You mean this thread for EV discussion?

I'd count electric scooters technically as EV's

Mehrts:

 

You mean this thread for EV discussion?

I'd count electric scooters technically as EV's

 

Yes. My bad. Old age strikes again.

There is a reason they don't allow them on most airlines. 

Wombat1:

There is a reason they don't allow them on most airlines. 

When I read this story, I thought the Fire professionals suggestion about only using power supplies that are supplied by the manufacturer of the product odd. Because often these days many devices don't seem to get supplied with any power supply. Eg iPhones or other high end mobiles. They rely on you purchasing them separately. When people have to buy them seprately, they will often buy something local or cheap or both. Surely the problem isn't the consumers.,  but the companies and NZ regulators  that make these products and chargers etc, to make sure these things being imported into NZ are up to standard? 

jonathan18:

Wombat1:

There is a reason they don't allow them on most airlines. 

What - old people?

Mehrts:

 

You mean this thread for EV discussion?

I'd count electric scooters technically as EV's

 

I mean, technically yes but they don't fit with the class of vehicles that thread is actually about.

mattwnz:

 

 but the companies and NZ regulators  that make these products and chargers etc, to make sure these things being imported into NZ are up to standard? 

 

one of the big problems is people can buy from ebay etc the cheapest junk chargers possible, so they are bypassing all the checks etc.

bigclivedotcom utube channel has pleanty of tear downs of dodgy crap.

Has it been established that a non-original charger was being used?  I believe it was just a comment from a FENZ officer to not use chargers not supplied with the scooter.

Sadly it is just a risk of owning an EScooter.

From experience of my current scooter and a previous one, the charging 'smarts' is mainly within the battery itself. The battery has a BMS for short circuit, over current, under/over voltage, etc, but the charger still needs to output the correct voltage. The light turning red/green on the charger is based on the amount of current being drawn.

The battery connection jack is always at battery voltage. So plugging in the charger, that is not powered on mains 240v yet, will suddenly charge up the capacitors inside the charger brick. It's an audible 'pop' on the connector.

Thermal wise, the scooter deck/battery doesn't heat up during charging.

Typical charging curve is like this:

Notice it slowing down as it reaches full.

In recent times, my escooter is not charging to rated voltage. Either it's because of the cold weather or more likely because of age/usage.

You can see the charging just suddenly 'stops' when it reaches capacity.

This time frame is very short, because the scooter was charged to 52v, I used it for 1km and then it cut out (cold weather as I went up a hill to get Friday night Fish & Chips..). So putting it back on charge this morning:

tweake:

 

mattwnz:

 

 but the companies and NZ regulators  that make these products and chargers etc, to make sure these things being imported into NZ are up to standard? 

 

 

one of the big problems is people can buy from ebay etc the cheapest junk chargers possible, so they are bypassing all the checks etc.

 

bigclivedotcom utube channel has pleanty of tear downs of dodgy crap.

 

Yes, I have been subscribed to him for a long time , after many LED bulb failures over the years. Some of he products imported in NZ can be pretty poor quality and fail prematurely. I personally stick to the premium brand names like Philips of LEDs. Think I have only had one Philips LED fail. 

I'm very mindful of how and when I charge my Vespa battery. When you build a 64V 24Ah battery in your garage you learn to appreciate that these things need to be treated with respect. I do use a 2nd charger that I bought from China but I was very careful to do my research and made sure I bought a quality item from a manufacturer with a good reputation and it was correctly specified for the application. 

We went to see our in-laws last weekend and the FiL is into model plane flying. We went out to a meet and I noticed that all of the guys were using fire proof bags to store and charge their LiPo batteries. Not sure if they make one big enough but I might look in to getting one for my battery.

Edit, looks like they do make them in a large size.

LiPo Storage Bag

I would love to see more scooters with built in chargers, was a selling point for the ninebot max, all I needed to supply was a 230V cloverleaf cable to charge the thing.

The weakest point of any charger is the barrel adaptor which will degrade and allow for shorts over the many insertion cycles. 

When FENZ guy said to not leave them charging for a long time, what's a long time? Is 4 or 8 or 12 or 24 hours a long time? Because on occasions I could easily leave something on charge for 12 hours or more. And an electric screwdriver in the shed might be left for a week or more. Surely, if use like that could cause an explosion, the charger or device should have a timer or current sensor or whatever.