampere it's good for. Can it be measured?

There also appears to be a "pot" screw, maybe it's for the output voltage, anybody has a suggestions?

Link to the ebay.com seller:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/48v-30ah-Li...ronics_Batteries_Chargers&hash=item1e7f494680

/Philip

EDIT: Left/Right LED was switched

EDIT: Appears to be identical with these plastic-shell chargers: Gaozao, Vpower, VeiBao

I also have one of those but i'm pretty happy with it, the connector to the battery is C15 :



Which i find pretty safe, since there no way to touch the contacts unluess you stuck something in there. Also, i burned out that fuse once because when the battery came i was a noob and made the connetions inverse, lucky i had a common fuse to put in its place, seems to be same as any fuse, just soldered intead of plugged, and it was smple to solder the common fuse in the place. Its probably a 10A fuse. The connector to the outlet needed to be changed, its, in fact, not safe, and its not compatible with Brazil standard, also i need a bigger wire since i only have one 220v outlet in my house, so i changed it to a different plus with longer wire. The noise doesnt bothers me since it stays outside of the house.

If you plan to change the cooler, don't get a slow cooler, it gets a little bit warm while charging on 5A.

A thing i wanted to know if its possible to easily convert this charger to 120v AC, so i could easily plug it in any of the outlets in my house.

mateusleo said:

I also have one of those but I'm pretty happy with it, the connector to the battery is C15

Click to expand...

Agree that the female plug on the charger is safe, it's the male counterpart on the battery I was nervous about.

I will change the fan to a larger diameter model, that runs slower. Cooling effect will be the same.

Did you see what was written on the fuse you changed?

/Philip

have you even used the charger? just started nagging about it because it is made by chinese people so it has to be hazardous?

i have no idea why you think the fan is inadequate. that is really just over the top. that is not how those chargers always fail.

dnmun said:

have you even used the charger? just started nagging about it because it is made by chinese people so it has to be hazardous?

i have no idea why you think the fan is inadequate. that is really just over the top. that is not how those chargers always fail.

Click to expand...

Take it easy! I have not said the charger is some Chinese shit, I have made some observations or take it as test, I don't care. It was cheap and that's what I got for my money.

The 220V plug IS dangerous... seen from the standards we are used to in Denmark/Norway/Sweden/Germany.

The fan is not inadequate, I have never said that, I said it is noisy....

Yes I have used it and it works well, and as I stated in the beginning: I am curios.

Do you have something to contribute with? I would be happy to now more about the small screw to the right, and I think you probably know what it could be or how to find out.

/Philip

maybe this is the first charger you ever owned. all the charger fans are noisy. except maybe the headway charger but it is on 3.3A anyway. by screw i assume you mean the trimpot labeled R15A? it most probably is used to set the final charger voltage. i think i have contributed a small amount to understanding how chargers work and how to maintain them. i even know how that one is gonna fail, but you will find out when it happens so why spoil the fun?

if you can get a battery to 240V then maybe worry about the plug but most people use better connectors anyway.

dnmun said:

maybe this is the first charger you ever owned. all the charger fans are noisy. except maybe the headway charger but it is on 3.3A anyway. by screw i assume you mean the trimpot labeled R15A? it most probably is used to set the final charger voltage. i think i have contributed a small amount to understanding how chargers work and how to maintain them. i even know how that one is gonna fail, but you will find out when it happens so why spoil the fun?

if you can get a battery to 240V then maybe worry about the plug but most people use better connectors anyway.

Click to expand...

It's my charger number something between 10 or 20, because I'm newbie in here doesn't mean it's my first everything. Or maybe it's my English?

And since the fan is a regular 12V fan found in many different appliances (that don't make so much noise) I just want to replace it with a fan with ball bearings I have in my box with spare parts, that is not so noisy, perhaps mine is just a faulty one.

About the plug in the picture above, its the plug for the wall, not the battery, so there is constant 220V on it.

Yes you have contributed a lot on this forum, that's why I hoped someone like you would contribute, so thanks for the trimpot info, I had it suspected for that function. Just sad you put a meaning in my posts that isn't there, and then try to punish me by:
"i even know how that one is gonna fail, but you will find out when it happens so why spoil the fun?"
wow!? how old are you?

/Philip

i am 68. how old are you?

didn't think you would answer that one

I'm 37, nice start we had here

I think we should use our energy one something more rewarding.

/Philip

WOW, they're getting better.
The trimpot R15 is an improvement ( voltage adjust.)
If it fails, odds are 50/50, don't panic it's very easy to fix.
Ask dnmun :lol:

Arvicola Terrestris said:

mateusleo said:

I also have one of those but I'm pretty happy with it, the connector to the battery is C15

Click to expand...

Agree that the female plug on the charger is safe, it's the male counterpart on the battery I was nervous about.

