# I bought a Tesla Model S Gen 2 Charger - Now What?



## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

Let me start off by saying how much I appreciate the folks on this *Tesla 10Kw Open Source Charger Controller* forum and the *Tesla Charger Support Thread* on the Open Inverter dot Org forum for doing all the heavy lifting for us to make this used *Tesla Model S Gen 2 onboard charger* a possibility in our EV Conversions.

I assume like most of you reading this, I have read the *Gen2 Wiki*, I have downloaded the *Tesla Charger Evbmw Llogic Board Manual* PDFs, I have watched their *The Tesla Project : Charger 10kw Run* YouTube videos. Having said that I firmly believe there is still a gap between those folks and those of us born without the Electrical Engineering set of chromosomes. That's where this thread comes in, help me document on the Duplo level what we will need to go from eBay order of one used charger to actually charging our converted vehicle using basic *Level 1* SAE J1772 plug/connection (baby steps). I am happy to document it all (in pictures mind you), and buy all the bits and parts, I just need you to help me fill the gaps.

I hope to keep this thread wiring diagram free, ha ha, yes that's the level of simplicity I am striving for. OK, so here is what I know and here is what I got so far.

Assumptions: We will start off by doing this for the US, if we have input from across the pond I can add those updates too.


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

*PARTS NEEDED SECTION*

1. *Charger* - *Tesla Gen2 Charger Compatibility and Ebay WARNING*


Input Voltage110V-277VInput Current<40 AmpsInput Voltage TypeAlternating CurrentInput Current TypeAlternating CurrentTotal Charge Rate10 kWCoolingLiquidWeight16 kg (35.2 lbs.)Dimensions500x300x100mm (19.69x11.81x3.94” in.)Phase Countup to 3 phases

not all Gen 2 onboard chargers were created equally in other words they all may work fine in an actual Tesla but they don't all lend themselves to a DIY EV Conversion open source charger setup


avoid these *SUPER CHRGR* ones​as well as the *-05-* version​

















*Gen 1 vs Gen 2 Form Factor 
(how to tell them apart)*​

*Gen 1 has sharp edges*​*Gen 2 has rounded edges*​




















2. *Tesla Gen 2 Charger Logic Board* from Damien Maguire's EVBMW.com web shop *Price: 270.00€ *this is a direct replacement and lives inside the stock charger housing, you unscrew the old board and screw this one in it's place, well after a bit of programitization of course










V5 Logic board for the Tesla GEN2 onboard battery charger.
Soldering required
*Connectors NOT supplied.* Please see attached connector *BOM* for part details.
Supplied fully programmed with WiFi module.
Fits all GEN2 chargers both master and slave.
Price includes worldwide tracked postage.
Fully open source project.
Support via the openinverter.org Forum
Software and resources available on Github

Charger running at full power
Delivery : 1-3 weeks from order depending on stock.
No tax or other surcharges.

3. *AC / DC Connectors - *I'm guessing these are going to carry the AC electrons from the wall of our garage to the DC electrons in our battery pack, I have not seen any pics of these DIY wiring diagrams or DIY connections yet, will post them when I find some, if you did this already please share some pics with us


*housing 044441-2006*​*pins 0433753001*
Blade Contact 18-20 AWG
(I would shoot for thicker gauge wire)
*433740001* 14-16 AWG​

















4. *Logic Connectors - *so aside from 12 volts power and a ground these will run two additional skinny wires to the charge port one for the Proximity Signal (?) and the other for the Control Pilot signal (?) (both found on the larger 12 pin plug on the right) see further below for wiring detail


*PART NUMBER:194180014*

MX150L 10 Circuit Receptacle for 18-22 AWG Wire, with CPA, Black*PART NUMBER:194180026*

MX150L 12 Circuit Receptacle for 18-22 AWG Wire, with CPA, Black

















*PART NUMBER:330122001*

MX150 Female Terminal for Mat-Sealed Connectors, Tin Plating, 14 and 16 AWG, Right Reel Payoff










5. *Plug Port and Harness*

So can we just use something "Universal" like this: *EV Inlet Socket - 32A 250V AC Type 1 Electric Car Recharge Socket*


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

*DUMB QUESTION SECTION - DQS*

1. Why can't we just use the Tesla socket and stock wiring harness?

well for one unless you have an actual Tesla car you can not charge at a Tesla charging station, maybe someone can further comment on that


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

CHALLENGES

It is incredibly difficult to do any research on this because 99.9% things we find are consumer product based? things like this


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

alright this is driving me nuts, my pics are just disappearing off this thread !!! so moving some pics here

These are some pics of the OEM wiring harness pig tails for these two ports and what appears to be one complete segment, no idea what it actually plugs into on the Tesla


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

alright here is what plugs in to the other end on the stock vehicle it may be known as the *Master High Voltage Onboard Charger Harness 1037646* it appears to go into a *HVJB* high voltage junction box on the other end, out of which some orange wires run to the inverter, not sure where the other orange wires go to, perhaps the battery pack, maybe someone can comment




























































The *High Voltage Junction Box *shown below to the right of the charger with all the orange guts inside of it is for demonstration purposes only, it is not needed to get the charger to function fully. In this pic Damien was just using it so that he could easily connect thicker heavier gauge wire to the charger via the junction box.


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

*ACRONYMS and more ACRONYMS

EVSE* stands for Smart Charging Solutions for Electric vehicles, say what? *Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment* (EVSE) provides for the safe transfer of energy between the electric utility power and the EV. EVSE includes EV charge cords, charge stands (residential or public), attachment plugs, vehicle connectors, and protection. *it's a darn EV charging station*, that's all

Here is a good primer video on Charging Station status signals *EV Charging Station EVSE - What is pilot and proximity? by OpenEVSE*


*HVJB*, HVJB, HVJB oh the acronyms, I recon this one is High Voltage Junction Box and there may be a front one and a back of the vehicle one

*OBCM* - On Board Charging Module, aka Charger (basically different manufacturers come up with their own namings for things)

*kWh* - pronounced "gallons" as in I have a 24 gallon fuel tank (think Nissan Leaf's 24 kWh battery pack) or in the case of a Chevy Volt and it's 16 kWh battery pack size, so our analogy would say 16 gallon fuel tank, *kilo Watt hours* so 1,000 times Wh or Watt hours (just add three zeros "000") Tesla had a 60 kWh battery pack once, so that would have been the 60 gallon fuel tank analogy. Keep in mind that just because your fuel tank can hold 20 gallons that does not mean that's how much actual fuel you have in it at any given time, kapish.

