Daley1 Posted April 19, 2019 Share Posted April 19, 2019 Ordered from charge Dr 5 weeks ago and haven't heard anything .Paypal messaged, i have messaged on his website and still nada.Anyone had recent contact? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Chriull Posted April 19, 2019 Popular Post Share Posted April 19, 2019 5 minutes ago, Daley1 said: Ordered from charge Dr 5 weeks ago and haven't heard anything .Paypal messaged, i have messaged on his website and still nada.Anyone had recent contact? Does not seem so. There was already a thread of unsuccesful ordering/contact trials. His homepage still tells to retry in about a week... Maybe in the linked french forum topic https://www.espritroue.fr/topic/7529-charge-doctor-par-hobby16/?do=findComment&comment=175559 are some news? 1 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smoother Posted April 19, 2019 Share Posted April 19, 2019 I think something has happened to @hobby16. It's possible he is no longer with us. He hasn't visited here since feb 21. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chriull Posted April 20, 2019 Share Posted April 20, 2019 17 hours ago, Smoother said: I think something has happened to @hobby16. It's possible he is no longer with us. He hasn't visited here since feb 21. Knocking on wood, throwing salt over the shoulder,... - no we don't even think of anything in this direction. Keep fingers crossed - it'll be just some extraordinary stress, listlessness or whatsoever... Taking a quick look at the french forum with google translate imo some people reported in early april, that they got charge doctors? Without any comment, but delivered... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Struck Posted April 23, 2019 Share Posted April 23, 2019 (edited) I was just going to buy it. Will have to wait until @hobby16 is back again :/ Edit: Who is then behind chargedoctor.fr? Does anybody know if @hobby16 is called "Daniel Domercq" (as the paypal link on that website suggests)? Should we report the paypal account? Or the chargedoctor.fr domain to their registrar if its impersonaiting the real website? Edited April 23, 2019 by Struck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rinzler Posted April 23, 2019 Share Posted April 23, 2019 Without going off topic, is there an alternative similar spec/price equivalent to the charge doctor. I have learnt that it seems a bad idea to use the normal charger and charging the unit to 100%. It's made me paranoid about toasting my unit! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
svenomous Posted April 23, 2019 Share Posted April 23, 2019 Depends on what features you're looking for, @rinzler, but if your main concern is to limit charge level to extend battery life, how about the quick chargers sold by eWheels? You can adjust charge amperage to a max of 5A and limit charge level to 90% or 80% No fancy displays, no multiple input ports, but OTOH it's an all-in-one solution that integrates the charger (vs. having to provide your own charger). I have a home-grown solution to extend the eWheels charger capabilities with some displayed info (Watt-Hours charged, voltage/amperage during charge, that sort of thing), to help me monitor battery health and its inevitable capacity decline. Not hard to do, plenty of cheap products out there to do that kind of thing and splice it in to the charging circuit via plug adapters. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meepmeepmayer Posted April 23, 2019 Share Posted April 23, 2019 (edited) 23 minutes ago, rinzler said: I have learnt that it seems a bad idea to use the normal charger and charging the unit to 100%. Why would that be? The battery management system will stop any overcharging, even if the charger somehow fails to do it. I've been charging my batteries to 100% with the standard Gotway charger to get every last km of range for the last 6000km Edited April 23, 2019 by meepmeepmayer 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chriull Posted April 23, 2019 Share Posted April 23, 2019 1 minute ago, rinzler said: Without going off topic, is there an alternative similar spec/price equivalent to the charge doctor. No idea price/spec wise - but imho longer time ago there was some report of something comparable here, but no idea how to find it again... 1 minute ago, rinzler said: I have learnt that it seems a bad idea to use the normal charger and charging the unit to 100%. There are advandages and disadvantages. And comfort vs. perfectionism... 1 minute ago, rinzler said: It's made me paranoid about toasting my unit! Toasting the unit happens imho mostly/just in because of bad cells or seldomly in because of hardware faults. This toasting by bad cells can only happen because the BMS does not report them (just the newer ninebot do?). My personal opinion is that most people change the battery pack or the wheel once bad cells decreased the performance way before the risk of toasting is too high. The charge doctor does not really change anything regarding this. It increases cell cycle count, but could reduce battery pack lifetime if one does not charge fully often enough for balancing. So, afaik the CD can increase the battery pack life by a factor of 2-3 if one uses it "right". By doing this chances of toasting the wheel can only be delayed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meepmeepmayer Posted April 23, 2019 Share Posted April 23, 2019 European link to a fast charger with some cut-off functionality like the charge doctor: https://eunicycles.eu/en/chargers/83-smart-charger-300w-gotway-84v.