I will change the fan to a larger diameter model, that runs slower. Cooling effect will be the same.

Did you see what was written on the fuse you changed?

/Philip

Click to expand...

The counterpart on the battery is dangerous if you short circuit the poles, else, if you touch it, nothing will happen. I installed a cutout that opens with 25 or 30A (I don't remember exactly) to avoid short circuit damages.
About the fuse, I didn't pay attention on the words on it, all I did was check if the wire inside both were about same thickness, so I replaced it.




Ps: some member that can translate the Chinese text for us will eventually show up, there are a few the forum

mateusleo said:

I also have one of those but i'm pretty happy with it, the connector to the battery is C15 :

Which i find pretty safe, since there no way to touch the contacts unluess you stuck something in there. Also, i burned out that fuse once because when the battery came i was a noob and made the connetions inverse, lucky i had a common fuse to put in its place, seems to be same as any fuse, just soldered intead of plugged, and it was smple to solder the common fuse in the place. Its probably a 10A fuse. The connector to the outlet needed to be changed, its, in fact, not safe, and its not compatible with Brazil standard, also i need a bigger wire since i only have one 220v outlet in my house, so i changed it to a different plus with longer wire. The noise doesnt bothers me since it stays outside of the house.

If you plan to change the cooler, don't get a slow cooler, it gets a little bit warm while charging on 5A.

A thing i wanted to know if its possible to easily convert this charger to 120v AC, so i could easily plug it in any of the outlets in my house.

Click to expand...

I found this almost identical charger on ebay, but it has both 110V and 220V by a switch.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/110V-220V-o...67035?pt=Battery_Chargers&hash=item1c3f9756bb

/Philip

Arvicola Terrestris said:

I found this almost identical charger on ebay, but it has both 110V and 220V by a switch.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/110V-220V-o...67035?pt=Battery_Chargers&hash=item1c3f9756bb

/Philip

Click to expand...

Thanks, but the outlet isn't so far, i prefer to keep the 220 than buying new one, saves money . I'd change to 110 if it was possible to do changing something inside the charger

Is this a constant current charger? I am looking for 36V Nominal @ 5A CC, the variable voltage pot would be ideal as I am looking for 43.1V max, can the CV trickle charge be disabled? as this is not wanted

For the life of me, I'm really interested in finding out the PROPER PROCEDURE for using this charger.

1) Do I plug it to the battery FIRST, than plug it into the wall plug AC current?

2) Or do I plug the charger into the wall (AC plug) FIRST, than plug the charger output into the battery?

I would really appreciate anyone who knows the technical operation details about these chargers to let me know, I would be really grateful…

IAN.

I've always plugged my chargers into the wall first. I have been told that you want the CV stage to power up before attaching a battery.

Dumun strikes again haha.

cal3thousand said:

I've always plugged my chargers into the wall first. I have been told that you want the CV stage to power up before attaching a battery.

Click to expand...

I wonder if it is the "lower voltage" chargers that don't need to be plugged into the wall first. The reason being, I had a Currie Ezip E-750 scooter (24 volts), and the instructions on that charger said to plug it into the battery first, than into the wall.

I have one.

Used for 3-4 times now. Silent in comparisson to other chargers (BC168).

84.5V 5A output. It will charge from 20s pack from 3.75v each cell to 4.17v in about one hour or 50 minutes. 80% charge in about 20-25minutes.

I have the v3, or veibao.

weight less than a kg or less than 2lbs

i changed the connectors to non-spark type 8mm

I've been using mine (48v 5a) for about a year and a half, no problems so far.

mateusleo said:

I've been using mine (48v 5a) for about a year and a half, no problems so far.

Click to expand...

And do you plug the charger in the WALL first, or do you connect it to the BATTERY first?

imorton said:

mateusleo said:

I've been using mine (48v 5a) for about a year and a half, no problems so far.

Click to expand...

And do you plug the charger in the WALL first, or do you connect it to the BATTERY first?

Click to expand...

I bought a pre built bike with sla`s and I was instructed to plug to the wall first. So, when I upgraded to lifepo4 I kept the same habit, first I plug to the wall then I plug to the battery. When it's fully charged and balanced, I unplug of the battery first and off the wall later.

Thanks for the info. I wonder how other people use these chargers?

Do they plug wall first, or plug battery first?

mateusleo said:

I've been using mine (48v 5a) for about a year and a half, no problems so far.

Click to expand...

Used mine for 2 months going strong. I just made an order of 4 chargers, 3x20s 84v and one 87v lifepo but i will use to my 21s li pack at 4.14per cell.

I have also that charger. But my one does not have the potentiometer R15a. Can anyone make a photo from backside of print, please?
What value does have the potentiometer?
Thanks?