OpenEVSE Advanced Kit (Long, Boring & YMMV)

Nope. My kit came with the printed board, the power supply and the pre-programmed Arduino IC. Everything else came from either Digikey or Home Depot. I modified one of those big grey junction boxes they sell at the HD as my case. My first attempt was pretty ugly, but I re-made it on a later try and did a better job of cutting out the LCD window. It's "good enough" for now and as a bonus, it's plenty big enough that I also use it as a cord hangar.

 

Thanks to everyone on this forum. Been reading a lot lately and decided on a Clarity (Just got mine last night)

After all my research, decided I love the OpenEVSE. Do you know if that 10% off is still valid? If someone could PM me I'll give it a shot.

 

After 1/2 a year and more than a dozen hours trying to troubleshoot excessively high temperatures with my OpenEVSE, I've decided to return it. My latest post in the OpenEVSE Google Group documents what I've been experiencing the past couple months. Here's the chart of my temperatures over the past month, with the station never dropping below 44C when idle, and consistently hitting 53-55C during the day when not charging.


You can't even tell the difference between when I'm actually charging at night versus the temperature while sitting idle during the day unless you look at the time. Due to this high idle temperature, I'm not able to charge at full capacity during the daytime because the EVSE will throttle the current when it hits 65C (150F). But my greater concern is that this continuous exposure to high temperature will degrade the electronics and cause the station to fail much sooner than I would expect, and that is why I am returning it.

Chris at OpenEVSE was kind enough to offer a full refund for my purchase. I will be sending my station back to him and perhaps they can investigate why mine in particular has had such temperature issues.

 

Yup, that's the kind of behavior I was expecting, and you can clearly see the difference in temperatures. Your station barely rises in temperature when idle. It's really too bad, since the OpenEVSE is the only option that has local WiFi control. The Juicebox for example requires an Internet connection to make any changes.

 

please keep us posted if they find a root cause.

 

So the assessment of the OpenEVSE team after receiving my returned station was that the LCD module was generating the heat. The thing is, I swapped the LCD module with a replacement sent by Chris as part of the early troubleshooting. The replacement module showed lower temperatures at first, but within about ten days the station temps jumped 10 degrees C and never came back down.

Chris himself indicated that the odds of two consecutive modules exhibiting the same overheating behavior is extremely low, but I asked him to continue monitoring temps on that module for several weeks, and if it climbs back up again, then there is most likely some other issue that is causing the module to go bad like this. We'll see if any future results are reported.

I replaced the OpenEVSE with a JuiceBox Pro as it is one of the few EVSEs with similar degree of control over charge timers and charge rate, as well as temperature monitoring. Temps for the Juicebox (mounted in the same location as my previous OpenEVSE) have not gone past 90 degrees F, even when charging at 24 Amps in the afternoon. Idle temps are barely above ambient. Even if my OpenEVSE hadn't been defective, I think the metal casing of the Juicebox makes a significant difference for heat dissipation.

However, one significant advantage of the OpenEVSE is the local wifi control. With the Juicebox, all controls through the app are sent over the Internet via the Juicenet servers, so there is a delay of up to several minutes before the Juicenet App registers that the car is plugged in and allows you to make charge schedule changes. The OpenEVSE is controlled via the local network, so everything is pretty much instantaneous. In addition, the Juicenet App doesn't remember charge schedules, unlike the OpenEVSE. I have to set the time for when to start charging (if I want to start it like at 2AM) every time I plug in. There is a setting to schedule when TOU is, and I suppose I can use that to set the minimum earliest start charging time. It's also disappointing that if I ever have some kind of Internet outage I won't be able to make settings changes to the Juicebox.

I wish that the Juicebox firmware was open sourced so that someone could create a local network control solution for it similar to the OpenEVSE.

 

Resurrecting this thread from the dead...@Kendalf, still happy with JuiceBox Pro? Some reviews seem spotty.

Anyone else using OpenEVSE? I'm horrible at DIY, so I'd probably pick up the preassembled GoPlug for $499

 

FYI, the Siemens Versicharge has low voltage input contacts to control charging and a low voltage status output, so a DIYer/hacker could build an Arduino or similar local controller without having to mess with any of the high voltage parts. Tracking temperature and power usage would require additional components however. I myself am probably going to go with a Juicebox Pro for the power tracking capabilities, despite the disadvantages of being cloud based.

 

I purchased the EVSE almost 4 months ago. Not a single issue so far EXCEPT it was tripping my 50 amp breaker main. The issue, I am sure of it, is 50 amps was too small for the main panel. I also had an AC unit out of the same breaker box. So 32 amps for my car plus the AC running was more than 50 (4 Amp for the fan, 3 for the air handler blower and 20 for the compressor, all 220V)

My fix was simple, using the push button and following the manual, I was easily able to limit charging to 28 amps max. After that it never tripped the breaker again. Since then, I went to a 100Amp main (which yes, the electrical box WAS rated at 100Amp service....I am thinking it was cheaper to put in a 50Amp main breaker, probably an assembled kit) and removed that current limit (very simple from the provided push button).

As far as anything else, I did connect it to wifi. But I have never actually used any of the features. Pretty much bought it fully assembled, and went plug and play to charge my car right away.

Oh, FYI: Right now they are on sale for 399 for the basic (standard) and 499 for the goPlug. My guess is a TON of non-DIYers have been purchasing the openEVSE as a straight out of the box charger with no setup required.

Now while I am an advocate for the openEVSE, I will say I have only ever used the other charger at the dealer and the level 1 that came with my car (13 hour charge). So I cannot speak for the openEVSE being better than any other charger, I just know I am 100% happy with it. The dealer had these huge Eaton boxes (https://www.google.com/search?q=SAR3BXML0000&rlz=1C1GCEU_enUS821US821&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi7n5Hz1-3hAhUPvKwKHeHCBOgQ_AUIECgD&biw=1920&bih=937 )


edit: Didn't realize this, but actually I have had mine now going on almost 8 months

 

I bought the GoPlug and have been happy with it so far, in most respects.

One thing that may be an issue for some people: the firmware is quite limited compared to the OpenEVSE Advanced (for example, there are no energy tracking features, which is something I really wanted); you can apparently flash the OpenEVSE firmware onto the board if you disassemble the unit, but even just flashing the WiFi firmware apparently won't enable the full OpenEVSE Advanced feature set. If I'd known about that limitation, I probably would have saved a few bucks and dealt with the hassle of assembling the OpenEVSE kit or bought the JuiceBox Pro 32A for the same price instead.

 

Thank you, good to know

 

I bought the Open EVSE Advanced kit when it was on sale. My original motivation was that I had 2 free cables that I cannibalized from dead GE units at work. After a bunch of troubleshooting, I learned that both cables were defective, and ordered a new cable through Amazon. Unit has worked perfectly for over one year. Because I'm on a 30A breaker, I configured it to limit charge rate to 24A. Car typically charges within 2 hours. Display shows status (color), charge rate, and total KwH per charge.

 

As an FYI, here are the differences between the assembled GoPlug unit vs the OpenEVSE Advanced kit:

Features:
Physical Artwork Only.

Firmware:
Firmware Advanced functions such as MQTT and energy monitoring are not enabled in GoPlug Firmware. OpenEVSE firmware can be loaded on GoPlug hardware to enable the features.

 

New member. Just purchased a Prius Prime and interested in building the kit with my 9th grade son who is in his high school's engineering track. Does anyone have an owner code they would be willing to send me. Thanks.