Driving the car with the EVSE plugged in

[MarkBC]

Hello, I park outside and where I live it's always raining, and charging the car with my Level one EVSE is challenging because I always have to put it under the car and throw a tarp overtop. I have started making some mods to allow me to mount the EVSE inside the car behind the 12 V battery. There is a nice space there. I also will unscrew the current J1772 inlet and push this back into the car. In its place I will install a regular NEMA 5 prong which then leads to all the other equipment inside under the hood. This will allow me to just plug in my extension cord directly, without all the hassles of worrying about rain, theft, and my EVSE lying outside in puddles on the ground (kind of defeats the safety theme of the EVSE if you're forced to place it in puddles)

But the car will not move with the EVSE plugged in, correct? Even if there is no power applied? So in order to do this I would have to cut the proximity signal from the J1772 inlet and add a switch. My question is, not being an electrical engineer (I'm a mechanical engineer so I won't do anything stupid), is it a simple matter of cutting this wire and adding a switch which I would flip every time I plug in the extension cord to fool the car into thinking that the EVSE is not plugged in? Would I also have to do this with the pilot signal?

 

[amtoro]

The EVSE, J1772 connector and charging port, are all designed to be used even during heavy rain or snow. Just place the EVSE unit in a way that does not sit in water; hang it from the wall or just support it on a elevated object (a piece of wood, for example would work just fine)

Do not worry about covering the charging port when charging, Nissan designed it for outdoor use under all conditions and the videos of the tests are available on their site. Here is one: http://www.nissan-zeroemission.com/EN/QUALITY/quality01.html

Many of us here have charged while raining and snow, and Phill (evseupgrade.com) has reassured us that the charging unit is watertight.

In regards to theft, the J1772 connector has a little hole on the silver push-button; place a small padlock there to prevent unauthorized disconnection.

Happy charging.

 

[smkettner]

I think a better permanent solution is a fixed wall mount evse near the parking spot.
Leave the Nissan unit in the trunk.

 

[planet4ever]

I think a better permanent solution is a fixed wall mount evse near the parking spot.
Leave the Nissan unit in the trunk.

Or the cheap variant of that: Use two deck screws to attach the Nissan unit to the wall or a fence. Most people don't need to carry one around in their car at all. On the rare occasion that you might, it's easy to take the screws out.

Ray

 

[MarkBC]

I can't leave it out in the rain as the extension cord plugs into the EVSE with only a foot of cable between, so wherever the EVSE is so will be the NEMA 5 connection, and if the EVSE is wet then so will be that connection and it will short. Plus it could still get stolen.

Also, I do not want to bolt the EVSE to the wall, or lock it up since I take it with me to my mom's house, or whenever I drive longer distances that I think might warrant a charge somewhere else. It is much easier to permanently place it inside the car and then it is always with me wherever I go, no hassle, no mess, no fuss.

 

[garygid]

There is a thread on putting the EVSE behind the battery, and connecting an extension cord to the EVSE. Then both cords can exit while charging with the hood closed.

A simple switch to open the Plug's Proximity circuit (and the EVSE being powered OFF) should allow the car to drive. Most people just open the hood and put the EVSE (and extension cord) back in the "trunk".

I suggested leaving the J1772 Socket in place on the LEAF, to use with other J1772 Plugs. Remove the J1772 cable and use it to make an OpenEVSE (or sell it) and just wire the EVSE directly to the back side of the car's J1772 Socket.

Yes, I would include a switch, DPDT to disconnect the "Proximity" and Control Pilot signals when driving or charging with another EVSE.

The remaining difficulty: how to handle (or wind up) the extension cord.

Cheers, Gary

 

[MarkBC]

Hi Gary,

Yes that's where I'm going to mount the EVSE, I already put a bracket there to take it -- luckily everything there is already beefy to hold the lead acid battery. I don't want to have the J1772 cord exit under the hood as then every time I charge I'd have to open the hood. Yesterday I took the J1772 inlet off along with the 1.5 foot section of wire leading to the harness. The proximity and pilot wires are easy to access and splice, it would be a no brainer.

I could still use the J1772 inlet with other plugs, it would just be inside under the hood. There is a perfect space to mount it behind the bumper on the left (if you are looking towards the car from the front). I can mount the inlet there on another bracket and the plug has ample room to plug into this, so if I ever charged from a level 2 charger then I just have to lift the hood and switch the plugs.

Thanks for the advice on disconnecting both the proximity and control signals with the DPDT (shouldn't it be DPST?) switch, I wanted to make sure I wouldn't damage any circuitry by doing this.

Mark