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Charging the Roadster
- Thread starter malcolm
- Start date
And no clutch!
If cable theft becomes an issue then I'm sure Tesla can design some sort of powered interlock which prevents the cable being unplugged from the car at least. The cable connector can only be released from the key fob (say)
A blast from the car alarm plus a text message to your phone would alert you if the cable was disconnected from the other end.
If cable theft becomes an issue then I'm sure Tesla can design some sort of powered interlock which prevents the cable being unplugged from the car at least. The cable connector can only be released from the key fob (say)
A blast from the car alarm plus a text message to your phone would alert you if the cable was disconnected from the other end.
This is a bit on the charging topic, but I cannot find another thread to post this, so I will mention it here.
I just had an email from a Tesla Roadster owner in California. He doesn't post here, so I thought I would pass it along.
There is a new 240 Volt mobile connector coming this summer.
The current one being offered is 240 volts / 30 amps.
The new version coming will be 240 volts / 40 amps.
So if you can suffer with your 120 V MC for a few more months, I would suggest doing that until the 40 amp version is available. That extra 10 amps is significant.
I just had an email from a Tesla Roadster owner in California. He doesn't post here, so I thought I would pass it along.
There is a new 240 Volt mobile connector coming this summer.
The current one being offered is 240 volts / 30 amps.
The new version coming will be 240 volts / 40 amps.
So if you can suffer with your 120 V MC for a few more months, I would suggest doing that until the 40 amp version is available. That extra 10 amps is significant.
I tried to reconcile and better present a lot of this information here:
TEG.NET: Conductive Electric Vehicle Charging Standards
TEG.NET: Conductive Electric Vehicle Charging Standards
Here are some pictures of a Roadster owner that mounted the 240 volt / 30 amp MC on his ceiling. So it is no longer "mobile" but it is useful.
Flickr: bbucklen's Photostream
Flickr: bbucklen's Photostream
Last edited:
graham
Active Member
Tdave
Member
Tesla themselves really needs to offer such a modular mobile connector. We need the flexibility. And we need it even more now, before public charging stations are common with standard connectors.
That charging cable is actually close to what Tesla was originally promising. My only guess is that regulatory hurtles limited what they could ultimately deliver.
MC120 charging question(s).
If you plug the MC120 into a regular 120V outlet, then plug it into your Roadster, does is immediately start charging 120V@12amp with no user intervention, or do you have to tell the VDS that this is a 120V@12amp connection before it will start charging?
Is there any way you could mistakenly enter 240V on the VDS while the MC120 is connected thus possibly tripping a breaker on the 120V circuit?
Also, does the MC240 automatically trigger 240V@32amp, or do you have to tell the VDS what to do with it? Could you mistakenly tell the Roadster to try to draw 120V when the MC240 is plugged in?
If you plug the MC120 into a regular 120V outlet, then plug it into your Roadster, does is immediately start charging 120V@12amp with no user intervention, or do you have to tell the VDS that this is a 120V@12amp connection before it will start charging?
Is there any way you could mistakenly enter 240V on the VDS while the MC120 is connected thus possibly tripping a breaker on the 120V circuit?
Also, does the MC240 automatically trigger 240V@32amp, or do you have to tell the VDS what to do with it? Could you mistakenly tell the Roadster to try to draw 120V when the MC240 is plugged in?
Well, I'd be very surprised if Roadster hadn't had a voltage detection built it. It is quite simple to do. Max current (breaker limit) detection is virtually impossible though.
DaveD
EVs Kick Gas!
There is no provision on the VDS to set the charging voltage; that is automatically detected and set.
For a given location, when you plug a MC120 in, the Roadster defaults to a 12A charge rate. There is a provision to charge at a 15A rate by manually selecting a 16A rate on the VDS.
I don't have an MC240, so I can't say what charge rate it defaults to, and whether it can be manually set to charge at a higher rate than spec'd.
For a given location, when you plug a MC120 in, the Roadster defaults to a 12A charge rate. There is a provision to charge at a 15A rate by manually selecting a 16A rate on the VDS.
I don't have an MC240, so I can't say what charge rate it defaults to, and whether it can be manually set to charge at a higher rate than spec'd.
Additional info: The MC120, unlike the MC240 (or Martin's special MC240) and the HPC, does not have a "pilot signal" to communicate its capability to the car. So when the car (the charger in the car) senses 120V it automatically assumes it's dealing with an MC120 plugged into the more common 15A capable house wiring, de-rates to 80% of that = 12A. As stated, you can adjust current only on the VDS (not Voltage). So the trick with the MC120 is that you can set it to 16A (being a discrete value, 15A or other numbers are not available ... according to the manual the discrete values available are: 12, 16, 24, 32, 40, 48, 60, 70). It is unclear to me why the car limits the MC120 to 15A when 16A is really the chosen value *AND* 16A being de-rated 80% of the common 20A breaker. Anyway ... if 15A is all that's being drawn from (possibly) multiple outlets on the same 20A breaker you'll be ok. The MC240 has intelligence so it tells the car how much current it can supply, and ( I believe ) the VDS is smart enough to lock out current choices above the maximum communicated via the pilot signal from the MC or HPC (which with some re-configuration can be set to output less than 70A). For the MC120 choices above 16A are locked out. (Note: the old HPC had a user accessible dial to change maximum output. The new ClipperCreek unit does not -- it needs to be configured by Tesla or ClipperCreek.)
There's no way any cable or connector can make more voltage come out of an outlet. There's always some voltage drop across any cable run, never an increase. When connected to an MC120 (120V) you can set the car to draw either 12A or 15A, but not higher. Legally EVs are supposed to draw no more than 80% of an outlet's rated capacity, so that means 12A for a NEMA 5-15 or 15A for a NEMA 5-20. You could plug into a standard US household NEMA 5-15 outlet and set the car to draw 15A, but that would be naughty (and possibly unsafe).
Stuart has a point. Even though many (?most) houses use 20A breakers they are being used in conjunction with 5-15 receptacles (outlets). So you should not continuously draw 15A from a single receptacle (which usually comes in a dual outlet configuration) -- even though that's their rating (with hopefully some conservative slack built-in). That's the code anyway. But the question should be asked, then why do you frequently find wiring rated for only 15A from the multiple receptacles back to the single 20A breaker -- drawing even 8A each continuously from two different receptacles won't trip the breaker, but you are sharing the 15A rated wire all the way to the panel ?
I don't think the code was really designed expecting people to max out multiple outlets at once. These days with many 12A appliances (microwaves, hair dryers, MC120s, even vacuum cleaners) the chances of overloading a circuit seem higher than ever.
From what I have seen, older houses tend to string more outlets per breaker, and newer ones try to have a large panel with more breakers. I would say, particularly with older houses, it is a good idea to see if you can find what other outlets are chained to the breaker you use with the MC120. You don't want someone to turn on a vacuum, microwave, air conditioner or other high current load at the same time.
If you find this, it would be in violation of the NEC. All wiring from a 20 amp breaker must be 12 guage (20 amp rated). If there are multiple duplex receptacles fed from a 20 amp breaker they should be NEMA 5-15 receptacles, if there is only one duplex or simplex receptacle on a 20 amp circuit it should be a NEMA 5-20. This gives a clear indication that the outlet can provide greater than 12 amps.
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