brett701
Member
Is it possible to convert the 120v trickle charger to 240v on your own? I know many people send it in and spend 287 to get this done. Are there any tutorials that i can't find or anyone knows about? Thank you.
Elephanthead said:There is a guy selling plans on a popular auction site on how to do it but I don't know if it is worth the trouble or safe.
brett701 said:Does Ingineer do what is described in the ebook that is on ebay?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Nissan-Leaf...8?pt=US_Adapters&hash=item4d045a783e#viTabs_0
If not. What is different?
Who knows? I'm almost certain he didn't write that material and I doubt he needed to refer to it. AFAIK, Ingineer did his own research, reverse engineering and engineering work to come up with this upgrade.brett701 said:Does Ingineer do what is described in the ebook that is on ebay?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Nissan-Leaf...8?pt=US_Adapters&hash=item4d045a783e#viTabs_0
If not. What is different?
thehelix112 said:It's kinda sad to see people discouraging the DIY spirit on here.
If someone wants to learn, and ask for help on this forum to experiment and play with their LEAF, it does them no good to hear that they just shouldn't try because it's hard, or because someone else has already done it. I'm sure Ingineer didn't come out of the womb a qualified EE, we all need to learn to achieve new things, which speaking personally, is what makes it worthwhile in the first place.
Now discussing the risks and potentials is great, but maybe a more positive, or even just informative, response would be better.
Dave
thankyouOB said:bad plan.
i am not a fan of taking work away from Ingineer, who has done a remarkable and supportive job for all in the LEAF community.
his fees are reasonable and he offers plenty of support and free advice to all of us.
that said, do you really want to trust your vehicles charging system to homemade tinkering??
brett701 said:thankyouOB said:bad plan.
i am not a fan of taking work away from Ingineer, who has done a remarkable and supportive job for all in the LEAF community.
his fees are reasonable and he offers plenty of support and free advice to all of us.
that said, do you really want to trust your vehicles charging system to homemade tinkering??
I don't consider it home tinkering. I will have a family friend who is a professional electrician assist me. He has been in the field for 30+ years.
However, I want to do the learning rather than pass the learning on to someone else and sit on the backside like a bum. I like to learn and this is very interesting to me.
Tony's suggestion is a good one.TonyWilliams said:brett701 said:I don't consider it home tinkering. I will have a family friend who is a professional electrician assist me. He has been in the field for 30+ years.
However, I want to do the learning rather than pass the learning on to someone else and sit on the backside like a bum. I like to learn and this is very interesting to me.
If you seriously want to learn, build an OPENevse. Then, with your new found knowledge, try tackling the Nissan / Panasonic.
+100davewill said:I'm all for saving a buck, but this falls under the "Penny wise, Pound foolish" category. I wouldn't buy this guy's "plans". If there were a set of public plans that had been well vetted, then maybe it would be OK, but the only public attempts I've seen on here have been pretty poorly thought out from the safety and compatibility POV. I wouldn't touch them.
If you REALLY insist on doing it yourself, then go the OpenEVSE route, which IS well vetted. It won't be cheaper than the upgrade, but you have the advantage of being able to build a more capable unit than the upgrade for much less than an equivalent commercial unit.
jclemens said:Is anyone still interested on how the upgrade can be done?
I've figured it out, without de-potting my board, AND keeping all safety features. (still needs more testing before I do this for someone else)
There are only 2 or 3 parts that need to be changed.
The 270V varistor is the most important, It has a marking of ZNR V10271U
The part number for this is actually ERZV10D271. It has a rating of 270V. The data sheet for this part is http://industrial.panasonic.com/www-data/pdf/AWA0000/AWA0000CE2.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
It states that it is intended for 100-120V circuits.
Simply doubling the rated value seems to be working.
I wanted to swap it out for ERZV10D511, but the shop i went to didn't have the exact brand, so I used 0550NR07D (8mm instead of 10mm, rated for 550V instead of 510, green instead of black)
The other main part was the transformer, the power supply for the unit is a simple 7812 linear regulator, it CAN take DC, but you'd need at least 15V, I only have 12V AC-DC adapters, so I wired an AC adapter that works on 100-240VAC directly to the 12V output pin.
If I were to do this again, I'd use http://search.digikey.com/us/en/products/DA12-120US-M/454-1455-ND/2203621" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
The last part is a little interesting. It has to do with those 2 diodes you can see. As we know, the unit detects if ground is present by intentionally leaking some current to the ground line. For some reason, it does this with DC, and has 1 diode from each AC input line. (hot and neutral). I tested to see if I could over-ride it and I could by simply injecting a small voltage to that resistor, but it was all unnecessary since the unit DOES NOT check/care which is live and which is neutral, but it does check if there is a complete circuit.
Initially I wanted to upgrade the diodes to 1n4004 (400V) rectifiers, (this is because standard diodes are rated in 100V increments, so they are likely only 200V) I also figured that by double the AC (with 240V) one would double the DC on the rectified side and thus double the small voltage it uses to detect ground, which may cause some problems. After I upgraded one diode, I figured, what do I need the other one for? it is only active when there is a voltage present on the neutral line, and the current goes to ground, not back into the AC circuit, so I removed the diode on the neutral line, so it will work with either neutral or L2, it is using Live or L1 to detect ground. Since L1 is only 120V, it probably wasn't required to upgrade this diode, but hey, I'm not going to fix what isn't broken.
WARNING, IF YOU ATTEMPT THIS AND SCREW SOMETHING UP, ITS YOUR OWN DAMN FAULT. YOU WILL BLOW UP LIKE IN DISTRICT 9, (don't ask me how I know)
cwerdna said:You realize that opening your EVSE voids its warranty, right?
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