Amazon Level 2 EV charger tear down

Lets take a look inside that $217.99 EV charge cord I picked up on Amazon.
1 year in and it has been flawless.

[@nor4277]

I love all your videos ,I do miss you fixing vintage radio videos .hope you will do more .

[@12voltvids]

I have 2 big radios in the shop now for when I find the time.

[@gartmorn]

They're one of my favourites as well!

[@JD_Viddy]

I built my own level 2 EVSE when I bought my C-Max Energi back in 2013. From what I could see on the video both hot wires ran through that toroid transformer that you thought would be measuring current. With both wires going through in normal operation the fields would cancel out. The actual use would be for the ground found detector. If there is a ground fault then the currents would not exactly cancel out, generating a voltage from the transformer. I think I also saw a large wattage resistor and a relay, those would be to generate a simulated ground fault for testing to make sure the ground fault detection circuitry is working.

[@12voltvids]

The small blue component next to the relay may be a current measurement transformer, as it looks like that is connected to ground, and there is likely a trace on the bottom side that connects it to the header that goes to the other side.

[@FindLiberty]

@@12voltvids Yep. Nice!

[@RuiPeixeiro]

It's possible to add an ESP module tom view charge details and control it? Maybe on connector with GTR label (ground, transmitter, receiver)? I cannot found any information...

[@InnovatorsGuru]

thanks for this valuable content. Really appreciate your efforts. I just want to add some valuable update, please correct me, If I am wrong. 1)Its looks that, it has voltage sensor transformer Which is ZMPT107 module just next to neutral connection (square blue color), right now it's only sensing 1 phase voltage i.e. 0-120V 2) just next to that is current transformer it's in series with live wire so I think it's not inductor. 3) both live wire pass through the one current transformer: This special arrangement is done for leakage current detection same as RCCB (Residual Current Circuit Breaker).

[@12voltvids]

No it measures the full voltage but I suspect that is done on the control board not the relay board. All the relay board is doing is ground fault charge metering. The display is fairly accurate. As an expirimebt i drove the car to completely drain the battery 14.5kw. i then turned off all the power to the house and just recharged the car so I could compare the smart meter to this one. This showed 14.85 kw consumed and the Meyer on the house showed 14.93 so it is pretty much bang on with the home meter as the only other thing running in the house during this expirimebt was the pump on the fish tank. Didn't want to find a bunch of floaters in there.

[@jerrygeorgopolis8015]

Very well made and a good price !

[@emvdl]

Thanks, well explained! 👍

[@reddragon27284]

I think the first large coil is for earth leakage as both wires are going through it. The small blue one next to the relay is probably your CT.

[@12voltvids]

I believe I already said that in a comment. I didn't pull the board to see what traces are on the underside. The big one with red wires part of ground fault or load imbalance such as one of the conductors going open or a relay failure. Relay failure (contacts welding shut) is the most likely cause to trip this protection. Even if the car was not connected a stuck relay would have the main cable energized on one leg which would change the capacitence of the cable and cause a slight imbalance which would induce a current in that coil.

[@zx8401ztv]

Looks like a well made charger, neat and safe :-D Nothing cheap or nasty inside that. Glad it's not plastic welded together, a really annoying habit of switchmode manufacturers. I've had to crack open laptop psu's to replace caps and power socket solder cracks, just makes a mess :-(

[@12voltvids]

Yes I was quite surprised on how well it is laid out inside. I am pretty sure other EV drivers after seeing this one will be looking closer at this unit as a backup charger, as it did come with a plug adapter to allow it to operate on a standard 15 amp 120v outlet as a travel charger. Charged the car 5 times since I got it, and it is faster than my old one as my old one was 3600 watts, this one 3840. The other car is capable of 3300 watts, but the stock charger that came with the car is only 2880, so I may just swap the charge cable from my level 1 only unit, and put it on the big round wall mount controller, as it will go to 3300 on the old car, and that will charge it faster too.

[@Mladjasmilic]

2:10 That big ring is differenital current detector for RCD. True current detector is a blue ring on the right of L2/N contactor.

[@shittychannel4860]

Hey, can you change the wall plug side to a longer cable? You can unscrew it but can you get it out of the watersealed cable gland?

[@12voltvids]

Never tried. It is plenty long enough for me

[@markmarkofkane8167]

Very interesting!!!

