Need pictures of the inside of the Aerovironment EVSE -RS

Hi Folks,
I'm hoping one of you can help me. I got a used Nissan Charging dock a couple of days ago, and it looks like the electrician who de-installed it was pretty rough, and yanked out a wire during the job. There's a little floating board (the "AV 17268-1 MOV Board") with heat shrink over it that has an unattached black wire. I'm guessing it might have been yanked out of the Molex connector on the top, between the blue and green wire (see picture below). I was only able to find a couple of pictures of the inside of the charging dock on the forum, and none that showed the cover. If anybody took pictures of the inside of the charging dock, including the wiring going to the top cover, could they post it to this thread? Or can anyone confirm how the MOV board shown in the picture is supposed to be attached? If not, I'll try attaching it to the empty slot on the cover, and see if it's capable of passing self-test before proceeding.

Thanks - Bob


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These are the best that I have. I hope they help you somewhat.

Boomer23 said:

These are the best that I have. I hope they help you somewhat.

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Thanks, these were very helpful. It looks I was on the wrong track. All of the wires to the cover look like they're in a wiring harness bundle. Presumably the empty slot on the top was intended to stay empty.
Since MOV's are surge protectors, it makes more sense that it should be wired up to the other side of the terminal block at the left (see picture below). The reason it was disconnected in my case is that either the terminal block was defective to start with, or the electrician stripped it out, so he used a wire nut instead, and left the MOV unconnected. I'll get a new terminal block and hook it up that way. I wish AV had done a better job, and incorporated the MOV into the electronics on the right side of the dock, instead of adding it as an afterthought like this, and leaving things vulnerable to mis-installation even by certified AV installers.
If anybody has a nice closeup of the upper left showing the wiring on the terminal block, or something showing where the MOV is normally secured, it might be nice to post it, but otherwise I consider my request solved.

Thanks again, Bob

I believe the black wire goes on the interior (upper) end of the "Black" (left side) of the two-wire AC input terminal block, black to black, similar to the white to white connection.

I see one screw missing from the Black side of the input (bottom) end of the same (left) terminal block?

There are/were much better pictures (in the old AV EVSE thread, I think).

Don't let anyone else install that thing. Here is my video of how to make you unit portable with a dryer cord.

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=614&start=320" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The black wire just goes into the top of the terminal as mentioned but PM me if you want me to get you a close up picture. I only have 3 screws holding my cover on right now so no big deal.

Gary,
Thanks confirming the placement of the wires. I was actually only able to find 2 pictures of the inside of the charger, and both had the wiring at the left obscured by coils from the toroid. If you have a link to other pictures that show it, that would be cool, but between your assurance and Vin's, that's probably enough.

Vin,
Thanks for the offer. If I run into any problem I may take you up on it, or ask your advice.

The core problem was that the original AV installer was a gorilla who stripped out the terminal block, and then just used a wire nut after he wrecked it. (He also tightened the cover so tight he totally ripped through one of the holes, stripped out one of the Tork screws, and partially stripped the threads on others - maybe guys like this should be forced to use special torque- limited screw drivers!)
If I was in a hurry, I might just wire nut all three black wires together and be done with it, but I have to time to get the correct replacement parts, so I'll go ahead and fix it the right way.
I spent some time going to a bunch of hardware stores, but the correct parts are not easy to find in the US. The closest I was able to come on the weekend was Radio Shack, but they only carry a smaller line of blocks that won't accept the crimp sleeves used to hold the white and black power wires and MOV filter. (the sleeve measures 4mm x 5.5mm, and the opening of the power block that comes with it is about 5.8mm - much large than what's used on most lower gauge sizes) The official name is a "Eurostyle Terminal Block". The best source of replacement parts I have found is McMaster Carr, part number 7618K671, $1.66 each. I don't know if electrical supply houses carry them, but I won't bother since it's easier to mail order, and seems like an obscure part in the US. I'll post something here when I finish the install after I receive the parts. Thanks for the help from everybody.
- Bob

Honestly, for the price of the AV unit, that terminal block is one of the cheapest they could have designed in. Too bad...................

I feel bad about this since I sold my AV unit to Bob when FPL installed a free Clipper Creek at my house. Bob, I will forward the picture of the broken wire to AV and to the electrical contractor, along with your description of the damage done by the electrician. Let me know if there are other things they did wrong that I can pass along. I will reimburse you for the cost of making this right.

N1ghtrider said:

I feel bad about this since I sold my AV unit to Bob when FPL installed a free Clipper Creek at my house. Bob, I will forward the picture of the broken wire to AV and to the electrical contractor, along with your description of the damage done by the electrician. Let me know if there are other things they did wrong that I can pass along. I will reimburse you for the cost of making this right.

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You had no way of knowing that the original installer had stripped the terminal block, or improvised a re-wire with a wire nut, so no apology needed. I knew I could trust you to make it right if there was anything wrong. But this should be quite easy to fix after I get the part. Your price was fair, I knew you would stand behind it, and I'm glad I bought it from you. Thanks, Bob

vin944 said:

Honestly, for the price of the AV unit, that terminal block is one of the cheapest they could have designed in. Too bad...................

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Actually, the terminal block may be cheap dollar-wise, but it appears to be quite well made, now that I've taken the whole thing apart and examined it under a magnifying glass. It's made of stainless steel and strong plastic. I can understand why you'd want to crank down pretty hard on it to keep the wire from coming loose, or prevent a high-resistance connection, but obviously this installer overdid it. I don't think there are more expensive components out there that you could use that would be any better for this, at least that I've come across while searching through a few websites.
My main complaint is the way the MOV (surge protector) was crimped in as a last-minute afterthought, instead of integrating it into the construction in some other way. But overall, the build quality looks pretty good.

Take a closer look at the contactor. Those connections are on par. Then ask the question why do they come out of the contactor with 8 gauge wire but use 10 gauge from the terminal block (plastic) into the contactor? I talked to AV about it and got the best circular answer you could get. Wire nuts would make a better connection than that plastic thing.

Thanks again to everyone for their help. I just wanted to follow up and let everyone know that the parts arrived Wednesday. I crimped the black wire that goes into the toroid and the black MOV wire into a crimp sleeve, then inserted them into the new terminal block, which completed the repair. Once the charging dock was repaired to original condition, the install went quickly. It passed self test, and has been charging my car the last two nights. It's great to finally have a level 2 charger installed at home after a year of getting by on level 1 (which wasn't that bad, really). The price for the lightly-used dock was also a lot more reasonable than the Leviton 160 which I had previously been planning on installing, until pricing info was released on it.

Whew! Glad to hear the happy ending. Sorry for the inconvenience. I will follow-up with the original installer so others can avoid that situation.

N1ghtrider said:

I will forward the picture of the broken wire to AV and to the electrical contractor, along with your description of the damage done by the electrician.

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Was that "certified" electrician?

It was the contractor that Nissan/Aerovironment hired to install the unit in my garage. They had to be certified because they pulled a permit from persnickity Coral Gables City Hall.