*PWM*, we can't have an EV discussion without mentioning Pulse-width modulation

*SAE*, Society of Automotive Engineers


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

*LOW VOLTAGE CONTROL SIDE WIRING*

alright let's label the low voltage Logical connectors and see if we can plan how to wire them up

View attachment 124083



so this is from Damien Maguire's instructions










Following the diagram above,

*Connect your 12V+ to B1 (labeled 12V+) and A3 (labeled IN1)*
*Connect your 12V- to B7 (labeled GND) and to the charger's casing (chasis ground)*
*Connect the Proximity signal from your EVSE to B11*
*Connect the Control Pilot signal from your EVSE to B5.*

View attachment 124109


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

here's another reason why I am making this thread, I am tired of seeing these pic no longer available threads, since it is one of my pet peeves when people link to images instead of uploading them to this forum, then when the link gets broken or that hosting company goes belly up we got broken links and no pics


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

so I was just looking at this *SAE J1772* plug pin out trying to get the color coding of the *Proximity Signal* and *Control Pilot Signal* wires for consistency sake. The Proximity Pilot signal indicates how much current the cable can handle. 




















Pinouts for CCS Combo 1, looking at end of plug (attached to EVSE cord)L1Line 1single-phase ACNNeutralsingle-phase ACCPControl pilotpost-insertion signallingPPProximity pilotpre-insertion signallingPEProtective earthfull-current protective earthing systemCCS Combo 1 extension adds two extra high-current DC pins underneath, and the two Alternating Current (AC) pins for Neutral and Line 1 are not populated.

And here's a look at what that hair dryer plug will actually plug into on our cars, this below is what most often is shoved inside the ol' fuel tank filler neck.


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## MattsAwesomeStuff (Aug 10, 2017)

Just jumping in to say thanks for doing all this writeup.

If we had an active and useful wiki, this would be tremendous to have linked there. I might even sticky this in the charger forum if I can figure out how.

Currently, this forum is just garbage for archiving or highlighting any kind of useful content. I've tried in the past to change that but there's always a few curmudgeonly jerks who sour the experience for anyone who might otherwise contribute or participate.

Best of luck.


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

*There is no such thing as a Level 3 EV charger*, you tell 'em J. D. K.

a great explanation of the levels that do exist and a proper breakdown of the charger plug anatomy


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

*AC Input Connector & DC Output Connector*

so let's take a look at the business end of this magical box, inside there there are three power modules, so on the DC output side we get three pairs of -/+ wires, a pair goes to each one of the three modules

[a huge thanks to Yoda Artur for helping me finally get this]

pic from Damien's *PDF* instructions










so this below shows Live and Neutral AC Input pins as well as the Positive and Negative DC Output pins



















*DC Output Pins*​

*Negative*​*Positive*​*Negative*​*Positive*​*Negative*​*Positive*​

In it's simplest configuration we could just wire up one module (leave the other two disconnected from both AC and DC) and only connect one Negative/Positive DC wire pair to our battery pack


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

*Damien Maguire's YouTube Video Series* (how it all went down years ago and what it took to reverse engineer this gen 2 charger)












Aug 31, 2017 *The Tesla Project : 10 Kw Gen 2 Charger*

Oct 2, 2017 *The Tesla Project : Charger Progress*

Oct 18, 2017 *The Tesla Project : 10kW Charger Charging*

Oct 21, 2017 * The Tesla Project : Tesla Charger Arduino Control*

Oct 23, 2017* The Tesla Project : More Charger Hacking*

Jan 8, 2018* The Tesla Project : Charger 10kw Run








*


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## Bratitude (Jan 23, 2020)

Would you mind if I cut and copied some of these Pages into the oi wiki?


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

Bratitude said:


> Would you mind if I cut and copied some of these Pages into the oi wiki?


not at all, go for it


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

I'm not saying we all have to make our own *DIY Level 2 EV charger* wall connector thingie, but I could not pass up on sharing this guys outstanding video series on how to make one, I mean he draws diagrams with pencil and paper, who does that any more? I love it

*#24 - Do-It-Yourself OpenEVSE level 2 electric vehicle charger - part 1* YouTube video

*#25 - Do-It-Yourself OpenEVSE level 2 electric vehicle charger - part 2* YouTube video


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

I am always amazed how we can have four toolboxes full of tools in our garages and always be missing the one we need. And so I went out and bought a T20 Trex tip screw driver, I prefer vertical tools (ie screw drivers) instead of horizontal (ratchets) when working with electronics as I believe it reduces my chances of shortening ("touching") two things that don't mean to be touched

I also do not like using removable bit screw drivers as I don't know about you, but I am super good at having them fall off at the worst possible time and into the worst place

*Craftsman 41475*


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

*Top Tip*, I like to use heat shrink tubbing on my screw drivers which I dedicate to working on high voltage electronics just for that extra layer of protection


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

So two reasons to Void the Warranty and open up the *Tesla Model S Gen 2 Charger*


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

1. we need to replace the stock OEM circuit board with an Open Source reverse engineered one

2. verify our wiring to make sure we are going Live to Live and Neutral to Neutral on the AC side and Subtract to Subtract and Add to Add on the DC side, ha ha




















Please double check these but I think this is how these AC phase wires go, PM means Power Module, so for example the yellow wire runs to Power Module 3 and the white wire next to it runs to Power Module 3 as well. The purple wire runs to Power Module 2 as does the white wire next to it, and so on.


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

*PROGRAMMING - Enabling the Power Modules*

One of the things you get to do when programming the software for this charger is pick how many of the three Power Modules you want to enable. This is better explained in Damien's PDF instructions but here is just a quick summary

the programming menu is character or number driver so you press the number 2 with either 1,2, or 3 after it to enable that module, so for example

2*1* - 2 means run the enable module feature and enable module *#1* only
2*12* - 2 means run the enable module feature and enable modules *#1* and *#2* only
2*123* - 2 means run the enable module feature and enable all three modules *#1*, *#2*, and *#3* 

so to start off and just for testing purposes I am only going to do 21 meaning I will only enable the first Power Module, in other words the other two will be turned off, yes this is silly, go out there and buy a Tesla charger and than castrate it, but we are learning and we are taking baby steps here

[I will include screen shots of the programming menu once I have them]


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

*LEVEL 1 Charging
120 Volt AC Wiring using One Power Module*

So to start off here is how I plan to wire only one power module in my onboard charger for *Level 1* charging on only *120 Volts* from your dime a dozen US *15 Amp* (pronounced 12 amps, ha ha) wall outlet, this will only be temporary, but it totally works for at home ie in the garage charging

so if we do the Maths: 120 volts times 12 amps (cause of the 80% safety or efficiency limit) equals 1,440 James Watts so as the cool kids say 1.4 kW killer watts

so if I have a 9.1 kW battery pack and I can only deplete it down to 20% capacity or 1.8 kW and then I can only charge it up to 90% capacity in order to maximize its life span so 8.2 kW that means I have 6.4 kW to fill up, so if we divide that by our 1.4 kW rate of charge that means it will take 4 and a half hours to fill up (approximately as battery charging is not linear)

Note: No EVSE junk required no J1772 plug required, think less is more.

*AC Input*
L = Live
N = Neutral

*DC Output*
- = Negative
+ = Positive


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

hey, wait! is this dude for real?