[@gartmorn]

Makes sense that the relays are off load as they're transferring a fair current to the car. If you need to stop a charge for some reason, mid charge, do you have to do it at the car end or can it isolate on load in given situations? I would love an electric car. My brother in law is buying a Nissan Leaf so I'll see how that goes. (Oops, just read your earlier replies which explains all)!

[@12voltvids]

If the EVSE detects a fault it will turn off the pilot signal which the car would treat the same as pressing the button to unplug the car. This would gracefully stop the current before the relays cut the power. Since charging is full load most of the time you don't want to be turning off or on relays under load. That will cause a spark that could weld the contacts closed. Once you drive electric it is tough to go back to petrol. Even though my car has an engine it never runs. Probably won't come in till next summer when I travel.

[@gartmorn]

@@12voltvids I was an electrical fitter before I retired so having an electric car has extra appeal! They do make a lot of sense but petrol is still king this side of the pond!

[@12voltvids]

@@gartmorn For now perhaps but give them a few more years.

[@12voltvids]

John Vl,. Re your now deleted comment about is being 167 on fleabay. 167 us converts to 221 Canadian, plus shipping and of course there is taxes and broker fees at the border. This cost me 217 delivered from Amazon. Plus I have until Jan 2020 to return it if it breaks or I am not happy with it. So far I am very happy. It charges my car 30 minutes faster then the old one and 1:15 faster than the 12 amp charger that came with the car that I use for my second volt. After looking inside I would buy again in a second for the wife's car if her cord breaks. The OEM is clipper Creek and if you look at the cable between the charger and the car there is no comparison. Hers is much smaller in diameter.

[@rbtx99]

2:03 This can not possibly be the current sense transformer if both the live and neutral are passing through. I suspect it works more like an RCD. In normal operation, the live current and return currents cancel each other out. If there is a leak through water contamination, electrocution, etc it will cause a misbalance in the live and return currents which will be sensed and shut down the charging.

[@12voltvids]

Don't have a schematic so don't know what it does. Likely part of protection. There is a current sense on it as it displays both the voltage and current being drawn. Both are hot on 240 which is what it is operating at.

[@jeremytravis360]

Nice quality charger.

[@Vladimir-hq1ne]

It's better than I expected, really.

[@12voltvids]

Chinese stuff is NOT THAT BAD. There is allot worse. I know, it's tough for some to accept that, because they do have some crap out there, but they also have some very good stuff.

[@richardhalliday159]

Vladimir No, not all products assembled in China are poor, you get what you pay for, hence why leading companies such as Apple, Dyson etc etc. choose to assemble here, I remember when ‘ made in Japan’ meant crap !!

[@SteveHolsten]

Thanks. This was very interesting!

[@silviuguseila2552]

I would prefer one that doesn't do the ground fault detection, or just display an warning about it but still let me charge. I have seen this in Mikeselectricstuff videos, even on original EVSE from BMW. If I need to charge on the move at someone's house, I need to charge, cannot wait till they fix their grounding.

[@12voltvids]

That's too bad. Ground fault detection is a critical safety monitor. Without a proper ground the entire car could become electrified and electrocute anyone that touched it. Besides the EVSE having ground fault detection, the Chevy volt also has it built into the car, as one time I went to a public charge station that the ground was damaged on the plug, and when I plugged the car I got an amber light on th edast instead of a green, and the display in the car said "Ground Fault, Can Not Charge" I don't know if all cars do this, but the volt does, and I am sure the Bolt does as well and I am sure most others also will have protection from faulty EVSE equipment. What I can say now, is 8 months in with this cheap unit, and it has been flawless, has not given any problems, and the display screen that measures consumption if dead on with my utility meter and the on board consumption gauge. If my car says I used 14.2 KWH, when I charge it, the controller shows 14.8 as does the utility meter. That extra .5Kwh is used by the bettery chiller to keep the bettery temperature down during charge. It has been a flawless charge cord for 217.00.

[@Muonium1]

isn't the plug a 5-20? I thought this was always 120v?

[@12voltvids]

No on the 20 amp 120 plug the neutral is horizontal on the plug. This js the left side prong looking at it with ground on bottom. The socket can accept a vertical or horizontal plug (15 or 20.) The 240 plug the hot side (right side) is always horizontal and the left side (also hot on a 240 plug) is vertical for a 15 amp and horizontal for 20. This is a 240 plug. It came with an adapter cable to plug into a 120 circuit.

