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JoeS

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This past weekend I repeated my Christmas holiday run up to the Sierra foothills (that I had done last year in my then-new used Mitti with CHAdeMO http://myimiev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=2445). The difference being is that this year I did the 200-mile trip in a borrowed Tesla. :eek:

Even more than the quantum leap from J1772 to CHAdeMO, the Tesla experience is a different world - with Superchargers, Autopilot, self-parking (but not backing into parking spots, yet...), etc., it's a techie's dream world of a land yacht. But I digress...

At the destination last year I had installed a 240vac L6-30 receptacle. Since the Tesla owner did not have a L6-30 adapter and, despite my huge collection I also didn't have a L6-30P to 14-50R adapter, I simply took my Mitsu EVSEUpgrade.com EVSE with me. Guess what: plugging it into the Tesla J1772/Tesla adapter, the Tesla would not charge! Not wanting to play with it further that first night, I simply plugged the Tesla into 120vac using their own little EVSE.

The next day, looking over my friend's collection of adapters in the car, I came up with the following scheme, starting from the wall receptacle (stay with me on this one):

1. My L6-30 Plug to L6-20 Receptacle adapter
2. My Mitsu EVSE and its L6-20 Plug and J1772 Plug output
3. My friend's TucsonEV J1772 Receptacle input to NEMA 14-50 Receptacle output
4. My friend's string of adapters starting with a 14-50 Plug and ending up with the Tesla plug

This allowed me to have the Tesla charging on 240vac through our Mitsu EVSE. Worked just fine.

Here's the danger in doing this: the TucsonEV adapter spoofs the J1772 signal so that the current draw is no longer dictated by the EVSE but, instead, by the car's charger.

So, what happened? I started charging the Tesla but a couple of minutes later as I was proudly showing off what I had done I picked up our Mitsu EVSE and noticed that the wiring was warm. Huh? No smell or smoke coming out at all. Only then did I realize what had happened - the car was dictating how much current to draw. I jumped into the Tesla and reprogrammed its current draw (which had been set to 24A) down to 11A (we were in no hurry). Happily recharged the Tesla overnight at 240vac 11A and I also programmed the Tesla to stop at 80%. Decadent. Our Mitsu EVSE seems none-the-worse for wear having been subjected to a 24A current draw for only a few minutes.

So, I have no idea why simply plugging our Mitsu EVSE J1772 output directly into the Tesla (through their normal J1772 adapter) did not work. Anyone use our EVSE on other cars?

Edit: Ahhhh, just had a thought about the original problem: if the Tesla was programmed to draw 24A and the EVSE would only say it could provide 13A, then would that be sufficient for the Tesla to completely stop the charging in lieu of reducing its current draw to 13A? Guess the next time I see my friend I'll have to plug in our Mitsu EVSE and reprogram the car to find out...
 
I bet you enjoyed that trip :cool: . Did you take a picture of that setup? I'd like to see that all hooked up.

I've used my EVSEUpgrade with a BMW i3 without issue. That's the only other EV I think my cord has ever been plugged into. I've used some of my adapters to help a LEAF driver recharge with their Clipper Creek unit a couple of times, though.
 
JoeS said:
This past weekend I repeated my Christmas holiday run up to the Sierra foothills (that I had done last year in my then-new used Mitti with CHAdeMO http://myimiev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=2445). The difference being is that this year I did the 200-mile trip in a borrowed Tesla. :eek:
So, what happened? I started charging the Tesla but a couple of minutes later as I was proudly showing off what I had done I picked up our Mitsu EVSE and noticed that the wiring was warm. Huh? No smell or smoke coming out at all. Only then did I realize what had happened - the car was dictating how much current to draw. I jumped into the Tesla and reprogrammed its current draw (which had been set to 24A) down to 11A (we were in no hurry). Happily recharged the Tesla overnight at 240vac 11A and I also programmed the Tesla to stop at 80%. Decadent. Our Mitsu EVSE seems none-the-worse for wear having been subjected to a 24A current draw for only a few minutes.

So, I have no idea why simply plugging our Mitsu EVSE J1772 output directly into the Tesla (through their normal J1772 adapter) did not work. Anyone use our EVSE on other cars?

Edit: Ahhhh, just had a thought about the original problem: if the Tesla was programmed to draw 24A and the EVSE would only say it could provide 13A, then would that be sufficient for the Tesla to completely stop the charging in lieu of reducing its current draw to 13A? Guess the next time I see my friend I'll have to plug in our Mitsu EVSE and reprogram the car to find out...

No worries, the EVSE only has a relay that is controlled by the small logic board that negotiates current. The relay won't care much for it, but as you discovered the wire thickness does :)
http://iserv.nl/files/pics/evbox/20150908_154915.jpg
Green control module left
Grey relay in the middle
Grey 12 Volt power supply on the right

If you don't have the wire spooled up you can often get away with it just fine.
 
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