The Cycle Satiator, universal charger for the enthusiasts

Ykick said:
justin_le said:
With a bit of rework we've been able to get a majority to pass this so that we can be confident that they'll live up to a watertight IP rating. However, there have been a few that no matter what seem to have a persistent small leakage. So if there are high voltage satiator beta testers who don't really need a certified watertight enclosure, then rather than attempt to fully rework these we could offer them at a discount instead. I mean they'll still be totally splash proof etc. but if you use the charger regularly out in the rain then there's a good chance of them drawing moisture inside.
Oh damn, so Christmas poor right now!

Well, hopefully post-Christmas you'll be feeling a little more flush? :D It turns out that we're having upwards of 25% or so of units that won't be fully watertight unless we do a full sealant application so it will mean a decent number of discounted units in the near future. To make it easier to order one of these I've added a check-box selector that you can choose which will dock $40 off if you want to get one of these discounted devices.
Leakage Discount.jpg
http://www.ebikes.ca/shop/experimental/satiator7205.html



************************* Multi-Version V1.012 Software ***********************
And next, for those who have ordered either a 24V or 72V Satiator in this first release, the compatible user software is now available to try from these links:
http://www.ebikes.ca/downloads/Satiator_Suite_Windows_v1.012.exe
http://www.ebikes.ca/downloads/Satiator_Suite_Linux_v1.012.tar.gz

This software should automatically recognize whether you have a 24V, 48V, or 72V Satiator once you hit the "connect" button:
Satiator Model Dropdown.jpg
The max voltage and current limits for each profile should then adjust accordingly to the device that's plugged in, and if you happen to have profiles loaded in the software that aren't compatible with your hardware model then you'll be alerted to this fact and those profiles will be removed from the list.
Satiator Model Incompatibility.jpg

Otherwise the suite should all be very familiar and behave hopefully as you would want it to with the addition of multi-model support. So please install it and let us know how it goes!
 
Ykick said:
Missus will be giving me stink-eye for a while but I really do want/need one of these… How best to inquire about one of those “discounted” non-watertight Satiators?
Kick, when I go back and see what you old timers and leaders here had to deal with with multiple batteries, and then look at my reality with the Satiator I almost feel guilty, being so spoiled, like I never paid my dues. Thanks to the Satiator. Good kit, besides the stink eye gets easier. 43 years, Ihaven't turned into a toad yet. Well, not quite.
 
edit:
just found the charge simulator. (took my browser 1 minute to display it)
everything´s clear now.
 
I just got my "72v" satiator !!
103v top voltage, 12v low voltage... the swiss army of ebike chargers.. and the power plug is on the back! i'm stoked!

Too cold out to ride though & test it out, darnit!
 
neptronix said:
I just got my "72v" satiator !!
103v top voltage, 12v low voltage... the swiss army of ebike chargers.. and the power plug is on the back! i'm stoked!

Too cold out to ride though & test it out, darnit!
So, you charged 12v Lead acid battery and it worked fine, did I understood right?
 
parabellum said:
neptronix said:
I just got my "72v" satiator !!
103v top voltage, 12v low voltage... the swiss army of ebike chargers.. and the power plug is on the back! i'm stoked!

Too cold out to ride though & test it out, darnit!
So, you charged 12v Lead acid battery and it worked fine, did I understood right?

I think the problem would be efficiency.
 
parabellum said:
So, you charged 12v Lead acid battery and it worked fine, did I understood right?

Word of warning about anyone planning to use the higher voltage Satiator with low voltage packs is that the onset of the "burp mode" in the output is proportionally at that much higher of a voltage. So for instance I showed what the standard Satiator output current looks like with 10V and 3A on the output here
https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=60169&p=911571#p911571
file.php


With the 72V satiator, we'd expect to see that same kind of output even around 20V. I'm going to arrange for us to do a full X-Y graph showing the output region where the 72V Satiator is in burp vs. continuous mode so people can better understand this. We allowed the initial firmware in the 72V model to still program profiles with low 12V outputs rather than clamping this within the more intended voltage range of 48-84V packs, but in the slight chance that there is harm in running things burp mode all the time we may raise this again.

