My Setec CHAdeMO Vehicle-to-Home Mods

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LeftieBiker said:
I too am following this thread with interest. If I could "hack" a Setec unit by soldering one connection (I'd also go with an external battery, maybe an external 12 -13 volt LFP starting pack) to get 25kwh or more from a Leaf 40 or 62kwh in a power outage, the price of the Setec isn't prohibitive for us. I am so sick of dealing with generators and fossil fuels...
Click to expand...

FYI - I have a fluorescent, emergency weather lantern that uses a small AGM battery that failed. I "hacked" into it to substitute one of the Li (not sure chemistry) starter batteries and it did not work - too low a voltage to start the bulb? Any good AGM would start it. Not sure why - I thought the voltages were higher with the Li battery.
 
OK, I replaced the $20 battery and got my Setec up and running again to make some observations.

Q. When Setec unit is kept on, but no load, what is the idle load? What state does the leaf remain at?

A. Once the V2X session is started the LEAF's three blue lights on the dash look just like they do when charging with an EVSE: Two solid, one blinking on the driver's side. The "plugged-in" light illuminates on the console, and a red light that looks like a car symbol flashes too.

LeafSpy shows Aux Power at 100W, so there is some overhead there for the car to manage the process.

Q. When Setec unit is shut down, but CHAdeMO is connected, what is the idle load - might change over time?

A. Leaving the Setec on, with no load for one hour, provided negligible change on the LEAF's state. Battery Volts went from 394.0 to 393.5 but Remaining Ah actually went up a bit from 53.54 to 53.60. Battery kWh remained unchanged. Note that I kept the Setec's 12V battery on a trickle charge, but I can't imagine there was much energy drawn there. I am aware that the Setec keeps a charge on its battery when running. Maybe next time I will place a Kill-A-Watt meter on the battery tender.

Q. Overall energy efficiency?

A. For now I just ran one test with a 1.2 kW space heater as a load bank for two hours. The Kill-A-Watt meter measured 2.71 kW after 2:07 hours. So this is 1.28 kWh of energy consumed by the space heater.

I have attached the LeafSpy screens BEFORE and AFTER. If I'm reading it correctly the Battery kWh dropped from 16,662 to 11,625 for a 5 kW consumption. Could this be right? I'm using a LiteFuze 5000 step-down transformer which has an Efficiency Factor of 1.5 so no doubt there is some loss happening there.

Q. Would you be willing to log a V2X discharge session?

A. Certainly. I just got the OVMS installed and am working on a DB9 to 2-wire adapter so I can log the CHAdeMO pins 8 and 9 on the Setec side of the connection. Christmas may delay getting this done :)
 

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Marktm said:
FYI - I have a fluorescent, emergency weather lantern that uses a small AGM battery that failed. I "hacked" into it to substitute one of the Li (not sure chemistry) starter batteries and it did not work - too low a voltage to start the bulb? Any good AGM would start it. Not sure why - I thought the voltages were higher with the Li battery.
Click to expand...
If you used lithium ion, then the full charge voltage per cell is usually 4.2V max. So, three of those in series will give a pack voltage of 12.6 V max, but a nominal voltage of 11.1V (3 x 3.7V) - too low.

With four cells in series, a fully charge pack will provide 16.8V and a nominal voltage of 14.4V - too high...

Typically, a 4S lithium ion pack will be used with a buck converter, to step down the voltage to match what a lead acid battery would provide.
 
V2X said:
I have attached the LeafSpy screens BEFORE and AFTER. If I'm reading it correctly the Battery kWh dropped from 16,662 to 11,625 for a 5 kW consumption. Could this be right? I'm using a LiteFuze 5000 step-down transformer which has an Efficiency Factor of 1.5 so no doubt there is some loss happening there.
Click to expand...

Can you try with a 220 VAC heater and/or hair dryer to eliminate the transformer? I'm wondering about the LiteFuze unit as it states that a 3x factor is needed for this unit on a what appears to be resistance heater type appliances. Not sure why. I was able to simulate this with a dual voltage hair dryer and modifying the "plug".
 
I could try using the 220V Setec output directly to an EVSE to charge another vehicle. This is attractive in that my EVSE has an LCD display showing kWh passing through it. You mention in a prior post that it might not work due to the floating ground. Ideas on how to mitigate this?
 
Will scout around for a 220V appliance to use as a direct load bank.
Meanwhile, I tried a few times this evening to power my EVSE with the Setec at 220V.
Sure enough, the Setec disconnects the V2L session within one second.
Interested in the RAPI code to allow ungrounded use. Any danger in doing this?
 
V2X said:
Will scout around for a 220V appliance to use as a direct load bank.
Meanwhile, I tried a few times this evening to power my EVSE with the Setec at 220V.
Sure enough, the Setec disconnects the V2L session within one second.
Interested in the RAPI code to allow ungrounded use. Any danger in doing this?
Click to expand...

Does your EVSE have a programable mode? Can you "unground" via a menu item? The OpenEVSE requires arduino "programming" and accessing the control chip itself - doable, but not so straight forward.

I did this so I could test using a 220 VAC APC UPS to charge via the J-1772 during power outages and it worked OK with no noticeable consequences.
 
Hey gang,

I decided to sell the Setec device, and will probably sell the Leaf too. Appreciate your input and comments. Was able to provide Dala with a CANBUS log of a session for his CCS project, and will probably continue my journey with V2X by way of a new Ioniq 5 as this has V2L as a standard feature.

Here is the listing if any of your are interested:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/154896111007
 
V2X said:
Was able to provide Dala with a CANBUS log of a session for his CCS project
Click to expand...

@V2X Do you have that log still available somewhere? While I can find some information online about the handshake that is done for CHAdeMO charging; this is the first or maybe only reference I've found to the handshake for V2X

Thanks
 
brilthor said:
@V2X Do you have that log still available somewhere? While I can find some information online about the handshake that is done for CHAdeMO charging; this is the first or maybe only reference I've found to the handshake for V2X

Thanks
Click to expand...

V2X logs are available here: https://github.com/dalathegreat/EV-CANlogs/tree/main/Nissan%20LEAF/V2X
 
V2X said:
When I first fired it up, the output was 220V @ 50 Hz, single phase - essentially what would be used in Europe. Customer support instructed me how to make an easy solder connection on a daughter board to modify this to 60 Hz. Then I adjusted a potentiometer to raise the voltage to 240V so that through the step-down the output is now just under 120V.

[photos added Dec 9, 2021]
Click to expand...

I have a Setec unit that I need to convert to 60hz, but I cannot get any information from them on how to do it. Can you share what you were given? I see the photo of the location you soldered, but I want a bit more info before I try to do the same.

Thank you!
 
I just joined the forum and it won’t let me message you. Can you try to send me a DM? I’m new to this.

Thanks!
 

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