[@Muonium1]

@@12voltvids ah I see

[@thesolderman861]

I can see some flaws in that design: Having the red wires running between the MOVs puts these security critical wires for ground fault detection to the risk to be grilled when a overvoltage heats up the MOVs. If one MOV gets damaged from a overvoltage spike there is no thermal fuse beneath it to cut it off the current, so it might start burning. On the ribbon cable connector between those 2 PCBs you have the high leg phase and the low leg phase, say 240Volts very close to each other, as the supply is on the display board. Any creepage distances? Is there a fuse on the lower board?

[@12voltvids]

A closer inspection shows that the 3 blue components that I assumed were MOVs are actually ceramic capacitors and form a capacitor dropper current limiter to feed the power supply on the top board. There is no direct connection between the line input and the ribbon cable, but there is a connection from the line input through the capacitors, and then over to the ribbon cable. The MOV is the green component next to the input choke on the top board to protect that control board. When you think about it, the main board would not need any MOV protection, all it is doing is being the switch to turn power on or off to the car. All protection for the charging circuit would be on board on the actual charger which is part of the car. The only over voltage / surge protection this thing needs is on the power supply for the control board and it has it. If you watch at about the 1:19 point you can see the traces leading to the 3 capacitors. They are configured as follows. Line (black wire) connects to the left leg of the bottom blue capacitor and the right leg of the top blue cap. The left leg of the top and middle cap are connected together, and feed the trace that supplies power to the power supply on the control board through pin 3 of the ribbon cable. The right leg of the middle and bottom capacitors are tied together, and the trace runs under the leakage detect coil into a CP surge arrester, the other side is connected to ground. It is hidden by the leakage sense coil. The white input wire runs through the current shunt. Labeled neutral, as if it was plugged into 120, this would be the neutral side, but on 240, it is the second hot wire. So where those red wires are running poses no hazard at all. Ceramic capacitors generally do not ever fail and in this case they are being used as current limiting as part of the protection circuit for the control board.

[@jam99]

No PEN fault detection with earth disconnect. Also, probably no DC leakage current detect. Both needed for regs in UK now without external protection doing same job. Looks like evconnectors.com unit does have these more modern safety features.

[@12voltvids]

Of course it does. Disconnect the ground and the fault light goes on and the unit will not connect the car. Disconnect ground on the car side and same thing. Flashing fault light and no charge. The DC leakage protection is done by the on board charger in the car so if any battery leakage were to occurr the car would never turn on the power over the pilot control line. This has every bit as much protection. As anything out there. Basically all that is required is ground monitoring on the controller and AC leakage. The rest is onboard the car.

[@jam99]

I don't think you get my meaning. In this unit, the CPC/earth connection is straight through. There is no PEN fault detection disconnect as this requires a normally open relay contactor for the earth connection (and live). A PEN fault is when neutral from grid becomes accidentally disconnected outside of the property while earth and live wires are still connected. DC leakage trip for EV charging is a requirement on the supply side according to UK regs; doesn't matter if car has it or not. Just telling you how it is over here. This type of unit does not meet the requirements without more protection up stream of it.

[@12voltvids]

@@jam99 over here the ground must be bonded at all times. No matter what. Nothing would ever pass regulations if the ground could ever become disconnected for any reason as that would create a possible "floating car body" situation. In fact on the first gen volt the system monitors the bond to ground and if the bond to ground is lost a fault is generated that locks the charger out and it will not reset without a trip to the dealer because they have to isolate they have to test and isolate called ground fault isolation that happened on my car once on my old charger the ground wire broke between the charger and the connector on the car and the car got locked out and had to go to the dealer to be reset. On our system here our level 2 Chargers do not even have a neutral connection they're connected to both hot circuits only on a level 1 charger is one lug connected to neutral so you have a hot and a neutral but on level 2 it is the two phase hot and ground. Different country different electrical code regulations but this charger has all the safety devices required for North America.

