Recent content by eHelmholtz

Things have changed a bit since the 2011 LEAF days. As EVs have more range, there's little need for an ICE based car as a second car but I still have my roadster for the weekends.

Tony's been ban before for various feisty deeds in the past but he's been good in recent years and helpful to new folks!

There some Chinese made relays that are supposedly rated for 80A with a 12V coil so they work with OpenEVSE. The wires don't look anywhere beafy enough to use at 80A but appears to work fine at 40A. They appear to be the same relays that are used in EMW's Juicebox. Here's an ebay listing for...

what do Current EVs use for thermal management on traction batteries? In the earlier days of 2010 and 2011, it was easy. The Nissan LEAF didn't have an active thermal management system while other EVs used liquid cooled systems including the Tesla made EVs and the GM Volt. However, the...

OK, great. That's what I thought. So I should be able to use Brad's 3x16AWG conductor/per phase J1772 cable at 40A and his 4X16AWG conductor/per phase at 50A without problems. I'll test and get back.

Wait. Have I not been using the J1772 cables correctly? Brad's set up includes 4x16AWG conductors. Each 16AWG conductor would handle 13A times 4 is 52A. Do I understand that this should be derated by 20% and used at 42A? Tony's 8 conductor cable uses 2x12AWG for each phase. Each 12AWG...

Brad uses different gauge wires for different J1772 cables. His 52A cable has 12 conductors total, four for each of the L1 and L2 hots. One for ground and one for pilot. As I understand it, he custom makes each of these cables and doesn't use Chinese made preassembled ones. As such, I think he...

I just sent a friend to Tony for leather installs, albeit not for a leaf. Has anybody else done this more recently?

Wow, so you made a decision since the meeting in Cerritos. Congratulations!

You can build an openEVSE and set it to 6A 120V for less than $200 and it can still double as a portable 240V level 2 to EVSE.

Looks like this company has changed the name on it's EVSE the handle. It's now called the SPARK. I wonder if that's a pun ;-) http://www.charge-amps.com/spark/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I would suggest making it open source and you will likely find a lot of interest with suggestions for improvement and hopefully contributions from others here. This forum, at least in the early days, has supported these efforts. In fact, OpenEVSE was born as a weekend project by Chris Howell...

I can lend you an EVSE and help you fix yours if you would like.

Looks good Tony. What is the EVSE board based on? Is it OpenEVSE? What about the firmware - OpenEVSE?

Hi Brad, Thanks for the clarification - makes sense now! I'll edit my original post to reflect. Also, I agree with comments about using higher current if not continuous (I've done it not infrequently!).