Anyways we also just published a short video which summarizes the intended charge voltage ranges for the different models starting at 3:04 here:
[youtube]2uGD2y3Km1M[/youtube]

neptronix said:
I just got my "72v" satiator !!
103v top voltage, 12v low voltage... the swiss army of ebike chargers.. and the power plug is on the back! i'm stoked!
Too cold out to ride though & test it out, darnit!

Also, if anyone who got their 72V satiator and has tested out the V1.012 software suite to interface with both that and the standard 48V models we'd like to here if everything is behaving smoothly or if you've had glitches:
justin_le said:
************************* Multi-Version V1.012 Software ***********************
And next, for those who have ordered either a 24V or 72V Satiator in this first release, the compatible user software is now available to try from these links:
http://www.ebikes.ca/downloads/Satiator_Suite_Windows_v1.012.exe
http://www.ebikes.ca/downloads/Satiator_Suite_Linux_v1.012.tar.gz
 
This is all very helpful. I would appreciate the X-Y graph for the 72v version as I am curious if an 11s 20ah LifePo4 battery would put the satiator into burp mode for too long and risk damage... That is the lowest voltage battery I would think about using with it. It will primarily be used for higher voltage packs, though.

Also, any plans to add a loop to the case so we can lock it to the bike or wall with some (minimal) level of protection from being stolen?
 
The 72V version sounds super exciting, from the vid looks small so could be perfect as an onboard charger from my electric scooter! :D

I really like the adjustable voltage, man so awesome! That said I can still use my current charger as it's 12A so good for faster charging.
 
ecycler said:
This is all very helpful. I would appreciate the X-Y graph for the 72v version as I am curious if an 11s 20ah LifePo4 battery would put the satiator into burp mode

Yeah it looks like we should have this finished by the end of this weekend. From when we tested the standard voltage device last year there was quite a dependency on the current levels too, so at really low amperages it could enter burp mode even at not unreasonable voltages (like 30V), but when operating at the full max charge current you could go to quite low voltage outputs and still have it run in continuous mode. But we never fully mapped it out as an X-Y plot of current on one axis and voltage on the other, with a line separating the continuous vs. burp regions.

Also, any plans to add a loop to the case so we can lock it to the bike or wall with some (minimal) level of protection from being stolen?

Hmm, we hadn't thought of that at all and you're the first to bring it up as a concern. There's room to drill a reasonably sized hole on the flange just under the gore vent side:


Or if you screw it to your frame using the existing mounting slots but use a security head driver bit so that most people wouldn't have the hardware to undo it. It's a little late for us to make any changes to the casting at this stage.
 
justin_le said:
ecycler said:
This is all very helpful. I would appreciate the X-Y graph for the 72v version as I am curious if an 11s 20ah LifePo4 battery would put the satiator into burp mode

Yeah it looks like we should have this finished by the end of this weekend.

And here it is. We ran the satiator at constant voltage outputs in a number of steps from 10V up to 100V, and then used a variable current programmable load to find the threshold current at which the stage transitioned from continuous current to pulsed currents.
72V Satiator Burp Mode Mapping.jpg

You can see that anytime you use it with a battery in the suggested nominal range of 48V-84V, for which we recommend this model, then regardless of the current output of the Satiator it stays in continuous mode. But with lower voltage batteries then towards the end of charge it will enter the burp mode as the current winds down in the CV phase. In the case of the 11s LiFePO4 pack ecycler, that would have a full charge voltage of ~39V, and you can see from the graph that this crosses at exactly 2.0 amps. So when the current is above 2 amps the output is perfectly smooth, below 2 amps it would be delivered in rapid pulses. I was surprised to see though that even at much much lower voltages, like 12V, so long as the current was over 2.6 amps then the Satiator was in continuous mode. That means if you charge say a 12V or 24V battery with the 72V charger at the full 5A rate, you'll only see this burping behavior right at the end of charge during the CV taper portion, and never during the bulk phase.


