# Brusa NLG513 Problem



## SCEV (Apr 10, 2012)

I purchased one of the Brusa NLG513 chargers from EVTV a while back, and I'm just now getting around to trying to charge my pack. I've got 60 CALB 100AH cells in series. I used a 1Kohm resister to precharged the Brusa before connecting to my pack directly.

I connected my GE Wattstation to the Brusa, with the EVSE communications being handled by a seperate circuit (Modular EV AVC2). At first I had the Prox and Pilot wires backwards and my GE Wattstation wouldn't connect, so I swapped the wires and got the green light on my GE Wattstation and could hear the relay inside it energize. So now that the Brusa was on, I connected to it via Chargestar on my laptop and loaded a profile (see picture of settings). But now that a profile is loaded, when I plug the GE Wattstaion into the Brusa, the GE Wattstation lights up green, the relay energizes, the Brusa comes on and then almost immediately the GE Wattstation faults out to a blinking red light. Before a profile was loaded, the GE Wattstation would stay on/green for as long as it was connected.

Anyone have any ideas what's wrong?


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## steven4601 (Nov 11, 2010)

So your wall mounted EVSE throws an red blinking light ? (error?) when a load is applied by the NLG513?

What does the Modular EV AVC2 produce as a request signal through the CP wire? (Does it produce the correct signal for 16A loads?)


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## SCEV (Apr 10, 2012)

I have no idea what the AVC2 requests, how could I find that out? I've emailed the manufacturer, but still awaiting a response.

One thing I did notice on Modular EVs website is they sell two models, the other one is the AVC2.r and comes with a 2.74k ohm resistor between GND and Prox. Website says to use this if your inlet doesn't have the resistor built in. Anyone ever heard of this?

BTW, I've eliminated the GE Wattstation as the problem. A friend let me borrow his portable EVSE from his Leaf, and it had the exact same problem.

Any other ideas or things to troubleshoot?


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## steven4601 (Nov 11, 2010)

Its rather difficult to diagnose without measuring what is going on, but Id suspect you draw more than a certain given current limit.

Is the Brusa the only AC device on the charge port of the vehicle?
_Did you update the firmware of the Brusa charger? The older models do not have the correct firmware to work with an EVSE.* (Oops, not a relevant question I realized you used something else to satisfy the EVSE CP signal)*
_


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## SCEV (Apr 10, 2012)

Yes, the Brusa is the only AC device connected to the J1772 charge port. 

I have not updated the firmware, but as you mentioned the AVC2 is handling the EVSE portion.


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## steven4601 (Nov 11, 2010)

My only two suspected sources are the AVC2 not producing the right request or a defective charger, however I suspect the first.

The CP pilot allows for current limiting from the EVSE, if your Brusa draws more than the current limit commanded by the EVSE, it will also cause an fault @ the EVSE... Can you try to se the AC mains max current on the brusa to some value much lower, if that works, start to iterate till the limit the EVSE trips? 

Standard household sockets in EU are regulary only rated upto 12 or 13A (3kW) for continious usage. The leaf may also limit the charger current to that limit?


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## SCEV (Apr 10, 2012)

I'll check if lowering the allowed current does anything when I get home tonight.

In the mean time, I wanted to give a quick update. Currently, I have pin 2 connected to pin 3 on the AMPSEAL 23 connector on the Brusa, which is what makes the Brusa start charging once a J1772/EVSE is plugged in. Only other wires hooked to the AMPSEAL 23 are the Tx/Rx/GND for RS-232 comms. In this setup, everytime I plug in the EVSE it faults out.


Last night I tried removing the jumper from pin 2 to pin 3, and instead applying ground to pin 1 and 12V to pin 2 as shown in the Brusa manual. I was unable to connect to the Brusa via RS-232 in this configuration. I then plugged in the J1772 from the EVSE and the Brusa came on and stayed on since there was nothing on pin 3 to "start" the Brusa. I was then able to connect to it with Chargestar. I tried changing the cutoff current from 10 to 4 and unchecked the temperature sensor. While connected this way, I also used Hyper Terminal to pull some data from the Brusa (see attached). The one setting that stood out to me is that the Brusa sees 340V from the EVSE, should be 240 I would think. Anyone notice anything else that looks off?


I then removed the ground from pin 1 and 12V from pin 2, and put the jumper back in from pin 2 to pin 3 to see if changing those parameters in the software did anything. When I plug in the J1772 it again faults out the EVSE.


