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Retrofit CCS compatibility onto earlier (NA) Model 3 - DIY approach
- Thread starter FalconFour
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Electrically identical - built from the same plans. In fact there's a little room for improvement now that it's a PCBA (in next runs). If we want to go deeper with electronic wizardry, I wonder if the thermistors can be fully and properly adjusted... (something impossible to do with passive resistors, but advanced transistor magic may work...!)
Kermee
It's Not Easy Being Green
Is there a way to tell what gen charge port a car has? I'm beginning to think that the pure luck of deciding to splurge on blue paint only to find the SC had on in stock and getting it less than 72 hours after ordering may not have been such a good thing (probably missed out on the newer charge port and the 20km range bump).
srs5694
Active Member
If yours is a 2019 Model 3, as indicated in your signature, then it's got both a Gen3 charge port and a Gen3 ECU. (Unless of course you've done the upgrade described in this thread.) As I understand it, Tesla began using Gen4 hardware in October of 2020, so all earlier vehicles have Gen3 hardware.
If your signature is outdated and you have a 2020 or later vehicle, then you might have Gen4 hardware. If the car reports that CCS adapter support is present (in Software -> Additional Information, IIRC), then it's got Gen4 with the full CCS support and you don't need to do anything. If your car is recent (made after October of 2020) and reports that it does not support CCS, then chances are it's got the stripped-down Gen4 ECU, and replacing it with a non-lobotomized Gen4 ECU should get you CCS charging (after a software update). Offhand, I don't know of a way to tell, from software diagnostics, whether you've got Gen3 or stripped-down Gen4 charging hardware. Perhaps somebody else knows of a way, though. If you really wanted to know, you could pull away part of the trunk liner, as if for an ECU replacement, to read the part number on the ECU housing.
RayK
Active Member
Kermee
It's Not Easy Being Green
I did not. It got real angry.
After hardware swap and install, I immediately started the update. After it was done, all errors cleared.
EDIT: PS. Putting the actual trim pieces back together, CORRECTLY, took twice as long as removing it. That was the bulk of time spent.
Ah, for some reason I was thinking the G4 port switch was October 2019, not 2020. My car probably rolled off the line 2nd or 3rd week in September 2019 so I was cautiously optimistic until you pointed out I was a year early, not a week.
Now I'm right back stuck wondering what will come first, full CCS retrofit in North America or Tesla finally getting something...anything to connect 1-15 into Canada.
I'm wondering if the delay in releasing the CCS retrofit in North America is some compatibility issue. I've been having troubles with CCS charging at everything but Electrify America stations (have tried both EVgo and FPL EVolution stations). Symptom being the car starts charging, and immediately stops with a BMS_u011 error.
RayK
Active Member
It's usually easier and always faster to remove something from somewhere, than it is to put it back in its place.I did not. It got real angry.
EDIT: PS. Putting the actual trim pieces back together, CORRECTLY, took twice as long as removing it. That was the bulk of time spent.
That you end up with extra hardware after the operation is typical. I treat it like assembling an item from Ikea; there always seems to be an extra screw or nut left on the floor.Also, I found unused screws underneath the trim near the cubby... At least I hope they're unused because I just put everything back together...
Everything I've seen so far indicates that there are two "gens" of Model 3 -- the first (2017-Oct 2020) is "Gen3" referring to the entire vehicle, and second (Oct 2020+) is "Gen4" again to the whole car. Gen4 happened in order to align the common parts between Model 3 and Y - thus there is no such thing as a Gen3 Model Y - they're all Gen4.
A number of things changed in the Model 3 all at the same time to give us a Gen4 car: the charge port, the battery pack, the heat pump system, the console/dash refresh, and the exterior black trim (vs. chrome). So, "buy one, get all" - you can generally tell the gens apart by the black trim from a distance, from the console/dash at a closer look, and looking at the charge port (pipes with orange mesh: it's gen4; thick orange cables: it's gen3) to know for sure.
srs5694
Active Member
Some of the very earliest reviews of the Model Y (delivered vehicles, I'm pretty sure) showed it with the old-style Model 3 center console. There were precious few made this way, but there do seem to have been a few. Of course, that's pretty far from the charging hardware, but based on this observation, I doubt if it was a hard shift of all those items at exactly the same time. I can believe that tightly interconnected systems, like the battery and charging hardware, all got shifted to a new design at once; but some others, like silver vs. black trim and the center console design, might have changed a week or a month before or after that.
Kermee
It's Not Easy Being Green
P.S. I apologize for the large pictures. I was accessing TMC through my phone's Android Chrome browser and uploaded the pictures from there and now I can't edit my posts with appropriately smaller versions of the pictures.
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Hi everyone.
