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It depends on what "hot" means. My rule of thumb is that if it's too hot to touch for more than 5-10 seconds, that's too hot. In particular, you don't want the wiring to be that hot. Power dissipation in the high current path is pernicious - heating up the metal increases its resistance, which...

I did get it to work. An open collector is sufficient to stop and start charging. I didn't really pursue it much for a couple reasons. Firstly, I don't have ToU electricity where we live, so I don't actually need the functionality. Secondly, it wasn't much after that that I wound up designing...

Oh, that's my cue! :D I've moved over to Tindie instead of Square. The latest version of my EVSE tester is an LCD backpack, which makes it a little bit more self-contained. It requires 6-12 VDC power for the display, but you don't need the DC power for the DIP switches to exercise the host...

Yeah, that is just a stunningly bad idea. I'm building another of my version of this device for some friends who have a (non EV) need for one. I personally would never consider using anything less than the "3 relay" circuit. And that circuit, all built, actually winds up being well north of...

Don't worry about the fault condition damaging your car. There's almost no chance of anything bad happening in the current state. That said, I doubt that simply leaving the EVSE connected will make any difference. I strongly suspect that the electronics inside have gone bad and need to be...

No, no, it's that the current from one hot to the other will vary over time, and the current going into each neutral must *exactly* balance it at any given instant. That's going to be tough to arrange.

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Oh, I see. You're counting on the GFI not noticing a voltage difference in the returns. I don't see why that wouldn't work right offhand, but the whole thing is already a Rube Goldberg machine even before you start down that road... :) Oh, and the current between the two hots is not static...

But that begs the question. How would you pull current from somewhere else that you could feed back into the GFI neutral without unbalancing *that* source's GFI? And if that source doesn't have a GFI, then why not just use *it* for the quick-220 instead of the GFI source?

I don't think that will work. You're still pulling current from the hot line that you're not returning to the neutral. That will always trip a GFI.

An isolation transformer that would handle an EVSE's 30 amps - or even 15 - would be a monster.

Alex is right. The whole concept is fundamentally incompatible with GFI protected outlets. There's no workaround other than using a different outlet.

I don't normally like to pre-announce stuff, but since the prototype worked perfectly... what the heck. I've been working on my own version that I call OpenEVSE II. It too is designed to fit in Chris' very, very nice enclosure, but it differs from Chris' board set somewhat. 1. The high voltage...

I've never heard of the continuous duty derating being based on the length of time the load is engaged. I would have assumed that any load with a very high duty cycle would require a derating. I believe I've been told or read that the NEC considers EV charging to be continuous duty regardless of...

Canadian TV, I believe, has a Canadian programming content mandate (their attempt to avoid becoming the de-facto 51st state), and that show is - effectively - subsidized by it. So I don't know if they show exclusively Canadian made goods, but most of it is.

Thanks. I am not sure what the controlling document for EVSE GFI sensitivity is. Chris has stated, and designed OpenEVSE to, a 20 mA standard. I built one for 10 mA, but my wife's Volt trips at that rate just often enough to be annoying. I've personally decided to split the difference and...

I always wondered why the cords were so short. I've been putting, like, 6 foot SOOW cables on mine, but I guess I'm not submitting mine to UL any time soon. :)

Adding a GFI circuit to an EVSE doesn't cost a lot. It's a single chip, a handful of discrete components and a CT coil. It's like an auto maker complaining that it's too expensive to add brakes to an EV. Sure, you could make a car that stops with regenerative braking entirely, but there's just...

Well, I don't know what certifying organizations (like UL) will care about, but in looking at the October 2012 revision of the J1772 PDF I see a GFI in the diagrams on page 26 and 32 (which depict a L2 and a L3 EVSE/EV block diagram). Additionally, on page 57 there's a note that talks about an...

Well, you can't use this device on GFI outlets. I would advise against removing GFI protection from outlets so that you can use this device. I don't believe they sell GFI equipped 220 outlets. They do make GFI equipped ganged circuit breakers. You could use that to add GFI protection to this...