Yes, this is just for Proof of Concept testing, no we're not going to be charging like this our full battery pack at the Walmart parking lot. This is going to run for a few seconds and that's it.































obviously we're not just going to shove those white extension cord wires in there like so, this is for logical demonstration purposes only while we wait for the proper plugs and connectors to arrive (hopefully later today)


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

parts... the reason there are two rows of the metal pins is because I got two different sizes for two different wire gauges, the goal being use the largest wire gauge possible


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

5 minutes later...


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

*LEVEL 1 Charging
120 Volt AC Wiring using All Three Power Modules*

And here is how I plan to wire all three power modules in my onboard charger for *Level 1* charging on only *120 Volts* from your dime a dozen US *15 Amp* wall outlet, this will only be temporary, but it totally works for at home ie in the garage charging, now for something like this we could use a heavier gauge extension cord but I'm just showing you here how it is wired up, so using what I have

Note: No EVSE junk required no J1772 plug required, think less is more.


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

*A little history: *

Up until the mid-1990s, 3-prong outlets were the standard used in American homes. Nearly all homes built before this time featured either a 3-prong outlet or range outlet (slightly different than a typical 3-prong dryer outlet). It wasn’t until 1996 when the National Electrical Code (NEC) was updated to require 4-prong dryer outlets in all new homes. Existing homes may still use 3-prong outlets, as the NEC changes are limited strictly to new homes.

So, why did the NEC make the decision to switch from 3-prong to 4-prong dryer outlets in new homes? Although the old 3-prong outlets were effective at providing power to dryers, they had one major flaw: the ground and neutral wires were grouped together, creating the potential for shock. 3-prong dryer cords contain two ‘hot’ wires along with a third wire that contained both the ground and neutral wire. If a current happened to make its way onto the ground wire, it could travel up to the dryer.

The more recent 4-prong dryer cords feature two hot wires, a neutral wire and a ground wire. This eliminates the possibility for a ground current traveling to the machine, as it features a separate return path for unused power.


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

*LEVEL 2 Charging
220 Volt AC Wiring using One Power Module*

So continuing on with wiring ideas here is how I plan to wire only one power module in my onboard charger for *Level 2* charging on *220 Volts* this time using what we call the washer and dryer plug here in the US which runs on a *30 Amp* specialized outlet, this will only be temporary, but it totally works for at home ie in the garage charging. I am no electrician but Googling reveals that this is still "single phase" and not two phase, and sometimes referred to as "split phase", whatever... it means more juice coming out of the wall, ha ha.

I have seen two different style dryer plugs lately, there's the 3 prong one and there is a 4 prong one, I think we learned the four prong is the newer style, and one has two live wires and a ground, the other has two live wires, a ground, and a neutral, the ground and the neutral sometimes get twizzled together for backward compatibility.

Note: No EVSE junk required no J1772 plug required, think less is more.
































































so we can just connect the middle aka "ground" wire to the chassis of the vehicle


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

so folks I think we have taken this as far as we can until we can replace the stock OEM logic circuit board with one the likes of *Tesla Gen 2 Charger Logic Board* for $312 American, keeping in mind that the two black connectors are NOT supplied *Connector_BOM_V5.pdf* and may be difficult to acquire in this pandemic climate

*Tesla Gen 2 Charger Logic Board Connector List : *​​*24 Way Jst Connector : Currently SOLD OUT *(as of November 8th, 2021)​MPN: SM24B-CPTK-1A-TB(L)​Mouser: *306-SM24B-CPTK-1ATBL*​Description: Automotive Connectors 24 POS SIDE ENTRY CPT MALE CONN​​





​*30 Way Samtec Header :*​MPN: IPS1-115-01-L-D​Radionics : 767-6859​Mouser: *200-IPS111501LD*​Digi-Key: SAM10594-ND​Description: SAMTEC - IPS1-115-01-S-D-PL - SOCKET, 2.54MM, 2X15WAY​​





​​


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## BlueHorizon (Nov 27, 2018)

Love this write up! Subscribing for more, hopefully soon (although that 24 pin connector has a long lead time by the looks of)..


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

BlueHorizon said:


> Love this write up! Subscribing for more, hopefully soon (although that 24 pin connector has a long lead time by the looks of)..


Wow, thank you so much for the kind words, keeps me going! and yes I don't think I'll be getting that 24 pin connector any time soon, but that won't stop me, I plan on unsoldering the one off of the stock OEM board, I mean it's not like I have a Tesla that I can just install that charger in


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

*LEVEL 2 Charging
220 Volt AC Wiring using All Three Power Modules*

We may be jumping a bit ahead here but I wanted to add this section for completeness.

So here is how I plan to wire all three power modules in my onboard charger for *Level 2* charging on *220 Volts*_ (and is it 220 or 240 I hear those specs used interchangeably without rhyme or reason)_ using the washer and dryer plug here in the US which runs on a *30 Amp* specialized outlet, this will only be temporary, but it totally works for at home ie in the garage charging. I am no electrician but Googling reveals that this is still "single phase" and not two phase, and sometimes referred to as "split phase", whatever... it means more juice coming out of the wall, ha ha.

I have seen two different style dryer plugs lately, there's the 3 prong one and there is a 4 prong one, I think we learned the four prong is the newer style, and one has two live wires and a ground, the other has two live wires, a ground, and a neutral, the ground and the neutral sometimes get twizzled together for backward compatibility.

No EVSE junk required no J1772 plug required, think less is more.

Note: I harvested these red boxes from two Chevy LS engine harnesseses that I kept tripping over in the garage hee hee and I am a little (and by a little I mean a lot) *T.O.'d* ...










... at the factory worker who cranked down these nuts on the original harness to 75,000 Newton meters, ha ha forcing me to break the plastic hinges on the lids for these things trying to get them loose with a 6' pry bar mind you!!!



















_[ more pics for this post coming soon ] November 6, 2021_


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## remy_martian (Feb 4, 2019)

gregski said:


> *Top Tip*, I like to use heat shrink tubbing on my screw drivers which I dedicate to working on high voltage electronics just for that extra layer of protection
> 
> View attachment 124140
> View attachment 124141


Thread of the Year here...thanks for taking all the time to gather up the resources and write it all up.

On your screwdriver mod, the shank is still dangerous in the area where the heat shrink meets the handle. Suggest maybe a generous bead of epoxy there or PlastiDip the shank after wrapping the tip in tape.


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

remy_martian said:


> Thread of the Year here...


to be honest I am working with a *Silent Partner* so thank him [ahem] silently










then do not read this one: *1971 GMCe Lexus GS450H BMW 530e Tesla Model S powered Electruck* lOl


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## remy_martian (Feb 4, 2019)

One thing - an EVSE has (ground) fault detection, (some/all) has/have mains overcurrent detection as well. Going directly to a dryer plug does not.

So, for safety, use that EVSE "junk" 😂 or, at least, configure your plug so it can only plug into a ground fault protected circuit, which a dryer circuit is not (it can be if you replace your garage/house dryer breakers with GFCI breakers in your electric panel). You may not always be the one plugging the car in, even though you believe you will be.

Jacket all high voltage in orange for 1st responder & tech safety.