Wanted to say thanks for this write-up. I did the retrofit a few weeks ago with no problems...It went really easily as I'm no stranger to the CP ECU LOL. (See @matthewdrobnak on twitter and you'll understand).
While it went just fine, and the instructions to get into service mode were also good...I've been having a minor issue on these hotter days here in Oregon. I'm getting an error about the wall plug being too hot, and it's therefore throttling to 6A sometimes down from the 12A. I'm using the standard 120V outlet plug as I'm in a rental home currently. The garage can get warm, but by no means is it over 85 degrees F. I assume this is due to the approximation for the thermistor values, or is there something actually up with my portable charger (the one that came with the car)?
Supercharging and CCS worked just fine.
Anyone else having this issue or is this a "me" problem?
-Matt
Wanted to say thanks for this write-up. I did the retrofit a few weeks ago with no problems...It went really easily as I'm no stranger to the CP ECU LOL. (See @matthewdrobnak on twitter and you'll understand).
While it went just fine, and the instructions to get into service mode were also good...I've been having a minor issue on these hotter days here in Oregon. I'm getting an error about the wall plug being too hot, and it's therefore throttling to 6A sometimes down from the 12A. I'm using the standard 120V outlet plug as I'm in a rental home currently. The garage can get warm, but by no means is it over 85 degrees F. I assume this is due to the approximation for the thermistor values, or is there something actually up with my portable charger (the one that came with the car)?
Supercharging and CCS worked just fine.
Anyone else having this issue or is this a "me" problem?
-Matt
Kermee
It's Not Easy Being Green
Finally got a chance to test CCS (150kW max) this evening (Ocean West) on Electrify America units. Worked like a charm. My SoC was over 80% so I wasn't testing for speed or anything. Just that it actually works and no errors, etc. I'm extremely happy. Thank you so much, @FalconFour for all your research and hard work! And everyone else this thread.
EDIT: Funny story. As I charging and lingering around, a Nissan LEAF came up and the driver went to plug in. Then he noticed me and goes, "Wait. I've never seen a Tesla charge here before. I thought you guys had your own Superchargers or whatever you call it." I replied, "Yes, Tesla is adding compatibility to fast charge here at these stations." — Gentleman replies back, "Oh. Wow... great." then a few seconds later I hear him mutter softly, "... <just great...>"
EDIT: Funny story. As I charging and lingering around, a Nissan LEAF came up and the driver went to plug in. Then he noticed me and goes, "Wait. I've never seen a Tesla charge here before. I thought you guys had your own Superchargers or whatever you call it." I replied, "Yes, Tesla is adding compatibility to fast charge here at these stations." — Gentleman replies back, "Oh. Wow... great." then a few seconds later I hear him mutter softly, "... <just great...>"
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RayK
Active Member
It hasn't happened too often with me but there have been a couple of times when I'm plugged into a ChargePoint DCFC and a LEAF, Bolt or i3 drives up and they get a quizzical look, much like, "what's that thing doing here?". Only two people that I remember have approached me to talk about how / why I was charging there instead of a Supercharger. I've explained the "how" by telling them about the (expensive) CHAdeMO adapter. The "why" is that's it's cheaper than Supercharging ($0.19/kWh).
For now, there's going to be a very small population of Teslas that will be using CCS stations. If / when a factory CCS charging solution is released to the public, count on some resentment from non-Tesla EV owners about "us" moving in on "their" territory. Best case, Tesla should enable non-Tesla charging at Superchargers before, or at the same time, they release their CCS hardware. That may smooth out the transition.
Nah, if the car is telling you the wall connector's plug is getting too hot, that's a message the wall connector is sending to the vehicle through digital communication (something J1772 can't do). Best I can tell, a charge port issue will reference the "charge port", not the "wall connector".
I've had weird glitches like that occur because of exotic and wacky and wonderful hacks I was doing... making 240v out of 2x 120v outlets across the garage, but also adding my grid-tie inverters on the same line (120v inverter on each side). I was frustrated by it at first (what do you mean?! "plug too hot"?! It's ice cold!), but when I found that a dumb-no-brains JuiceBox was blacking-out erratically as well (somehow tripping its AC/DC power supply inside and losing power), I realized: oh yeah my setup is definitely no bueno.
If you have potentially similar wonkiness "behind the plug" in your garage, it might be causing those erratic messages
This isnt much different than the extreme "wringing of hands" by many here about "non teslas" charging at superchargers. If everyone can charge everywhere, then this isnt much of an issue. If "the brand with the most proprietary chargers" also has a lot of people "moving in" on fast chargers other than superchargers, expect there to be LOTS of hand wringing, stories in EV blogs, and eventually price changes etc.
That is, unless there is, as you suggested, an "opening of tesla superchargers to everyone else" first.
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