Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

There's nothing magical about a level 2 charger.

It's a smart relay with a cable and industry-standard connector attached.

That's it.



Depends on the charger..

It may have integrated ground fault protection

And the "smart" word covers over a lot of potential features, like stopping/starting charging based on electricity prices, doing load balancing between multiple chargers, reporting usage to the cloud, etc.

It's also an outlet where you really want to be sure that everything is professionally done, and up to spec, because drawing maximum currents for hours and hours is very demanding on all the parts. There can be significant heat generated in the wiring and contacts.


NEC 2020 code requires the breaker for an EV charger to have GCFI. Running the circuit, which is not done by the author, generally requires a permit and inspection.


There is something somewhat magical about a licensed electrician installing a product from a multi-billion dollar company you can sue, though, if something goes wrong and it burns down the neighborhood.


To a degree. The controller has to tell the car what level of power it can draw from the wall.

And it can be as low as 720 watts but I've heard of attempts to get it lower for certain situations where only 400 to 500 watts can be allocated.


What about level 3 and fast charging?


That's an entirely different animal.

But that's not what the linked article is about.


Magic.


Yeah, screw those losers that want UL certification on their chargers.

I don't see a single thermal cutout on this design. I'd be scared.

The PCB is equally scary. How was the trace width figured for the high voltage side? There's also little or no isolation to the low-voltage side.

I also didn't catch if this is a level 1 or level 2 charger. Is that line 120V or 240V single phase? He's pulling 10A which may as well be level 1 household outlet charging here in the US.


Most "comes-with-the-car" USA level 1 chargers are actually capable of accepting 240v so operating as a ~3kw level 2 charger if you're okay with hacking a different plug on to it (or using an adapter which may be controversial...)

https://www.gm-volt.com/threads/2016-volt-120v-evse-is-l1-l2...

I've confirmed this first-hand with several different models.


My Volvo EVSE has two tails, one for 110V and one for 240V. It'll operate in either mode depending on the supply voltage you give it.


It seems to be in Europe, so a single phase is 230V (± etc).


yes, almost certainly Europe. You can see it's a J3068 connector on the end of the cable. J3068 is basically a 3-phase version of J1772 and is standard for Europe.

The crimped ferrules on the wires is also much more common in Europe vs USA




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: