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The mobile charger collection
- Thread starter X.l.r.8
- Start date
Founders charger, comes with 120 and 240 plugs, 240 has 40 and 30 amp plugs and charges at a true 40 amps
Please add your chargers if they are different and what you have seen them charging at. I’m trying to clear up the confusion.
RobsJester
Member
The Roadster Foundry charger was designed by Martin Eberhard (for those who don't know, he founded Tesla Motors with Marc Tarpenning in 2003). He was motivated to do so because the only mobile charge cable Tesla initially provided was the 120V yellow cable -- it was several months later before the MC240 was delivered to the Signature 100 Roadster owners who were promised a 240V mobile charge cable as part of the deal. Martin manufactured and sold some of these chargers himself, but they were packaged in a 4x4x4 plastic electrical junction box rather than the metal enclosure shown in the picture. Since the connector to hook to the car could not be purchased, Martin required buyers to provide their 120V cable from which he removed the connector and replaced the power pins with new ones crimped to the heavier cable that supported 40A. The plug end of the yellow 120V cable became the short stub for 120V charging shown in the picture.
Martin had better things to do than be a cable manufacturer, so he transferred the design to EV Components who made and sold more of them, like this example. This is the first time I've seen a picture of one of these from EV Components. I have my own custom variant which is the same circuit board mounted in a smaller box and without the interchangeable stubs for different source plugs, mine is NEMA 14-50 only.
The later version of the Roadster Mobile Connector is this one, with the 10-30 pigtail attached (the 14-50 is similar). This is the model that's known to be somewhat failure-prone.
For completeness (since it's handy), this is Tesla's J1772 adapter cable, on the left. I like Henry's CAN-JR a lot better - picture on the right.
For completeness (since it's handy), this is Tesla's J1772 adapter cable, on the left. I like Henry's CAN-JR a lot better - picture on the right.
There were a number of CAN JRs made without the laser etched logo when I first started making them. All CAN JRs had the locking feature except for some of the prototypes that may have made it into people's hands. The one you pictured is not a prototype. It locks.
ChadS
Last tank of gas: March 2009
Xlr8, I bought that EV Components RFMC very shortly after buying the car. I got the car Oct 1 2009, so sometime fairly soon after that. EV Components was based in Kent WA at the time, but is long since defunct. I think I only used the 120V pigtail once (see below). I used the 10-30 a couple of times at a cousin's house, but mostly used the 14-50 pigtail.
The original yellow NEMA 14-50 pigtail melted on a road trip to San Diego in April 2010, as did a replacement a couple of months later. But EV Components gave me free replacements, and the third one worked great with daily use until I sold it in September 2016.
(The RMC that gregd shows was available during my April 2010 road trip, and since my RFMC pigtail had melted I stopped at a store in San Francisco and bought one. The very helpful employee that sold it to me said he'd tested it. But at midnight, in below-freezing weather, up at a KOA in the mountains a long ways from civilization, at the lowest level of charge I have ever been at - it failed to work. At least I had the melted RFMC pigtail to console myself with. The 120V pigtail worked though, and in the morning I got tools from the KOA owner and managed to patch the melted pigtail up enough that I could use it for the rest of the trip. That was exciting).
I never had an MC240. One of the intervening owners must have bought that.
The original yellow NEMA 14-50 pigtail melted on a road trip to San Diego in April 2010, as did a replacement a couple of months later. But EV Components gave me free replacements, and the third one worked great with daily use until I sold it in September 2016.
(The RMC that gregd shows was available during my April 2010 road trip, and since my RFMC pigtail had melted I stopped at a store in San Francisco and bought one. The very helpful employee that sold it to me said he'd tested it. But at midnight, in below-freezing weather, up at a KOA in the mountains a long ways from civilization, at the lowest level of charge I have ever been at - it failed to work. At least I had the melted RFMC pigtail to console myself with. The 120V pigtail worked though, and in the morning I got tools from the KOA owner and managed to patch the melted pigtail up enough that I could use it for the rest of the trip. That was exciting).
I never had an MC240. One of the intervening owners must have bought that.
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MC 240 I cheekily snapped a picture of while charging at a kind owners residence. I saw it said 30 Amps so I decided with the 40A beast I had with me, the MC 240 staring me in the face and a broken UMC 240 I would start the thread. I assumed that was the MC240, now I know better, it’s a beast and works flawlessly. I’m grateful Toddlet me take it with me. Once I convert the UMC into an open EVSE I’ll return it. But I will miss it.
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