[@jam99]

@@12voltvids This regulation is not in place for anything the house owner or consumer may or may not do. It is in place in case the neutral becomes disconnected up stream of a property but where the live and earth are still connected e.g. a bad repair by the electricity provider. That is how poor the services are in our country now. We have householder regulations to cover the possiblity of a negligent repair our electricity network provider might make on the supply to the house. The floating car body situation is exactly the problem, except with TNCS, the car body actually becomes (more or less) live because of the earth-neutral link on the input to the property. (Just for info, it is rare for a domestic property in UK to have more than 1-phase connected.) A way around it is to have the EV charger disconnected from the main house bonded 'earth' and have its own earthing rod, but nobody wants to do that if it can be avoided. I believe most PEN fault detectors check that the difference between live and neutral is within a certain voltage range, and disconnect within 5secs if not. Thanks for the info.

[@12voltvids]

@@jam99 The neutral and ground are linked at the panel, but also grounded at the electrical panel. This is done for exactly this reason. If the neutral bond at the pole were to go open, yes there would be a GPR on the neutral and ground but the fact it is earthed would keep the rise to only a few volts maximum. In North America we use split phase 120 two phase. For 120 appliances it's between one of the phases and neutral for 240 appliances it's between both phases no neutral. In the event of neutral Bond loss the neutral will start to follow the phase that has the highest load this causes lower voltage on that phase and a little higher voltage on the opposite phase.

[@zoubirdjelouah3273]

Good

[@michaelblack5011]

what 120 v AC in car voltage ?

[@JandeVu]

240V

[@michaelblack5011]

@@JandeVu no in America is 120 v

[@12voltvids]

It is a charge controller for electric cars. For the record we have 240 volts here just like europe, we also have 120. Small appliances and devices run on the 120 side, a single phase to neutral (ground) and larger run on 2 phase which can be either 208 or 240 depending on whether the building is single phase or 3 phase. Our 240 devices operate exactly the same way. We have different plugs depending on the voltage and then there is the 4 prong plug for ranges so it can have both 120 and 240 available. 240 for heating elements and 120 for plugs and lights.

[@michaelblack5011]

@@12voltvids cool ,nice explain

[@silviuguseila2552]

@@12voltvids Europe is 230V to be precise :)

[@dvddale111]

Is charging quicker a good Idea? I do realize that modern batteries are designed to accept large amounts of amperes going in, do they heat up in response? Lithium ion I suppose, two wheeled fun vehicles in the UK from China with LI batteries in have been known to explode and catch fire when charging etc. don't mean to annoy you but what's the difference between quick and quicker, especially if you're charging overnight and are asleep?

[@sarasartori6859]

You could always fast charge but it shortens battery life.

[@12voltvids]

The difference between 120 and 240 charge times on my car is.. 120v 14hours. 240v 4 hours on this cord. Had I go for the 30 amp cord I could do it in 2:15 but I would have to upgrade my panel as I am pretty much at the limit now. I have 2 electric cars that both charge at the same time. Also the batteries have thermal management and liquid cooling.

[@12voltvids]

This model does not have fast charge capability. It has a gas generator on board for extended range driving.

[@12voltvids]

Fast charging a full on ev every time will reduce the life of the battery. It is ok when traveling to do it once in awhile but charging at home over night is preferred. My cars are both chevy volt which are plug in hybrid. Since they have a gas generator on board there is never a requirement to charge when traveling, just let the battery run down and let the engine start up and continue on gas like a regular car. Therefore the on board charger is just a standard level 1/2 ac charger. The batteries are cooled and heated to prevent thermal degradation. The older car has 160000 miles on it and the battery has shown no degradation yet

[@jovangrbic97]

Seems to be massively overpriced for what the BOM looks like, realistically a 50$ part. The wall hanging plastic hook looks like it will rip off easily

[@12voltvids]

You think this one is over priced? How about a Bosch, or Schneider, or Leviton. They are all the same inside. Higher amperage will have a heavier gauge wire for the cord, and a larger relay, but they are all the same inside, and one of those chargers will set you back 500 to 2000. Just to buy the charge cord and connector to fix my other one would have cost me over 100.00 for the cable. Now I am thinking that I will take the orange cord off my original level 1, and put it on the old level 2, and fix it. Then the portable charger that came with the new car can become my travel charger. As to the "plastic mounting bracket breaking off" it won't. It supports the weight of the charge controller which is perhaps 3lbs.It is actually a thick tab, that would probably hold 100 lbs. It was one of the lowest price units I could find, and it suites my needs perfectly. The cost of the parts does not equal the selling price, and anyone that thinks this is well, dumb as a wall charger. There is the cost of the actual parts and materials, design costs and actual manufacturing costs of the boards, and then assembly costs. Never mind cost of packaging and shipping. This unit cost me 217.00 total. That includes all shipping costs, delivery costs and taxes. I couldn't build one myself for anything close to that.

