I was fairly convinced by another poster explaining how the disconnect button on the CCS charger is specified to completely kill the circuit.
I'm guessing the "danger" is due to a lot of CCS chargers being jank and not acting to spec...
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Useless Setec Power CCS1 Adapter
- Thread starter Radlaw
- Start date
I'm guessing the "danger" is due to a lot of CCS chargers being jank and not acting to spec...
I think there is danger but the window is small. When you press the button to disconnect, a aignal is sent and the car should stop charging immediately. You would probably have to yank on the ccs connector pretty damn fast as you press the button for a problem to occur. I Think it's more that they want multiple fail-safes in place and this bypasses one of them.
stopcrazypp
Well-Known Member
The disconnect button tells both car and charger to kill the circuit, but the car may not be ready to kill the circuit yet, so it needs to keep connector locked until the car side is fully de-energized. The Setec doesn't have a mechanism to allow the car to keep the CCS connector latched (while the Tesla adapter does, it requires you to remove the TPC side first).
The Setec also has another issue, which is that given it translates to CHAdeMO, it does not pass through the proximity signal to the car (unlike the dumb CCS adapters). That makes it even more dangerous.
The way to address this is to make sure the session is completely dead before attempting to disconnect the adapter. And also always disconnect the TPC side first (as the car only unlocks it after it is deenergized). Disconnect the adapter from the CCS cable second. NEVER disconnect the CCS cable while the adapter is still connected to the car.
I did not see this information in the tread: once CCS is enabled on the car, Chademo doe not work anymore. It did not on my car, might be OK with newer cars. Even if OP gets the adapter working, it might not work with the car since it talks Chademo to the car.
srs5694
Active Member
I notice that you're in Bulgaria. It's my understanding that this differs regionally. As I understand it, CHAdeMO continues to work after upgrading a car to the 1537264-00-B ECU that's currently shipping with Model 3 and Y vehicles in North America and is the go-to part for DIY upgrades in that market; however, some other ECU models that support CCS lack the ability to communicate with CHAdeMO chargers. IIRC, this is true of the charge-port ECU variant installed in cars currently sold in Europe (although older European-spec Model S and X cars could use CHAdeMO; IIRC, European-spec Model 3 and Y never could use the European CHAdeMO adapter). As I understand it, using a US-spec ECU in a European car is inadvisable because the US-spec ECU can't handle 3-phase AC charging, which is common in Europe. Then too, I don't know what the best practice would be if you have an imported US-spec Tesla in Europe; you'd need adapters for just about everything, and I don't know if any adapter could handle 3-phase AC charging.
Note: All of the above is from memory and is not based on personal experience. (I have a 2019 US-spec Model 3 that has not been upgraded for CCS support.) It's entirely possible that I've gotten some detail wrong, or even a major point, so take this information with a grain of salt.
pnwadventures
@bpr1de on Instagram
There is a thread on here for doing it that is pretty well detailed. I can’t get the link right now for it, but I am pretty sure it is a pinned thread.
srs5694
Active Member
Unless there's been a very recent development, it's a DIY job. In the future, Tesla is expected to offer an official upgrade path, but that's basically an assumption; it's conceivable it will never actually materialize. My guess is that it will, in part because some relevant parts have appeared in (and then disappeared from) Tesla's online parts catalog, which hints that they've developed some parts to facilitate this update, but are not yet selling them.
Note, however, that there are several different starting points, depending on which Tesla model is involved and when it was made. The easiest case is newer 3 and Y vehicles (and maybe some newer S and X vehicles, but I'm not familiar with their CCS support details), which have a charge port ECU that's basically a stripped-down version of the current CCS-enabled charge port ECU. In theory, a Tesla service center could perform an upgrade on such cars today, but the last I heard, they were mostly refusing to do so, since CCS support is not officially part of the deal for any Tesla sold in North America today. Maybe you'll luck out if you've got such a vehicle and ask for service. Most Teslas that are not CCS-enabled require ECU replacements plus some extra stuff (called a "bundle of wires") that's decidedly non-standard. This is the configuration for Teslas sold before October of 2020, IIRC (but take that date with a grain of salt, as it's from memory). Speculation is that Tesla's official upgrade, if and when it materializes, will involve another ECU variant that obviates the need for the "bundle of wires."
Note also that Tesla made some changes to the charge port at the same time as changes to the ECU, in order to address problems with charge ports freezing in cold weather. In particular, new charge ports include a heating mechanism, whereas older ones used a workaround that involved not locking the charge port in freezing temperatures. Presumably (this is speculative), hacking in the new ECU to an older vehicle will get you neither the heater fix nor the non-locking workaround, so the risk of frozen charge ports may go up if you were to use the DIY approach. As you report your location as the Pacific Northwest, and your profile picture features a Tesla driving in the snow, this may be relevant to you.
The relevant thread is:
Retrofit CCS compatibility onto earlier (NA) Model 3 - DIY approach
Retrospective thread-summary pseudo-wiki for quick access: What is it? "Gee, I wish my Tesla, despite having access to the country's biggest quick charging network, could also charge on stations made for Other EVs too". Said no-one ever. Except... well, there are use cases for it. And with Tesla...
teslamotorsclub.com
I believe it used to be pinned, but no longer is. This may be because a moderator took exception to the fact that a lot of the thread had turned into discussions about how to obtain the relevant parts, including offers of one-off sales and posts about vendors that could be interpreted as violations of site rules.
Note that the thread is very long, with a lot of discussion of the development of the DIY approach, repetitive questions, and out-of-date information. The first post was kept up-to-date until the thread was closed, so you may want to read that first post and then skip ahead to the last page or two. AFAIK, things haven't changed massively since then, although I don't know how difficult it is to obtain the updated ECU right now. (Scalpers on eBay are asking 3x the official Tesla price, though.)
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