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marty Backe Posted April 23, 2019 Share Posted April 23, 2019 57 minutes ago, meepmeepmayer said: Why would that be? The battery management system will stop any overcharging, even if the charger somehow fails to do it. I've been charging my batteries to 100% with the standard Gotway charger to get every last km of range for the last 6000km And your wheel still gets the same approx range? Like you, I've been charging all my wheels to 100-percent with the stock chargers for the last 2-1/2 years. My 2+ year old wheels still seem to function perfectly from a battery perspective. Usually my chargers will remain plugged in many hours after the full charge has occurred. I've been known to forget to unplug a wheel for a couple of days 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meepmeepmayer Posted April 23, 2019 Share Posted April 23, 2019 4 minutes ago, Marty Backe said: Like you, I've been charging all my wheels to 100-percent with the stock chargers for the last 2-1/2 years. My 2+ year old wheels still seem to function perfectly from a battery perspective. Usually my chargers will remain plugged in many hours after the full charge has occurred. I've been known to forget to unplug a wheel for a couple of days I don't store my wheel at 100%. Most of the time it sits at 90% (83V cutoff on my charge doctor) and I just plug the charger in overnight for potential riding days. But your experience shows batteries are much more robust than people think. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daley1 Posted April 24, 2019 Author Share Posted April 24, 2019 Charge Dr may be away but someone is still taking money from orders and not delivering. Paypal wont raise an issue because when u hit the buy button on the site ,it registers as a gift to a friend or family and not a purchase of gifts and services. Pay pal don't investigate these "gifts".Paypal suggest it might be a sneaky way to get around paying fees. If the account was untouched/unmonitored I would be able to relaim the amount but someone has already taken the cash! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chriull Posted April 24, 2019 Share Posted April 24, 2019 (edited) 5 hours ago, Daley1 said: Charge Dr may be away but someone is still taking money from orders and not delivering. Paypal wont raise an issue because when u hit the buy button on the site ,it registers as a gift to a friend or family and not a purchase of gifts and services. Pay pal don't investigate these "gifts".Paypal suggest it might be a sneaky way to get around paying fees. If the account was untouched/unmonitored I would be able to relaim the amount but someone has already taken the cash! The same question was raised in https://www.espritroue.fr/topic/356-charge-doctor-v2/?do=findComment&comment=171993, @hobby16s "home" forum. Nowhere found something about if this is a legit site, or any "official" announcement of this site. Just https://www.espritroue.fr/topic/356-charge-doctor-v2/?do=findComment&comment=162035 lets one assume, that this site is from @hobby16, but he forgot to disable the paypal links, like on his main page http://hobby16.neowp.fr/buy/ ? You have given your address as written on his site: "Warning!!! Please give me your address when or after ordering since Paypal does not always display the payer’s address. No address, no shipping." If so, there should be chances to get a chargedoctor "sometimes". Also payments seem to have been going to different people over time (?most active at the espritrue forum?). Maybe you can contact one of them directly. Just if the payment went to some "ChristopheGardon" there could be a problem?: https://www.espritroue.fr/topic/356-charge-doctor-v2/?do=findComment&comment=161801 EDIT: Ps.: Take a look at Pinned there a new topic regarding CD - hopefully "the" information gathers there Edited April 24, 2019 by Chriull 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrelwood Posted April 24, 2019 Share Posted April 24, 2019 9 hours ago, meepmeepmayer said: But your experience shows batteries are much more robust than people think. Worth remembering that @Marty Backe rotates between over a dozen wheels, so I’d expect that during the 2 1/2 years none of them have received the amount of charge cycles that many of us mere mortals put on a single wheel in a year. Without battery maintenance an EUC should still get a few hundred charge cycles without notable degradation. With maintenance however the number is multiplied. In turn my 16S, while being the only wheel in use got about two hundred full charge cycles in a year. Despite some battery maintenance, one cell pair died near the end. My Airwheel A3 battery had worn down to unusable levels by about 150 charge cycles without any maintenance. 