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Tesla/J1772 adapter available from Tesla's website
- Thread starter dsm363
- Start date
smorgasbord
Active Member
tomsax
Member
That turns a J1772 plug into a dumb outlet, into which you can plug a mobile connector like the UMC.
Here's the problem: most (if not all) public J1772 charging stations have a current limit of 30A, but because you're plugging your mobile connector into a NEMA 14-50, the Roadster thinks it can draw 40A. If you let that happen, you'll pop the charging station's breaker and render it useless until someone comes out and resets it. To prevent that from happening, you have to manually lower the current rate, but your nearest choices are 32A and 24A. 32A will also pop the breaker, and 24A means you get 20% less charging speed.
With the Tesla adapter, or equivalent, the pilot signal passes through to the car so it will automatically lower its current draw to 30A, yielding the best charging rate and requiring no manual intervention.
Here's the problem: most (if not all) public J1772 charging stations have a current limit of 30A, but because you're plugging your mobile connector into a NEMA 14-50, the Roadster thinks it can draw 40A. If you let that happen, you'll pop the charging station's breaker and render it useless until someone comes out and resets it. To prevent that from happening, you have to manually lower the current rate, but your nearest choices are 32A and 24A. 32A will also pop the breaker, and 24A means you get 20% less charging speed.
With the Tesla adapter, or equivalent, the pilot signal passes through to the car so it will automatically lower its current draw to 30A, yielding the best charging rate and requiring no manual intervention.
W.Petefish
Active Member
It doesn't cost anything for the upgrade IF you drive your roadster to the technician.
A technician is making his way around Texas and I have to drive about 20 miles to get the upgrade.
A technician is making his way around Texas and I have to drive about 20 miles to get the upgrade.
smorgasbord
Active Member
Thanks. And the Tesla adapter would let me use the full 70amps that supposedly are still available at the Rabobank HPCs along 101 that were converted to J1772 earlier this year.
Guess that means spending $750 and carrying two cables in the small trunk when I do a long distance travel. Sigh.
I love that Nissan has an electric car, but am getting concerned that it's leading towards new public chargers only supplying 30 amps.
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I'm not sure that's true. The J1772 chargers appear to have reset-able over current protection (like the old AVCON and the Tesla HPC). So... You might be able to draw 32A out of a 30A J1772 without tripping the chargers overcurrent protection. But if it does trip, it will reset when you re-start the charge. You won't pop the main breaker because it a 40A circuit.
The right answer is for Tesla to give us a 30A option on the VDS as this seems to be the defacto standard current for J1772.
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Why have discrete options at all ? The current draw should IMHO be settable to any value between 4 and 70A. I hope they do this for the Model S.
An EV is allowed to draw 80% of the breaker rating as a continous load. Since the breakers are all increments of 10A, using a 30A,40A,50A,60A breaker gives 24A, 32A, 40A, 48A charging current. The UL (Underwriters Labs) screwed this all up when the refused to certify the ITT cannon J1772 plug for 32A [ref?]. They only allowed 30A, so now we're stuck with a bunch of 30A chargers on a 40A circuit.
Didn't they say on Transport Evolved that the Nissan J1772 chargers at the dealerships had to be reset by a technician, even if it only tripped off because someone hit the stop button?
in the UK we were unable to charge a Roadster successfully using the 13A socket on the Charge Station at the Nissan Dealer. This was despite numerous attempts to reset the system inside the building by the site owners.
I actively avoid all Charge Stations that have 'intelligence' because they are the only locations that I've ever had problems with. Indeed, I have a friend who was marooned overnight at a dealer following a charger breakdown. Fortunately, we have a real ground swell of 'dumb' 32A socket deployments in the UK and I hope that will provide blanket coverage of the country (complemented by AC & DC Fast Chargers).
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I think that was a DC fast charger that has a big red emergency stop button (like you'd find on industrial equipment). People that don't know any better (or perhaps misanthropic chavs) press that button and the system has to be reset.
and it's crazy that this is all for a car that can only charge at 16A...
In the UK we have no 'publicly owned' HPC's deployed and I'm hopeful that in future sites will simply install additional Charge Stations rather than hobble the capabilities of the HPC's.
I was thinking of a similar solution. A "Lasso Lock" is being marketed for kayak security, but should work if secured around the wheel. It would still require a clamp attached to the adapter. Not a perfect solution because the 8 foot cable is a bit long and I have no idea about the cable weight.
This is not true as they converted with the 30 amp. J1772 connectors, thus the limit to the amperage.
DrComputer
TeslaClubLA President
Just tried my new J1772 adapter at the Nissan dealer down the street from my house (with an AeroVironments charger) at it happily set itself to 30A at 208V. Car charged without any problems. I did have the Firmware upgrade done last week prior to getting my cable in the mail.
smorgasbord
Active Member
Well, according to EVChargerMaps.com for instance, the one in Atascadero (link) had its connector swapped before April 20, 2011, and there's a user report of charging at 70 amps on May 27, 2011.
I would sure like to know the actual state of these, as I would like to do a CA coast run some time in August. Right now possible stops look like: Salinas, an RV park in King City, then Atascadero/San Luis Obispo, Goleta/Santa Barbara, Tesla Los Angeles (actually Santa Monica), then Tesla Newport Beach.
I'd love to hear from anyone who has been to those since the cable swaps took place.
tomsax
Member
Can you name one that got converted and lost amperage?
All of the ones that were converted with grant money, including all of the Rabobank HPCs along 101, got the 75A ITT Canon plugs. Even units that were originally limited to less than 70A because of circuit limitations got the 75A plugs.
If someone did put a 30A plug on an HPC, they'd also have to reprogram the firmware to transmit the proper amperage limit, which can't be done without the proper software tools. Those tools are hard to come by.
tomsax
Member
To check which units have been converted, check the recargo map. If you find one that's wrong, fix it. The only way to keep this information up-to-date is for the EV community to do it.
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