EVSE and EVSE upgrades - canada

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jclemens

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 5, 2011
Messages
168
Location
Mississauga
Happy New Year!

brent said:
One downside to this 16 amp unit is that there is no possibility to have anything else running off the breaker or it will overload. The actual amp reading is about 15.6 So if you travel and plug in anywhere that there is a marginal circuit breaker 120 or 240, ( or in hot weather ) you my trip it. I am now thinking seriously of sending the Cdn unit to them for 12 amp 220 V upgrade. This will still plug in to 120 V so it gives lots of flexibility.

The Leaf self-limits the current to 13amps when running at 120V, even if the EVSE is allowing a higher current, so you don't need to worry about that.
Initially I simply purchased a SPX power express which is the most flexible unit, you can adjust the current it uses and despite what the instructions say, it DOES work on 120V or 240V. The unit is also semi-portable as it comes with a Nema 6-30 connector. I was the first Canadian to order one of these, they charge USD, but they also include HST so you don't need to worry about duties/brokerage. I tried setting the unit to a higher current to see if I could charge at 16 or 20 amps at 120V, but it didn't work. (further research pointed out that it is the Leaf limiting the current, not the EVSE)

A while ago I had politely asked whoever at evseupgrade.com how exactly they perform the upgrade as I am capable of doing it myself, plus I'm in Canada and I didn't think it is fair to pay extra for shipping, tax and now apparently wire upgrades. They refused to tell me any information, so I had to go through it the hard way and reverse engineer my own unit.

I successfully upgraded my own unit to run on either 120V or 240 (all safety features are intact), but I am not going to attempt to try and change the current limiting, 12 amps at either 120 or 240 is fine. The main reason is the wire thicknesses. The nema side AND the J1772 side both have VERY thin wires and can barely do 12amps as it is, that said, my unmodified L1 EVSE has been my primary since getting my Leaf at the beginning of November 2011, and I haven't noticed any issues with wires getting hot.
For the upgrade, I also didn't need to remove any of the protective rubber coating inside the EVSE to do the upgrade. In order to upgrade it to 16amps, I'd need to remove all of the coating to figure out how to do that. (a lot of work)

I posted what I did here: http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=5784&start=120" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I recently completed this (with time off work for xmas vacation) about 3 days ago, I charged once over night with 120V and once overnight with 240V, no problems. I want to test some more before offering to do this for someone else, but if there is anyone interested in either me doing this for you, or helping out with the hack, let me know. (if you know how to get 16 amps easily, please post here).
 
jclemens said:
A while ago I had politely asked whoever at evseupgrade.com how exactly they perform the upgrade as I am capable of doing it myself, plus I'm in Canada and I didn't think it is fair to pay extra for shipping, tax and now apparently wire upgrades. They refused to tell me any information, so I had to go through it the hard way and reverse engineer my own unit.

Did you offer to pay for the information?.. or did you want it for free?
 
Herm said:
Did you offer to pay for the information?.. or did you want it for free?

I didn't expect them to accept any offer, so I didn't ask.
But that still conflicts with my ethics that information is meant to be free.
 
If I was Phil, I'd probably have been even less polite in my response... While you are at it, why don't you ask Apple how to build an iPhone and to give you their firmware for free...

jclemens said:
A while ago I had politely asked whoever at evseupgrade.com how exactly they perform the upgrade as I am capable of doing it myself, plus I'm in Canada and I didn't think it is fair to pay extra for shipping, tax and now apparently wire upgrades. They refused to tell me any information, so I had to go through it the hard way and reverse engineer my own unit. I am pro-opensource, and those guys are clearly anti-opensource. I want to say I'm posting what I did just to spite them, but really, I'd probably post either way because it helps the community.
 
jclemens said:
A while ago I had politely asked whoever at evseupgrade.com how exactly they perform the upgrade as I am capable of doing it myself, plus I'm in Canada and I didn't think it is fair to pay extra for shipping, tax and now apparently wire upgrades. They refused to tell me any information, so I had to go through it the hard way and reverse engineer my own unit. I am pro-opensource, and those guys are clearly anti-opensource.
Let me see if I have this right: Phil invested a great deal of time figuring out how to upgrade the L1 unit to L2-lite or L2, starting a nice business for himself and saving many customers literally thousands over the other L2 choices presently available and he should just give the information away for free?
 
i get what he is asking; open source is a pretty common phenomena in many quarters of the computer world.

i get why phil would decline; he is an entrepreneur doing well with his device.

a good cape codder never tells anyone where he digs is clams or finds his oysters.
 
Lets stay on topic please, I created this thread on the Canada region sub-forum to discuss this with other Canadians. I didn't intend for this to turn into a flamefest about intelectual property rights.
 
The EVSE upgrade can be set to any amperage requested. Canadian EVSE units only have 16G wire so they should only run at 12A. On the topic of information being free, it astonishes me that some people really believe companies that invest hundreds of man hours in design, service, support, rent, expenses, etc should take the time to document everything and give it away or share it. I suppose business should operate at a loss to provide free services and information? I have customers that expect all sorts of free programming services and other free things done when I visit them for service. When I agree and also ask if they can come to my house and help me with some things I need done at no charge they immediately decide to pull out their checkbook instead. I suppose their time is more valuable and they are entitled to mine for free. The best is when I spend two weeks in a hell training on something and the customer expects me to "teach them" how to do it so they don't have to call me again :lol:
 
jclemens said:
Lets stay on topic please, I created this thread on the Canada region sub-forum to discuss this with other Canadians. I didn't intend for this to turn into a flamefest about intelectual property rights.

Sorry about that, I think open source is very laudable when the owner offers his ip voluntarily, but it gets icky when someone else tries to "voluntarize" you forcibly.
 
Give a man a fish and he eats for a day.
Teach a man to fish and he'll never be hungry again.

I see why people are opposed to sharing their work but it can be seen as selfish in the sense that you're unwilling to allow others to see what you've done or allow others to improve upon what you've done. No wonder the world can't solve it's problems, no one wants to share the solutions they're working upon for fear of personal loss of what they could of gained.

I'm not saying anyone here is right or wrong, you've got a right to a personal choice about what you share the work you've done with others but the times are changing towards open source. There's plenty of people who couldn't be arsed up to do a D.I.Y. project and would rather have someone do it for them which means compensating them for their time and effort. Clearly Phil wants to be compensated for his work, besides what he wants for the physical unit, see what he wants for the information? At the very worst he'll decline giving out that sort of information and you can look elsewhere for what you need.

Good luck.
 
jclemens, thanks for sharing your knowledge. Hopefully in future this would provide another avenue for people who wish to upgrade their units.
 
After discovering that the Canadian Leaf's charge cable cannot be upgraded to 16A and a new US spec cable upgraded to 16A from Evseupgrade would cost $979 + $48 = $1027 + shipping, I decided to buy the SPX Power Express for $949 + $75 shipping to Canada. The SPX will allow me portability and future 6.6kw charging capability. It also has built-in GFCI and meets all regulatory requirements.

https://www.homecharging.spx.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I may also do the "open source" mod to the Leaf cable but will see how it goes with the SPX first.
 
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