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chriull Posted April 24, 2019 Share Posted April 24, 2019 (edited) 29 minutes ago, mrelwood said: Worth remembering that @Marty Backe rotates between over a dozen wheels, so I’d expect that during the 2 1/2 years none of them have received the amount of charge cycles that many of us mere mortals put on a single wheel in a year. Without battery maintenance an EUC should still get a few hundred charge cycles without notable degradation. With maintenance however the number is multiplied. Unfortionately absolutely no. According to https://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_to_store_batteries storing the batteries for one year at 100% charge at room temperature (25°C) degrades them to 80% total capacity. Storing them at 40% charge just degrades them down to 94% total capacity - so a big difference. So having as much wheels as @Marty Backe would be the perfect use case for "battery control"! But in real life having wheels with just 40% charge will never be ridden again - one would have to charge them xx hours before and by this plan to use them... ... So better some battery degradation and a wheel that is used (at least from time to time) Imo the only way to make "battery control manageable" with over a dozen wheels managable is a "fast"charger with a ~40% stop. So one keeps the wheel after a ride at ~40% charge (or a bit more if the ride was to short) and just charges the next to come wheel 1-2 hours before the ride. Unfortionately such normal 0.5-1C chargers are not available for the big (like 20s6p) battery packs - and putting 10-20A in some parallel packs with the currently used BMS is not really recommandable, too... Edit: Just looking again at the table, it offers an easy solution - for people living in the right enviroment spare wheels are just to be stored in the cellar ( or some other cool room)... Temperature Nickel-based at any charge Lithium-ion (Li-cobalt) 40% charge 100% charge 0°C 25°C 40°C 60°C 90% 62% 38% (after 6 months) 99% 97% 95% 70% 98% 96% 85% 75% 94% 80% 65% 60% (after 3 months) Table 2: Estimated recoverable capacity when storing a battery for one year. Elevated temperature hastens permanent capacity loss. Depending on battery type, lithium-ion is also sensitive to charge levels. Quote My Airwheel A3 battery had worn down to unusable levels by about 150 charge cycles without any maintenance. 1p configurations are imho too much for 18650 cells. The specified ~500 charge cycles are specified in the datasheed normaly for a standart discharge current around 0.2C. With such a "small" current not even an Airwheel could drive... Edited April 24, 2019 by Chriull 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrelwood Posted April 24, 2019 Share Posted April 24, 2019 4 hours ago, Chriull said: Unfortionately absolutely no. According to https://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_to_store_batteries storing the batteries for one year at 100% charge at room temperature (25°C) degrades them to 80% total capacity. Storing them at 40% charge just degrades them down to 94% total capacity - so a big difference. That is true if the degradation is linear, starting right away. I don’t know if it is though. 4 hours ago, Chriull said: So having as much wheels as @Marty Backe would be the perfect use case for "battery control"! I agree. 4 hours ago, Chriull said: 1p configurations are imho too much for 18650 cells. The specified ~500 charge cycles are specified in the datasheed normaly for a standart discharge current around 0.2C. With such a "small" current not even an Airwheel could drive... The A3 has a 16S4P battery pack, announced to be 520Wh. I was still able to ride for a few kms if I was very careful at any uphills, since the issue was the massive voltage drop under stress. It still charged up to 100% though, so no dead cells. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chriull Posted April 24, 2019 Share Posted April 24, 2019 27 minutes ago, mrelwood said: That is true if the degradation is linear, starting right away. I don’t know if it is though. Good Point! This figures are missing... Could also be something asymptotical... 27 minutes ago, mrelwood said: I agree. The A3 has a 16S4P battery pack, announced to be 520Wh. I was still able to ride for a few kms if I was very careful at any uphills, since the issue was the massive voltage drop under stress. It still charged up to 100% though, so no dead cells. Ups - did not think of old wheels with 4p packs.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrelwood Posted April 24, 2019 Share Posted April 24, 2019 4 hours ago, Chriull said: Ups - did not think of old wheels with 4p packs.... You were correct to think so, the A3 is a seated 2-wheeler, not an EUC. Plenty room for a 4P pack. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
