Ever want to charge 2 cars with one EVSE? Know how to solder? Then why not build yourself a Hydra?
I got into OpenEVSE a few months ago, and where I work we have a bunch of 30A L2 chargers, but way too many Volts and Leafs that only charge at 3 kW (yes, 2013 Leafs are starting to appear with 7 kW chargers, but they're in the minority).
We have a CHAdeMO, but it's not popular, for reasons inexplicable to me. So to solve this, I designed and built the Hydra. It has a J1772 inlet and two cord/plug sets. It intelligently divides the ampacity of the source EVSE between the two cars until one finishes, whereupon the remaining car gets full power.
I'll be at the Google event this weekend and I'll bring the Hydra with me. I'll be happy to demo it to anyone interested. And I suspect the chargers there will be occupied enough that sharing one will be particularly useful.
Anyway, the 1.0 hardware version of the Hydra is now available. The design and firmware have been field-proven with a variety of EVs and PHEVs. The J1772 components are the most expensive part of the BOM, but if you can get past that, the rest is cheap and easy.
Check it out here: https://code.google.com/p/open-evse/wiki/Hydra" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
I got into OpenEVSE a few months ago, and where I work we have a bunch of 30A L2 chargers, but way too many Volts and Leafs that only charge at 3 kW (yes, 2013 Leafs are starting to appear with 7 kW chargers, but they're in the minority).
We have a CHAdeMO, but it's not popular, for reasons inexplicable to me. So to solve this, I designed and built the Hydra. It has a J1772 inlet and two cord/plug sets. It intelligently divides the ampacity of the source EVSE between the two cars until one finishes, whereupon the remaining car gets full power.
I'll be at the Google event this weekend and I'll bring the Hydra with me. I'll be happy to demo it to anyone interested. And I suspect the chargers there will be occupied enough that sharing one will be particularly useful.
Anyway, the 1.0 hardware version of the Hydra is now available. The design and firmware have been field-proven with a variety of EVs and PHEVs. The J1772 components are the most expensive part of the BOM, but if you can get past that, the rest is cheap and easy.
Check it out here: https://code.google.com/p/open-evse/wiki/Hydra" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;