The next question is whether or not there is any issue operating in the burp mode regime? If you were trying to use the Satiator as a substitute for a power supply driving some sensitive load then this would be no good. But charging a battery pack it should for the most part be pretty inconsequential, and we'd be interested to hear more from people's firsthand experiences in that zone.
 
that means if you charge say a 12V or 24V battery with the 72V charger at the full 5A rate, you'll only see this burping behavior right at the end of charge during the CV taper portion, and never during the bulk phase.


The next question is whether or not there is any issue operating in the burp mode regime? If you were trying to use the Satiator as a substitute for a power supply driving some sensitive load then this would be no good. But charging a battery pack it should for the most part be pretty inconsequential, and we'd be interested to hear more from people's firsthand experiences in that zone.

That is good to know, my thoughts were that perhaps it was going to "burp" at the beginning not end.
So using the Satiator as a PSU to power rc balance chargers is ok?

What do you mean by sensitive load? What comes to my mind is some sort of computer, or adruino/rasberry pi or something that needs low voltage above 2A that can not waiver. Im just thinking maybe an rc balance charger needs a steady current, they can easily push more then 2 or 3A at 12V, using your 72V Satiator model.
 
I would suggest that anytime there is a potential of this burping behavior the Satiator is unsuitable for power supply use. Certainly an RC charger would qualify as a sensitive load, anything electronic would likely be very unhappy about essentially the supply turning on/off rapidly. It is probably fine for battery charging as long as the average current is as expected. So in the case graphed above 55V and up for power supply use with electronics loads only. Below 55V can be used for battery charging and perhaps resistive loads, but nothing with circuitry that might be damaged by repeated rapid start/stop cycles.
 
Thank you, Justin. Excited to get my hands on one of these test out.
 
justin_le said:
You can see that anytime you use it with a battery in the suggested nominal range of 48V-84V, for which we recommend this model, then regardless of the current output of the Satiator it stays in continuous mode. But with lower voltage batteries then towards the end of charge it will enter the burp mode as the current winds down in the CV phase. In the case of the 11s LiFePO4 pack ecycler, that would have a full charge voltage of ~39V, and you can see from the graph that this crosses at exactly 2.0 amps. So when the current is above 2 amps the output is perfectly smooth, below 2 amps it would be delivered in rapid pulses. I was surprised to see though that even at much much lower voltages, like 12V, so long as the current was over 2.6 amps then the Satiator was in continuous mode. That means if you charge say a 12V or 24V battery with the 72V charger at the full 5A rate, you'll only see this burping behavior right at the end of charge during the CV taper portion, and never during the bulk phase.

Interesting. Could you do this test on the regular (36-48V - 60V max) model as well?
 
bjornb said:
Interesting. Could you do this test on the regular (36-48V - 60V max) model as well?

Yes, I'll see that we do that too. In theory it should be very much like the graph on the 72V model only with the 'X' axis going from 0-60V, and the 'Y' axis from 0-8A, but we will confirm this.

Alan B said:
I would suggest that anytime there is a potential of this burping behavior the Satiator is unsuitable for power supply use. Certainly an RC charger would qualify as a sensitive load, anything electronic would likely be very unhappy about essentially the supply turning on/off rapidly.

Actually, the capacitance on the Satiator's output means that the voltage would not be going on/off etc, it's the output current that has that burp waveform (at 5-20 Hz) but the voltage itself is smoothed fairly well form the bus capacitance and would just exhibit a sawtooth pattern. This will be worth us capturing with an oscilloscope to illustrate.
 
justin_le said:
bjornb said:
...

Alan B said:
I would suggest that anytime there is a potential of this burping behavior the Satiator is unsuitable for power supply use. Certainly an RC charger would qualify as a sensitive load, anything electronic would likely be very unhappy about essentially the supply turning on/off rapidly.

Actually, the capacitance on the Satiator's output means that the voltage would not be going on/off etc, it's the output current that has that burp waveform (at 5-20 Hz) but the voltage itself is smoothed fairly well form the bus capacitance and would just exhibit a sawtooth pattern. This will be worth us capturing with an oscilloscope to illustrate.

