No clue. My OpenEVSE came with a beige metal enclosure, not the poly one they offer now. There are no markings or button legend on my enclosure. I don't use the OpenEVSE menu often since the car's charging scheduler does everything I need. I just plug it in and the car kicks off charging overnight.
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No clue. My OpenEVSE came with a beige metal enclosure, not the poly one they offer now. There are no markings or button legend on my enclosure. I don't use the OpenEVSE menu often since the car's charging scheduler does everything I need. I just plug it in and the car kicks off charging overnight.
wiztecy
Active Member
Are you talking about the MC120? If so, yes I agree 100% that 110 thing is garbage failing with the GFCI. I can't find one post of a MC240 gone bad on TMC or in the Internet. Since I've been a member, which is after you, I've not come across one single post about a failing MC240. UMCs and MC120s, a big YES. I've used and stressed my MC240 pretty good and quite confident in it. The thing held up to the task every day without any charging issue at all. Used my MC120 about 4 times and don't have any confidence in it.
Possibly my search string is wrong, used "bad", "failing" and "MC240" as my keys as well as "GFI" and "GFCI".
Good link for OpenEVSE questions and understanding the logic behind it:
Support : OpenEVSE Support
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Msjulie
Active Member
Anyone looking for parts, I offer my stock roadster yellow 110 charger cable...
Yep I have 2 CAN adapters and an S charger and a juice box at home so I'm good to go
Yep I have 2 CAN adapters and an S charger and a juice box at home so I'm good to go
Right, but no other way to charge at 120v. We took a side trip to visit my then-future in-laws last year, and ended up staying over night. Pulled the car into the garage and hooked up to the 120v outlet. Car was charged in the morning. It wasn't a panic situation, but handy. 240v was not available, CAN adapter or not... Your choice, of course, and I'm a pack rat by nature, but just the same, I'd keep it.
Msjulie
Active Member
Yep the Model S thing w/the CAN I have for it lets me charge via wall outlet but so far I've had great luck with the other CAN and my existing juicebox 50amp charger (previously feeding our leased EV), and free chargepoint at work to boot! 
Slight drift in topic, as an update...
The OpenEVSE kit has arrived, and is being assembled. So far, so good, but a potential problem...
The NEC apparently specifies that EVSE equipment needs to have a 4-wire connection (two 240V hots, Neutral, and separate Ground). My Dryer plug in the garage (10-30 style) doesn't have the ground, only the neutral. Researching various sites I read that the OpenEVSE needs the ground, and not the neutral (which is left unconnected). So, how to hook it up?
Since my UMC is working just fine with the 10-30 plug via its 30 Amp pigtail, I presume it is possible for this to work. I think the answer is just to use the Neutral line from the 10-30 plug as ground, even though this isn't proper, but want to check with someone more enlightened on this sort of topic before plugging it in. The alternative is that I do have a cold water pipe (a legendary, if not factual ground connection) handy, if that will help.
Besides "call your electrician" (which I have done), what do you suggest?
The OpenEVSE kit has arrived, and is being assembled. So far, so good, but a potential problem...
The NEC apparently specifies that EVSE equipment needs to have a 4-wire connection (two 240V hots, Neutral, and separate Ground). My Dryer plug in the garage (10-30 style) doesn't have the ground, only the neutral. Researching various sites I read that the OpenEVSE needs the ground, and not the neutral (which is left unconnected). So, how to hook it up?
Since my UMC is working just fine with the 10-30 plug via its 30 Amp pigtail, I presume it is possible for this to work. I think the answer is just to use the Neutral line from the 10-30 plug as ground, even though this isn't proper, but want to check with someone more enlightened on this sort of topic before plugging it in. The alternative is that I do have a cold water pipe (a legendary, if not factual ground connection) handy, if that will help.
Besides "call your electrician" (which I have done), what do you suggest?
Wikipedia has a bit about the history of this:
NEMA connector - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
As commonly used, 10-30 and 10-50 plugs have the frame of the appliance grounded through the neutral blade. This was a legal grounding method under the National Electrical Code for electric ranges and clothes dryers from the 1947 to the 1996 edition. Since North American dryers and ranges have certain parts (timers, lights, fans, etc.) that run on 120 V, this means that the wire used for grounding is also carrying current. Although this is contrary to modern grounding practice, such installations remain common in older homes the United States.
Can you pound in a grounding rod outside your garage and run a ground wire to the EVSE?
NEMA connector - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
As commonly used, 10-30 and 10-50 plugs have the frame of the appliance grounded through the neutral blade. This was a legal grounding method under the National Electrical Code for electric ranges and clothes dryers from the 1947 to the 1996 edition. Since North American dryers and ranges have certain parts (timers, lights, fans, etc.) that run on 120 V, this means that the wire used for grounding is also carrying current. Although this is contrary to modern grounding practice, such installations remain common in older homes the United States.
Can you pound in a grounding rod outside your garage and run a ground wire to the EVSE?
