J1772 Charging for the Tesla Roadster

[tomsax]

Any plans to make the brackets available to a larger audience?

I'll find a way to share our bracket with the community for other owners who want to do the same conversion.

At this point I would recommend that other owners wait before embarking on the conversion route. In addition to getting the full information about Tesla's adapter, there are a few issues I'd like to resolve before encouraging others to convert.

If anyone is anxious to get started right away, please contact me so I can help you avoid some potential problems.

 

[dwegmull]

Hi,

I am trying to open to open the last part of the Tesla plug. Is the screw-thread clockwise or counter-clock wise?

It is a normal screw, counter clockwise as viewed from the top, unscrews. My was very hard to get out. I mean to the point where I almost gave up on it completely!

 

[tomsax]

Tesla's J1772 Adapter Announced

Tesla finally announced their J1772 adapter. It's what they showed in Bellevue last month and sells for $750.

http://shop.teslamotors.com/collections/charging/products/j1772-connector

It can handle 70A charging, leaves the J1772 plug on the ground, and ignores the proximity signal.

A firmware update is required for 2010 Roadsters. In the US, that means VINs greater than 500.

 

[dwegmull]

I just got an Email from TMC about it. One of the included pictures shows the J1772 connector "draped" over the driver side rear view mirror...

 

[dhrivnak]

J1772 arrived today

The J1772 adapter arrived today and looks like it will nicely do the job. It has about 4'of cable, and it appears I should be able to connect a NEMA 14-50 and a Male J1772 to make my onw universal cable to charge at up to 50 amps, giving MANY options. :biggrin:

 

[dpeilow]

You will need a pilot signal generator in such a setup.

 

[dhrivnak]

Success today on two different J1772 chargers in Knoxville TN. My 2008, with the new Tesla adapter cable, charged at a Eaton and Columb chargers. Both were limited to 30 amps however. The place is the Electric Power Research Institute and they have 6 stations powered by a solar array. Our tax $$ at work!

I found out that the 2008's also need a firmware update, not yet created, to charge at the Nissan branded J1772 chargers.

 

[AndrewBissell]

So is the J1772 standard less standard between vendors than it should be? All this talk of firmware upgrades to deal with specific vendors EVSEs suggests so.

 

[strider]

So is the J1772 standard less standard between vendors than it should be? All this talk of firmware upgrades to deal with specific vendors EVSEs suggests so.

Since the Roadster was built before the standard was finalized it's not surprising that it would need a software update to bring it into compliance. This is common with technologies (We went through the same thing with Wi-Fi with the 802.11n standard for instance).

 

[samcarney]

Success today on two different J1772 chargers in Knoxville TN. My 2008, with the new Tesla adapter cable, charged at a Eaton and Columb chargers. Both were limited to 30 amps however. The place is the Electric Power Research Institute and they have 6 stations powered by a solar array. Our tax $$ at work!

I found out that the 2008's also need a firmware update, not yet created, to charge at the Nissan branded J1772 chargers.

Are these charging stations in Knoxville open to the public? I did not see them listed on the Coulomb Chargepoint website. I am planning a business trip from the Chicago area and this will be a good place to charge while I am in town. I got the firmware upgrade from Tesla when I picked up the J1772 adapter. Do the 2010 2.0 Roadsters need a firmware upgrade for the Nissan chargers?

 

[tomsax]

So is the J1772 standard less standard between vendors than it should be? All this talk of firmware upgrades to deal with specific vendors EVSEs suggests so.

Although the pilot signal is exactly the same, the Roadster only had to be compatible with the HPC which doesn't implement every possible current level. It only produces pilot signals at a handful of known levels and nothing above 70A. After the HPC, the MC240, RFMC and UMS were all designed to work with the Roadster. Now we've got all sorts of equipment that has a 30A limit, a new value, and the CS-100 that has a 75A limit, all new territory.

As a software developer, I understand how you can program as carefully as you like but you won't know if things work correctly with a new situation until you try it. Until recently, there was no way to test these other conditions.

Of course, ChargePoint and Clipper Creek charging stations have been out in the wild since at least mid-2010, so one wonders why it took Tesla so long to figure out the issues. I'm stunned that they shipped the adapter without testing against the CS-100.

 

[TEG]

Looks like this Roadster contest winner did a photo-op with a J1772 ChargePoint trying to plug into a Roadster:
InterPark - Park Green Sweepstakes - Home

http://www.interparkgreen.com/images/Winners_Short.jpg
I guess that the contest sponsor wasn't able to plug the grand prize directly into their own charging infrastructure...

 

[vfx]

She seems plenty happy though.

 

[mpt]

Amphenol Amphe-Power connectors used by Tesla

For posterity I've uploaded the PDF from Amphenol here.

View attachment SL-391_RADSOK.pdf

 

[cinergi]

FWIW, I'm told the firmware upgrade breaks compatibility with the MC240 (not the UMC).

 

[dhrivnak]

Are these charging stations in Knoxville open to the public?

The Electric Power Research Institute (942 Corridor Park Blvd.) in Knoxville appears to be open to the public. I have visited twice and both times they have 5 out of 6 chargers open. They are right off of I75

EPRI | Office Maps Knoxville, TN

I really wish there was a place where we could plot and keep an update of all charging locations that people find.

 

[tennis_trs]

FWIW, I'm told the firmware upgrade breaks compatibility with the MC240 (not the UMC).

The new firmware they put on my 2.0 Sport a few weeks ago broke compatibility with my MC240, so Tesla gave me a UMC.

 

[dpeilow]

I really wish there was a place where we could plot and keep an update of all charging locations that people find.

Kevin...?

 

[Kevin Sharpe]

Kevin...?

please contribute your data to the Open Charge Map database using the "Want to submit a charging point?" link... this database is used by apps such as EV Charger Finder.

The database is free and open, and supporting it will help ensure that your data is available to all...

 

[tomsax]

I really wish there was a place where we could plot and keep an update of all charging locations that people find.

I like recargo and have been using it to enter all of the useful charging stations I know about. It has better filtering than EV Charger Finder, catalogs NEMA 14-50 (RV parks, hotels, etc.) and NEMA 5-15 (awesome at long-term airport parking lots), and allows for user reports and photos.

Recargo was founded by another Tesla Roadster owner. Perhaps the two could share data? (Maybe recargo does import the Open Charge Map since a quick inspection of the Washington data suggests recargo's data is a superset.)