TonyWilliams
Well-known member
I acquired an old (yes, 2008 is old in the EV world) BMW Mini-E configured Clipper Creek 30 amp EVSE. The BMW proprietary car connector had been removed, but the shielded charging cord was attached. I plan to use that as my power supply cord. I got a new ITT brand 75 amp rated J1772-2009 connector and 18-ish feet of wires (about $250) as my new charging cord.
I had sent the mother board back to the Clipper Creek factory to be reprogrammed from 30 amps to 40 amps (about $50). This had a one week turn around and arrived yesterday. It came with a new sticker to identify the box as modified to 40 amp continuous service. I need 40 amps so that I can charge my Rav4 inside the 5 hour window available for my "super off peak" Time-Of-Use rate of 7.7 cents from midnight until 5am (Rav4 uses a single 40 amp Tesla charger, 10kW at 250 volts).
I bought a new Leviton NEMA 6-50P plug to put on the power cord ($15). Since I got the EVSE unit for free, my total expenses are about $315 to modify it. This is a great project, since it recycles something that might have been discarded, it only requires very simple hand tools and only takes a few hours:
The inside in the EVSE has a simple schematic:
I took everything out of the box and cleaned it. There was plenty of lose bits floating around in there (including metal strands that can short something). I installed the power cord with its new plug, and installed the J1772 cable in the he next to it. Since this 75 amp rated charge cord is a bit larger than the original one, I had to make the inlet hole bigger with a file. The same was true of the power cord inlet; this cord was bigger than the original hole. A Dremel tool would make this faster.
The ribbon wire in the box goes to the mother board for the ON/OFF switch.
I had sent the mother board back to the Clipper Creek factory to be reprogrammed from 30 amps to 40 amps (about $50). This had a one week turn around and arrived yesterday. It came with a new sticker to identify the box as modified to 40 amp continuous service. I need 40 amps so that I can charge my Rav4 inside the 5 hour window available for my "super off peak" Time-Of-Use rate of 7.7 cents from midnight until 5am (Rav4 uses a single 40 amp Tesla charger, 10kW at 250 volts).
I bought a new Leviton NEMA 6-50P plug to put on the power cord ($15). Since I got the EVSE unit for free, my total expenses are about $315 to modify it. This is a great project, since it recycles something that might have been discarded, it only requires very simple hand tools and only takes a few hours:
The inside in the EVSE has a simple schematic:
I took everything out of the box and cleaned it. There was plenty of lose bits floating around in there (including metal strands that can short something). I installed the power cord with its new plug, and installed the J1772 cable in the he next to it. Since this 75 amp rated charge cord is a bit larger than the original one, I had to make the inlet hole bigger with a file. The same was true of the power cord inlet; this cord was bigger than the original hole. A Dremel tool would make this faster.
The ribbon wire in the box goes to the mother board for the ON/OFF switch.