Weekend(s) Project - DIY EVSE

[surfingslovak]

OK, I finally received a quote, it only took a week of work! It's for the Dostar plug lincomatic mentioned earlier on this thread. I wasn't looking for this particular unit, but that's what I ended up sourcing. I'm still waiting for Yazaki North America to respond, but I doubt that they'll beat this quote. Interestingly, they made me sign an NDA, crazy world we live in! PM for details if interested; it's just for the plug, no cable attached.

 

[lincomatic]

OK, I finally received a quote, it only took a week of work! It's for the Dostar plug lincomatic mentioned earlier on this thread. I wasn't looking for this particular unit, but that's what I ended up sourcing. I'm still waiting for Yazaki North America to respond, but I doubt that they'll beat this quote. Interestingly, they made me sign an NDA, crazy world we live in! PM for details if interested; it's just for the plug, no cable attached.

That's strange, they didn't ask me for an NDA, but I still feel reticent about posting the prices openly.

 

[surfingslovak]

That's strange, they didn't ask me for an NDA, but I still feel reticent about posting the prices openly.

Me too, that's why I suggested the PM route. I would give a fair estimate of the total price, not just a raw quote for the plug. I wouldn't want to get people's hopes up and then see the price go up due to shipping, customs and other fees that might get tacked on. Dostar did not ask me for an NDA, Yazaki did, and if they ever told me anything, I would expect them to indicate what is confidential and what is not. I would obviously honor that commitment.

 

[KevinSharpe]

I own computer companies in the US and UK that build a lot of electronic equipment. If a bulk buy or similar logistical support would be helpful to this project then please let me know.

My primary interest in this project is to allow an upgrade to the Charging Stations that the Zero Carbon World charity donates in the UK. We currently donate Charging Stations with 32A "commando" sockets but would like to upgrade these to "Mennekes" sockets (same protocol as J1772).

If you're interested, here's a map of the Charging Station sites that we have donated (purple pins are ZCW sites);

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?hl...=53.800651,-4.064941&sspn=13.857722,28.256836

 

[fotajoye]

I see this as a open project for the betterment of the EV community, specifically and as a betterment to the whole world of EV advocates in general. This project has the possibility of reducing part of the cost of buying EVs.
Every owner should have a level 1/level 2 EVSE in the car and a dedicated Level 2 EVSE in the garage.
The main problem is the companies offering the EVSEs have not reduced the costs to something sensible.
Perhaps some one will offer a kit of parts and instruction for the DYIers and a less-costly pre built kit for the others.
Has anyone costed out the parts based on an offered kit?

Chris:
Congraulation! you are there with your design and we are waiting for your next move;

 

[chris1howell]

Thanks to lincomatic we are moving faster now... He is testing the current hardware and working on new and improved EVSE software, bluetooth and host software. I am focusing on hardware and just ordered the 3rd version of the PCB with many improvements.

 

[elbilshop]

Great project and fun to follow!

I live in Norway, I have 7 electric cars from PSA (Citroen and Peugeot), and I have two Nissan Leaf on order as well as a Tesla Model S.
In Norway we are used to charging our cars at 240V 16A as standard. We also use 3-phase 32A when possible (extra external chargers).
Big surprise then to realize the Leaf will only charge at 10A. Only at home will I be able to charge at 16A.

So an EVSE which could give me whatever charge I would like (sometimes I could need to reduce the charge to 10A) would be great.
When I see your project, I can not help thinking that the Chinese are working on a cheap unit already with all the choices we could desire.

I have also discussed this with some of my friends around Europe, to see if we could make our own unit. I see you beat us...
Well done.

We are also looking at a possibility to use the Chademo charging stations for the old cars. Just needs a silmilar unit as your EVSE for the Chademo protocol, and the right plug installed in the car (I fear the cost of the plug will be too high though). These cars can easily manage a current up to 150A.

 

[elbilshop]

We have at the moment almost 1000 Mitsubishi iMiEV in Norway. Most of them in Oslo (the capital).
The Leaf will arrive at the end of the year.

Even if we have the highest density of charging stations in the world, we also see that there are so many cars around now, it is hard to find a vacant charging station.
And we see that a new problem has come up: steeling of charging cables!

In Japan I would be very surprised to see if any cables would be stolen. It does not happen.
But with the high price on these cables, and since they are hardly secured, they will be stolen.

The old PSA cars with Marechal contact had them secured in the car. When you locked the car, you also locked the door for the charging cable. I guess this will have to be implemented also for the new cars around.

By the way, since it is possible to use the cables between the cars, a cable from a iMiEV can be used for a Leaf, and since Mitsubishi allows 16A charging it will solve the 16A versus 10A problem (except for the price of the extra cable/EVSE).
I guess the only difference is the PWM signal on the two units.

Do you know if a cable in the US could be used in Europe and vice versa?

 

[KevinSharpe]

a similar project on the TMC website

http://www.teslamotorsclub.com/show...onnector-a-waste?p=73366&viewfull=1#post73366

 

[Nekota]

Another similar project for Tesla mods for J1772 connection protocol

http://www.saxton.org/tom_saxton/2011/06/j-conversion-board.html

 

[KevinSharpe]

I am focusing on hardware and just ordered the 3rd version of the PCB with many improvements.

many thanks for all your efforts.... these projects are critical if we are to get realistic pricing in the EVSE market.

Any decision yet on whether you'll open up this design or run it as a commercial enterprise?

 

[lincomatic]

a similar project on the TMC website

http://www.teslamotorsclub.com/show...onnector-a-waste?p=73366&viewfull=1#post73366

That's a pretty cool box the guy built.. he used a PIC instead of an AVR. Schematics and code are posted in that thread.
For anyone wanting to build one, just be aware that he doesn't have any safety features implemented (e.g. GFCI).