Excellent point. Not nearly as harmful, should be fine for electronics, but it will likely generate more EMI than normal.
 
bbq870 said:
so the 72V model won't go higher than 5A?

That is indeed the correct way to interpret "5 Amps max", "Max Charge Current: 5A" and every other perturbation of these words that I've used!
 
Hey everyone, we've released the V1.013 firmware now which will work equally well on all models, whether you have the 24V, 48V, or 72V device. So if you click the "get latest firmware" form inside your Satiator Software Suite it should pull this update automatically.
V1013 Firmware.jpg

In addition to automatically detecting which hardware it's installed on, this fixes one occasional bug that popped up a few times which could make it seem as though the Satiator could no longer remember/store any profiles. This turned out to be from a certain edge case where the amount of space used up by all your profiles and stats exactly fit within a particular memory boundary, and has been corrected in the 1.013 firmware. So if you are running the V1.008 or V1.012 and happen to have this occur (it's like all the profiles disappeared), then simply load on the V1.013 firmware and all the previous profiles which appeared to have vanished will show up again, with all their stats in tact.
 
I had these 'loss of profiles' with FW v1.007. Didn't occur on v1.008, yet.

The new Satiator Software Suite v1.013 doesn't run on my MacBook Pro 13" (2009) and OS-X 10.8.5 (all updates) :(
It just doesn't start. Either with the FW v1.0013 in the 'Satiator Software Suite Files' folder of the app or without.

Any way to use Satiator Software Suite v1.008 with the FW v1.013?

On other thought:
Could you change the naming scheme of the Satiator Software Suite app to reflect the software version? Like 'Satiator Software Suite 1.008.app' and 'Satiator Software Suite 1.013.app'? Respectivly 'Satiator Software Suite 1.008.exe' and 'Satiator Software Suite 1.013.exe'
 
Marc S. said:
I had these 'loss of profiles' with FW v1.007. Didn't occur on v1.008, yet.

The new Satiator Software Suite v1.013 doesn't run on my MacBook Pro 13" (2009) and OS-X 10.8.5 (all updates) :(
It just doesn't start. Either with the FW v1.0013 in the 'Satiator Software Suite Files' folder of the app or without.

Any way to use Satiator Software Suite v1.008 with the FW v1.013?

On other thought:
Could you change the naming scheme of the Satiator Software Suite app to reflect the software version? Like 'Satiator Software Suite 1.008.app' and 'Satiator Software Suite 1.013.app'? Respectivly 'Satiator Software Suite 1.008.exe' and 'Satiator Software Suite 1.013.exe'


software convention has the exe name unchanged... the software version should be in the file properties, and visible in the application.
 
Marc S. said:
The new Satiator Software Suite v1.013 doesn't run on my MacBook Pro 13" (2009) and OS-X 10.8.5 (all updates) :(
It just doesn't start. Either with the FW v1.0013 in the 'Satiator Software Suite Files' folder of the app or without.

OK thanks, we only actually have one mac device on hand with which to compile and test the MacOS build so we'll look into this. Can other Mac user's comment on their ability to run or not run the latest software?

Any way to use Satiator Software Suite v1.008 with the FW v1.013?

You can in principle do this, but I wouldn't recommend it since once the firmware is upgraded to 1.013 on the Satiator, then the V1.008 software will no longer be able to communicate to it for reading and writing profiles. The necessity of having the one piece of software be able to auto detect whether it's a 24V, 48V, or 72V hardware version meant that expected communication for profile reads/writes changed a little bit.
 
justin_le said:
Marc S. said:
The new Satiator Software Suite v1.013 doesn't run on my MacBook Pro 13" (2009) and OS-X 10.8.5 (all updates) :(
It just doesn't start. Either with the FW v1.0013 in the 'Satiator Software Suite Files' folder of the app or without.

OK thanks, we only actually have one mac device on hand with which to compile and test the MacOS build so we'll look into this. Can other Mac user's comment on their ability to run or not run the latest software?

I will be using the satiator software on a windows PC normally, but am happy to try the OSX version on 10.10.2 (yosemite) if it will be helpful and someone can provide me the link. I only saw windows and linux binaries above.
 
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