Charge and fly - Level 2 EV charging?

Where I live (and fly) there are a level 2 EV charge stations available. One is right at a park I fly from and there’s even a DC Fast charger at that location as well.
Is it feasible to build a charger to utilize these stations to charge LiPos? I’m currently flying 4 or 8 Bonkas. I could charge all 8 at once in series probably but what sort of charger would be needed? Would it have to be custom built? If this is doable at all then it may even be possible to do a cross country trip in my X4. There may be another charger or two walking distance from another LZ.

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It might be possible. The level 2 system uses 208-240 volts which may be usable for some chargers.

It’s not the input for the level two ev charger but the output in interested in. I.e. can I plug into an SAE J1772 with some type of box that will charge my Bonkas?

EV charging stations are actually just a power supply. The chargers are in vehicle. So for the Bonkas, or maybe the sp140 battery we need an on-board or off-board charger to plug them into an EV station.

Hmm…I seem to have just answered my own question. Essentially I’d still need some high power balance chargers. Then, build an adaptor to plug the chargers into the ev station. Hmm…

You could just use this to plug into the balance charger.

Its 240v so would be faster than charging normally at home.

Btw the SP140 has a built in balance charger :slight_smile:

That’s the idea but would be pointless to have regular AC out. LiPo chargers need an internal or external power supply to plug into AC.

If we could tap into the j1772 for 10-30V DC up to 100 amps (3kw) then we could plug inexpensive LiPo balance chargers into that. Those types of chargers are also pretty light so they could be carried with.

If you don’t mind the extra weight you could get a lightweight ISDT charger and a server power supply (HP 750W CS), they’re about $8-10 on ebay. With a quick mod you can put them in series and go to 24v, 36v etc. You could also get a 1200w power supply. However to charge 4 batteries would likely take about 1.5-2hrs and require 2 chargers and 2 power supplies with each setup running 30amps out (15amps per battery) through a parallel charge board. IMO you’d be better off turning off motor, saving your batteries and catching 1-2 thermals to cloudbase and going on long glides. On a good day all the energy you need is in the air.

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Yup. Used to do that a lot with my RC model gliders.

To effectively make use of EV stations I’d have to be able to almost go directly from the EV supply equipment to LiPo balance chargers . DC to DC. Been doing some reading on that j1772 and there is type 2 that has a high current DC output. Gotta check the one at my field.

Much more fun to thermal yourself then with RC :slight_smile: On a good day there is so much energy in the air and you can go way farther then under power. I’ve got dozens of flights over 100miles and a few just under 200miles on my hang glider. Max distance I can expect with the 2 battery rig on my hang glider is 5-8 miles, however, adding 5-8 miles down low to reach / find the next thermal opens the door to really long flights. Anyway just my 2 cents.

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with a classic eppg design like the x4 you have a lot of resistance which increases the sinking by around 0.5 m / sec to a total of 1.5-1.7 m / sec. that means you need at least a thermal with 2 m / sec to even climb with 0.5 m / sec. if you get into the sink airflow at the edge of the thermic it goes down very quickly. the eppg design classic has the battery at the back. this mass is not good for thermal flying, so many ppg pilots are afraid of thermals. ppg and hangglider are not comparable in thermal flying. Only real thermal concepts such as razebuss, e-walk and some diy eppg projects are suitable for thermal use. basically all where the mass is correctly distributed and a pod harness is best used. just my 2 cents :slight_smile:

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I have flown my Buzz z3 in both ridge and thermal lift a couple of times as well as with the X4. The drag of the X4 on my back instead of the free flight harness is definitely noticable.

Staying aloft in thermals is great fun but not the goal with my X4. The thought that EV charger stations could be utilized is totally based on the fact that there is one right at the park I fly from. How cool to be able to get even an 80% charge in 20 minutes right at the field. Seems not really helpful if the EV station is supplying AC. It is annoying going home with dead batteries and passing right by a high wattage power supply that I can’t use.

Didnt realize it was such a challenge to thermal with the eppg. On a good day in the meat of a thermal 600-900 fpm (2.5-5m/s) is very achievable on the east coast and 1000 fpm + on west coast. However if its not fun or easy to control makes sense to avoid thermalling.

From a charging perspective with LiPos dont see it as optimal to land for a charge, even if power and charger were in LZ pushing max C rating of batteries for charge is at least 1.5hrs to get full charge which is a long time on ground.

Sadly I agree. We’re quite a way from this being a thing. With some effort I might be able to fly to another local field, pack my kit (or maybe just the batteries and chargers) over to a charge station, recharge, pack them back, and fly home. That’d be quite an achievement with current batteries.

If you could improve handling and thermal you’d could try flying really fast just under cloud base and fighting cloud suck to get props to spin really fast so motors could recharge batteries. However won’t work with Hobbywing ESC, would need to move to a VESC or something similar.