Convert the 120v trickle charger to 240v on your own

My Nissan Leaf Forum

Help Support My Nissan Leaf Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
kubel said:
I'm surprised people here are discouraging open mods. I think we should be saying "YES!" when people ask questions like this.
I question the OP's and his electrician's competence as electrical engineers and their knowledge of the J1772 standard.

If one is a competent EE and has digested the J1772 standard, proposed modifications and their consequences, go right ahead.

I was a computer science major and barely know the basics re: circuits from college physics classes (for engineering and physics majors) and don't know the details of the J1772 standard at all. I also had to take some digital logic classes and worked w/breadboards, SSI and MSI chips w/gates, flip-flops, inverters and FPGAs, but that's all digital stuff.

I certainly wouldn't want to muck w/my stock EVSE using plans of questionable origin, even w/a competent electrician making the mods, unless that electrician also meets the above criteria.
kubel said:
cwerdna said:
You realize that opening your EVSE voids its warranty, right?
You realize you are perpetuating a myth, right? ;)

They can only refuse to repair damages that you cause to the product, or that are caused as a result of the modification. Opening the EVSE alone will not void the warranty on the EVSE or the car. Using a modified EVSE does not void the warranty on the car either (unless of course it blows up and destroys something on your car, then they will refuse to repair THAT part).
Re: opening up the EVSE and modifying it, if the EVSE fails for whatever reason, after the modification, I'm quite confident that they'll tell you to take a hike and not repair it under warranty. After all, you've mucked with it and it's been modified from its original design.

If someone's crap modified EVSE design (not Ingineer's) causes damage to the OBC or some other part of the car via shortcuts like those of BareEVSE, who will go to bat for the Leaf owner/lessee in the event a warranty claim is denied?
 
At $287 you might as well get a real 240V EVSE and charge in a decent amount of time. $287 gets you 240V at 16amps which gives you 3.8kW of power. Its more than the 1.8-2 kW you can get from the 120V... I guess charging in 7-8 hours in better than 20 hours but If you have to pay to add the circuit and add an outlet why not just go to a 240V 40A circuit, pay a little more than the upgraded stock EVSE get a 40A EVSE and get the car charged in 4-5 hours.
It's not like a 240V 30A twist lock plug is a common plug to find. If that were the case I could understand converting your stock EVSE so you have a good portable charger...

As neat as it is, you have to spend a chunk more money on a GFI circuit breaker because OpenEVSE is not GFI protected. I'll spend the little extra money for a clipper creek unit and not have to spend time assembling it and have GFI protection built in.
 
Tsiah said:
... As neat as it is, you have to spend a chunk more money on a GFI circuit breaker because OpenEVSE is not GFI protected. I'll spend the little extra money for a clipper creek unit and not have to spend time assembling it and have GFI protection built in.
Where did you get the idea that OpenEVSE didn't include GCFI protection? It's definitely part of the design.
 
davewill said:
Tsiah said:
... As neat as it is, you have to spend a chunk more money on a GFI circuit breaker because OpenEVSE is not GFI protected. I'll spend the little extra money for a clipper creek unit and not have to spend time assembling it and have GFI protection built in.
Where did you get the idea that OpenEVSE didn't include GCFI protection? It's definitely part of the design.

I have built a lot of OpenEVSE units. The first units lacked GFCI protection but for at least the last several years it has GFCI protection and it is fully J1772 compliant.


Most Chinese EVSE's lack GFCI but the DIY Juicebox and OpenEVSE do. It is hard to implement since the unbalanced signal is so low. It is easy to have the circuit respond to glitches.

My eGolf's L1 EVSE fails the forth test but that is OK since it will never be used on a Lead Acid car. ( it will never be used period ). It will sit on a shelf until I turn in the car. I understand that early Leaf EVSEs fail the diode test.

Nick Sayer has a cute EVSE simulator that also displays the pilot information. I think it sells for around $30 shipped. It is Open Hardware and board layouts are on OHS Park but it is so cheap why not just buy it from him.
 
davewill said:
Tsiah said:
... As neat as it is, you have to spend a chunk more money on a GFI circuit breaker because OpenEVSE is not GFI protected. I'll spend the little extra money for a clipper creek unit and not have to spend time assembling it and have GFI protection built in.
Where did you get the idea that OpenEVSE didn't include GCFI protection? It's definitely part of the design.
Well that's good to know. I must have misunderstood what I had read on their website when I was checking out different models of chargers earlier this year. I thought I saw that the model I was interested in did not include GFI protection and would need a GFI breaker.
 
This is a valid conversion. Because the neutral is used the EVSE's electronics only see 120V. The car sees 240V. The only problem is that the EVSE remains at 12A, But 12A @240 volts is slightly faster than 120V since the overhead is fixed.

Considering this is a low cost modification it is easy to live with 12A.

The users that po-paw this have not really thought it through. The EVSE remains at 120V so what is the problem?
 
GlennD said:
This is a valid conversion. Because the neutral is used the EVSE's electronics only see 120V. The car sees 240V. The only problem is that the EVSE remains at 12A, But 12A @240 volts is slightly faster than 120V since the overhead is fixed.

Considering this is a low cost modification it is easy to live with 12A.

The users that po-paw this have not really thought it through. The EVSE remains at 120V so what is the problem?
Most of this thread is 4 years old. Since then, people have looked at the mod you're talking about (although who knows if it's the one the OP had posted about long ago) and it's safe enough, as long as the constraint of requiring a 4 wire outlet is acceptable.
 
For under $25 I converted my Nissan EVSE from 120V 12A to 240V 12A and have been using it for over 3 years without any problems. I know EVSEupgrade can achieve 240V 16A on the original Nissan EVSE for $300 but this is much cheaper and works well for 1/10th the price.!!
http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=16948
 
maini said:
For under $25 I converted my Nissan EVSE from 120V 12A to 240V 12A and have been using it for over 3 years without any problems. I know EVSEupgrade can achieve 240V 16A on the original Nissan EVSE for $300 but this is much cheaper and works well for 1/10th the price.!!
http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=16948


I did the same mod maini did over the weekend. It was easy and works just fine. It doesn't get hot.
 
Back
Top