I had difficulties with charging until a fully qualified electrician brought my house up to current standards for grounding. My ground for the house is now connected to both the cold water pipes and grounding rods. My thought on this is: do it strictly according to current codes - better safe than sorry, especially with your precious Roadster!
I met with the electrician this afternoon, and it appears that the dryer circuit is separate from anything else (as apparently it should be). What that means is that the neutral and ground are effectively the same thing, since they should be tied together at the panel and (given that I don't run the car and dryer at the same time) there's nothing that would run current down that one wire to cause a voltage differential. So, run the neutral / ground wire to the EVSE ground post and it should work, though not proper by current code.
Now, to the question of how to do it right, we're looking at upgrading the panel from 125A to 200A, and running a new circuit into the garage. I might get away with not upgrading the panel, but it's pushing things. I can do part of the labor of crawling under the house to string the wires, but it's still going to be some $1,800 or so for the job (ouch!). If I use #6, 4 conductor solid copper wire, it would be good for 70A (and that would force the panel upgrade, no question there), but will still put a 14-50 plug in as the EVSE is only good for 50. Gives me some headroom if I want to upgrade to something else later on.
Next step is to call the electric company (PG&E here), to get them to ok the panel upgrade and start things going.
Now, to the question of how to do it right, we're looking at upgrading the panel from 125A to 200A, and running a new circuit into the garage. I might get away with not upgrading the panel, but it's pushing things. I can do part of the labor of crawling under the house to string the wires, but it's still going to be some $1,800 or so for the job (ouch!). If I use #6, 4 conductor solid copper wire, it would be good for 70A (and that would force the panel upgrade, no question there), but will still put a 14-50 plug in as the EVSE is only good for 50. Gives me some headroom if I want to upgrade to something else later on.
Next step is to call the electric company (PG&E here), to get them to ok the panel upgrade and start things going.
That's not correct. The NEC only requires that you have a ground, not a neutral. For a NEMA 14-50 outlet you need neutral and ground wires even though the neutral is not used by the EVSE. A 10-30 has no ground which is why it can no longer be installed. If you want to use it for your EVSE then I would remove the outlet and permanently wire it to the EVSE but I would also change the wiring in your panel. The white neutral wire should be changed from a neutral connection to a ground connection and marked with something green on both ends, preferably green electrical tape.
Tesla stopped making adapters for 10-30 outlets because they realized it was a bad idea to substitute neutral for ground. I still charge from those when traveling but I wouldn't setup that way for daily home charging.
My last post crossed yours... Your plan sounds good except for #6 AWG wire is only big enough for 50A (NEMA 1450 outlet). If you want to future-proof it, which is one of the best parts of your plan, you'll need #3 AWG. You can probably use #4 for 70A. You're crawling under your house anyway, might as well put in 80A wire (#3).
Ok, thanks for clarifying. I was going by the wording in the Wikipedia article, more or less.
The conclusion we (the electrician and I) came to was that using the "middle" wire from the 10-30 plug was essentially the same, ground or neutral, since they're tied together at the panel and go nowhere else (ignoring the dryer, which would be off). And the UMC / Car seem to be happy, or at least blissfully unaware, with that arrangement. But you're right that this isn't correct, so I've resigned myself to do the upgrade.
** crossed posts again ** (Nice that the site lets you know!)
#3-4, huh... Well, I'm pretty sure he said that I'd need #8 for the 50A, but #6 would get me to 70. Thanks for the heads-up; I'll quiz him again before buying the wire.
The conclusion we (the electrician and I) came to was that using the "middle" wire from the 10-30 plug was essentially the same, ground or neutral, since they're tied together at the panel and go nowhere else (ignoring the dryer, which would be off). And the UMC / Car seem to be happy, or at least blissfully unaware, with that arrangement. But you're right that this isn't correct, so I've resigned myself to do the upgrade.
** crossed posts again ** (Nice that the site lets you know!)
#3-4, huh... Well, I'm pretty sure he said that I'd need #8 for the 50A, but #6 would get me to 70. Thanks for the heads-up; I'll quiz him again before buying the wire.
You can use #8 for 50A if it's fairly close to the panel. I forget how many feet. #6 would work for 70A but wouldn't be in compliance with NEC. Not many electricians are used to wiring circuits that pull more than 50A unless it's for a sub panel. The problem is that the requirements for the wire feeding a panel are actually more relaxed than what the code requires to feed an EVSE.
Interesting. Googl'n for info, I'm getting surprisingly inconsistent information. Given that this is NEC stuff, you'd think they'd all be saying the same thing.
The panel is on one side of the house, and the EVSE most of the way across to the other. I'd guess between 35 and 40 feet total run, so not what I would consider close. I'm pretty sure he said that I needed solid wire, but what I'm finding at the big-box store is stranded. Also odd...
Is there a conversion factor between solid and stranded wire? Maybe #6 solid is about the same as #4 stranded?
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