MC 120 options

[Stefan T]

.....pilot.....
L1 .........L2
....Ground...

is the layout of the roadster connector

 

[gregd]

I believe I read somewhere that the two hots aren't interchangeable when running on 120v. Perhaps try swapping them? On the Yellow cable, the one on the right is the 5-15 hot, and the one to the left is the 5-15 neutral, with the ground pin on top when looking into the end of the charging cable. So, clockwise from the Pilot is Neutral, Ground, Hot. The car is the mirror image, of course.

Please be careful and don't blow something up.

 

[X.l.r.8]

I’m using the Tesla plug not the roadster, I had a suspicion the hot had to be to a dedicated phase. Thankyou for all the pointers, I’ll swap the hot and neutral, if that fails I’ll swap the purple which I believe is the pilot for the orange, I should not assume the pilot is the same colour in the model S as it is in the roadster.

 

[X.l.r.8]

The world is much simpler with a multi meter. No continuity from the pilot wire to the pilot terminal. Somewhere in the wire it’s lost communication, not sure how as it’s pretty securely fastened, the only thing I can see is the pin is not crimped. That maybe why the UMC Was deemed a faulty unit. Would be a shame if that was all. I couldn’t check the wire as there was a lot of damage trying to cut down to the socket. The tiny iron I have is warming on the bench, it’s the only one I can get in there with, the big 70W is a bit to clumsy for this one. Hopefully this will be it

 

[X.l.r.8]

@gregd im not sure if having the hot and nuetral swapped makes any difference but my original wiring is exactly as you described so I feel 2 brains are better than one. The pilot has continuity and finally I have a $50 mc120. I can lock the Can Sr to the car and the worst thing that can happen is someone takes my $50 lead, I get 50km per night shift so after my 4 nights I have no need to charge. The condo are taking about installing 14-50 @$5000 per install so between my house HPWC and work, and a couple of 80Amp chargers 1/2 way between my condo and anywhere I frequently travel I have my charging needs covered

 

[X.l.r.8]

Crude but it works, time to take it apart and recrimp the terminals and then set it in silicone

 

[X.l.r.8]

As I have fuses in my garage I didn’t want to let it run at 16A so it’s humming quite nicely at 12A

 

[slcasner]

Unfortunately, I don't know how the pilot signal is wired in the Model S connector.

 

[gregd]

Yea!

Just curious, but 116v seems a tad low. What are your mains running up there? You might check to be sure all your connections are tight.

 

[X.l.r.8]

110v

 

[X.l.r.8]

Actually it’s 120v but I have the connectors in terminal blocks so the resistance is pretty high.

 

[gregd]

Actually it’s 120v but I have the connectors in terminal blocks so the resistance is pretty high.

That's what I was worried about. If you're dropping 4+ volts at 12 amps, that's a bunch of heat that needs to go somewhere. If it's concentrated in a connection, that connection will fail and/or start a fire. I only drop a volt at twice that current (240v mains).

 

[X.l.r.8]

Luckily that connection is/was a temporary one to prove it would finally work.