While someone might be able to execute this safely, the risks and intensive processes and need for additional resources fall totally on you to do so properly compared to say a Tesla, Siemens, or ABB. Should anything happen, you will be blamed in practice no matter if you made something wonderful that even a megacorp could sell. Furthermore, many municipalities require permits for these installations and would be unlikely to sign-off on something homebuilt regardless of careful craftsmanship. While I applaud the spirit and effort, it's almost like putting together your own solar, grid-tied automatic transfer switch: sure you could satisfy your own requirements, but the external world is unlikely to certify your work because of insurance and liability reasons no matter how much care and consideration you put into the design, fabrication, installation, and maintenance of it.
Arduino DIY all day, every day... except for fire/life-safety critical systems like elevators, AEDs, automotive airbags or ABS brakes, car chargers, or large HVAC installations.
PS: I sympathize that the world hates almost everything fun or cool.
I hear you; however I would counter that what most people want to tinker with is not actually the life-and-safety-critical bits of the system. There are really only a few things that you can meaningfully do with an EVSE anyway: 1) Enable/disable charging 2) Change the current limit 3) Monitor the power draw and 4) Monitor the vehicle state.
Commercial systems don't provide this (at least not without use of their proprietary and/or expensive hardware and software). There's nothing that says that you cannot design and build "fire/life-safety critical systems" that have open designs and open interfaces. Attention should be directed to these efforts.
All of the doomsaying in the comments here is ridiculously unproductive.
In the same vein, many smart meters coming onto the market have a P1 port [0], which is an open interface to read metering and pricing data.
It's designed to be safely used as an interface by third party hardware, and physically operates over a RJ12 connector (phone jack) with 5V. There are even DIY projects, powered by ESP boards, to interface with it - and electricity companies are ok with that, as it's designed for this use case.
> All of the doomsaying in the comments here is ridiculously unproductive.
Not really. It might not be so much doom as practicality and legality. Reality is reality.
> All safety features required by SAE J1772, UL and NEC are standard.
(from the website)
Is it "UL Listed"? No. That's the end of it. There is no getting around that neither my city will permit this nor my electrician will install it no matter how much I protest that it's unfair. Sure, I could use it temporarily (not installed) or install it illegally without a permit but on sale of such a property, I would have to remove it to avoid it being discovered during an inspection.
If the important components and/or assembled kits passed Underwriters Laboratories' official tests and processes for listing, then my municipality wouldn't object and would take this seriously.
I'm not advocating for the system in the linked article; it is a hobby project, but not yet a viable platform that should be used unattended or built buy unqualified hobbyists. I would add that I support the author's right to build it and distribute the designs regardless.
OpenEVSE v4 hardware (which I did advocate elsewhere) is UL listed and more closely matches with the goals of an open and accessible platform with a safe and tested design for those who wish to tinker with monitoring or software systems integrations.
Please stop being such a stick in the mud; its a boring way to live. "Reality is reality", bah.
Arduino DIY all day, every day... except for fire/life-safety critical systems like elevators, AEDs, automotive airbags or ABS brakes, car chargers, or large HVAC installations.
PS: I sympathize that the world hates almost everything fun or cool.