esaj Posted April 24, 2019 Share Posted April 24, 2019 (edited) No idea what's happening with @hobby16, but I doubt it's a scam (at least not the original http://hobby16.neowp.fr/ -site). AFAIK, hobby16 (AKA Fred at times) has been building the Charge Doctors (V2 since around late 2015/2016 I think) as a, well, hobby, as the name suggest. I doubt he makes much per unit sold (far less than 10€ is my guess, considering parts costs + shipping), plus it's not as simple as meets the eye. Consider the following (although take these with a pinch of salt, since I can't vouch for anything): The "hobby factory" is a one-man operation he runs on his spare time, on top of his dayjob, also he may or may not have a family (ie. wife + possibly kids) The device is (well, at least V1 was) based on another device with minor hardware changes + custom firmware he developed himself (initial "time cost" of reverse engineering the device + developing firmware from scratch) A single device requires opening up the original device, making some hardware changes, adding the connectors, then uploading the custom firmware & calibration Calibration requires a professional level multimeter (several hundreds bought used, >1000€ bought new, think HP34401A or similar) I think the original calibration instructions told not to even try unless your meter can reliably measure voltages at an accuracy below 10mV If it takes 20 minutes (I don't know, sounds plausible, but might actually be even more) to make one, and you could spare an hour every weekday, plus, say, 5 hours every weekend, that'd mean he can still make only about 30 devices per week The casing may require some cutting / sanding for the custom connectors (this might add more time to build one than just 20 minutes, meaning even less devices made every week) V2 may actually be entirely custom made I've never taken mine apart, but the "blocky" case + the display makes me think of a "basic" voltage/current -LCD display available on eBay/Aliexpress/etc + custom board + stock "general purpose" plastic case he cuts the holes for by himself, which might save a bit on costs but not on build time Falling ill, having to do overtime at work, delays in parts delivery (at least there was some mention of him having to wait for parts from China in the French forum), taking a vacation, a family crisis or similar might cause days or weeks of not being able to do anything about the orders. I have no idea how many people order these devices nowadays, but if the number of EUC sales and riders are going up, and thus the orders (not at the same rate of course, not everyone orders a Charge Doctor), this could easily build up a back log of a hundred or more devices to build, and it might take a good while just to catch up. Ditto for trying to answer the emails of a lot of people asking what's the hold up (I doubt he even bothers if there's a lot of build up ). At least some people in the French forums have reported receiving their Charge Doctors after a month+ waiting time, so all is not lost. Although if someone ordered 100000 CD's and paid up front, he just might have escaped to a paradise island somewhere... Edited April 24, 2019 by esaj 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GQS Posted April 24, 2019 Share Posted April 24, 2019 I just bought one a few months ago. All was well then. Hope he is ok. Single person operations can totally just vanish if the owner has any personal emergencies. If you guys still have the box, look for a return address and have someone in France check in on him. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GQS Posted January 11, 2020 Share Posted January 11, 2020 OK I just tried to buy another Charge Doctor and no success. Both email addresses listed for charge doctor (hobby16@free.fr & chris.tresmoins@laposte.net) are dead and your email will bounce back. I believe he set up the PayPal payment as a "friends and family" payment, so there is no buyer or seller protection. If you paid via credit card, open a dispute and have the charge reversed. The seller does not have seller protection and will lose in the event of a reversal. If you paid with bank transfer or your PayPal balance, you are out of luck. Caution to anyone thinking of buying a Charge Doctor from the charge doctor website. Don't do it until further notice. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
null Posted January 11, 2020 Share Posted January 11, 2020 (edited) He was first reported too busy and must have moved on to other things. He should have shot down the website though. Anyhow, as mentioned in the general sticky: do not order a charge doctor anymore. A couple of alternative options: build one yourself (check Sebas guide to integrate it in a charger), buy a nice and expensive one from e-wheels or 1rad etc, or search for JR-T450 (probably versions with other voltages) Edited January 11, 2020 by null Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daley1 Posted January 12, 2020 Author Share Posted January 12, 2020 Maybe the titles with Charge Dr in them should be changed to Do not EVER order a Charge dr from these scam websites! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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