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Well, that's just plain FUD. You can't get something UL approved by mailing in box tops. I'm fairly confident that UL knew damn well what the Quick220 was and how it was to be used. They have a blanket ban on certifying turkey fryers, but apparently had no problems with passing this device. Is...

Quite simply, the NEC has no scope over things plugged into outlets. After all, a building inspection is not required to plug something in. Doing it poorly is a bad idea. That much is quite true. But that fact does not preclude any possibility of it being done properly. The commercial Quick220...

It may be a mistake to resurrect this thread, but I thought I would chime in with my two cents. You cannot combine two circuits to increase the amperage. Running two circuit breakers in parallel is a really bad idea. BUT you can take two 120 volt outlets and use the hot lines from each to make...

Actually, I am a Fit EV owner, and my wife has a Volt. Proportionally speaking, I do charge at around that speed, thank you very much. I'm just not blessed with an 85 kW-hr battery. Getting 140 MPGe does, however, make up for it. Fine with me. The Hydra logic board is just fine with that if...

One issue with higher powered Hydras is that the inlet wiring can only be 6 AWG or smaller to fit through the GFI coil. I haven't found an alternative part for that - and 6 gauge is quite a squeeze. That will get you 75A input. With the 60A cables from eMotorWerks, that would yield a 36A/60A...

I think it is Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment.

To be fair, the two contactor + DPDT solution isn't so outlandish that I'd call it Rube Goldberg-esque. Not when I'm hawking Hydra boards, certainly. However, the distance between that solution and the Hydra is only about $150. I dunno if I'd call an EVSE a "life safety" device. That implies...

You can't use a relay to switch the pilot like that because the hot lines are not energized until a few steps through the handshake. Chicken, meet egg. You can use a manual switch, but then you must insure you keep the transfer switch and pilot switch in sync. The implications for a mistake...

eMotorWerks sells 60A rated ones. They are 2x6, 1x8 and 2x18 gauge. I used them for the Mega-Hydra.

I still can't approve of such a configuration, but if you're going to do it, then at the very least, make sure that none of the hot lines bypass the GFI system. At least that way if any moisture creates a path to ground there will be some protection.

I strongly recommend that you do not simply connect both sets of hot pins together such that a disconnected plug is energized. I see truly spectacular opportunities for disaster in that direction. A switch that's capable of safely switching that much power from one plug to another is probably...

I don't have any direct experience with the HPWC. Obviously modifying it will void its warranty. I think that at the end of the day it may be a lot easier to simply construct the EVSE variant of the Hydra with two J1772 cables. With 6 AWG input wire with 90 degree insulation, and with 75A...

On the off chance that it would inspire someone... I built a "Mega-Hydra" EVSE. It's perfectly tailored for the two-Tesla garage. It can charge two cars simultaneously at 25A or a single car at 50A. In fact, if you upgraded the power cable from 8 gauge to 6, you could do two cars at 30A (with a...

The new EVSE variant boards are now for sale at store.geppettoelectronics.com. Fully assembled boards are available, so assembling a Hydra can be done without any soldering. In addition to the GFI, there is a real-time clock chip and the firmware can do day-of-week differentiated charge timing...

That's our situation at my workplace as well. We don't tether the Hydras (we have 2 and I have approval for a 3rd), but they have "nests" that they live in inside the building after hours. I'd be happy to help anyone build a Hydra if they live in reasonable proximity to the Hacker Dojo in...

If you put the GFI on the input then it will catch faults in the logic power supply as well as the vehicles. Of course, it won't be able to cut off the power in those cases, but it will at least stop operating and alert the owner to a problem. In the case of the Hydra, there's only a single...

Yes, although the guts aren't OpenEVSE. They're my own open-hardware design, though I will admit that they are heavily "inspired" by OpenEVSE.

I don't know if anyone is interested, but I have a design for a Hydra board that replaces the inlet handling circuitry with a GFI. The idea is that with a GFI, one could replace the J1772 inlet with just a power cable, making the Hydra a straight-up two-headed EVSE (no host EVSE required)...

Yes. I don't have a Tesla, but I have observed them using the Hydra, and they do the right thing. - - - Updated - - - If you're at all handy with power tools, building a Hydra is not hard. The trickiest part is getting the high current paths correct. Making the QD terminal crimp connections...

Undoubtedly that's a fencepost error in the firmware. The spec says you're supposed to give, like a 2% duty cycle "cushion" at the top and bottom end. One thing I've considered a couple of times for the Hydra is for it to detect "balancing" at the end of the charge cycle and reduce the pilot...

... assuming that you've got a host EVSE that's >=50A. If it's less than 50A, then its ampacity would be the limiting factor, of course.

Oh wow! Yes, that's me, and I had not seen that video! Thanks for the link! Also, if anyone is on the fence, I'd like to also say that if you're in the SF Bay Area on April 12, there will be an OpenEVSE / Hydra build workshop at the Hacker Dojo in Mountain View. I'll be there to help anyone...

Last year as a sort of adjunct to the OpenEVSE project, I created a device called the J1772 Hydra. It's designed to allow two plug-in vehicles to share a charging station, but to do so safely and in full compliance with the J1772 specification. I haven't posted about it here before because it's...