Magsafe as charge port

ESK8 Electronics
61

Just thought this company had some cool magnetic charging ports and connectors.

Here’s the Mellow connector for the swappable battery.

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Hi @Maxid, thanks to sharing this awesome idea. I’m in the process to set up my Magsafe charger too, I did with the parts of a old MacBook pro that is lying around. Maybe you or someone else wants to have the small plastic frame to hold it, I have one more available for free, just shipping.

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63

I’ve also thought about doing this for my upcoming build! Nice to know it should work well, I’ll be charging at 42V 2A so I should be fine, still within the 85W rating of the Magsafe 2 connector I have. Love the stealth switch you have too, I might have to do something like that for the headlights I plan on having :wink: Awesome build!

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I am making a 14s6p battery for my longboard that’s gonna have mountain wheels and dual motor. Would the magnetic charger work for since my battery will have a nominal voltage if 52v and a mac charge of 58v?? I don’t mind using the standard plug in charger but I think that the magnetic would be sweet.

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  1. what esc are you using with 14S?
  2. No idea if it will work - it might but I have too little experience with such a high voltage to confidently say anything.
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I am using a VESC

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I would not use the Apple charger unless you know exactly what you are doing. It sounds compatible from afar… but you’ll risk junking your batteries or a big fire or both or worse. The voltage on the charger would need to be very steady too with the max not fluctuating when the line voltage fluctuates. I have no idea if apple does that in their charger or in the computer.

VESC is rated at 60V … if you use 14S on a VESC you will probably have a junked VESC shortly, and will probably get tossed-off in the process. That’s not much wiggle-room

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A VESC is not made for 14S - you sound like you didn’t do much research. Especially when dealing with such high voltages you need to know exactly what you are doing.

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I do know what I’m doing. I read everything if you don’t believe me here is the spec sheet for the VESC I use. It’s torque boards VESC. Max voltage for 14s is 58.8v full charge and nominal is 52v.

VESC BLDC ELECTRIC SKATEBOARD ESC FEATURES

Built in 5V BEC (Used to power your receiver.) Voltage: 8V to 60V (Up to 14S LiPo Voltage) Current: Up to 240A for a few seconds or 50A continous

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I understand that, but you’re dealing with a reactive load which will feed back voltage into the driver circuit. The magnetic windings in your motor will certainly pass the 60V mark and besides that, you never, ever, want to run any electronic device at 100% capacity. 50% is the gold standard

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@Maxid How is the MagSafe connector holding up over time?

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Could we run it through BMS? I know that you don’t use it but nevertheless for those who do?

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yes

10chars

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I’ve just picked up a used MagSafe charging port off eBay. Does anyone have any advice of how best to connect this to my BMS?

In terms of a reliable connection, is it easy to solder these thin wires? Should I solder directly to the bottom of the pcb? Is the little black connector a standard socket I might find at jaycar?

Thanks,

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Hey guys, I’m just researching what to get for my first build and came across this discussion page. I was just wondering if anyone has a YouTube video or anything of the connections made and if this will work on a 10s battery 42v 2a. Thanks!

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I don’t but it’s easy. if you really need a video for this type of work you might want to reconsider doing a DIY board in the first place. High voltage batteries are no joke. As I stated above somewhere the plug is rated for 4A - but the high voltage might release magic smoke from the controller chip. That does not matter however as i think you won’t be using the cable to charge your macbook from that point on :smiley:

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any advice or images on how you soldered charge wires to the port side? i purchased a macbook magsafe port, but the wires coming off the little board are tiny. Should I solder my wires directly to the bottom of the board instead?

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Remove the PCB - you only want the connector itself. There should be 4 pins - you then use like the outer two for POS and the inner two for GND - that way you can flip the plug around and it will charge either way.

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I think I’m going to add this magsafe to my board. Just curious, could i just strip the wires of the 42v 2a power supply I use and wire the positive and negative charger as shown below. Let me know if this all looks correct and if any thing needs to be tweaked :grin: Links for the items: Magsafe Port - Magsafe Cable - BMS I use - Power Brick wiring%20mag%20safe

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