I’ve been on a cheap EVSE kick recently.
First, the scenario: WE’RE HOMELESS!
After being displaced by an EF4 tornado my brother no longer has a garage to charge his Volt. Instead he usually leaves his car charging with me at the rented workshop where I was displaced by the same tornado. My car was carried off and crushed under a tree so we have to share the Volt for now.
My daily routine is to first bring him his car and have my breakfast/shower there (can’t do either at the workshop), which obviously uses part of the range. When he needs to go to work he drops me off at the workshop and doubles-back, using up most of the electric range. That’s not ideal.
The temporary place he is staying would be OK with him topping off the car there but not with full daily charges, so I need to build a cheap EVSE to use there. This way I can recoup the lost range while I eat/shower. He’ll also be able to drop me off at my job or the workshop early then return “home” to top off before commuting to work.
My make-shift ultra-budget EVSE is not quite done but so far it’s pretty cheap:
That J1772 Type 1 was actually local to me. The seller used to have a Volt and it came from his OpenEVSE… which is what I would be doing if circumstances didn’t leave me with an ultra-low budget.
The “control board” appears to be the same ClipperCreek Gen2 board from the late Volt/early Bolt portable EVSE. Should wire right up! I added it to my Watch list then got an offer for that price. Comparing it to the same board from an AmazingE 16A portable, this is likely a GM spare (has GM firmware and glued components).
The water-tight enclosure is still hung up in Shanghai’s lockdown so I might just mount it all to a board temporarily. Hopefully my cable glands will fit with this cable and enclosure but, if not, I can add some later when the budget permits.
I already have a scrap of 10-gauge Romex around so I will probably hard-wire it for now and convert it to a portable EVSE later.
Without that enclosure I was well under budget.
The Tesla adapter is meant to give us improved access to free public charging. For example, there is free charging at a hotel a few miles from where he works. He can’t leave early and expect to charge close to his destination because often the only J-Plug is occupied. At least one of the Tesla Destination EVSEs in the same parking garage is always available.
With that reasoning I also got a cheap salvage store eScooter with claimed 28 mile range (closer to 15) so we can leave the car at a public charge station or go separate ways in a pinch.
Edit:
When I started this post my intention was to share my ultra-budget method for anyone who might need to do the same for an EVSE or two, but it seems that the seller suddenly stopped listing those cheap control boards. Oh well. Maybe they’ll be back soon. The listing does still say “2 Available.” There are probably other cheap control boards you could find/use too.
