# Mystery Charger



## oceanplexian (May 17, 2013)

Hey Guys,

Long-time lurker here, but I had to pop in. Right now I'm building a 144v EV motorcycle project, and grabbed a battery charger from EPC-Corporation: 

http://www.epc-corporation.com/batterychargers.html

If you search 144v EV charger on Ebay, they come up, and look fairly reputable. Unfortunately, this "charger" looks like just a rectifier and two caps. Granted, my HV electrical knowledge is a bit dusty, but this feels like a scam. It's actually kind of depressing because I assumed most people in this hobby wouldn't risk others' safety.

Anyone have ideas how this actually generates 144v from 120AC? How did they step up the line voltage to get it back down again!? Won't it overcharge a battery if left unattended? 

Pic of the inside of the device:


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## major (Apr 4, 2008)

oceanplexian said:


> Hey Guys,
> 
> Long-time lurker here, but I had to pop in. Right now I'm building a 144v EV motorcycle project, and grabbed a battery charger from EPC-Corporation:
> 
> ...


I want to save this so I am putting it in quotes.

Thanks for posting, oceanplexian. I am sorry for your loss  EPC and Paul Zigouras (PZigouras as he posts here) is a scumbag. Do a search. I am sure others will chime in. It is truly unbelievable what that guy passes off.


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## TEV (Nov 25, 2011)

Return the Epic Piece of Crap ASAP, never buy anything EV related from that guy.

http://www.diyelectriccar.com/forums/showthread.php/ep-1000-84073.html?highlight=zigouras

Make sure you read post #31 , but I am sure that you will read all 6 pages with fascination and disbelief  .

Always search for reviews before you buy something.


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## TEV (Nov 25, 2011)

Probably is just a "bad boy charger" (just Google it for more informations) and will over charge a battery if you don't implement a form of control.


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## TEV (Nov 25, 2011)

oceanplexian said:


> Unfortunately, this "charger" looks like just a rectifier and two caps.


Let's be fair, it's also contain a plastic box and a heat sink . I can't see if it have a fuse or switch.

How much did you pay for it ? I did search eBay for 144V EV charger but got nothing. He probably didn't have time to go to Home Depot to buy parts for another one 

That it's a "very bad" or "insane" , "bad boy charger"


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## onegreenev (May 18, 2012)

No mystery about this guy at all and Im out to nail the SOB. Thank you for posting. Now there is one more nail for him. 

Im keeping and gathering all I can. 

Pete


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## major (Apr 4, 2008)

Battery Chargers​
 Transformerless battery chargers are a lightweight and economical solution for applications where weight is a concern. Our units can save 10 to 40 pounds over the weight of a conventional transformer-based charger. All units are double insulated for wet location use, and are available with grounded heatsinks. 


13 AMPS
120 Volt batteries​










13 AMPS
144 Volt batteries​











50 AMPS
240 Volt batteries​


 











All EPC on-board vehicle chargers are available with a standard J1772 vehicle connector, which allows charging at most Level 1 & 2 EV charging stations.


We also carry Level 3 (CHAdeMO) plugs for direct battery charging.






______________________________________________________

The above from the EPC website. I cannot believe this BS


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## oceanplexian (May 17, 2013)

TEV said:


> Probably is just a "bad boy charger" (just Google it for more informations) and will over charge a battery if you don't implement a form of control.


Yeah I'm familiar with 'em. They cost about $30 in parts and are great for rescuing dead packs. This _thing_ is painfully simple. No, there is nothing in the charger that you can't see in the above picture. No switches, fuses, anything. I think it's charging two caps in parallel and pulling out voltage in series or something weird like that. It does in fact generate ~150v DC.

I lost $350 , but luckily bought it via Ebay so there may yet be some chance to get my $$$ back. 

Thank god I actually checked it out when it was only putting out ~2amps (he advertised [email protected] 6amps, 144v). Otherwise, I'd have never opened it and my place would have probably burned to the ground. This really sucks and I hope nobody is injured or killed because of this guy.


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## onegreenev (May 18, 2012)

We need all the evidence gathered and nail this SOB. He is even out to destroy someones beloved Leaf. With the J1772 plugs he is insinuating that these will safely charge lithium batteries too. No electric car on the market sold today that uses the J1772 charge plug uses any thing other than lithium. 

Its time to shut this sucker down. BIG TIME. We should not continue to be complacent and allow this to continue and only bitch and complain. WE need to STOP him and well as others. 

We need to expose him as a dangerous FRAUD. 

UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES LEAVE YOUR VEHICLE UNATTENDED IF YOU HAPPEN TO HAVE A CHARGER FROM THIS COMPANY CONNECTED TO YOUR VEHICLE.


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## onegreenev (May 18, 2012)

EPC Building (Manufacturing Only)
15 Whitman Street - Building 7
East Bridgewater, MA 02333
USA

Have a look at this property from Google Earth. I see no other buildings on this property than the one shown. Street view looks pretty bad. I know Google updates often and we even have our out of the way property updated at least a couple times per year. 

Good luck finding building number 7 on this piece of land.


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## PStechPaul (May 1, 2012)

The design is a simple voltage doubler, which puts out the peak-to-peak voltage and is current limited by the capacitance. With other instrumentation, such as a timer and a BMS that can shut down the charger, it may work acceptably, but it's dangerous and way overpriced, and as such should be considered a fraud and scam. But I'm not sure what laws may be broken in order to prosecute.

If you want to build something like this, or just understand how it works, here is the design I used to get 320 VDC for a 230 VAC VFD, using a 12V to 120VAC "modified sine wave" inverter from a battery:










It uses a 35A 600V full wave bridge rectifier because I had several on hand and they are cheap and easy to mount. The EPC unit seems to use some motor run capacitors which are probably only 300 uF or so.


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## Coulomb (Apr 22, 2009)

oceanplexian said:


> Anyone have ideas how this actually generates 144v from 120AC?


This part is no mystery. 120 VAC actually varies from zero to +170 V to zero to -170 V and back to zero again, all this repeated 60 times per second. [ Edit: this has the same heating effect on a resistive load as 120 V DC, so that's why it's called 120 V AC. ] The bridge rectifier converts the -170 V to about +168 V, and the +170 V to about +168 V, so this circuit can easily generate an average of 144 V. But the peaks are very high, and for a lot of the time, the current is zero. So it's actually a bit harsh on the battery.



> Won't it overcharge a battery if left unattended?


Yes! It's completely uncontrolled. When the battery is full, its voltage rises, and hence the charging current falls a little, but the battery voltage doesn't rise to anywhere near 168 V, so it will be overcharged. Don't leave the battery unattended when using this thing! As mentioned earlier, this is a classic "bad boy" charger; very simple and cheap, but zero sophistication. It's usually used in emergency situations only, where a real charger that shuts off or switches to a low current "float" mode (for lead acid only) is not available.

The real mystery is why this guy is still in business. I hope we don't have to have a fire or other disaster before he is shut down.


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