Magsafe as charge port

How is the current and voltage rating on this connector ? I mean, its not that nice if it burns the place down :slight_smile: due to overheated connectors

You canā€™t use it for 8-10 Amps - what kind of charger delivers that at 40V anyway?

2A should be fine since you can split it into using two pins (so 1A each). The Apple charger delivers 4A at 20V to fulfill the 80W rating - so the connector must be able to handle at least that.

1 Like

This seems like the pogopin used inside the magsafeā€¦ its only rated at max 1A :-/

And you have two (total of 4) you can use. Also since the Apple charger is 80W at ~20V it must be able to handle 4A.

Exactly :slight_smile: this will be interresting :slight_smile:

You could also just make your own , with a little more spacing between polesā€¦ like 10mm in groups of twoā€¦ then you dont need to think of water shorting the poles :slight_smile:

Well, in theory, yes, but for science. I have got an 8Amp 10s charger and even a 20Amp 12S charger for large packs.

Also, I want to see if it is sparky at higher Voltages.

You could add a switch before the connector ? no sparks after contact

I am not going to ride this in the rain. Sure you could make your own magnetic connector - but that is a lot of work and seems unnecessarily complex when you can use already existing parts. No reason to reinvent the wheel.

@flatsp0t could you link me to such a charger? I have never actually seen one. At 40V you should not see a spark since there are no capacitors between the charger and the battery. So I think it should be fine. It is not like when you connect the VESC to the battery and the capacitors charge themselves.

1 Like

I guess this only works if you have a bms :frowning: damn balancing wires

no - I am not going to use a BMS. With quality cells balancing is unnecessary and can be done occasionally (like once a year or something). Look at @whiteponyā€™s builds!

So in reality all I need to charge my zippys is the power wires and just occasionally power the cover off and balance them?

Zippyā€™s are not quality cells. Lipos in general are a different story. I am going to use 18650 cells.

There should be a spark aswell thereā€¦ since a battery is also a capacitorā€¦ but the ISR is higher in them compared to capacitorsā€¦ so you may be right about the sparks :slight_smile:

One From SuPower: http://www.batterysupports.com/43v-44v-504v-20a-lithium-ion-lipo-battery-charger-12s-12x-36v-p-442.html

They are only usable fo large e-bike or 8p MTB Packs.

I think mellow is using something like this! For waterproof charging

Ok first heads up:

30V can be delivered (the max of my lab power supply) but the connector gets quite warm (I guess the controller chip is not designed for this type of voltage). Will see how it looks with 41V when my DROK charger is ready. Thickness of the female part (without the unnecessary PCB) is 7mm - so really nice for thin boards as all other plugs usually require much more space. The pins are even angled at 90Ā° already :heart_eyes:

5 Likes

Weā€™ll see if that actually works tomorrow

5 Likes

that is gorgeous! I too am worried about over-amping those small wires and pcbā€¦ keep an eye on it, but so good looking!!!

1 Like

They are officially used for up to 4A (Apple 85W charger) - so nothing to worry about.

1 Like

Iā€™m not a big fan of hubs, but damn that is so stealth. I live it. Awesome work.

1 Like