# [EVDL] Avcon to J1772 Yazaki connector conversion



## EVDL List (Jul 27, 2007)

Hi folks,

Over ten years ago when I converted my Civic to electric I equipped it 
with what was then the new standard charge connector, the Avcon 
conductive connector. The idea was to be able to take advantage of the 
new public charging stations that would be going in. Ten years later 
the only Avcon charging station within several hundred miles of me is in 
my garage.

Now, J1772 has morphed into the Yazaki connector, and public charging 
stations have finally started to arrive in Kansas City. There are three 
in and thirty more scheduled. So, my question is, how similar are the 
electronic specs and signals for the Avcon and Yazaki? Could one simply 
replace the connector on the cable and install the new inlet on the EV, 
or is there a lot more to it than that?

On a similar note, is anyone using a Zivan NG5 with the new J1772 public 
charging stations? Do they play nice together?

Thanks,

-- 
Mike Chancey,
'88 Civic EV
Kansas City, Missouri
http://evalbum.com/106
EV Photo Album at: http://evalbum.com
My Electric Car at: http://evtinker.com
Mid-America EAA chapter at: http://maeaa.org
Join the EV List at: http://www.evdl.org

In medio stat virtus - Virtue is in the moderate, not the extreme 
position. (Horace)

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## EVDL List (Jul 27, 2007)

There has been a AC-power-xfer going the opposite way:
from AVCON to J1772 inlet coupler. See,
http://evdl.org/archive/#nabble-tt3325422|a3327342
Perhaps an email to tom would put you in a dialog with the EBEAA 
person so you could learn how they did it.

I am hoping other evdl.org members will jump in and explain how to 
make an J1772 to AVCON inlet AC-power-xfer work.

The older public AVCON EVSE in the SF area are mostly installed with 
DMV funding, thus are EVII ICS-200 units which do not work with a 
charger that has less than a 95% power-factor-correction.

Since your evalbum site says you have an on-board Zivan NG5, and you 
stated you have used public AVCON units where you are, those must be a
different brand and or model, like an AVCON PowerPak or an EVII DS-50 
which do not have the circuit board the Automakers required EVII put 
in to defeat EV conversion usage of public chargers (Automaker reps at 
shows/symposiums like EVS were very vocal about their disdain of 
non-production/conversion EVs).

I ask that if you get your Zivan NG5 or a NG3 to work off a J1772 EVSE,
you post that to the evdl so we all know it works.

This brings to my mind other thoughts of how public EV charging has 
changed since the 1990's. In those days GM was practically giving-away
their inductive Magnacharger, thus not unlike a cuckoo dropping its' 
eggs in other bird's nests, a two charger per EV charging station 
standard was established (you have to have both a conductive AVCON 
that everyone could use, and an inductive SPI that only a few could 
use).

Later with the EAA's efforts, many new sites also included a Level1 
5-20 GFIC. But these two-spot public EV charging spots were wasteful 
in that you had to be in the spot with the AVCON in front of it to use
it (not all AVCON EVSE had cables long enough to reach beyond the EV 
in front of them, same with the SPI).

Today, we have a different ballgame. 
-There are EV charging spot hosts that go cheap, and only install 
Level1 (either the economical yet functional 5-20 GFIC outlets, or a 
DoE funded EVSE box that only has Level1 power available).

-Then there are the EV Charging hosts that do it up better with both 
Level1 and Level2 power made available. With two spots assigned per 
dual-power EVSE as 'EV Only' parking. Either an EV (i.e.: a Leaf) that
needs the Level2 EV charging, or a plugin-vehicle with a low capacity
pack (i.e.: GM pish) that can fill up quickly on a Level1 power source.
No matter which one is in which space, they each can get what they 
need/want.

IMHO: Today's EVSE installations are a lot better and more 
effective/efficient use of DoE/DMV funding monies/power/space, and EV 
drivers time (way-less frustration).


- 
Bruce Parmenter
{brucedp.150m.com}


On Fri, 25 Mar 2011 06:57 -0500, "Mike Chancey" <[email protected]>


> wrote:
> > Hi folks,
> >
> > Over ten years ago when I converted my Civic to electric I equipped it
> ...


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## EVDL List (Jul 27, 2007)

The signaling protocol is pretty close to identical, there are minor
subtle differences but none that should affect your conversion, you
should be able to just swap the connectors. That said, I remember
there was a post not long ago about someone with a Leaf (I think) who
was having problems charging it from an old AVCON evse.




> Mike Chancey <[email protected]> wrote:
> > Hi folks,
> >
> > Over ten years ago when I converted my Civic to electric I equipped it
> ...


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