Interesting, he's using a PIC18F2480, which has CAN bus capabilities.

I noticed there's a link back to this thread

 

[lincomatic]

Another similar project for Tesla mods for J1772 connection protocol

http://www.saxton.org/tom_saxton/2011/06/j-conversion-board.html

Cool project, but it isn't an EVSE. The Tesla is J1772 compliant, except that the proximity detection is done differently.
From what I read on their details page, http://www.idleloop.com/robotics/Roadster it appears that this circuit
is just a converter for the proximity circuit to work with the latch on the J1772 plug.

 

[KevinSharpe]

I am planning to offer something... I just do not know exactly what yet.

I am considering:
Full EVSE modules

Modules that have all the low voltage components the control pilot, GFI and microprocessor components with outputs for external relays.

Kits... however in the current design most of the components are very small surface mount so it may not be practical unless I increase the size overall size to allow use of common size components.

If I decide to do none of the above, I plan to release the hardware board files and schematics and software as Open Source.

any further thoughts on this?

We are donating 1000 Charging Stations in the next 12 months and I'd rather not reinvent the wheel and develop yet another EVSE... just knowing what your plans are will rule this project in or out of our deliberations

Keep up the good work...

 

[themotorman]

Does anyone have a schematic of the Pansonic module? It would also be great if we could get the schematics for all of the electronics in the Leaf, especially the battery control system.
FYI I am building a lightweight ecar and it uses the same voltage pack as the Leaf, but lower capacity.

 

[fotajoye]

I think many of us would like to have this information; so far all I can find available is the maintenance manual written at the mechanic's level.

 

[themotorman]

Does anyone have a schematic of the Pansonic module? It would also be great if we could get the schematics for all of the electronics in the Leaf, especially the battery control system.
FYI I am building a lightweight ecar and it uses the same voltage pack as the Leaf, but lower capacity.

Does anyone know the maximum 240 volt current that the Leaf built in charger can accept. From the J1772 data the connector is good for 80 amps but what is the max charge current that the Leaf charger can accept. I understand that the charge rate is set by the 1 khz pulse width, but setting it higher than the built in charger might not be a good idea. I see that a commercial offering presets the rate from 12 amps ot 16 amps. BUT is this the max for the built in charger.. Anyone have the answer, may be someone who works for Nissan can answer this. Many of the buyers of the Leaf are very technically competent, we just want to know some facts.. It would be nice if it was like a domestic appliance where a schematic must be included...
BTW The number of miles left is damn close..found out via experience!!

 

[fotajoye]

Those of us who have been working at this for awhile have found the following: the Nissan Brick provides 120vac/12 amps; the upgraded Brick provides 120/240vac/16 amps (see evseupgrade. com); level 2 for the Leaf is 240vac/16amps currently; Nissan is on record to update their on-board charger for MY 2013 to a level 2 charge of 240vac/ 32amps. Level 3 DC is still pending the SAE final definitions; they are working on defining a different plug they currently used.

There is a lot of information available on the forum covering this subject; just takes a lot of time to catch up.

 

[themotorman]

Those of us who have been working at this for awhile have found the following: the Nissan Brick provides 120vac/12 amps; the upgraded Brick provides 120/240vac/16 amps (see evseupgrade. com); level 2 for the Leaf is 240vac/16amps currently; Nissan is on record to update their on-board charger for MY 2013 to a level 2 charge of 240vac/ 32amps. Level 3 DC is still pending the SAE final definitions; they are working on defining a different plug they currently used.

There is a lot of information available on the forum covering this subject; just takes a lot of time to catch up.

Thank you for this. My question still remians: what is max current that the on-board charger can handle from a 240 volt source? Changing the on-board charger to handle 32 amps should not be a big challenge, I wonder if we can put any pressure to make this happen sooner than 2013 ( BTW Where does this info come from ?) 32 amps would mean about a 45 minute charge time which makes a lot of sense for someone who wants to use the Leaf for a small business or for a county or city employee car pool vehicle. ( Sorry but this is now probably off topic ! ).
I bought the fast charge option thinking that there would be fast charge stations around this year..very disappointed but I should have done more homework on the charge stations before buying the Leaf .

 

[johnr]

what is max current that the on-board charger can handle from a 240 volt source? Changing the on-board charger to handle 32 amps should not be a big challenge, I wonder if we can put any pressure to make this happen sooner than 2013 ( BTW Where does this info come from ?) 32 amps would mean about a 45 minute charge time which makes a lot of sense for someone who wants to use the Leaf for a small business or for a county or city employee car pool vehicle. ( Sorry but this is now probably off topic ! ).
I bought the fast charge option thinking that there would be fast charge stations around this year..very disappointed but I should have done more homework on the charge stations before buying the Leaf .

The current charger in the Leaf can only handle up to 16 amps and up to 240 volts. That's about 3.8 KW. The car's battery pack holds 24 KWH of energy. Let's assume the charger is 90% efficient. This is a simple math problem - 24 / 3.8 / 0.9 = 7 hours. Guess what, Nissan claims it takes 7 hours to fully charge the Leaf from empty on a 240V connection - now you see why. If they upgrade the charger to 32 amps - which they intend to do for MY2013 - this would double the charge rate allowing it to fully charge in 3.5 hours. If you're using the fast charge connector you're bypassing the onboard charger and therefore can charge pretty much as fast as you want. The only practical limitation being, the capability of the external charger you're using. Public quick-charge stations can charge the Leaf 80% of the way in about 30 minutes. There are very few such quick-charge stations out there so far, but more are being added periodically. Eventually, they will be as common as gas stations. All this has been covered in extensive detail elsewhere in these forums, so you'd do yourself a favor to have a good look around.