Scooterman wrote:Ooh they’re cheap Shirley
I’m sure there’s room under scooter’s bodywork to mount one of them, I shall have a measure this week. But if not, at that size and weight they a lot more portable than the zxd2400?
It would only be for recharging away from home. For everyday charging I will continue to use the zxd2400
Basically there are two methods of changing AC voltages to different DC voltages.... Transformers and 'switching supplies'
The oldest method is the simple transformer with two coils of wire where the ratio of the coil windings determined the input and output AC voltages, feeding through one or more diodes or a bridge rectifier which produced a 'ripply' DC, that you then smoothed by use of caps and / or coils, and possibly a voltage regulator.... This worked, but was very inefficient and needed big bulky equipment.... The basic problem is that a lot of the time you were either getting to much voltage or not enough, but the input coil was always 'on'....
The modern method is to use what is called a 'switcher' supply that turns the power from the input side on and off several thousand times a second in order to give an 'output' of the desired voltage - at each 'switch cycle' the supply turns on if the voltage is lower than the target and off if it's higher - (this is a gross oversimplification but that's the basic concept) They are MUCH more complex from the electronics circuit design standpoint, but are hugely more efficient, along with being smaller and lighter....
It is a big enough difference that it is almost impossible to find anyone still making pure transformer type supplies - they are just to expensive (copper costs...) as well as bulky and heavy. The power companies also really want you to use switcher supplies - a 'good' transformer supply might be 25% efficient, while a switcher is typically over 80% and good ones over 90% efficient....
The supplies that Shirley just posted about are switchers, judging from the pictures, intended as 'rack-mount' in electronics cabinets (this was also what the ZDX supply started out as)
However I would NOT recommend trying to mount one as an 'on board' charger.... As noted in the ZDX documentation, there are a lot of relatively heavy components in these supplies, most noticeably the several transformers you can see in the photos... Unless extreme measures are taken (typically 'potting' everything in place) these will bounce under rough treatment and cause failed solder connections and / or broken boards....
I would only consider mounting a supply that was specifically marketed as intended for vehicle or other rough service mounting and use.... Typically those tend to be lower output, but if all you need is an emergency 'get home' boost......
ex-Gooserider