PIDZOOM CHARGER ENHANCER CE140: The WHEELERS PRO Review

OliG · March 11

Hello friends,

Here's our review of a new accessory sent by Pidzoom in late February: the Charger Enhancer CE140.

But first, who is Pidzoom?

PIDZOOM is a startup dedicated to accessories for PEVs, founded in August 2023 by Bob Yan, the former CEO of Inmotion. So, it's a team that knows what they're talking about and who they're talking to.

As a connoisseur of our activity, Bob identified a real need for quality accessories tailored to PEV users to address the specific constraints of our favorite devices. Until now, no supplier was exclusively dedicated to PEVs. Based on this observation, Bob Yan decided to create PIDZOOM after leaving Inmotion.

This new player offers accessories adapted to our activity. PIDZOOM's goal is not only to invent new accessories with unique functions but also to adapt or improve existing accessories for our use with EUCs and to industrialize accessories previously offered in an artisanal way by passionate individuals.

Introduction to the CHARGER ENHANCER CE140

Some of you may have already heard about it in recent weeks, but for those living as hermits totally disconnected from social networks, what is it?

The Pidzoom Charger Enhancer is not a charger! It's a small box to connect between your charger and your wheel to benefit from key functions during your charge, especially if you use standard chargers provided with your wheel.

So, what does this accessory allow?

Its main functions are:

1. Monitoring various metrics of your wheel's charge (current voltage, current, wh injected, charge duration)

2. Setting charge limits if you don't want to charge your wheel to 100% each time

3. Adding additional protections to your charger such as disconnection at the end of the charge

Is this new? Not really. There have been small boxes made more or less artisanally for years, offering all or part of these functions. Some of you may certainly remember the famous Charge Doctor offered a few years ago, which allowed monitoring voltage, amperage, and setting a voltage limit for charging.

Another advantage of the Pidzoom Charger Enhancer over these "historical" versions is the simple access to multiple settings so as not to limit the use of the accessory to a specific wheel or voltage.

What’s in the box?

In the box, you have the Charger Enhancer and its manual. That's it. So, unboxing won't be the longest of your career :).

Additionally, you receive 2 connectors, one female to connect your charger to the Charger Enhancer, and one male to connect the Charger Enhancer to the charging port of your wheel. You also receive a cable to connect to the output of the Charger Enhancer and to which you connect the male connector.

If you have multiple wheels with different connectors and/or voltages, when ordering you should select the pairs of connectors you will need for your different wheels .

The manual is very well done. To understand the operation and detailed settings of the Charger Enhancer, I recommend taking a look.

Installation and configuration

Installation is very simple. You connect the female connector to the input port of the Charger Enhancer. You connect the cable to the output port of the Charger Enhancer. And finally, you connect the male connector to the end of the cable to connect the Charger Enhancer to the charging port of your wheel.

Before connecting the Charger Enhancer to your wheel, there are 2 simple operations left to do:

1. Connect your original charger to the input of the Charger Enhancer, which allows you to turn it on and access the settings.

2. Set the maximum voltage at which charging stops as well as the maximum amperage that will be delivered to your wheel (safety if your electrical network is not very stable, to protect your wheel in case of current spikes).

Test Result

To start with the end, if you don't have a smart charger with Charger Enhancer functions, it's a MUST HAVE!

I've been using this type of accessory almost since my beginnings in EUCs, first with the famous Charge Doctor with my first 67V wheels, then with a charge manager from BlackDealDay when I switched to 84V, and finally, since the Sherman in 100V with the equivalent "home made" made by Yves aka Hansolo, the best among us.

I consider this accessory essential for daily monitoring of my charging metrics, ensuring the health of the wheel's battery packs, and tracking the injected wh with each recharge. It's also a safety measure to detect a poorly calibrated charger before plugging it into your precious wheel.

Here, the advantage is to have a more versatile accessory since it simply allows, through its settings and available connectors, to be used for several wheel and charger models.

The box is not bulky and simple to connect between your wheel and the charger, so it won't be a constraint to take it with you and use it for every recharge.

The current model CE140 offers a voltage range of 30 to 140V. It can therefore be used with recent wheels up to 134V. For use with the latest models like Lynx at 151V or ET Max at 168V, for example, you will have to wait for the next version whose extended voltage range will support up to 200V (if my information is correct).

Some points to note based on my tests with the Patton and the S22:

1. With Patton, when the original charger is connected to the Charger Enhancer, the charger provides 126.1V. If I set the voltage limit on the Charger Enhancer to 126.1V as indicated in the manual (maximum voltage at the Charger Enhancer output = voltage delivered by the charger), the charge stops with code 02, indicating automatic shutdown due to reaching the maximum voltage threshold. The charge therefore stops automatically before the end of the cell balancing phase. If I set the voltage limit on the Charger Enhancer to 126.2V, the charge stops with code 05, which means that the charging process is completely finished. So, to ensure that the final balancing takes place, I think it's interesting to set the voltage limit on the Charger Enhancer slightly higher than the maximum of the charger to guarantee a full charge of the wheel with balancing.

2. With the Patton using the Charger Enhancer connector, it is much easier to connect to the wheel's charging port than with the original charger connector. You are much less hindered by the wheel's front handle, which, as you know, requires special dexterity to plug the charger into the wheel's charging port.

3. I tried to use the Charger Enhancer with the original charger of my S22 in the same way that I had tested it with the Patton charger. Unfortunately, it didn't work. When I connected the S22 charger to the Charger Enhancer and turned on the charger, I systematically had a bug: Once connected, the S22 charger briefly powered the Charger Enhancer, then after a few seconds, the S22 charger automatically cut off the power and indicated the OVP VBAT error (flashing red and green LEDs). This is the indication provided in case of battery overvoltage error detected by the S22's original charger. All this happened before being able to connect the Charger Enhancer to the S22. To solve this problem, the solution is simple, just connect the Charger Enhancer to the wheel first, then connect the Charger Enhancer to the S22 charger, and finally connect the S22 charger to the power outlet. In discussing with Bob, he informed me that there are about 200 S22 chargers on the market that automatically disconnect when they detect that there is no charging current after 2 seconds. So, it is indeed preferable to connect the Charger Enhancer to the wheel first and then to the charger to avoid the issue.

4. Another limitation during my tests of the Charger Enhancer with the original S22 charger: when charging ends, the S22 charger automatically shuts off, so the Charger Enhancer is no longer powered and also turns off. An annoying result, I lose the statistics (data) of the charging session because the Charger Enhancer will reset the data of the previous session when powered up again. My advice to the Pidzoom team would therefore be not to automatically reset the data of the previous charge when the Charger Enhancer is powered up again. I would find it more interesting to add a command to reset the data of the previous charge on the Charger Enhancer at the beginning of the next charge, for example by long-pressing one of the buttons on the box when starting a new charge.

Where to Buy?

Here is the link to the Pidzoom website to purchase the Charger Enhancer: https://pidzoom.com/products/charger_enhancer_ce140?aff=17

The Pidzoom team has kindly offered a WHEELERSPRO promo code to give members a small discount, which is always appreciated.

Links

https://pidzoom.com/?aff=17

To learn more about Bob: https://youtu.be/lw81C1TfI7s?si=yjli8qN9rviFPeBB