PINNED ZXD2400 Old + New 0-60V 0-50A Power Supply & Charger

[shirley_hkg]

No. You can't, because of resistance of wires.

[Burgerman]

Resistance of wires becomes less and less important as current falls away. At the point where the current is lowest when charged, a the end of CV stage then, it plays almost no importance at all.

It wont make any difference at CC as voltage is not yet reached.
It may mean a slightly LOWER voltage at the start of CV stage where the current is still high. But thats a good thing. But its barely measurable.
And the final voltage, at end of CV where current is low then voltage is the same as power supply (because low current) and thick wires. Ohms law!

You see that 0.01V extra at anything below 10V in my photos on the previous page? Thats MORE than the correction needed... Already!

So 4 wires really isnt needed. Even with relatively thin charge wires it still isnt. But if using say 12 swg silicone to cope with 50A then its really irrelivant! Unless 5 or 10 meters long.

[shirley_hkg]

I can go away with those settings, and it won't go over 3.4v

In 2-wires mode, you may get 5A only. You need to apply more than 5V to obtain a 50A current. Then you are required to watch it out not going over 3.6v on the battery terminals.

[Burgerman]

No. It will go to 3.4V CV and stay there!

If thats whats set. On 1 cell. At 50A.

I have not tested this but why not? Are you saying it wont let you set 3.4V or 3.6V and 50A?

[Burgerman]

This part baffles me.

In 2-wires mode, you may get 5A only. You need to apply more than 5V to obtain a 50A current.

See here:

Its set to 2.50V. And set to 12A. I could presumably set this to 50? Why not? If its just cable resistance your wires or connections are way too small! Andersons, 10 guage pvc for 40A or more. Or you will melt something.

So below it would charge at 12A and then reduce that as it reaches CV to about 0.01A or 0.00A when it reaches 2.50V. It will not exceed 2.50V at any time. 2 wires.

[ex-Gooserider]

Looking at the photo, to me that black area might be a bit of shadow from the big cap on the left... If it isn't, then I see a rather rough looking component above the fuses between the caps and another (or possibly just a pad) right next to them...

However I agree, replace the fuses (I'd put in holders to make them easier to replace next time) and see what happens after that...

ex-Gooserider

[snaker]

@shirley_hkg: I see this ZTE power supply is being sold in VN, on commercial sites. Is it the same as yours?

[Burgerman]

Yes. Thats the starting point.
Except they add a custom setup:
Larger screen, XT90 front connector, banana test connections on front, Anderson + battery volage sense connectors rear of case, and fancy alloy casing.

Same basic unit. If you dont need all the extras that will work too.

[shirley_hkg]

@shirley_hkg: I see this ZTE power supply is being sold in VN, on commercial sites. Is it the same as yours?

It depends. There are copycats.
Look for this logo. He is the original designer of this modification kits.

It is still undergoing debug and additional features. You will have update from him, as psu is BT connected.

[ex-Gooserider]

@shirley_hkg: I see this ZTE power supply is being sold in VN, on commercial sites. Is it the same as yours?

It depends. There are copycats.
Look for this logo. He is the original designer of this modification kits.

It is still undergoing debug and additional features. You will have update from him, as psu is BT connected.

How will those of us that have the ZXD know when there are updates? Will you be telling us? How can we get them?

ex-Gooserider

[shirley_hkg]

Picture shows the latest firmwares,

or you have the W / Ah / Wh display options already.

It is done via WeChet(Chinese Whatsapp). Enable BT and Location of you phone.


https://youtu.be/XvLakOQdbTI?si=KG_LKvFky7Vzb5WW

[emilevirus]

Do you leave your ZXD plugged in all the time in "sleep" mode or do you unplug it? I think it'd be useful if it had a physical switch.

[shirley_hkg]

Stock case and new V2 aluminum case are compact and leave no room for that.

Idle consumption is 2w.

[emilevirus]

Is there a fuse inside in case something goes wrong?

[shirley_hkg]

Yes. It is a telecom equipment by top manufacture in China, ZhongXing Telecommunication Equipment Corporation (ZTE) / Huawei .

