Non Tesla on a supercharger?

[MrBadger]

Is there any need for the RF transmitter? That only opens the charge port which a brief tap of the charge port also achieves. The stop/unlock charge port is the more cumbersome function and if I understand correctly, those are done via the pilot signal?

 

[Jeeves]

Thanks very much for the info and links.

I think this might be above my pay grade as a former software guy. I was hoping to simply stick a battery operated button onto the tethered cable of my home charger that replicates the open charge port functionality of the Tesla plug. When getting out of the car, I often forget to open the charge port. I find tapping the door to be hit and miss, it only works if the car is unlocked and it sometimes manages to lock itself by the time I get round the back.

I know next to nothing about AC electrics, so I would be very wary of taking apart my charger and modifying it.

 

[DaminGJ]

Thanks very much for the info and links.

I think this might be above my pay grade as a former software guy. I was hoping to simply stick a battery operated button onto the tethered cable of my home charger that replicates the open charge port functionality of the Tesla plug. When getting out of the car, I often forget to open the charge port. I find tapping the door to be hit and miss, it only works if the car is unlocked and it sometimes manages to lock itself by the time I get round the back.

I know next to nothing about AC electrics, so I would be very wary of taking apart my charger and modifying it.

I take you don’t have a Tesla wall charger. If you google eve charging cables there is a company that will sell a simple mod kit that will add the Tesla function to any type 2 charging cable. A reply furthe up in the post mentions it. They will be able to give more info.

 

[Glan gluaisne]

Is there any need for the RF transmitter? That only opens the charge port which a brief tap of the charge port also achieves. The stop/unlock charge port is the more cumbersome function and if I understand correctly, those are done via the pilot signal?

No, it's pretty easy to just add a push button to stop the charge/unlatch the connector. Just needs to be wired in to the proximity pilot line in the connector, which isn't hazardous as this is just a low voltage signalling line, that never sees mains potential. I could draw up a diagram to show how to do this if it might help.

I take you don’t have a Tesla wall charger. If you google eve charging cables there is a company that will sell a simple mod kit that will add the Tesla function to any type 2 charging cable. A reply furthe up in the post mentions it. They will be able to give more info.

I posted links to the kits earlier in this thread, in this post: Non Tesla on a supercharger?

 

[Jason71]

Thanks very much for the info and links.

I think this might be above my pay grade as a former software guy. I was hoping to simply stick a battery operated button onto the tethered cable of my home charger that replicates the open charge port functionality of the Tesla plug. When getting out of the car, I often forget to open the charge port. I find tapping the door to be hit and miss, it only works if the car is unlocked and it sometimes manages to lock itself by the time I get round the back.

I know next to nothing about AC electrics, so I would be very wary of taking apart my charger and modifying it.

Mine is a bit too easy to open sometimes. I did it twice with the pressure washer last week which was not ideal.
but I agree just being present with a phone is not enough you have to have recently actually opened a door for the flap tap to work. which is fine if you just exited the car but not so good if you go out to the car specifically to put it on charge.

 

[Jeeves]

Just needs to be wired in to the proximity pilot line in the connector, which isn't hazardous as this is just a low voltage signalling line, that never sees mains potential.

I’m sure that must seem entirely straightforward to someone experienced with these matters like you. Sounds complicated and scary to me.

I’ve looked at the instructions for the mini connector kit. Looks about the same difficulty as wiring an old domestic 3-pin plug when that used to be a thing for your average householder, so it should be within scope for me. Thanks again for the links.

Does the car need to be unlocked for the button to open the charge port?

I ask because my main problem is that the car sometimes locks itself before I’m ready to plug it in, so tapping the charge port door doesn’t work. I normally find this out when I already have the connector in my hand making it awkward to use the phone or watch to open it.

 

[Drew57]

I've just put a discreet NFC tag on the inside (house) front door frame, tap the phone to it & by the time I get to the car the port is open/unlocked. There's another on the side of the charger.

 

[Jeeves]

I've just put a discreet NFC tag on the inside (house) front door frame, tap the phone to it & by the time I get to the car the port is open/unlocked. There's another on the side of the charger.

Thanks for the constructive suggestion. I achieve the same thing on the way out of the house via Siri or apps. I must be missing the point on NFC tags, but I genuinely don’t understand what’s more convenient about them.

In any event, the issue I’m hoping the button would resolve is specifically not to have to fiddle with a phone when your hand is full of charging connector. Hardly a life-threatening problem I know.

 

[Drew57]

I used Siri at first but sometimes it took ages or didn't work at all, for me tags seem much faster & more reliable.

 

[Jeeves]

Thanks, maybe I should just try one for the heck of it.

 

[Glan gluaisne]

I’m sure that must seem entirely straightforward to someone experienced with these matters like you. Sounds complicated and scary to me.

I’ve looked at the instructions for the mini connector kit. Looks about the same difficulty as wiring an old domestic 3-pin plug when that used to be a thing for your average householder, so it should be within scope for me. Thanks again for the links.