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## remy_martian (Feb 4, 2019)

Anyone know why the -05 chargers are blacklisted?


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## remy_martian (Feb 4, 2019)

Gregski - you have a PM


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

remy_martian said:


> Anyone know why the -05 chargers are blacklisted?


I assume you read *Tesla Gen2 Charger Compatibility and Ebay WARNING* and the answer was not in there?


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## remy_martian (Feb 4, 2019)

I did, but got distracted to come back here and post it - they're Supercharger takeouts vs onboard chargers.

Few know that the same units are used in a stack in a Supercharger as in the car -- which is what makes frothing at the mouth opposition to the salvage or converted car use of superchargers argument by Tesla fanboys somewhat lame


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

remy_martian said:


> One thing - an EVSE has (ground) fault detection, (some/all) has/have mains overcurrent detection as well. Going directly to a dryer plug does not.
> 
> So, for safety, use that EVSE "junk" 😂 or, at least, configure your plug so it can only plug into a ground fault protected circuit, which a dryer circuit is not (it can be if you replace your garage/house dryer breakers with GFCI breakers in your electric panel). You may not always be the one plugging the car in, even though you believe you will be.
> 
> Jacket all high voltage in orange for 1st responder & tech safety.


I concur, hence *What charging port and harness do you recommend for the Tesla Model S Gen 2 Charger?*


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## remy_martian (Feb 4, 2019)

It's a tossup for me between J1772 and Tesla (North American), since I have both EVSE's in my garage. 

As slow as my projects go (everything slid a year and a half after I taunted death with Covid last year) it's not clear that Tesla won't open up to using their charge stations by the time I'm on the road. There are adapters for both, so it's a cointoss, imo. 

I like the Tesla connector's DC approach....there was no reason why J1772 could not have done DCFC on the two AC pins and beefed them up from the outset. Idiots.

This thread gave my enthusiasm the kick in the pants it needed...it's been a very slow recovery, physically & mentally. Thanks for that.


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

well it's out with the old PCB circus board...


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

but not before we harvest the 24 pin JTS connector made from Unobtainium using some precision Barbarian tactics

I strongly recommend using Poplar for this, lol










and an $800 dollar heat gun, that you'll only use once


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## remy_martian (Feb 4, 2019)

Gals down at the bowling alley are gunna be all over you after you've styled your mullet with that there hair dryer

That connector should have come up nicely with braided solder wick.


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

so the new replacement Open Sauce printed circus board arrived, and as you can see it comes with a tiny red WiFi card, this allows us to Configure our settings using any web browser like Chrome or Internet Exploder, on our laptops, PCs, iPhones, iTablets what ever you get the idea 

(unlike the Open Inverter Lexus GS450h VCU board, in my [shameless promotion] *1971 GMCe Lexus GS450H BMW 530e Tesla Model S powered Electruck* [/shameless promotion] build thread, that one requires a USB cord connection)


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

mandatory stare and compare, now I aint no circuit board printing expert but the old card (top) is heavier and seems to be way more denserly populated with (what's the technical term I'm looking for?, ah yes) doodads, especially on it's [ahem] back side! than the new card (not top)


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

now in addition to the tiny red *Olimex MOD-WIFI-ESP8266* WiFi card header connector (already attached) we need to glue on the two little black connectors, the larger one (top of pic) *30 Position Receptacle Samtec Connector IPS1-115-01-L-D* I bought brand new as it is in stock and currently available, the shorter one (right of board) *24 Way JST Connector SM24B-CPTK-1A-TB(L)* was "gently" persuaded off the old circuit board and awaits to be transplanted to the new one (wish me luck)


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## remy_martian (Feb 4, 2019)

You should be ok on the hot air reflow. Fluxed solder paste on the pads (use the syringed kind) and get as much of the excess off the connector before you start.


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

meanwhile in our state of the art free-range *Precision Facility*...


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

things are about to get real



















gentlemen I can't stress this enough, you must keep your tip clean


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## remy_martian (Feb 4, 2019)

I need to get me one of those multidegree of FREEDOM ('murica!) clamps like you're using to hold that connector

Just the tip...only if it's clean and you promise 😂

Nice job getting the dross off those pins, on a serious note


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

Yes this next part is tedious, and I'm gonna make you suffer with me


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## remy_martian (Feb 4, 2019)

Paste and hot air, dude


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

remy_martian said:


> Paste and hot air, dude


Appreciate the advice and I even went out and watched a YouTube video or two on it but it wouldn't have worked for me because I am repurposing a used connector, meaning I jacked up all the little feets on it whilst liberating it off the old board, and it don't take much to make those little pins not align with those tiny little landing rectangles. I literally aligned each and every pin by using a dentist pick to make sure it was centered properly on the pad below it

Fun Level = 0


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

actual footage of me finally going to do this next part


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

so here we go, this process is tedious


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

I feel obligated to offer a *Top Tip* to save you some grief if you set out to do this on your own, first yes you can do it, just take your time, second be aware that this charger has three power modules. Why is that important? Because this 24 pin connector services all three modules so there is some redundancy in it. Say what?

I am not sure the breakdown below is 100% accurate but 24 divided by 3 is 8. So think of it this way. 

pins 1-8 serves power module 1
pins 9-16 serves power module 2
pins 17-24 serves power module 3

so *if you have an accidental solder bridge* (pronounced: a friggen glob of solder causing a short across the pins) say *on pins 2-3 it will also cause a short across pins 10-11 and 17-18* because they are all connected, don't ask me how I know!


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

I used this carbon fiber vegan wireless super clamp to help me hold down the circus board to the work surface to prevent it from skating across my desk, ha ha (use what ever you have at your disposal and don't let her know you're skierd)


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

thank god my iphone has a crappy camera and can't macro focus worth beans so you can't really tell how bad my soldering job really looks, ha ha

but yeah I used a Multimeter on the continuity setting to see if it will beep when I touch two adjacent pins and as I mentioned in the Top Tip above it had me chasing my tail for a while there cause I had one tiny hairline solder bridge between two pins that was causing six pins to beep, crazy I tell you










*Project Phase Fun Level: -7*


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

and the 30 pin through hole style connector was next, this style/type is much much easier to mount/solder

























and that's good enuff for the girls we date!


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

and here is finished Tesla Model S Gen 2 charger open source logic board


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

then it was time to install the new PCB into the charger, fit like a glove


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

one caveat, see how there is a screw missing in the pics above, that's because our new board does not have this spacer / riser like the OEM one did so I opted not to install a screw there at the risk of over tightening it and cracking the circuit board

below is a pic of the OEM board flipped over so you can see what I am talking about


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

I like to bag and tag my charger bits, especially since when working on an EV Conversion you are going to have *battery* bits, *controller* bits, and *current sensor* bits, etc.


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## remy_martian (Feb 4, 2019)

Might want to find yourself an ESD bag for stuff like circuit boards. THEN bag the bag.

You can kill or damage parts like the microprocessors on circuit boards with the charge that ziplock bag can generate.