With ridiculous MTTF rate of 100,000 hours.

[snaker]

Does ZXD2400 support soft start current? I mean the charge current is gradually increased from a small value e.g 1A to the max value in a specific time e.g 60 seconds. It does not suddenly jump to the max value at initial.

[shirley_hkg]

No. It doesn't have soft start.

[Burgerman]

According to my fluke that samples and graphs data at 100k per second it does ramp up slowly. It all depends on your perspective! It depends on your definition of "suddenly jumps up". It ramps up REALLY slowly if you are an electron going at light speed! Electricity is fast. Its all a matter of perspective.

60 seconds? No. A fraction of a second it already does this.
What is it for? I mean what do you want that 60 seconds for?

You dont need to watch it ramp up. You can SET a maximum current limit in the menu of say 12A as I have below if you want to be safe charging via an XLR cable for e.g. It then cannot ever exceed this.
Likewise you could set a max or min Voltage to say 28.2 or whatever as well. So carers or yourself cannot set it incorrectly and damage anything. And it can be pass-worded.

See screenshot. Set to 12A limit for safe XLR charging here.

[Burgerman]

1000,000 hours MTBF means 4,160 days charging 24 hours a day.
Or 12,480 days with 8 hour charges. Or 34.2 years... And thats charging every day and we dont! Those things are built for rack mounting and decades of 24/7 use.

[emilevirus]

1000,000 hours MTBF means 4,160 days charging 24 hours a day.
Or 12,480 days with 8 hour charges. Or 34.2 years... And thats charging every day and we dont! Those things are built for rack mounting and decades of 24/7 use.

But will it really last that long tho? We don't use it 24/7 and always unplug/plug it in. I think it's much harder for the electronics than running 24/7. I've seen a lot of old computer PSUs blow up upon plugging them in. Granted old PSUs were probably using low quality caps.

[Burgerman]

Who knows. But something rated for crazy rack mount industrial telecoms standards is 100 times better than cheap PC power supplies.
Did you look inside one?
I used a couple for years daily without issue. And now 2 of the newer models.

[ex-Gooserider]

When I got my first unit they did have some suggestions that it was best to avoid banging the unit around and possibly avoid 'transporting' it excessively... It is worth noting that rack mounting is stationary in Telco use, and when Telco stuff is shipped there are specifications for the required shock absorbing packages it is shipped in. (I once worked for a company that made Telco gear and was involved in some of it's compliance testing...)

I did the installation of the fancy case kit and electronic modification kit that started with the Telco unit (which is a fixed nominal 48VDC supply) and turned it into the early version of the ZXD we love, so I have seen the insides of the unit.

It is VERY impressively and solidly built piece of hardware, but it is built on a PC board, and has a lot of large and heavy components attached to it. The heat sinks that are the biggest and heaviest items are solidly bolted to the board and the outer case, but there are several large coils and caps that aren't. They are well soldered and have some potting compound gluing them down, but are still primarily held on by the solder joints to the PC board.

This means that the ZXD is going to be subject to the same sort of failure that is common on any PC-board based product that gets bumped around a lot and isn't fully potted, namely heavy parts fracturing their solder joints and / or ripping the traces off the PC board often resulting in a intermittent failure....

FWIW, I also recall posts from Shirley quite a while ago to the effect that the push / turn knob is somewhat fragile and very likely to break if hit the wrong way (like dropping the unit on it...) AND is not a readily replaceable item. I don't know if this has changed or not.

So my expectation (which impacts my uses for my ZXD's) is that they are great as seldom moved bench supplies, but I don't use them as 'carry-around' units...

In my portable setup, I feed my PL8 with a simple fixed voltage 'shoebox' type supply, which is less expensive, as well as being smaller and lighter...

ex-Gooserider

[Burgerman]

True Thats why I have 2 of them. Just in case!

They are too heavy as portable usings anyway. I have one on my bench for running hobby chargers and testing, etc. As a bench supply for many things.

And another sat on the chair next to my bed currently charging 2 of the 230Ah cells. And also charging my lead chair in a few mins...