Does the car need to be unlocked for the button to open the charge port?

I ask because my main problem is that the car sometimes locks itself before I’m ready to plug it in, so tapping the charge port door doesn’t work. I normally find this out when I already have the connector in my hand making it awkward to use the phone or watch to open it.

Adding a button to unlatch the plug is no harder than fitting the kit, as doing this is a part of fitting the basic (the cheaper) kit, anyway. The main challenges in fitting the kits (either of them) is dealing with the wire terminations, as they need a fairly hefty crimping tool (I have a hand held hydraulic one that does a reasonably good job).

The car does need to be awake for the charge port to open using the button, not sure if it also needs to be unlocked, as I usually have the fob in my pocket and walk away lock enabled, so the chances are that the car won't have locked itself. I do know that the button won't open the charge port if the car's asleep, as I've tried this once or twice, and found that I needed to do the "touch the rear door handle" trick to get it to wake up (with the fob in my pocket).

 

[MrBadger]

One of the latest software releases (iirc .24) was meant to wake the car when the button was pressed to avoid the need for nudging the rear door handle but I must say that on the couple of occasions I've charged since I've not noticed the car being any more responsive to wake, in fact, quite the opposite at times - main screen particularly sluggish at times. 3/Y seem to wake up/unlock charge port now by pressing J1772 release button

In addition, iirc 2020.32.x introduced the charge port unlocking when charge finished and car unlocked but its quite possibly DC/CCS charge only (confirmed) but I'm not sure why its not AC/type 2 too so maybe that will do away with the need for the button anyway. [UK] 2020.32.x

 

[Jason71]

I've just put a discreet NFC tag on the inside (house) front door frame, tap the phone to it & by the time I get to the car the port is open/unlocked. There's another on the side of the charger.

Thats a cool idea. Are you using IOS or Android and what app are you using? I assume something like Tasker could do this on Android.

 

[NorfolkMustard]

Thats a cool idea. Are you using IOS or Android and what app are you using? I assume something like Tasker could do this on Android.

This is relevant I think.

 

[bitmanEV]

but I'm not sure why its not AC/type 2 too so maybe that will do away with the need for the button anyway. [UK] 2020.32.x

Glad it's not as when charging on a Pod Point AC post that will mean some one could just take your expensive AC cable home...
The Pod Point AC post will unlock the Type Socket when unplugging the AC cable from the car while a Chargemaster AC post needs to be unlocked with the RFID card to unlock the AC cable from the post

My MK1 Leaf for example isn't locking the AC socket on the car so not leaving the car unattended plugged in when using a Pod Point AC post while no issues with the Chargemaster AC post as even when the AC cable is removed from the car it's still locked on the AC Chargemaster post

 

[JIBYC]

This is relevant I think.

I didn't fancy modifying my Rolec unit to add a button so combined this with an app that remaps the redundant Bixby button on the Samsung S series to unlock the charge port from the phone.

It work with the phone screen off as well.

You'll need the following:

Tasker
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.dinglisch.android.taskerm

Tesla Tasker Plugin
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.crazydog.teslatasker

bxActions
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.jamworks.bxactions

 

[MrBadger]

Glad it's not as when charging on a Pod Point AC post that will mean some one could just take your expensive AC cable home...

The car needs to be unlocked so they can only nick the cable if you are inside or next to it. No different I would have thought than someone delving through your boot.

 

[NorfolkMustard]

Glad it's not as when charging on a Pod Point AC post that will mean some one could just take your expensive AC cable home...
The Pod Point AC post will unlock the Type Socket when unplugging the AC cable from the car while a Chargemaster AC post needs to be unlocked with the RFID card to unlock the AC cable from the post

My MK1 Leaf for example isn't locking the AC socket on the car so not leaving the car unattended plugged in when using a Pod Point AC post while no issues with the Chargemaster AC post as even when the AC cable is removed from the car it's still locked on the AC Chargemaster post

The car also needs to be unlocked for this auto-port-unlock to happen.

 

[Drew57]

Thats a cool idea. Are you using IOS or Android and what app are you using? I assume something like Tasker could do this on Android.

I use the Tesla Remote watch app & Siri Shortcuts with iPhone 11 but I believe there are several Android options as well.

Each NFC shortcut can be one instruction or several but 'wake car' will always be used first. So for instance one tag could trigger to 'wake car, unlock doors, open charge port, set charge limit to 80%', another 'wake car, unlock charge port, reduce charge limit to 50%' (which would stop charging at any level above 50% & allow you to remove the plug). No need to open the app for any of these but the phone needs to be awake as you touch it to the tag.

 

[M3-Newbie]

This is relevant I think.

wow! I thought NFC was pointless for Tesla, but actually this is pretty cool! I also didn’t know iPhone could program these - we use NFC to give out wifi passwords in hotel - just a tap and users have the code but when we set it up 2 years ago iPhone could only read them and not write so this is cool!

also sold me on the stats app...!