[@martik778]

Unbelievable that some mfg's want over $500 for such a simple device

[@12voltvids]

Or more.

[@JandeVu]

This is charger? No! it's Input protector!

[@12voltvids]

No it is a charge controller. It communicates with the car over the pilot control channel and turns on power once the car is ready. It also as leakage fault detection on board but the main fault detection is on the car itself. This is just a remote controlled switch.

[@xeroeffect5745]

Can’t wait to see the tear down and de-potting of the original charger Dave. I don’t think the new charger will last anywhere near as long as the old one did and you’ll probably find that long term it will cost you more money and headaches constantly replacing it. I would be concerned if your vehicle talks to the charger and knows it’s not OEM therefore putting the onus of blame on you or the street chargers you use. Just my thoughts.

[@12voltvids]

The vehicle doesn't talk to the charger. The charger, more accurately called EVSE, electric vehicle service equipment, sends a PWM modulated tone at 1KHz down the control line. It is 12 volts PWM, the duty cycle tells the car what the charge current will be. The car puts a resistive load of 2.74K ohm as soon as the plug in inserted. This tells the EVSE that it is connected but not ready for power yet. The car then adds a 1.3kohm resistor in parallel when it is ready for power and the relay closes. Once AC is on, the car then goes into charge mode. If you press the button to disconnectthe car detects this, as the button is monitored. The car opens shuts off the charger and then opens the 1.3K resistor at which time the relay is deenergized. Also once the battery is fully charged, the 1.3K is opened and the cEVSE cuts off the AC power. It is really quite a simple circuit, and yet some people will pay 1000.00 + for them because they think there is more in it. Some are network enabled, but that is only so the power company can control when you can charge. In some jurisdictions drivers get a discount, because the power company will only allow them to charge when they have excess capacity. There will probably come a time that all the utility companies will over a discount rate to charge a car if you allow them to select the best time to charge, but you will pay a higher rate if you want to charge in peak usage times.

[@12voltvids]

The old one wasn't trouble free. It used to eat 20 amp fuses like they were going out of style. How come a 20 amp fuse blows and the 15 amp breaker it is connected to doesn't trip? The original one broke down the first time 2 months past warranty ans SPX said it was not repairable. Blown fuse. Replaced. It would blow one of the 2 fuses at about a 10 month interval, for no reason. Notice the new one is NOT fused. It reies on the 15 amp circuit breaker.

[@gartmorn]

@@12voltvids I agree and think that, in some cases, warranties which make you use oem is just a money making exercise.

[@drteeth7054]

@@12voltvids If loads of people buy EVs, the govt will want to get the money that they used to on fuel tax. The maths for EVs do not make sense if one believes that mankind is responsible for global warming. It takes much more energy to make one than a regular vehicle, plus power station will use more power as the EV load increases.

[@12voltvids]

@@drteeth7054 actually electric cars don't take much more energy to make than a regular car. Your argument that we are not paying our share of road tax is correct. Currently we don't and eventually I am sure there will be road pricing introduced but currently we don't. I have been driving electric now for going on 9 years. Compared to my old gas guzzler I have saves about 400 a month in gas. My first ev paid back it's full purchase price in 8 years. I put that 100.00 a week I wasn't pumping into my old car that drank like a fish and put it in the bank. I walked into the dealership and bought my second one for cash using all that money I didn't give to the greedy oil companies. That's right, that brand new 2019 I drive cost me nothing. I put alot of miles on my cars. Since I bought my new car in may I have put 12000 on it so far.

[@incandescentwithrage]

Nice charger but still a lossy way to drive

[@12voltvids]

And why is that. You made the comment, so back up your statement. Why is an electric car a "lossy" way to drive. I saved enough fuel (was using about 100 a week in my old car) to buy a second electric car after 8 years just from the money I saved by not having to go to the gas station or change oil and service brakes every 6 months. I can drive my car for about 30.00 a month on electricity vs 400 on gasoline. Its fast, powerful, smooth and quiet.