Meanwell Chargers?

Does anyone have any experience with these chargers? I have been putting 20 - 30 miles on my bike (daily) and it is always a time crunch to charge the battery when I am home between school and work. I saw that Meanwell makes some pretty decent looking portable chargers. After I graduate in May and quit being so broke, I want to get a Cycle Satiator, but the reality is that I can't afford it at the moment.

I have the Calibike 48V 15AH battery. I opened it up, and it's a 7S13P battery. It charges up to a maximum voltage of 54.6 V.

Specifically, I am wondering about the Meanwell GC220. It has a charging current of 4 Amps and an output voltage of 54.4 V (218 watts). Do you guys think this would be okay with my battery?? I think it'll be alright, but I was hoping to hear from someone less-noobier than myself.

Here is a page that talks about the GC220, if that helps.

http://www.peaktopeakpower.com/kb/newmeanwellpart8/

there appear to be 4 pins in the charging plug. duh?

why not fix the charger you now have?

I have often recommended the Mean Well HLG-320H-48A charger. It has Pots for adjusting both Voltage AND current, up to a maximum of 320 Watts.

Pretty reasonably priced, water-proof, and nearly indestructible. I would call it the poor man's Satiator.

http://pge.powergatellc.com/product_info.php/products_id/5150

trav said:

I have the Calibike 48V 15AH battery. I opened it up, and it's a 7S13P battery. It charges up to a maximum voltage of 54.6 V/

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7S and 48 volt ??

Hillhater said:

trav said:

I have the Calibike 48V 15AH battery. I opened it up, and it's a 7S13P battery. It charges up to a maximum voltage of 54.6 V/

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7S and 48 volt ??

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He must mean 13S 7P

dnmun said:

there appear to be 4 pins in the charging plug. duh?

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I appreciate that you took a look at the link. Thanks for pointing out the 4-pin connector, I hadn't noticed that. However, I did notice on the datasheet that there is an option to purchase a charger equipped with Anderson connectors rather than a DIN connector.

dnmun said:

why not fix the charger you now have?

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My current charger isn't broken. It works fine, I just want something that I can carry with me on the bike so that I can charge my battery at school and at work. I took my current charger with me only one time, and now it only works if it is oriented in a certain direction. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it; and if it's fixed, don't break it."

teslanv said:

I have often recommended the Mean Well HLG-320H-48A charger.

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Thanks for the recommendation! Is it pretty heavy duty? I.e. do I have to worry about internal components coming loose if I carry it with me on the bike? Also, are the pots very touchy? It could be a bummer if I accidentally bumped it and cranked up the power past 6 amps.

cal3thousand said:

He must mean 13S 7P

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That is what I meant. I was rushing to head out for work and I made a noob move. Thank you for correcting me.

pots on the HLG Mean Well's have water=proof cover caps, so once you set them , they shouldn't move.

They are IP65 rated.

I use a PSC1000 Meanwell power supply as a charger with a Watts Up meter as a charge display. It charges at 1,200 watts and cost me $300. Phenominal charger. I like it so much, I bought a second charger. I plan on wiring them in parallel (yes, it is fine to do that) for a cool 2,400 watt charger that cost me $600.

Oh, I have a 30 amp 120 volt outlet in my shop for this.

Matt

why did the charger only go to 54.4V instead of 54.6V? if you carried your current charger in a backpack it would not have as much vibration risk imo.

+1 on the Meanwell HLG chargers

I am using a HLG-320H-54A from powergatellc.com and a DC10-90V 20A Dual LED Display Digital Voltmeter Ammeter from ebay (just got back from starting my afternoon charge). They come from the factory as easily adjustable cc/cv (with waterproof covers for the trim pots) fully potted and waterproof. I don't carry it with me all the time (I keep it at work most of the time) and since SoCal is in the middle of a major drought, I cannot personally vouch for the vibration/water proofing but I know that grindz145 just used 2 HLGs on his 4000+ mile trip for his "Rain" chargers.

Pros:
Adjustable cc/cv
waterproof
vibration resistant
Meanwell quality
Cons:
$$ - $113 for 320W
heavy - weighs as much as 5Ah's of battery
heat - it has no fan so it runs ~20F over ambient temp @6A

I like it as a charger and I haven't seen anything but praise for them.

Eclectic said:

+1 on the Meanwell HLG chargers

I am using a HLG-320H-54A from powergatellc.com and a DC10-90V 20A Dual LED Display Digital Voltmeter Ammeter from ebay (just got back from starting my afternoon charge). They come from the factory as easily adjustable cc/cv (with waterproof covers for the trim pots) fully potted and waterproof. I don't carry it with me all the time (I keep it at work most of the time) and since SoCal is in the middle of a major drought, I cannot personally vouch for the vibration/water proofing but I know that grindz145 just used 2 HLGs on his 4000+ mile trip for his "Rain" chargers.

Pros:
Adjustable cc/cv
waterproof
vibration resistant
Meanwell quality
Cons:
$$ - $113 for 320W
heavy - weighs as much as 5Ah's of battery
heat - it has no fan so it runs ~20F over ambient temp @6A

I like it as a charger and I haven't seen anything but praise for them.

Click to expand...

$113 for 320W is not too bad in my book.

Satiator (the only other charger I would dare travel with) is $300 for 300W. A cheap charger from BMSBattery is going to run $150 shipped and put out ~450W (for the 600W version). And with those you have to worry about them working after a couple years. These meanwells will last.

My new 200v ev charger. 8 - 24v meanwells. The 7 320w don't current limit, they only do hiccup mode. The 200w has current limit and limits the rest.

Paid $25 each for the SP-320-24 on eBay.

I keep hearing about these chargers. They seem great. Im only familiar with icharger 3010b and thunder 1220. I have couple noob questions. I guess you would use these for bulk charging only. Do they cut off after reaching voltage you want? Is there one for 72v without hooking multiple ones together?

drew12345 said:

I keep hearing about these chargers. They seem great. Im only familiar with icharger 3010b and thunder 1220. I have couple noob questions. I guess you would use these for bulk charging only. Do they cut off after reaching voltage you want? Is there one for 72v without hooking multiple ones together?

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They don't shut off at the desired voltage, but when the battery get to the voltage that the charger puts out, the battery will stop drawing current. You have to have a model that current limits. Then it will constant current charge up to the set voltage.

There are higher voltage power supplies, but the 24 volt are so cheap, it's usually cheaper to just stack them. If you stack them, you only need one that current limits (as long as its below the output of the rest), that will keep the rest from going into hiccup mode( turning there output on and off).

You can also get the adjustable current limit mod, so you can set the current output.