Portable battery range extender- can’t detect ground

I got a sungzhu portable 2.5 kWh battery to extend my range on trips that need almost exactly 51% of my SoC.

The problem is the EVSE brick on my charging cord flashes green when I plug it in meaning it can’t detect ground. Any safe options to make this portable battery a range extender?

Bollucks said:

I got a sungzhu portable 2.5 kWh battery to extend my range on trips that need almost exactly 51% of my SoC.

The problem is the EVSE brick on my charging cord flashes green when I plug it in meaning it can’t detect ground. Any safe options to make this portable battery a range extender?

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You'll need to explain your setup a little more, what voltage EVSE, how are you going to transfer power, etc.

If it's like a generator with a floating ground, you'll need to bond ground to the neutral. Some people use a resistor, I cant remember right now the value, some just run a wire from the ground to neutral.

The EVSE ground detection only applies to the AC mains, not to anything on the vehicle.

How are you connecting this portable battery to the pack?

It’s a portable 2.5 kWh battery with 3 prong outlets on the side. Output is 110/50. I’m plugging the standard evse cord into the battery to try to charge the car and getting the flashing green light.

Bad news is I just bought and tried an adapter with ground to neutral bonding that’s supposed to solve the issue for generators but it didn’t work for this.

Bollucks said:

It’s a portable 2.5 kWh battery with 3 prong outlets on the side. Output is 110/50. I’m plugging the standard evse cord into the battery to try to charge the car and getting the flashing green light.

Bad news is I just bought and tried an adapter with ground to neutral bonding that’s supposed to solve the issue for generators but it didn’t work for this.

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My guess is square wave vs. sine wave, the EVSE probably needs a sine wave and won't work with a square wave inverter.

The title is misleading--this is not a battery range extender; this is just a plain DC to AC inverter.

You can't just connect ground to neutral to create a safety earth ground, the EVSE is too smart for that.

The EVSE does a couple of ground checks before it will allow a connection for charging, and it has to receive a signal from the car, and any disruption of these signals will cause it to not connect.

One test it does is check if a good connection to ground really exists, by leaking a low current from the hot line back thru the earth ground line.

The next test is to prove that the ground fault interrupter circuit is really working properly by leaking a low current thru the hot side of the current sensor to ground.

It is a smart little device but can be overly sensitive and will err on the side of safety.

Is there an after market charging cord that’s a little less smart?

Apparently the OEM EVSE is very fussy about the power and does the most saftey checks, the cheaper Chinese EVSEs do less checks and are more apt to overlook power variances. As your portable battery pack has a max output of 2.5kW, of course, you'd want an EVSE that outputs a maximum of less than that or an adjustable one that can be dialed down.
I personally have had very good luck with the cheaper Chinese EVSEs but some don't like them as they don't perform all the safety checks a more traditional EVSE does. Amazon sells a lot of different EVSEs as does other online places note that even though many of the cheaper EVSEs are sold as L2(200-240v) most also work just as well on L1(100-120v) just look on the voltage input rating. Note their output current for L1 and L2 are generally the same, that is if the L2 EVSE current rating is 16a it will be 16a on either 100-120v or 200-240v. Difference being on L2 voltage it will be around 3.5kW and on 120v it would be 1.7kW
This one specifically says L1(110v) https://www.amazon.com/Morec-NEMA5-15P-Charging-100V-120V-Compatible/dp/B089GNZ4R5/ref=sr_1_4?keywords=120v+evse&qid=1636898716&qsid=145-5048073-2441250&s=automotive&sr=1-4&sres=B089GNZ4R5%2CB075GJK2S9%2CB07SKN6V5C%2CB077N25YTG%2CB08RY7S8Z2%2CB07H9H7W2N%2CB07Y7HPKB6%2CB07SKN1BZT%2CB095GY4WT5%2CB08HHBDQ88%2CB08LMX4TJR%2CB07WXZDHGV%2CB08TM1C3BV%2CB08RY1GG68%2CB08Q22651D%2CB09BG18LVS%2CB07DWVNLCZ%2CB085VN8XBH%2CB07HH4LJD2%2CB07V7V2QT8
This one looks to be a L1 and adjustable. https://www.amazon.com/Megear-100-120V-Adjustable-Portable-Electric/dp/B08LMX4TJR/ref=sr_1_17?keywords=120v%2Bevse&qid=1636899147&qsid=145-5048073-2441250&s=automotive&sr=1-17&sres=B089GNZ4R5%2CB075GJK2S9%2CB07SKN6V5C%2CB077N25YTG%2CB08RY7S8Z2%2CB07H9H7W2N%2CB07Y7HPKB6%2CB07SKN1BZT%2CB095GY4WT5%2CB08HHBDQ88%2CB08LMX4TJR%2CB07WXZDHGV%2CB08TM1C3BV%2CB08RY1GG68%2CB08Q22651D%2CB09BG18LVS%2CB07DWVNLCZ%2CB085VN8XBH%2CB07HH4LJD2%2CB07V7V2QT8&th=1
This one seems to be the same as above and only costs a bit more but does both L1 and L2. https://www.amazon.com/Megear-100-120V-Adjustable-Portable-Electric/dp/B07W8ZPZ24/ref=sr_1_17?keywords=120v%2Bevse&qid=1636899147&qsid=145-5048073-2441250&s=automotive&sr=1-17&sres=B089GNZ4R5%2CB075GJK2S9%2CB07SKN6V5C%2CB077N25YTG%2CB08RY7S8Z2%2CB07H9H7W2N%2CB07Y7HPKB6%2CB07SKN1BZT%2CB095GY4WT5%2CB08HHBDQ88%2CB08LMX4TJR%2CB07WXZDHGV%2CB08TM1C3BV%2CB08RY1GG68%2CB08Q22651D%2CB09BG18LVS%2CB07DWVNLCZ%2CB085VN8XBH%2CB07HH4LJD2%2CB07V7V2QT8&th=1
Lots of others on Amazon. I personally kinda like the last adjustable one I linked and looks quite similar to one I have but mine goes up to 30a.
Lastly as you said 110v/50hz I assume you are not in N. America so if the plug ends of any of these EVSEs arent your local standard, you(or someone else knowledgable in such things) will need to cut off the supplied end and wire on the correct end for your local plugs.
Lastly I'm not sure how big(capacity) your portable battery pack is but unless it's very large(heavy) I wouldn't expect it to be able to charge your car for a very long time, just saying.

SOLVED!
I figured it out needed to have the bonded adapter on the same outlet https://youtu.be/90Hqrp1Y9uw

I’m now able to charge with solar on the go

Bollucks said:

SOLVED!
I figured it out needed to have the bonded adapter on the same outlet

I’m now able to charge with solar on the go

Click to expand...

Glad you were able to figure out the wiring issue. So you are using the 2.5 kWh battery for your portable power. So when you said range extender in your video, have calculated how much extra range you will get or how long it will take to put that into the Leaf?

If that's the original LEAF Level 1EVSE, it's going to take a long time to get that tiny bit transferred into the battery.

Are there no public Level 2 stations around you?