Voltec EVSE (Opel Ampera / Cevy Volt)

[peterdambier]

Got my Voltec today. Looks nice, more solid than I thought after reading ...

Got a Schuko plug on a very short tail and manual said "no extension!"

Gripping the handle of the J1772 plug, car side, turns the torch on. No more need for a light.

I tried 230V/6A first because I primarily want it for lousy electric installation sites. The i-Miev did not take me seriously. Nothing indicated a cable plugged in or charging. Tried the key and now "Little Snowwhite" indicated she found a cable at least and would not go "ready". I do not know whether she would take a charge or not. Tried 230V/10A next.

The usual self test and everything looked bright and brilliant. Got me 135 km. That is more than the 100 km I get these days. It is warm and wet today, raining and noon not night like most of the time. Needs more than a single test to find out.

 

[peterdambier]

Three days and a winter later I can tell you more.

If I can trust my hearing aids, Telecoil setting, then it is the Voltec EVSE that pulles the plug.

It is a "GM Voltec Charge Cord" for the rest of Europe, with a ******* of a plug that fits both in Germany (Schuko) and France and probably most of Europe. Swizzerland and UK have got their own versions but I guess it is still the same 230V/10A or 230V/6A animal.

6A - seltest, i-MiEV starts charging, relay clicks in the EVSE, battery symbol on the dashboard comes on and plug symbol starts blinking, OFF.
10A - selftest, i-MiEV starts charging and goes on.

At least once it would not charge. That was after driving and the batteries still warm. After beginning charging with the original Panasonic, 16A for a couple of minutes it wold work. With cold batteries it would always charge.

It has got a handle and it hangs nicely on our door handle. It has got a very short tail that can go either up or down to the power socket. The cable with the J1772 connector has 2.5 mm(squared) that should be AWG 12 and good enough for 16A.

I am sure it is the same thing you get for 120V but beware there is no way to open the case without damaging it.

Another couple of days later:

I got a meter that couples without touching, to see how much amperes are flowing. It is rather a guessometer but at least it gives an idea what is going on.

Panasonic 230V/16A - reading about 14A. There seems to be a lot of noise on the line. That is why difficult reading.

Voltec 230V/10A - reading about 9A. Not so much noise as above but less amperes as well.
Voltec 230V/6A - i-MiEV does not begin charging.

For comparison I have checked my external heater as well:

Heater 2 kW 230V - reading 8.5 A
Heater 1 kW 230V - reading 4.5 A

There is no noise on the heater. Looks like a filter between i-MiEV and mains might be a good idea but beware 16A.

 

[peterdambier]

Warranty over and it is dead.

Looks like its internal 12V DC died. But at least I have got a nice orange cable and a J1772 plug with a torch light. Wonder how many volts I need to feed it.

Cheers
Peter and Karin

 

[jray3]

Sorry to hear that the Voltec was so short-lived. What gauge wire is used leading to the J1772 handle?

 

[FiddlerJohn]

... Looks like its internal 12V DC died. But at least I have got a nice orange cable and a J1772 plug with a torch light. Wonder how many volts I need to feed it ...

Peter, It might be worth the risk to fix or replace the bad internal 12V DC power supply. Check the 12V power supply fuse and the other DC voltages.

If that doesn't work you can replace the electronics with an OPEN SOURSE EVSE or EMW JoiceBox and use most of the Voltec box, relays, cables, displays, wall mount, Current Transformer, switches... But you're a ham, you know this. I must be missing something.

 

[peterdambier]

It is 5 wires, 3 of them 2.5 mm2 or AWG 13. Proxi and pilot are 0.5 mm2 or AWG 20.

It looks like it would be difficult to open it and most likely the box will not survive it. No problem. I intended to build a piece of SciFi artwork with it. If I can use the electronics good, if I cannot I still have the cable I always wanted to have. It is good enough for 16 amperes.

Cheers
Peter and Karin

 

[peterdambier]

Opened Pandoras Box.

I poked around with a flat screwdriver and removed the faceplate with "Arduino", LEDs and switch.

As I do not intend to keep the box, removed another "ring" of plastic and got a better view of its internal power supply unit. It has got +15V, +5V, ground and -15V.

Maybe I'll keep the faceplate.

Except for 3 Tyco Kilowack contactors and an overvoltage protector I did not find anything interesting on the mainboard. I do not like soldering wires that carry 16 amperes and I dont like routing those 16A through a multilayer circuitboard.

Building an OpenEVSE and using the cable is a good idea. No regret, the Voltec served me well for almost a year and it was my primary EVSE when I could not get 16A. I still wonder how many volts that lamp in the plug wants to see. Now I know the voltage was 15V but as it serves the proxi circuitry I am sure there was a resistor in line with it. There would have been 15V normally or less when the lamp was burning e.g. when the plug was removed from the car.

Tried the lamp with 9V getting some 40 mA. Good enough for a CNY17 for current sensing. That part of the design does not look very J1772, proximity at least. Nevertheless plugging and unplugging can be signaled to its EVSE but how about the car? Killing the pilot 1kHz will stop the car from charging.

Cheers
Peter and Karin