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

*Literally Nobody:* _"Hey how much does that Tesla Model S Gen 2 charger weigh?"_

*Me:






































*


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## remy_martian (Feb 4, 2019)

You cheated and didn't fill it with coolant....

🤓


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

remy_martian said:


> You cheated and didn't fill it with coolant....
> 
> 🤓


indeed, add 7 ounces and round to 35 lbs (surprise you didn't notice the lid is missing it's screws)


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

here is how I wired the low voltage communication side











Following the diagram above:

1. Connect your 12V+ to B1 (labeled 12V+) and A3 (labeled IN1). 

2. Connect your 12V- to B7 (labeled GND) and to the charger's casing (chassis ground). 

3. Later on I will connect the Proximity signal from your EVSE (Pronounced: _charger cord plug_) to B11

4. Later on I will connect the Control Pilot signal from your EVSE (Pronounced: _charger cord plug_) to B5


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

So our mission was to send some power to that custom "after market" circuit board to see what happens


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

some crimping required, now for those of you skierd of wiring or convinced you hate it, here is the first

*Top Tip:* treat yourself to a decent set of automagic wire strippers, don't use those stupid strippers like the ones below that you have to pull on, yes uncle Ned can strip some 9 Gauge solid copper house wires with them in a 30 second video but those don't work for me and they may not work for you, also if you go out and buy a set, that set may not work for you either, that's ok, you will find a set that you love, allow yourself to fail, allow yourself to learn


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

my strippers below are OK but they are 17 times better than the yellow ones above


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

I think someone in one of my other threads / posts pointed out we do not have to take that front white piece all the way out, well I tried with it partially in and I can't tell if the terminal twisted is in there sideways or upside down, so I just pop these out and shove my eye balls in there













this is the smaller of the two plugs it is the one A Plug on the left, and here we shove the red positive wire up it's butt in slot #3 (the holes on the back of this plug are actually numbered with tiny tiny numbers to help you out)












the plug below came with my charger when I bought it and it already had that yellow wire in it so I just left it, I have no idea what it does


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

Looks like I shoved two black ground wires in the #7 hole on the B plug next


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

and then I took the red wire from the A Plug and added another longer red wire to it and shoved both into hole #1 on the B Plug


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

and here is what our red Positive and black Negative (ground) wire connections look like


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

next I crimped a loop on the short black wire off of the B connector and simply ran it to the closest charger mounting hole to act as a chassis ground


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

I like to add a fuse on the positive red wire as close to the power source (aka battery in this case) as possible to protect our electronics












and I use the smallest fuse I can get away with (2 amps in this case), usually these little gizmos don't need that many volts, we are not talking about spinning our electric motor here, we are powering up a tiny microcontroller and blinking some LEDs folks, if you use a small fuse and it blows, that's ok bump up to a larger one until it doesn't pop any more


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

and I like to add an OFF and ON switch on the black negative (aka ground) wire also close to the power source (aka the battery) and there's our little "power" harness for the Tesla Model S Gen 2 battery charger


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

and here it is in action, note how all we have is a battery providing low voltage to power up the logic board, the charger itself is not plugged in to the wall ie AC power on the left hand side in the pic























note the red LEDs on our custom after market Open Inverter circuit charger logic board PCB (the red card is a WiFi card ie wireless network card)


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## remy_martian (Feb 4, 2019)

What's your thinking behind switching the negative on and off but leaving the power wire hot in a negative ground car?


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

remy_martian said:


> What's your thinking behind switching the negative on and off but leaving the power wire hot in a negative ground car?


less chance for sparks than trying to clip on the alligator clips on the battery post each and every time I want to power up the thing, and this is for the test setup, and aren't all modern cars negative ground, the only "positive ground" car I can think of is a Polish Skoda I think


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## remy_martian (Feb 4, 2019)

For bench/floor testing it doesn't matter. Your hardwood floor is likely sitting on ground 🥴

I can foresee noobs following this thread and hooking the charger up in their cars by switching the negative wire by inference to your test setup, which is why I asked. 

In a car, practice is that power is switched on and off using the positive power feed, since the negative return is usually through a hardwired chassis ground. 

Putting the switch on the positive side moves your sparks to inside the switch just as does a negative side switch.

What you're doing is seemingly arbitrary and ok, it works, but it's inconsistent with installation practices.


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## Gregs-Nemesis (Nov 7, 2021)

So how do we talk to the darn thing?


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

How we communicate with the Charger using the aftermarket circuit board depends on which version of the board we have. If we purchased an earlier one we use an USB cable, if we purchased a later one ver 5 we connect to it wirelessly using WiFi like so

first I look for a new Wireless Network (it may have some obscure name like ESP_8DB9B3) to advertise itself and pop up in my list of Wireless Connections on my Laptop, desktop computer, iPhone, iPad, or Android Tablet, you get the idea, anything with a browser, use your toaster if it has an Internet Browser on it, ha ha

and yes I did call my home network *Network Not Found* how brilliant is that


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

then you type *192.168.4.1* in the web browser to take you to the webpage running on that tiny little red WiFi card


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

at this time I would like to acknowledge the founder of the *Open Inverter Organization* and the inventor of the site/menu we are about to use *Johannes Hübner* There are a couple reasons why I think it is important to acknowledge and thank this gentleman, first he spent over a decade reverse engineering stuff so that we can benefit from it, second he is openly sharing all this information with the world, so that folks like me and you can benefit from it for free, and thirdly, knowing who he is and what he developed will help you with the big picture when you start seeing similarities between the menu used to configure your charger and the menu used to configure your Vehicle Control Unit aka the VCU.


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

well then on to the site, yup there's his name up there up top *Huebner Inverter Management Console *see how it says Inverter yet we use it for the Charger, that's because it is a brilliantly designed universal menu, more on that later


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

so this site has that very simple Craigslist look and feel, however intuitive (simple and easy to use) it is not, so let me give you some pointers, it is basically for the most part a single page design, and when you click the Menu items on the top the links just drop you further down on the same page just taking you directly to that section if you will

there are a ton of items, menus, and buttons on this page, but we will concern ourselves with two sections to start out with

and the first one is *Parameters* (pronounced: Settings) this is where we INPUT our settings, we enter or configure stuff in this section


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

and here is the entire *Parameters* section, we concern ourselves with the bottom half, so yes I love the simple basic late 90s web page design however I hate the none intuitive labels, and this is not a knock on Johannes by any means, I think he is pulling this information from the Charger and that's possibly how they come through aka cryptic

For an explanation of what these values mean I suggest visiting the *Parameters section* on the Open Inverter Wiki (I will go over the critical ones later on when we are actually charging a battery) at this time this is just a light primer of how to navigate this page/menu.

Note: all this code can be modified if you want to take your project to the next level, you can change anything and everything on this web page, but that is too advanced for this discussion at this time.


