Can anyone here explain to me why esk8 chargers are so huge? Do they scale in size with power, or current? i.e. would it be worth going higher in voltage to get a smaller charger? Or perhaps by paying more you can get a charger with more energy efficient components that results in a smaller overall package?
I’m just quite upset at how much larger my 16s 5A charger is compared to this 10s 5A one:
I’m no expert, but I would assume that the key aspect of a charger is cooling, hence why the case is big, so they can add a fan, and in the case of your 16s charger, a big metal case that acts as a heatsink.
But that I’m sure you already concluded.
I am curious on how small the PCB itself could get!
(Maybe this is what you meant?) @SimosMCmuffin since you already claim smallest smart BMS, maybe smallest 5A 10-18s charger is next on the list
I’ll certainly tag @Battery_Mooch as this is also his realm
I would guess it’s poor engineering, why devote a lot of resources to make something really compact when making it larger it’s easier, you can share a PCB and enclosure between a bunch of models
On the other hand there is the Grin Satiator that is really power dense, they put the resources to develop it, and due to that it’s expensive
Thats an impressive Charger, though i must admit, esk8 is one of few things that come to mind that have such demand for a market, It’s an easy monopoly for someone to claim.
But for such a low volume market it’s hard to get a decent ROI for developing such a high power charger (or line of chargers). That Satiator charger is priced about right for a reliable unit at that power level IMO. But few will pay that much, preferring to take a chance on a less reliable unit instead.
In addition to making a reliable unit you have all sorts of safety and regulatory issues to deal with since mains AC voltage is used.
But we can always hope some company dives in and makes the commitment.
Would having a massive heatsink that weighs a lot but has a smaller volume be better? I feel like with chargers we have a triangular set of compromises.
I could not care less about how loud my charger is. 99% of the time the surroundings are much louder. I recently got one with a fan so strong the exhaust blew a bunch of weed off my table while testing
Also, the noise asserts dominance over the other slower chargers.
Sometimes I wish the fan shut off shortly after it changed from CC to CV mode though. Or maybe if the fan only ran when the temperature actually warranted it. It waits all the way until end of charge, despite drawing very little power at the end.
Yzpower chargers do shut off at a certain point in the CV range though. On my smart bms it seems to be from under 100W. Fans off, led green, still passively charging
I’ve been on a hunt for the smallest high power supply out there. The meanwells are easily alterable and relatively cheap. Wonder if a small one could be liquid cooled and altered for high current…something like adding ice. I don’t know much electronics but was told there’s more than just cooling needed for higher current.
What about “gan” based chargers like we see coming out for usb pd? Apparently gan has a 30-40% reduction in size compared to silicon based pcbs.
Some of the 60-100w usb c chargers are tiny. There is definitely a market as most chargers have a lot of room inside then that’s just there for cooling. My yzpower charger could be a third of the size if you condensed it and managed heat properly.
Yeah that would be cool but I don’t think anyone over there is going to bother with Gan when there isn’t a necessity to go smaller. No one is shipping a 12a charger in a box with a device that’s smaller than it physically lol
Makes sense for phones when you ship them together. Would be neat though, maybe it would reduce size by half
