Are you interested in building your own charging cable?

wow, that looks complicated and expensive, well done! edit: forgot to say 'thank you'! for a great write up and pics.

 

It's the least expensive way to get a L2 capable EVSE, other than using PeeFs ~$239 EVSE upgrade of the existing Toyota supplied L1 EVSE included with the PiP, of course building your own EVSE you end up with two EVSE's, not just a single modified one. Also you end up with a 30A capable EVSE as well, not just a 16A unit.

Again, the most expensive component continues to be the J-1772 connector & cable, which is more than half the cost of the whole project.

 

it does make me realize that the price of the off the shelf unit isn't quite as bad as i thought. but if you can handle this, it's definitely the way to go.

 

I would be very interested to find out what Peef does for the upgrade. I do know that the PiP can only be upgraded to 16A, but I would be willing to convert mine myself if I could find instructions.

 

he does provide a relatively detailed explanation at MNL. it is still not for the faint hearted. there is still a level of knowledge that must be applied along with tools, the "desire" to get into the case, etc.

for $239 it was well worth the money to have him do it. now, if i could get the parts for a few hundred, i would consider it, but the J1772 prices are currently ridiculous

 

i would go with peef's unit, but he doesn't have any extra units yet and you have to be willing to wait a few weeks without charging.

 

Thanks for the write up, Terry. I've wanted to build one for sometime now (mostly because Mitch keeps talking about it ). I'll probably wait until the summer when I get a 240V outlet installed. Although I would like the EVSE to send me emails too.. but I figure I can wait until someone more knowledgeable blazes that path and then I can just add it to the OpenEVSE.

I totally forgot to charge last night.. mainly because I usually wait until late in the evening to pull out the EVSE and plug in. This should solve that issue.

 

Its more like a couple of DAYS

 

Once you completed your build what type of testing did you perform ? The building seems to be straight forward but not sure about the testing.

 

We built J-1772 "simulators" that can test all of the various J-1772 states, and observed/measured the response of the EVSE, it's as simple as that, really... Chris shows how to build a simulator with diodes and resistors on the OpenEVSE site. I used a 5 position rotary switch to build mine, so resistor/diodes could be switched between ground and the pilot signal easily, it can be seen in many of the pictures on my Photobucket link: OpenEVSE pictures by mitch672 - Photobucket

 

well, it's a couple days to ship my cable to them and a coupeldays to ship it back. plus however long it takes them to do the work and how backed up they are. i read a post that said 'weeks'., but i will have to call them and see what they say. i would like to hear/read from people who have had it done.

 

bisco, I could loan you my portable OpenEVSE while you have your Toyota EVSE upgraded, we are both in the Boston area.
If you have your L6-20R outlet setup with a 20A/240V you can even use it at L2, if not I have adapters for it, standard 120V or other 240V outlets, such as L6-30R and 14-50R/6-50R

 

thanks mitch, i may take you up on that. right now, i have a 15a breaker and 30' of 12-2wg to a 15a gfci. what would i have to change?

 

If its a dedicated wire, just take the white (neutral) off the neutral buss, wrap it in red electrical tape (do the same thing on the outlet end), then take that wire and the matching black and connect them to a 2-pole 20A breaker, install an L6-20R receptacle where the old 120V outlet was... That should do it.. Home Depot should have the 2 pole 20A breakers and L6-20R receptacle and cover plate.. There is also the ground wire to connect to the outlet as well, of course.

FYI, the modified EVSE when returned from evseupgrade.com will come with an L6-20P plug, which will plug directly into your new outlet.. They also have standard outlet to L6-20R adapter cables to use a standard 120V outlet as well (I have a spare if you need one as well, bought from a seller on eBay for $15 each)

 

i see a 4 wire outlet and plug as well. what is the purpose of that?

 

low current 3 phase plus ground