Conversion Tesla Adapter to Mennekes socket

[Eberhard]

I visit my nearest public charging station with 32A current at the ADAC Fahrsicherheitszentrum in Nohra Thuringia close to Erfurt/Weimar.
Only to find out, that this was a new 7-pole Mennekes plus Schuko-socket with 16A.

I was disappointed not being able to charge at all, because i had only my UMC with me.
32A cut the time to charge in half dispite the fact, that i could not charge there with 3-phase too. I send a message to my Tesla customer officer to ask for an adapter for those Mennekes socket. He was very sorry for not being able to support me with this kind of socket, because not being an approved standard.
I also talked to some employee from RWE eMobility. He confirmed, that they have some handmade adapters for their Tesla Roadster.

With growing numbers of RWE charging stations in Germany it makes more and more sense to get a working adapters.

Who is able to make conversion or has more information about the used protocol?

 

[dpeilow]

It is an approved standard by VDE.

 

[widodh]

Wiring the connector shouldn't be the hardest problem, but it's the communication with the charging station isn't it?

But Tesla seems to support the DC charging and the J1772 standard, so it's a bit of a lame excuse to say "It's not a standard"

 

[widodh]

I got a call today from Tesla NL and they told me that a Mennekes adapter is available here in the Netherlands.

The Roadster of my colleague will be there in 2 weeks. I'll make a picture of it and upload. If the connector works, you might be able to order one at them or I could ship it for you.

 

[Talkredius]

The connector can be dismantled. The problem is that the wires are crimped into the pins of the connector and therefore cannot be easily changed. You will have to buy the $1500 mobile connector to get wires rated to 70A.
Pictures of the connector tear down here: http://wegmuller.org/v-web/gallery/MC120TearDown (the gallery has two pages).

his homepage looks as if he could build a Tesla connector from scratch:smile:

Mennekes is developing an adaptor, but I'm not sure if I want to use the RWE charging stations, you have to have a contract with RWE, pay a monthly bill about 19 EUR and no roaming yet. Their charging stations are at places, where I wouldn't need them, towns, parking garages, ADAC. ADAC, what should I do there with my Roadster ?:smile:
Do they at least offer a coffee ?
Better places (for me) would be motorway stations at the autobahn.
Last year I asked a motorway station group about charging, answer was : ask next year.

Best solution of course would be the 3 phase mobile charger. From now on I will include that in my morning prayers. :smile:
There are so many nice private charging stations in lemnet.org. I took some pictures and will promote them as soon as I have more time in a different thread.

 

[Eberhard]

Yes, i got a free cup of coffee. The charging-station is from E.ON Thuringia not RWE. Another player in the market is vattenfall.
I was the first who wanted a charge after being opened three month ago.

I want to install another 32A CEE in my underground garage, would prefer to do it with the new Mennekes.

JB Straubel promised me 3-phase charging for Model S, hope the will have Mennekes.

 

[Fuzzylogic]

Up to 16A there is no communication needed. The roadster will default to 16A if there is no control pilot signal present.
If you want to charge at a higher Amperage, then you just connect the pilot pin of the Tesla connector to the CP pin of the Mennekes connector.

There is no conversion needed for the control pilot signal, The signal is the same in Europe.

I'm planning on making a 16A Mennekes -> Tesla charge cable. I have the cables, now find some time to buildt it.

 

[GSP]

Martin Eberhard's thorough documentation of his "Roadster Foundry" mobile EVSE may be helpful for building a Mennekes adaptor. Here is a link:

http://www.teslamotorsclub.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=468&d=1257844780

GSP

 

[Eberhard]

I was thinking about a plug for the Mennekes with the signal for 32A and a short cord to a red CEE 400V/32A socket for my UMC cabel with CEE 400V/32A plug.

 

[jkirkebo]

I was thinking about a plug for the Mennekes with the signal for 32A and a short cord to a red CEE 400V/32A socket for my UMC cabel with CEE 400V/32A plug.

Isn't the communications protocol identical ? A simple Mennekes-Tesla cable with NO electronics at all should suffice ? Just like the simple J1772 adapter someone made ?

I guess the problem is getting a 70A rated Tesla connector. A Mennekes-cable/connector should be easy enough to aquire.

 

[widodh]

I hope I'll have the "Dutch" Tesla<>Mennekes converter by next week so I can check out how they've done it.

But from what I read here, it's just a matter of connector the Mennekes signal wire to the Tesla signal wire?

 

[dpeilow]

Here's a Roadster plugged into a Mennekes outlet. No Electronics.

Tesla, Menekkes and J1772 are basically electrically the same in single phase mode.

 

[AndrewBissell]

The best option for a European Roadster upgrade is to fit a J1772 socket to the car (see tomsax's account of that) and carry a Mennekes to J1772 cable (this is forseen in the standard) plus a UMC with a J1772 in place of the Tesla connector.

This way you can charge from:
- J1772 directly (using the cable attached to the EVSE)
- Mennekes (using the cable you brought along)
- Wild sockets (using the J-UMC)

The above all assuming (reasonably) that there will never be a 3-phase input PEM upgrade for the Roadster.

 

[Eberhard]

a vienna -3phase rectifier is smaller as the single-phase high current charger - why not replacing it? the PEM need a redesign anyway - the blower for the PEM is only IP33 and not a reliable component. if the warranty is expired, i can do what its needed to be done.

 

[AndrewBissell]

Hi Eberhard - I knew you would say this . If you can get your friends Elon and JB to do it, great! I'll probably buy it. But my post was about what we can practically do now before that wonderful day!

 

[Eberhard]

Then we have to go straight to the mennekes system - socket and plug

 

[EV_de]

Charging the Roadster - EU Style

finaly found a German supplier for EV - charging parts , incl. "Mennekes" Port's / Plug's / Cables a.s.o. ...

Walther-Werke Ferdinand Walther GmbH: Startseite

.
.

 

[widodh]

We picked up the Roadster of my colleague today and I asked about the Mennekes connector cable. There is a Dutch company, EV-Box which seems to have these cables, but I'm not sure if it's a real Tesla <> Mennekes connector or just a adapter for the Mobile charger, thus limiting to 16A.

I'll give them a call tomorrow and ask about this.

For now, the Roadster is being charged at 32A at a regular (blue, 1-phase) CEE outlet.

 

[widodh]

Just spoke to EV-Box, they don't have a Mennekes <> Tesla cable, for the simple reason, the Tesla connector is not freely available.

But they do sell Mennekes <> CEE, with a resistor in the Mennekes connector, one for 16A and one for 32A. They are going to send me one so I can charge the Roadster in The Netherlands at E-Laad at 16A and RWE in Germany at 32A.

 

[Eberhard]

Thats want I want do have too. What is the price for the adapter?