Background story: had an OpenEVSE since 2021. But it was hidden in the crawl space under the house since then. No attached cable, it was a Type 2 socket installation.

Recently got an issue with the aforementioned female Type 2 socket (no more ground, faulty lines, etc…) so I decided to move everything back into the sunshine.

That’s not the prettiest installation, but it’s working and the attached cable makes it way easier to use.

Next step would be to move it inside an old gas pump for decoration and laughs!

  • Daefsdeda@sh.itjust.works
    5·
    2 months ago

    Very cool that you succeeded! Are there any benefits compared to just buying a general one and installing that? Like costs or features?

    • hylobates@jlai.luOPEnglish
      12·
      2 months ago

      OpenEVSE doesn’t cost very much (I imported it back then for less than 250€ total, including tarrifs). Doing the installation yourself saves you a lot of money too.

      And finally, you are in control of your EVSE and can expose it to Internet or not, upgrade the firmware or not, etc…

    • ThePantser@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      8·
      2 months ago

      I chose the openevse for my car charger because all the parts are available and can be repaired or upgraded as needed. Because I just changed cars (EV9) it is now a nacs port. So I could in the future when I am more annoyed with the adapter swap the j1772 cord for a nacs cable. Could also upgrade the display to a full color better screen or swap out the brains for something better, could add Ethernet if my WiFi was spotty. It’s open.

    • artyom@piefed.socialEnglish
      7·
      2 months ago

      I went through 3 other (very expensive) EVSEs before purchasing an OpenEVSE. Used daily now for several years, left on the ground in the sun and rain. I only ever had one problem and that was with the J1772/NACS adapter. Got some water in it and started causing some faults. Removed it and left it in the sun to dry out and then it was back working again.

      Connected mine to Home Assistant and now I have all sorts of automations available as well.

      • hylobates@jlai.luOPEnglish
        3·
        2 months ago

        Curious about the automations? Linked to solar panels?

        I connected mine to Home Assistant via MQTT but could find any meaningful use to it since.

        • artyom@piefed.socialEnglish
          4·
          2 months ago

          Well I have a unique situation where I have a bunch of large loads on the same circuit so I just use the EVSE as a sort of load balancer, along with a whole home energy monitor, so it will automatically decrease charging current when large loads come on.

        • ThePantser@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          4·
          2 months ago

          One use I have is when frigate sees a car in my driveway and it’s not plugged in to send me an alert right before bed time. Before I had a vehicle I could do a proper schedule on the vehicle settings I had scheduled charges for my EV and used HA to add extra charge before a trip.