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

the second section I would like to bring to your attention is called *Spot Values* (pronounced: Output) this is where we can View the data returned to us from the Charger, you can think of it as Monitoring section so that we can see what the hewk is going on in real time

and once again clicking the Spot Values at the very top on the Menu will simply just drop us down further down on the page to the Spot Values section


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

think of *Spot Values* as the OUTPUT Section where the Charger show's us how it is configured or what is going on with it at the moment

again the labels suck and I don't know what half of them mean, however I could not find a link to a Wiki anywhere where it takes a deeper dive into what they are, some I'm sure are the same as the Parameters above


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

here is a bird's eye view of my basic setup for 120 volt 15 amp single power module play around with charging, 

Note: we are not charging the battery in the picture, we use it as a power source to power on the logic board in the charger


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

decided to give the *Anderson* connectors a try (AMAZON $14 bucks), going with the gray 50 AMP 6 AWG on the AC side (to ensure the three into 1 positive and negative charger leads fit in the connector), may use a smaller gauge on the white cord side, learning about these connectors as I go

this should allow me to swap between the white 120 volt cord and the gray 240 volts plug quickly and easily and connect to all three modules, again not for long term charging but just for the testing phase of the EV Conversion


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

also going to try one of these cheap crimping tools, not a big fan and my expectations are really low (also AMAZON $24 bucks) they already look like a returned and resold items, so that's a good sign! not


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

the crimper does alright


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

so this will allow me to switch from the 120 volt to the 240 volt cord easily on the AC side


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

pics of the concept for the AC side using a gray Anderson SB50 connector, I may bolt this to the actual case of the charger, IDK


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

the DC side is a bit busier as we need to include some fuses to protect the battery from going Boom

if we take a step back and think about this, the AC side where Alternating Current comes in from the "wall" to our charger, is protected by a circuit breaker, be it a 15 amp for the 120 volt connection or a 20 amp circuit breaker for a 240 volt connection, these live in what is called a service panel (medium sized metal box) on the side of our homes in the United States

so those circuit breakers protect our Tesla charger from going Boom, but what happens after the charger takes that alternating current and brews up some direct current for us to send to the battery pack, what stops it from sending a huge rush of it?


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

that's why we need some fuses to protect the battery pack, and I got lucky and found this triple Bussmann 30 amp 600 volt fuse holder with a cover on eBay

Part Number: BMC603-xP
































the screw down connectors are a big reason why I chose this fuse block, I did not want these leads coming off


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

we need to remind ourselves that a 15 amp circuit breaker does not break at 15 amps, that's not how it's designed to work, it is designed to work at 80% efficiency so it breaks at only 12 amps

15 amps x 80% = 12 amps

so for my implementation I choose to run three 20 amp fuses so that they will fuse at 16 amps (more on this later... maybe)












I am only fusing the positive wires, the black negative wires will just run along side of this fuse box to an Anderson connector


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

so here is what we are going for


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

and the negative side


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

love how the DC side is turning out, almost looks semi pro











still waiting on my hydraulic crimper tool thingie before I snap those Anderson PowerPoles in to that plastic red rectangle


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

so the goal for January 2022 is to actually charge my BMW 530e battery pack using this thing and converge these two threads into one

*I bought a BMW 530e hybrid battery pack - Now What?*


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## remy_martian (Feb 4, 2019)

The only thing standing between you and death is a bit of gravity










Screw that down, or stop "teaching" sloppy safety practice.


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## remy_martian (Feb 4, 2019)

It's a bit misleading, what you're "teaching" here on the AC side.

In the US, we use a split phase, earth referenced, power system to homes.

That Tesla charger is NOT connected directly to the service panel breaker as you say, and as you have your corded connection now going to a non-GFCI, indoors range/dryer plug (yikes!). With the weight of the charger making your ground connection 😬

There's an EVSE in between the charger and plug that limits the charger current draw and that detects ground faults. You have none of that.

Charge your car in the rain on a dryer circuit without an EVSE, be the earth connection, and you're dead. You fail to mention the EVSE and a GFCI being mandatory to run this box in a garage or damp/wet place. You fail to mention that the charger needs to be set to pull maximum current of 8A in the absence of an EVSE, yet has to be on a GFCI circuit, not an ordinary breaker. Code also requires, iirc, vehicle charger plugs to be dedicated circuits for vehicle charging, not shared with your wife's clothes dryer.

In fact, you've gone to lengths to fuse (I assume that's the block you have on the DC side, though you infer with the prior post that you put an AC breaker there) the output, but have done nothing to keep from toasting the plug/socket on the input side, or from frying yourself by failing to put the charger on a GFCI circuit.

I may come across as nitpicking or as a curmudgeon (at my age, both expected and a right), but you are putting yourself on the high horse of teaching and being knowledgeable in the eyes of everyone tiring of $4/gallon gas prices(which is why the high influx of new members) yet the things you are showing, omitting, and teaching are very dangerous, can kill someone, and expose yourself to a huge lawsuit if someone or something gets cooked.

No harm in running things up the flagpole here for feedback, though. What you're doing is good stuff, but it also is very naive and possibly negligent in some areas. You have my feedback, hopefully will get some from others, then go back, redo, THEN make a video.


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

and here is a super fun rant (not by me) on how not to treat an Anderson connector


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## remy_martian (Feb 4, 2019)

You need to watch what you post; tentative is irrelevant.

You've positioned yourself as an authority, an educator, "this is how to do it" - monkey see, monkey do.

Nobody will continue reading...they will do as you did at that posting point and many will follow the pics vs reading details. You HAVE to assume that.

Omitting information about ground fault safety equipment, yet excruciatingly showing a circuit breaker, and that leaning metal equipment on a ground lug as being good enough is Aramco gold watch material.

If you're going to assume knowledge authority and teach, you carry a responsibility to the ignorant.

You brush it off with excuses vs correcting the postings. An ambulance-chaser's wet dream of potentially deliberate negligence.

Fix it. You can do better. Earlier is better than later because the Internet has memory and propagates material.


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

Ah Yeah! The *Crimpulator 3000* is here! not bad for $32 bones on AMAZON


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

so finally I can complete my DC test wire harness






















wish I had some *red heat shrink tubing* but oh well, good enuff for the girls I date!


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

and then it was on to the positive side of this test DC wire harness


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

then it was time to turn up the heat, still relying solely on only yellow tools, ha ha


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

I couldn't be happier with the way this has turned out, and the Anderson SB120 series should be able to handle the 45 amps max flowing through these no problem


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

*Fun Fact *about the Anderson connectors, the SB series comes in different sizes SB50, SB120, SB175, and SB350 (and different colors) but what is cool is that within each series, take my SB120 for example you can swap out for different PowerPoles (those metal connector insert thingies) ranging from 1 to 6 AWG "gauge"


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## remy_martian (Feb 4, 2019)

AWG gauge - American Wire Gauge gauge


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

and here I'm trying 120 volt charging using all three power modules

YES, the wife INSISTED I do this in the comfort of our fine dinning room, so who was I to refuse her wishes

The car battery provides 12 volt power to the chargers logic circuit board

The laptop talks to the chargers logic circuit board using WiFi and can be used to configure the charger and to show how the charging is going, state of charge etc.

