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#121
Look in the roadster's J1772 conversion thread. If your roadster is a 2.x you will need at least 10' of cable attached to that inlet. That has been the major stumbling block for me and Tom. (sourcing the cable) He has already made the adaptor and tested it with his roadster. If you are wanting to do this quicker, PM Tom.
 
#122
W.Petefish said:
Look in the roadster's J1772 conversion thread. If your roadster is a 2.x you will need at least 10' of cable attached to that inlet. That has been the major stumbling block for me and Tom. (sourcing the cable) He has already made the adaptor and tested it with his roadster. If you are wanting to do this quicker, PM Tom.
Click to expand...
What is the spec on that cable? I have some EVSE UL rated cable rated for 80A. Use a waterproof crimp splice. Not sure it's the same spec as what runs from the inlet to the PEM but it looks exactly like the short cable that comes with the inlet.
 
#123
6 and 22 gauge wires with 5 conductors. (3 of which are 6GA) All sealed in neoprene. The inlet on the 2.x just uses a 19mm diameter hole and ring terminals on the end. The 1.x has a special connector on the end that goes into the PEM. (That is after you get into the crimped pins on the inlet.)

Could we please keep on track with this topic or at least post this discussion in the J1772 conversion thread.
 
#124
I'm in the process of building my new house and I'm currently thinking about my EVSE.

I want to build it myself so I can mount a Mennekes / Type 2 socket in the wall of my garage/shed. This way I park the Model S near it and simply plug the car "in the wall" and the charging starts.

In this topic: Charging in the Netherlands I showed the kWh/Amp meter I'm using, it has a Mbus port which could supply the EVSE with information.

I'm not a real small electronics guy, so this is a bit new f or me. Any ideas on how I could fix this?

I have 3x40A at home and I'll make it a 3-phase 32A EVSE, regardless whether the Model S will support 3-phase charging.
 
#125
Chris1howell said:
The Tuscon EV plugs are Okay but still to expensive, some LEAF owners have had trouble disconnecting that plug. It also is not UL listed.

I prefer the UL listed ITT cable. It is $260 (still too expensive) sold at AVNET. https://avnetexpress.avnet.com/store/em/EMController/_/A-13470751/An-0?action=part&langId=-1&catalogId=500201&storeId=500201
Click to expand...
Chris, I've been going back and forth with the manufacturer of the plugs TucsonEV sells on their website. They mentioned to me yesterday that UL approval is on its way, and the process should be complete in January 2012. I asked about the problems raised on the MNL forum, and they assured me that the proximity function has been implemented and the plug was redesigned in March 2011 to make sure that the latch does not get stuck.

I believe that Kevin Sharpe is using this manufacturer for his initiative in the UK, and I would argue that we should give this a go after UL approval. If we did a group order, a price point of $125 for the 32A set and $150 for the 70A set should be achievable. I'd willing to take this on and execute a group order if there was enough interest. We should target 25 sets or more for the order.
 
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#129
W.Petefish said:
Less. They use around, I think, 3-20mA where contactors use around 200mA and use AC rather than DC. (at least most)
Click to expand...

I was building a new HPC over the holidays and the question arose again about which is better - SSR or contactor. I've looked at a few datasheets and it appears that contactors are much more efficient for high current loads. While the control signal for the SSR is only 3-20ma, they produce a lot of waste heat due to much higher on-resistance. An EVSE is probably not a good application for them. The only disadvantages of a contactor such as shorter cycle life are not a problem because we're almost never switching a load. It gets turned on before the car starts to draw power, and turns off after the car stops drawing power.
 
#131
You can construct a hybrid switch by switching a SSR first and following with a relay to minimize the on resistance. Then to disconnect drop the relay and then follow with the SSR. Your relay can be of lesser quality because its contacts do not take any heavy arcing. The SSR will not get hot because it only works for a brief period. I think it would be overkill for an EVSE.
 
#132
efxjim said:
You can construct a hybrid switch by switching a SSR first and following with a relay to minimize the on resistance. Then to disconnect drop the relay and then follow with the SSR. Your relay can be of lesser quality because its contacts do not take any heavy arcing. The SSR will not get hot because it only works for a brief period. I think it would be overkill for an EVSE.
Click to expand...

Why bother? There is no arcing with the contactor alone if the system is working properly. It always connects and disconnects while there is no load. The EV is supposed to drop the pilot voltage to 6v when it's ready to start taking current. It doesn't start instantly at that point - there is supposed to be enough delay to give time for the contactor to close if it didn't already do so when the EV was first connected.
 
#133
Chris has anybody actually been able to get your board to work charging a Roadster? The reason I ask is that I think I found a bug. The TVS that you used on the pilot signal is uni-directional which won't allow the signal to go below -0.7v instead of -12v. You can see this in your O-scope display. I designed my own schematic about a year ago that is virtually identical to yours except no GFI and no TVS. Since then I've made a couple new boards and added your GFI circuit and the TVS. My Roadster wouldn't charge until I made the TVS bi-directional by adding a second one. I think you could also use P/N P6KE16C but haven't tried.

I haven't posted any comments to the open EVSE site about this because I didn't build the exact same circuit and I don't think the Leaf and Volt care if the square wave goes below 0 (but they should!). Has anyone else run into this?

Thanks again for your contribution.

Chris1howell said:
Sure can... If you look at the board a few posts up you will see a set of unused pads top and bottom. The top set has +5v, GND, A5, and A4. Those are i2c pins. The bottom set is GND, +5v, and 3 Digital pins which can be used for SPI. Thers is also a FTDI port which has GND, +5v, TX, and RX. I have used a basic LCD with both i2c and SPI and a touchscreen LCD with i2c. I am using the FTDI port for bluetooth so I have not done basic serial with a LCD, but would be very easy to do without modification.

View attachment 3569

View attachment 3570
Click to expand...
 
#134
Thanks for the input hcsharp. The TVS should be a bi-directional P6KE16CA. You are correct it is listed as a generic P6KE16 in the schematic but it is correct in the wiki parts list. I will update the schematic so it is more clear. The Open EVSE boards that i built all have the correct bi-directional TVS part.

Several people have completed EVSEs, but I am not sure if any own or tested on a roadster.
 
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#137
EVSE is done. I'm finishing up on an instructable now. You may also want to have the power to your house analyzed for line voltage spikes as they can blow fuses. (speaking from personal experience which was unrelated to EVSE building. got that?!)
 
#138
Awesome... I am looking forward to the instructable...

I am working on an instructable also. I am building an EVSE "shield" for Arduino to enter into the Arduino contest...

6936540027_d3529887b9_z.jpg
 
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