# [EVDL] J1772 inlet or converter?



## EVDL List (Jul 27, 2007)

Until you are ready to commit fully to J1772, I suggest to
see if public EVSE will work for you by building up an 
adapter, or you can buy a pre-built one if you have more money 
than time (which my case when was worked to death as a hp CE)
http://modularevpower.com/Sales_J1772_to_NEMA_14-50_Adapters.htm
This source will sell you their components if you wish to 
DIY.

Their are two major EVSE cards to be concerned with:
Chargepoint (Coulomb EVSE), and Blink (ECOtality EVSE).

Only the Chargepoint was made available for free both on 
Earthday (Apr) and on National Plug in day (Oct). Otherwise, 
you can pay the one time fee of $10 (S&H+processing).

When ordering, I had the choice of either a full credit card 
sized card or the small key ring type. The card that came 
from the free offers was a key ring size (no-choice).

Take a look at
http://www.chargepoint.net/find-stations.php
and enter the zip code of areas you want to charge at, to
know if you want to wait for the next free offer, or plunk
$10 down. You have the option of setting the card to only
work on free EVSE (what I do), or place a small $ amount as 
a retainer for EVSE that want to cost you to use them (i.e.:
$5/hr in Los Altos, etc.)

The Blink card is free and only comes in the larger credit
card size. Their EVSE are free for now, but in the fall of 
2012, Blink going to allow hosts to cost you to use their 
EVSE
https://www.blinknetwork.com/membership.html

Look at
https://www.blinknetwork.com/locator.html#
and enter the zip code of areas you want to charge at. In
the SF area, there are far more Chargepoint EVSE, than Blink.

Lastly, I would not be concerned with getting a $20 Semaconnect
card. Right now their EVSE is set to free, and only Walgreens
in SF and the SF East Bay have (IMO foolishly) bought into
their cheap EVSE price. Beware: that startup EVSE company 
has had problems. For their map see
http://www.semacharge.com/publicstations.php

If you use an EVSE finder site/app like recargo, it will
show you all brands of EVSE
http://www.recargo.com/search?search=95123&commit=+++SEARCH+++


My S-10 Blazer conversion EV originally came with a 90lb
Bycan dumb-transformer type charger mounted under the hood
(Wow, what a boat anchor). If I were you, I would replace it
with an onboard charger that gives a dial-in flexibility
to charge at whatever charge current suited your fancy (i.e.
a pfc-40, or one with similar specs and abilities).

If for some odd reason you plan to keep the bycan, you can
take the sheet metal cover off and see the many transformer
taps available. I installed a couple more three way toggle
switches way-back in the early 1990's when I first took
possession of the S-10 Blazer. I was able to have not just
a low that was too low, and a high that was too high, but a
low-low, low, medium-low, medium, medium-high, and high.

I cheated, one of the switches was to disable one of the 
full wave lines, so it only gave half wave = half the power.
At low currents this was OK, but at higher currents, the 
transformer would be audible. Having that charge current 
adjusting ability came in handy several times. Especially
on a shared circuit with a (7A) soda machine on it.


{brucedp.150m.com}


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> Cor van de Water wrote:
> > I have bought an (older) EV truck with a 120 & 240 capable
> > (two separate input cords) charger.
> > So, I can opportunity charge from a NEMA 5-15/20 outlet
> ...


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## EVDL List (Jul 27, 2007)

>
> If anyone has a way to get a (free?) public charging card
> then I'm all ears as well.

Cor,

I think all you have to do is ask Chargepoint or Blink for a card and you can charge at any of the 
free charging stations. You might have to pay a nominal fee for processing the card, but once you 
have it all of the free stations are yours.

Rush
www.TucsonEV.com/TucsonEV-SE.html

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## EVDL List (Jul 27, 2007)

> Cor van de Water wrote:
> 
> > I have bought an (older) EV truck with a 120 & 240 capable
> > (two separate input cords) charger.
> ...


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## EVDL List (Jul 27, 2007)

Roger has a good idea. See if you can borrow what you
would need to see if it will work before you spend $.

To clarify ...
I do not believe the old low pfc chargers I used in the 
past would be a issue here, just because Cor's older-EV
has a transformer type Bycan charger. The Bycan can be set
to low, where there should be minimal current spikes or 
to-ground leakage to trip-up/fault-out an EVSE.

Too bad I do not still have my S-10 Blazer conversion EV
which I used to use as a rolling charger-test-bench. I 
found it a lot of fun to go to different EVSE and use 
different brands and models of chargers so I could know the 
ins-n-outs of each one. I hope their is another EVangel
around to now wear that EV-hat.

...
Except for a few stuck relays, the coulomb EVSE have
worked fine.
Except for wireless networking verification issues,
the ecotality EVSE have also worked well enough.

It is the semaconnect EVSE issues that has had a lot 
of drivers not being able to charge visibility.

I did not have the issues with semaconect EVSE myself.
It was others that I found out about and reported back to
the evdl on.

One issue was semaconnect's convoluted way to obtain a $20
RFID card (twice the price of a Coulomb's Chargepoint RFID 
card). For that well-known experienced Leaf driver, it was
a huge hassle to get semaconnect to get it right. No driver
should have to go through that headache with an EVSE 
company.

Others were drivers reporting as check-ins on recargo of 
how semaconnect EVSE that was known to be set to free (thus
just like the Avcons of old, or the Clipper Creek EVSE 
of today) they should be plug and charge. There were enough 
check-ins of how when connected to various Production
EVs and pih, that no power was supplied to the vehicle
(a real bummer).

The last issue I reported was of the Tesla Roadster driver
in my area who made the effort to try two different 
semaconnect EVSE at two Walgreens near him (Santa Cruz 
County, CA) and both had GFCI faults.

Later, it was posted by a different person that semaconnect 
had incorrectly installed a pre-production level/proto-type 
unit out in the field when they should not have. 

Again IMO, these issues I would hope have been resolved since
the company has had the time to get their act together. 
Because if not, their aggressive sales force is going to 
saddle drivers with not-ready-for-prime-time semaconnect
EVSE to contend with.

At some point, there will be semaconnect EVSE near me that
I may want to do the same regular check-ins on that I do
of the Coulomb and Ecotality EVSE near me. At that time, I 
will use semaconnect's methods to pay too much for a 
ChargePro RFID card that will show the semaconnect EVSE is
working or not.


{brucedp.150m.com}




-


> Roger Stockton wrote:
> > Cor van de Water wrote:
> >
> > > I have bought an (older) EV truck with a 120 & 240 capable
> ...


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## EVDL List (Jul 27, 2007)

Hi Cor,

The Green Vehicles Moose came with a non j1772 charge inlet. I had the cord
and plug to charge at home and did not want to buy a j1772 plug. I moved the
existing inlet to the "engine compartment", under the hood and replaced it
with one of these:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/J1772-UL-75-Amp-Vehicle-Inlet-AND-AVC1-module-/260988887143?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3cc4266067#ht_500wt_732 
The inlet comes with a module that lets the vehicle communicate with the
charging station. It was easy to install and works great. The only issue I
have is I have to turn the BMS on with the key when charging at Public
Charging Station. So at home I use the old inlet under the hood and when out
and about use the new j1772 behind the gas flap.

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