I hacked car charging to work with my electric bike!

[alda@topspicy.social]

@theresnotime @mattgrayyes Woah. Imagine a liquid cooled high current USB-C.

[nanianmichaels@tech.lgbt]

@mattgrayyes That is MUCH fancier than the Mennekes to Schuko adapter I had for my Renault Twizy!

Also, now we need e-bikes capable of "fast charging". Not 400/800V DC fast charging (though that would be hilarious), but capable of pulling like 1kWh from the power line to top up the battery much faster.

Of course then you'd also need to be able to cool down the battery, and something tells me air or water-cooled batteries on an e-bike might be *a tad* of scope creep...

[csolisr@hub.azkware.net]

And of course it involves a custom circuit board. Companies like PCBWay and JLCPCB have made custom circuitry far easier than before, but I wonder what might happen when those shut down with no replacement.

[jwcph@helvede.net]

@mattgrayyes I loved the kettle test

[michddev@mastodon.social]

@csolisr There are loads of prototype PCB fab places out there but certainly not all of them are quire so affordable - https://pcbshopper.com/

[thedonsielass@mas.to]

@mattgrayyes Now I just need a hack to make me less terrified to cycle in the city!

But seriously, this is cool and an especially helpful idea for people who don't want to have to spend £4k just to get a bike with biggest possible range. That's why -- as you say -- we need the infrastructure

[diffrentcolours@tech.lgbt]

@mattgrayyes The image of the Dutch bike chargers looks like they have a cable rather than a socket. Is there a standard socket on ebikes to receive charging?

[n4ch1sm0@mastodon.social]

@jwcph That moment in the video legitimately had me cracking up!

[jwcph@helvede.net]

@n4ch1sm0 Same - I was cackling loudly over my morning coffee

[waha_06x36@mastodon.social]

@mattgrayyes You can actually buy converters from charging connector to normal wall socket. I bought one for this exact purpose! Not as fancily integrated, but, a good option for sane people.

[gabboman@gabboman.xyz]

FINALY PORTABLE TEA MACHINE

[thenovemberman@bookstodon.com]

@mattgrayyes

[mschomm@bonn.social]

@mattgrayyes Personally I'd settle for more/all e-bike models to be able to being charged via USB-C PD, which allows for 240 W for quite a while now. Just to get away from these awful, heavy, and vendor-specific charging bricks.

[brunogirin@mastodon.me.uk]

@mattgrayyes your laugh when you boiled that kettle is the best bit!

[effken_von_nebenan@mastodon.social]

@mattgrayyes love it.
Thanks for sharing.
Glad you survived

[plwt@mstdn.social]

@mattgrayyes Love the positivity in this video, not just in the solution but the joy of making. Really brightened up my day.

(and yes, nobody wants surprise live mains.)

Thank you for making and sharing.

[grmon@chaos.social]

@mattgrayyes TL;DW

[sebastian@schottkydio.de]

@mattgrayyes Fun fact about the kettle test: Back when I still worked on energy management systems I used a kettle as a dummy load all the time. I had a bunch of incandescent lights to do the 50w to 200w range and a kettle that did about 2kw for a moment on a good day. Used it to test charging stations, electricity meters and some smaller battery systems. (We did get a proper electronic load at some point.) The main problem with the kettle was that the noise kept summoning people that wanted some hot water to the lab. Folks kept drinking the coolant from my dummy load.

When a colleague did some investigation into the security of vehicle charge points, he used something else though: https://youtu.be/pUEp3uWAWqY?si=BJgFhl0kMjpkVq5X

(Full video: https://media.ccc.de/v/34c3-9092-ladeinfrastruktur_fur_elektroautos_ausbau_statt_sicherheit German but should have English translations)

[whophd@ioc.exchange]

@alda @theresnotime @mattgrayyes imagine any public transit with USB-C

They basically started rolling out USB-A in the late 2010s, so we’re only *checks watch* 20 years away from getting USB-C in the open public spaces

[jeremiahfieldhaven@mastodon.gamedev.place]

@mattgrayyes One thing I'd suggest you do is add some drainage holes to the bottom of the box.

Water shouldn't get in there, but you could get condensation as humid air gets pulled in through gaps as a result of temperature cycling, and without drainage you might get some moisture buildup.

Wonderful project though!