# TCCH / Elcon CAN bus charge adjustment box



## brainzel (Jun 15, 2009)

I have to rethink my charging, so I decided to take a closer look at TC chargers (aka Elcon).
It seems, that these chargers (with CAN) are more flexible and less expensive than f.e. Zivan charger (which I use today).

Now I have to find a way to communicate with the TCCH to set voltage and amperage.
The only solution I found is a Box from Jack (EVTV), which could be bought with a charger that won't fit my battery pack.
The price and shipping would melt the advantage of the relative cheap chinese chargers, so I have to find my own circuit.

Is there a DIY project witch fits my needs?
- no BMS required
- simple connection
- easy component compilation
- easy adjustment

Michael


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## pm_dawn (Sep 14, 2009)

Buy a readymade board that can do CAN.

Like the DuinoMite or Olimex PIC-32-Maxiweb

https://www.olimex.com/Products/Duino/Duinomite/DUINOMITE-MEGA/open-source-hardware


https://www.olimex.com/Products/PIC/Development/PIC32-MAXI-WEB/

or maybe some stuff from sparkfun
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10039
to go with a arduino.

and then do some programming.

regards
/Per


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## brainzel (Jun 15, 2009)

Thanks.
A out of the box solution would be nice, but that should be plug & play.

DIY with Arduino would be possible, but I need some help 

Which CAN protocol, what values, is there a god programmer out there (I'm not) etc.

So many TC/Elcon chargers out there ... there must be a way ;-)


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## frodus (Apr 12, 2008)

A microcontroller is pretty much a requirement. Its not going to be a simple circuit and AFAIK, Jack and Mark Weisman worked on putting it together, and it almost certainly has a microcontroller inside that keeps writing to the controller to tell it what voltage/current to limit to. 

I don't think it'd be hard. I have the CAN protocol from TCCharger, but I don't think they did it with CAN. They don't use a CAN box that TCCharger sells. Pins 6 and 7 of the charger communication connector are serial RX and TX respectively. I think the box that you order from TCCharger is a CAN to Serial converter. You'd likely need one in order to communicate with the charger and see what comes out of the TCCharger CAN/Serial dongle. After that, its just seeing what gets crapped out of the CAN Serial dongle and make your microcontroller do that.

The CAN is 250k baud and uses 29-byte identifiers.


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## brainzel (Jun 15, 2009)

The EVTV Box is made out of an Maccina (Arduino based), "some components" and a software sketch, i think.
Only offered combined with a charger.

Such a box with perhaps a display on it and the opportunity to manage three chargers (in parallel) would be great and a wonderful open source project ;-)

Unfortunately I don't have the skills to do it on my own, but I think this would be a great input for the hole community, because the topic is repeatedly discussed.

I would really appreciate a smart solution 

Michael


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## Zak650 (Sep 20, 2008)

brainzel said:


> The EVTV Box is made out of an Maccina (Arduino based), "some components" and a software sketch, i think.
> Only offered combined with a charger.
> 
> Such a box with perhaps a display on it and the opportunity to manage three chargers (in parallel) would be great and a wonderful open source project ;-)
> ...


I've got one of the EVTV 4kw chargers - 165V works great for charging a 48 volt pack or my 120 volt pack. Easy to adjust and for what you get in flexibility a great buy, just buy one and be done with it.


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## brainzel (Jun 15, 2009)

I could by a 6kW TCCH in Europa inkl. VAT for $990,-
Jacks 4kW Version with box costs $1895,- plus international shipping, plus duty and VAT would be around $2500,-.

I would surely support him and his show, but this hugh difference is not feasible for me.

Michael


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## pm_dawn (Sep 14, 2009)

Hi Michael !

The Duinomite/MaxiMite boards are developed to be an "easy to get started" platform that you can program in basic.

Here is a link to a thread in the nowegian forum where some people has made a SOC display for the later version of the Think City.

http://elbilforum.no/forum/index.php/topic,4890.0.html

There you can download the basic program and get a pretty good feel of how to program a simple program that communicates over CAN-bus.

If you like we can try to develop something together.
I have been looking at this solution for some time now but have not gotten time to do something about it.

I have the spec for the Elcon/TCCH charger, and I can also get the spec tor the Eltek chargers so we can put that charger to use also.

Check the specs for the Duinomite board, they are pretty neat.


Regards
/Per


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## evpower (Aug 9, 2013)

brainzel said:


> I could by a 6kW TCCH in Europa inkl. VAT for $990,-


European stock with a discount price for selected models 1.5 kW, 3kW, 6kW, 8kW

http://www.ev-power.eu/Chargers-TC-1-5-kW/?src=EVSEJ1312


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## Hippie Djohn (Oct 24, 2011)

I'm also interested in a CAN interface for my Shinry charger.
The protocol is almost identical with the TCCH charger.


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