Difficult to see but I am using a Kill A Watt (white thing plugged in to the black power strip coming out of the wall) to monitor AC (volts, amps, watts) going into the charger, this is optional, and the laptop shows the same stuff, I just have trust issues.

On the table I have a Fluke like clamp meter that I mount around one of the high voltage power leads to show me the amount of current flowing into the battery pack












red tiny circuit board with the red LED on is the WiFi card which is used to communicate with my laptop to configure the charger and to monitor it












if I had to do it all over again I would put a switch on the red wire going to the plug on the left, that is how we START or initiate the charging so at the moment when troubleshooting I have to unplug that black plug and plug it back in, it's a bit of a P.I.A.


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## remy_martian (Feb 4, 2019)

Is the Wifi connection, to the charger, password protected?

Asking for a drive-by pyro/hacker friend 😂

No, seriously....is it?


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

so I want to revisit the Web Interface for this charger and share with you how I got it to work, and what I think some of the *Parameter* settings do


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## remy_martian (Feb 4, 2019)

It's nice your doing this in the front of the house in the dining room, cuz your wifi reaches any car parked at the curb. Password didn't work...two "m" or three?

With that, I looked it up on OpenInverter:

*Connecting to the Web interface*
Depending on the version of your Olimex wifi dongle they are "open" or you need a password to connect.

By default you can connect to the network (Acces Point) and browse to: *192.168.4.1*

By default all charger kits will have *SSID* : charger *PASSWORD* : charger123

_Note: Its recommend that you change it. No body wants to drive and have some joker with a phone finding this information and accesing your charger
---_

Sure enough, you were kidding around and the pw was the default, charger123. 

Will wait til 3am before I turn your charger up to 11.


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

first I want you to ignore that entire top section right below the *Parameter* heading, as it is simply clutter for now (and I will manually crop it out in future screen shots for proper learnability)


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

so that leaves us with this, what I call the Dirty Dozen (yes 0 through 11 adds up to 12, ha ha)


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

there are some things I really like about this interface (simple Craigslist like design) and there are some things left to be desired, (I'm looking at you cryptic parameter *Names*) and if I had to change things, I would reorder this list somewhat and put #7 first, ie *inputype* or Input Type

at the moment / starting off we will only concern ourselves with *Manual mode*, this means we can use a regular 120 volt power cord or a washer/dryer 240 volt power cord to charge and we don't need the J1772 cable, the charger will ignore the lack of Proximity signal from the J1772 socket as well as the Control Pilot signal from the same.


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

worth mentioning is the default *timelim* Time Limit of 5 minutes. The logic board arrives with an unregistered version of the software on it (pronounced: _"free version"_) it has a built in charging limit of only 5 minutes after which time the charging shuts off (though the Web interface continues running so you can still play with the settings). You can read up on the *OpenInverter.org Wiki* page about the *Registration* process which will lead you to the OpenInverter Web Shop where you can obtain the *Tesla™ Charger/PCS Firmware Key* for roughly $27 bucks.

this limit is a blessing and a curse for when you are starting out with the charger, it prevents us Newbs from overheating that box since it is supposed to be liquid cooled and I doubt any of us have wired up an electric water pump to it at this point, the downside is that sometimes right as you think you got the settings dialed in the darn thing decided to turn off, ha ha


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

before going any further, let's Level Set:

i = amps

u = volts


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## Gregs-Nemesis (Nov 7, 2021)

gregski said:


> before going any further, let's Level Set:
> 
> i = amps
> 
> u = volts


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

Gregs-Nemesis said:


> OH REALLY, PLEASE TELL ME MORE


before the days of *Shark Tank* the best inventors could do is have crap named after themselves.

So we have a French dude named *André-Marie Ampère* to thank for the *amp *and since by definition, an ampere is the *intensity* of an electric current. The conventional symbol for current is _*I*_, which originates from the French phrase _*i*ntensité du courant_, (current *i*ntensity).​​Not to be outdone and Italian named Alessandro Giuseppe Antonio Anastasio Volta had the *volt* named in his honor. and now for a bit of a stretch, since "U" stands for *Unterschied*, which in German means "difference"; very fitting since voltage is obviously the same as potential difference.​


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

so if we look at #1 *iaclim* (pronounced: _"amps of alternating current limit"_) we get a first hand experience of those horrible labeling conventions I complained about earlier, regardless this is what we will be pulling in from the "wall" into the Tesla charger

Note how the default value reads 16, for those of us in the Independent States of America that is a bit odd, we were conditioned to believe our common 110/120 volt outlets run on 15 amps. and yes that is very true, I believe that since this web interface was written in Europe it applies the European standard which happens to be 16 amps

So in the US we could set ours to 15 or better yet for safety and knowing that our 15 amp circuit breakers are designed to happily run at 80% capacity (15 amps x 80% = 12 amps) I like to set mine to 12, and since this is split among the three power modules and being anal retentive I like to use numbers divisible by three, so 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, etc...


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

#2 *idcspnt *amps of direct current setpoint (this value is spread across the three power modules) so if leave this set to the default of 45 amps, each module will push 15 amps to the battery pack, nice!

per the OpenInverter.org Wiki

DC charge current limit. An additional limit to charge power. It is also mapped to the CAN bus so if you have a BMS that calculates a maximum charge current you can forward this to the charger.


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## Gregs-Nemesis (Nov 7, 2021)

maybe this would help


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## remy_martian (Feb 4, 2019)

Is there a "Charging for Dummies with No Coolant Loop"?


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

so jumping to #5 *udclim* (voltage of direct current limit) if you will, this is what voltage you want the battery pack to reach to shut off the charger, in my case the default of 398 volts, wonderfully matches my SP06 *BMW 530e* high voltage battery pack specs perfectly, so I may just leave it on that.

*WARNING:* I am about to say something controversial here, and yes thumb wars have been fought over this, so allow me to explain before you beat me up too much.

*All batteries can be charged to 100%.*

There I said it. However, doing so cuts down on their lifespan. For example:

if I charge this battery to 100% (398 volts) every time I can only get 1,000 cycles out of it, meaning I can only charge it 1,000 times.
But if I only charge it to 90% capacity say 392 volts I can get 2,000 cycles out of it, so 2,000 charges.
And if I am even more conservative and only charge it to 80%, I may get 4,000 cycles out of it, so I would be able to charge it 4,000 times

Life is short, I don't even buy green bananas, so....


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## remy_martian (Feb 4, 2019)

With that cheapass multimeter of yours, you have no idea if you have 440V or 360V or 398V.

So, no...YOU cannot charge to full pack voltage unless YOU have a fully functional, and calibrated, meter or BMS.


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## remy_martian (Feb 4, 2019)

Shelf life is also an inverse function of SoC. Just sitting there at 100% SoC sucks the life out of the cells. 

