In my experience with voltage regulators, aftermarket performance car 'chips', and audiophile woo woo.... Potting epoxy (especially non-transparent) is how you hide 75 dollars worth of parts inside something you intend to sell for 750 dollars. Sometimes it's more like a factor of 100:1 on retail price:cost to make. I can buy the high voltage and jarring argument in this case, but I'm still skeptical :) I was hoping you'd try to pull the epoxy out to at least see what's inside.
Thanks for watching! Good point about mfg cost vs sales price. Sorry about not trying to dig down into the charger. I didn't even know where to start. I guess using a reciprocating saw would have been interesting haha.
@@OldCarsAreFun I've seen this video where he boils the device in water to kind of rubberize the potting material. Most of the material I've encountered in automotive stuff is black in color. But this may work (or destroy the device) th-cam.com/video/OiPe6f4Oh8E/w-d-xo.html
Went online...cursory search. Not a whole lot out there on this unit. I would say the potting material is mostly for vibration. Weather-moisture can be handled with a gasket or O-ring. Now the 64$ question is what is the thermal transfer of the potting material? Cause it looks like if charging there would little to no cooling of the electronic components. Which is BAD! And a consideration for premature failure.
This makes total sense and I'm sure contributed to the failure. The area of the bike where the charger was installed and near the charging plug did get hot when charging. Thanks!
@@TeslaFamilyChannel GaN chargers come with potting compound too. This is for faster thermal mass transfer to the outer plastic surface. Might be the same in this case too.
Thank you for sharing that. I myself have a Zero SR/F with 2 chargers of 3 kW each, and, as a former electronician, I am quite curious knowing more about that, and the remaining onboard electronic. I passed 22'000 km last week, thus far everything is ok.
Did you call or email Greenwatt and see if they have a repair/rebuild/exchange program? Or perhaps a rebuild-reman (discounted $$) unit for sale. Perhaps a Scratch/Dent unit? Cheers
Hello again, I called Greenwatt to inquire but they just directed me back to Zero and said they couldn't help me unfortunately. Must be an agreement they have with Zero.
@@TeslaFamilyChannel I am sure they signed a NDA for the unit. Wonder if a slightly different or larger unit would work? Do the higher capacity Zero bikes use the same charger? Hmmm?
In my experience with voltage regulators, aftermarket performance car 'chips', and audiophile woo woo.... Potting epoxy (especially non-transparent) is how you hide 75 dollars worth of parts inside something you intend to sell for 750 dollars. Sometimes it's more like a factor of 100:1 on retail price:cost to make. I can buy the high voltage and jarring argument in this case, but I'm still skeptical :) I was hoping you'd try to pull the epoxy out to at least see what's inside.
Thanks for watching! Good point about mfg cost vs sales price. Sorry about not trying to dig down into the charger. I didn't even know where to start. I guess using a reciprocating saw would have been interesting haha.
How can you get the potting off? My charger is broken too. I will try to see what it is. Price for a new charger is €850, which seems way overpriced
@@OldCarsAreFun I've seen this video where he boils the device in water to kind of rubberize the potting material. Most of the material I've encountered in automotive stuff is black in color. But this may work (or destroy the device) th-cam.com/video/OiPe6f4Oh8E/w-d-xo.html
Welcome back Zero cycle
Thanks for watching, Kacey!
Went online...cursory search. Not a whole lot out there on this unit. I would say the potting material is mostly for vibration. Weather-moisture can be handled with a gasket or O-ring.
Now the 64$ question is what is the thermal transfer of the potting material? Cause it looks like if charging there would little to no cooling of the electronic components. Which is BAD!
And a consideration for premature failure.
This makes total sense and I'm sure contributed to the failure. The area of the bike where the charger was installed and near the charging plug did get hot when charging. Thanks!
@@TeslaFamilyChannel GaN chargers come with potting compound too. This is for faster thermal mass transfer to the outer plastic surface. Might be the same in this case too.
Thank you for sharing that. I myself have a Zero SR/F with 2 chargers of 3 kW each, and, as a former electronician, I am quite curious knowing more about that, and the remaining onboard electronic. I passed 22'000 km last week, thus far everything is ok.
Thanks for watching! The SR/F is an awesome bike!
Did you call or email Greenwatt and see if they have a repair/rebuild/exchange program?
Or perhaps a rebuild-reman (discounted $$) unit for sale. Perhaps a Scratch/Dent unit?
Cheers
Hello again, I called Greenwatt to inquire but they just directed me back to Zero and said they couldn't help me unfortunately. Must be an agreement they have with Zero.
@@TeslaFamilyChannel I am sure they signed a NDA for the unit. Wonder if a slightly different or larger unit would work?
Do the higher capacity Zero bikes use the same charger? Hmmm?