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## SCEV (Apr 10, 2012)

Just tried lowering the AC supply max amperage to 1A and the charging amperage to 15A, also tried AC amps at 5A with charging amperage at 1A...neither helped.


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## steven4601 (Nov 11, 2010)

The mains voltage reported by the charger does not make sense.

Did anyone install your EVSE on a 3 phase grid with Line to Line??

I am unfamiliar with the voltages available in the USA, as overhere we only have 230V-N which is 400V Line-Line.

If for some reason there is a 200V- Line-Neutral availible in the USA (driers?) and it would be connected Line-Line you end up with 340Vac...

But I cannot remember the Brusa NLG513 being made for > 265Volts....


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## HYPRDRV (Aug 20, 2009)

I have a Brusa NLG512 and have seen this same thing a few times with the main voltage over 340V on a known 240V AC circuit (US). I can't offer much help becouse the problem soon went away but it caused havic for a few weeks with the charger shutting off. Mine is installed on an Electric Boat with refrigerators running when on shore power and me gone for a week. Came back with the batteries (AGMs)down to 60% DOD. I'll be interested to see if you figure it out. I'm afraid my level of understanding of these systems isn't as good as most here. For instance what is an EVSE?
Steve


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## HYPRDRV (Aug 20, 2009)

In your first setup why is your "Battery voltage above" set to 215V and not 240V?


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## SCEV (Apr 10, 2012)

HYPRDRV said:


> In your first setup why is your "Battery voltage above" set to 215V and not 240V?


I want to charge to 3.5V per cell (slightly undercharged) which at 60 cells comes out to 210V. So I just chose 215V as a backup if for some reason it didn't stop at 210. 240V would mean 4V per cell which is WAY too high for the CALB cells.


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## SCEV (Apr 10, 2012)

steven4601 said:


> The mains voltage reported by the charger does not make sense.
> 
> Did anyone install your EVSE on a 3 phase grid with Line to Line??
> 
> ...


I installed the EVSE myself, definitely not on 3-phase. It's connected to a Nema 5-50 receptacle, which has two 120V connections and a ground. No way to create 340V.


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## SCEV (Apr 10, 2012)

HYPRDRV said:


> I have a Brusa NLG512 and have seen this same thing a few times with the main voltage over 340V on a known 240V AC circuit (US). I can't offer much help becouse the problem soon went away but it caused havic for a few weeks with the charger shutting off. Mine is installed on an Electric Boat with refrigerators running when on shore power and me gone for a week. Came back with the batteries (AGMs)down to 60% DOD. I'll be interested to see if you figure it out. I'm afraid my level of understanding of these systems isn't as good as most here. For instance what is an EVSE?
> Steve


EVSE stands for Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment, and in my case it's a GE Wattstation. All it does is communicate with the charger in your car (or the AVC2 in my case) to safely provide power.


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## steven4601 (Nov 11, 2010)

I think there are 2 possible issues left if you are certain the EVSE is working as intended.

1. the box creating the CP signal is not producing the correct signal
2. the charger is defective.


1 can be ruled out by attaching a load other than the brusa onto your AC circuits.

2 can be ruled out by connecting it directly to the (240V) mains. It should start according to its profile. The Serial monitor can be used to monitor the charging, but Charge-Star interrupts the charging profile when active.

hope this helps


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## SCEV (Apr 10, 2012)

Figured it out...

Turns out the premade cable/J1772 connector I was using actually sends the Pilot signal to the Brusa. I thought since the Pilot and Prox signals were on two seperate wires that come out of the bundle that no Pilot or Prox signals were sent to the Brusa. So I had two pieces of gear (AVC2 and Brusa) trying to communicate with the EVSE, and that was causing the EVSE to fault out. 

So I disconnected the AVC2 Pilot connection and everything works great. Well, it didn't work at first, I had to connect 12V to pins 2/3 on the Brusa AMPSEAL connector so it would communicate via the Pilot signal to the EVSE, but then it worked.


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## martinwinlow (Sep 22, 2009)

HYPRDRV said:


> For instance what is an EVSE?
> Steve


Electric Vehicle Service Equipment - Charge-point to you, but definitely *not* a 'charger', as this is normally on board the EV (except when the EVSE supplied DC eg CCS or CHAdeMO).


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