Put your ear to your modules and you'll hear tiny voices' desperate pleas for help to escape from your torture & abuse


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

so back to #4 *udcspnt* (Volts of Direct Current setpoint) think of this like your oven setting, so when you go to bake something you set it to 350° F and the oven keeps it there and does not fluctuate 

I'm just going to try it at my batteries max setting of 398, cause it would be illogical to make this lower than udclim as I would never hit full charge

Note this one is in Minneapolis units of measurement


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

so I made this little visual cause you know, I'm really good in MS Paint, ha ha


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## Gregs-Nemesis (Nov 7, 2021)

this thread is great, and don't get me wrong, but there's just so much to read, if only there was a video summarizing it all ?


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

Gregs-Nemesis said:


> this thread is great, and don't get me wrong, but there's just so much to read, if only there was a video summarizing it all ?


hold my beer...


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## remy_martian (Feb 4, 2019)

If a tree falls in a forest, does it hear itself fall?


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## asymptonic (Oct 14, 2021)

Man I love threads like these. Keep on sharing and ignore the spectrum crowd.


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

asymptonic said:


> Man I love threads like these. Keep on sharing and ignore the spectrum crowd.


Thank you so much,
G


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## remy_martian (Feb 4, 2019)

asymptonic said:


> Man I love threads like these. Keep on sharing and ignore the spectrum crowd.


How's your short-bus conversion coming along, if we're going to be characterizing each other?

Have to hit you over the head with it: This guy created two userids and is having a "conversation" with himself. Mods on some forums ban those who create multiple IDs for a number of reasons.

The dullard crowd wouldn't have noticed these antics, so resorts to name calling.

Feedback on practices and errors is important for someone who doesn't know what they are doing and is merely passing along the Cliff's Notes of what they read on Google and from OpenInverter and other sources.

There's a lot of reckless and negligent practices in these videos and "instructions"...as you noted, "ignore the spectrum crowd". They're just electrical engineers, lol.


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## asymptonic (Oct 14, 2021)

remy_martian said:


> How's your short-bus conversion coming along, if we're going to be characterizing each other?
> 
> Have to hit you over the head with it: This guy created two userids and is having a "conversation" with himself. Mods on some forums ban those who create multiple IDs for a number of reasons.
> 
> ...


I'm not going to get into a fight with you. You're absolutely right about safety practices and damn near all your advice, but like the other guy in his thread, you seem to live to shut down the obvious, non-harmful knowledge that people do need to know even if they haven't been veterans of the forum. There's utility in both. Not every post needs to be the _first_ time a piece of good knowledge is shared. I'm lurking to learn before I fuck something up, and that means absorbing from everyone smarter than me, which is pretty much everyone here. But the holy than thou attitude risks turning off some folks into ignoring everything and just saying fuck it and doing something dumb.

Now, back to your regularly scheduled programming.


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## remy_martian (Feb 4, 2019)

I don't overtly shut down any knowledge. Engineers are trained to challenge thinking, take the contrarian view, troubleshoot, solve problems. These kinds of places are where you might find them. Call it "spectrum", but you have no hesitancy driving over highway bridges...because it's a process that works. Places like Tesla and Spacex are brutal to work in...engineering-heavy successful companies have that culture and the ones that have group hugs don't get very far.

If I do shut down knowledge, you are welcome to call me out. I try to clarify, add, answer or stimulate conversation. Threads are kinda dead unless you shake them up a bit. Eating a bag of popcorn and reading a forum is good, but you're worthless because it's about everybody participating, not merely showing up. Your problem is not yours, it's the next guy's, and the next gal's after that. Leave a thread sloppy and you'll mess up everybody that follows. Until you get that, you will never understand Brian or myself or a few others here in the "spectrum" club. This is a reference resource, not Ask Heloise.

I try to correct or highlight errors and problems, especially with this Youtube generation, one here of whom just ignores what I see as serious issues, and he just carries on. His choice. He'll be paying for the lawyers. 

Another Youtuber also ignored two people's inputs, I explained, they seem to have understood. 

You put a video up in the context of being an expert, everything you do had better be exemplary of being safe and utilizing best practices, particularly when it comes to high voltage. Otherwise, you're just a software bit-flipper with a camera, pretending to do hardware, baiting the next guy to become a pile of graphite on his garage floor.

There is a distinct difference between teaching and telling. In teaching, you learn, teach, get opinions and feedback, learn more, modify, teach. In telling, you say it once, move on. Or tell it several times, not changing what should have been corrected. Or you create an alter ego to bait the tell because few are participating. Nobody knows where you are going or what you are doing when you throw a 2x4 foot sheet of plywood on the ground and start moving modules around like a three year old...purpose doesn't matter when you're telling.

This thread is very useful, but firing up a high powered charger full bore with no cooling, for example, is reckless, imo. Best case, you kill a $350 charger's output devices.

Unlike kids making slime at home, stuff we do here can be lethal or can cause a lot of damage. Open terminal 390VDC on a wood-floored dining room plus lithium batterie...all outside a fireproof, arcflash proof, case? Wow. 

There's no preface of "Don't do as I say or do as I do...just watch the software and 5V part."

Even there, electronics are being handled on a plastic Harbor Freight Tarp. Now do that with your $1500 Canbus GUI controller's board, fry it with static electricity because you saw stuff done on the DIY Electric Car guy's video on a plastic tarp...gunna shrug it off or get pissed off because he was an expert? He must've put that tarp down for electrocution safety, right? (I hope not...)

Anyway, if you see something not right or that can be done better, or see someone scratching their head or looking for ideas, put the popcorn down, steal a baby wipe and clean the butter off your fingers, and type a paragraph in response with your opinions, experiences, knowledge, resources...that's what makes this a forum and not Ann Landers.


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## asymptonic (Oct 14, 2021)

I don't disagree with anything you said. Reading back over the thread, I think I got tired of Greg's posts which were merely mocking and conflated that with some other posts of yours in other threads. Either way I apologize. Being late on a Friday night didn't help. 

I do find stuff like the exploration of the charger parameters helpful. I haven't seen that info anywhere else yet.


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## gregski (Sep 6, 2011)

a video showing one of these Tesla Model S Gen 2 chargers installed in an actual car, this is Damien Maguires 2001 BMW 5 Series 520i E39 aka the Land Yacht


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## arber333 (Dec 13, 2010)

Greg i have a task for you. Can you make your charger run on full power 240Vac and inspect what you get returned in spot values in *hwaclim* value.
My charger is vidently limited to 13.3A per phase and i can only get 8.8kW on the whole out of it. I would like to see others write their limits here too.

tnx


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## remy_martian (Feb 4, 2019)

Are you running coolant through it? Greg wasn't, so upping the power in his dining room may toast/limit the charger.


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## arber333 (Dec 13, 2010)

remy_martian said:


> Are you running coolant through it? Greg wasn't, so upping the power in his dining room may toast/limit the charger.


I have it mounted in my car, coolant, CAN bus, 12V and whatnot...


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## grahammoore1 (1 mo ago)

Has anyone bought a board from EVbmw lately. There seems to be other parts missing from the board now.


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