EVCHARGEKING TESLA CABLE KIT INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS UPON ARRIVAL: When you get your installation kit, it should look something like this:

Transcription

1 EVCHARGEKING TESLA CABLE KIT INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS UPON ARRIVAL: When you get your installation kit, it should look something like this: The kit consists of the electronics PCB with a battery already included, and wrapped in a protective heat shrink, a stainless steel button attached to the circuit board and 2 wires attached to the circuit board and having 2 small heat shrinks to be used when soldering the wires to your connector. First test: You can test the application before integrating it in your cable. Just take the application to your Tesla (don t lose the small heat shrinks), hold it close to the back window above the chargeport and push the button. The Tesla chargeport should open. Refer to the troubleshooting section if it doesn t. If the port magically opened, it is time to build the application into your cable connector!

2 DRILL A HOLE IN YOUR CONNECTOR This probably is the most difficult part of the installation. You have to drill a hole of 12mm diameter in the top of your connector. What makes the installation of the button hard, is that most connectors are joined together at the top and bottom, and that is where you want the bottom to be of course. That means you have to drill the hole before you open the connector. It is best to open the connector before drilling the hole, and look for a spot on top of the connector that permits to insert the button, so having enough free space. Do not drill through any mounting holes! Be carefull when drilling the hole because the drill tends to shoot in the connector once it has drilled through the plastic, possibly damaging the cables inside, so I strongly advise to open up the connector first, take out the front section with the cable so that you are left with only the housing. Then screw the empty housing back together and drill the hole. This way you will not damage any inner cables. The result should look like this It is best to chamfer the hole with some fine sanding paper so that it is smooth to slide the button in sideways. Don t overdo or use coarse sanding paper, the idea is to just round off the edges of the hole slightly OPEN THE CONNECTOR Now it is time to (re)open the connector and start installing the application. Inside your connector, you will find a small wire that goes from the Earth terminal to the signal pin called PP. It has a resistor installed in the wire that tells the car what the maximum charging current is. This wire should be cut and connected to the 2 small wires from the Tesla cable application circuit board.

3 Cut the wire, but leave some distance between the cut and the resistance in the cable (at least 20mm) and connect the 2 wires from the circuit board to the freshly cut wire ends. It is advised to solder the wires together for best reliability. Use the small heat shrinks to shield the soldered connections:

4 INSTALL THE CIRCUIT BOARD Ok, now it is time to install everything in the connector. Make sure the button has enough space. You can use small tie wraps as I did in the picture to ensure the button can be inserted in the hole without forcing it in and possibly damaging the button connections. Arrange the power and signal cables out of the way, and be sure not to bend the signal cable close to the resistance too much, because it tends to break if bent too often. Then look for the best spot to put the circuit board. Try to fix it with a tie wrap and close the connector as in the pictures below to make sure there are no parts stuck, bent or pinched. The connector should close without using any force! This is the most important part of the installation, make sure the circuit board and wires sit comfortably inside the connector, and make sure they are not pinched when closing the connector later The button itself will have to be inserted as shown above later. This is because once you close the connector, you cannot access the hex nut anymore. The trick is to tighten the nut to the point where it holds the button down enough to have a press-fit between the housing and the O-ring, but more on that later. First you have to make sure the circuit board sits happily inside the connector!

5 INSTALLING THE BUTTON

6 Next step is installing the button and closing the housing. Apply some glue or transparent silicone to the bottom button hole half. Do not use the strong thin glue that dries up in seconds, but use a transparent thick syrup-like glue or silicone. The idea is to make the button sit waterproof in the connector, so the glue should stay somewhat flexible when dry, just like silicone Turn the nut so it almost fits the thickness of the housing and slide the button in the bottom half of the connector housing. Then tighten the hex nut without using excessive force, the button should just compress the O-ring a little. I you tighten the nut too much, you will not be able to slide the other half of the housing between the o-ring and the nut This is also why you had to slightly round the hole s edges, so they don t bite in the O-ring when you slide in the button and install the other housing half. The idea is that the glue or silicone acts a bit as a lubricant to assemble the button. Next you will apply a thin layer of glue or silicone to the edges and the other button hole half of the second housing piece. This will ensure that the connector is at least somewhat waterproof. After applying the glue or silicone, close the housing, being careful not to pinch any cables, and watch carefully that the O-ring of the button sits on top of the housing. If you cannot get it done, maybe you have to loosen the nut a little, if the button is too loose, tighten the nut some more. Once you have everything in place, tightly screw the housing halves together and remove the silicone or glue that is pushed out of the edges with a rag and some solvent.

7

8 JOB DONE!

9 TESTING Take your freshly assembled cable to your Tesla, be sure to have your Tesla key fob with you because you will not be able to insert or disconnect the cable if the key is not present. Make sure the car recognizes the key and push the cable button to open the chargeport. Insert the cable, the car should lock the connector in a matter of seconds. The car will tell you there is no charging network present, but will keep the connector locked anyway. If you push the button again, the car will release the connector and you can pull it out. If you wait too long before removing the connector, the car will lock it again. If the car is really charging, pushing the button will stop the charging procedure and unlock the cable. TROUBLESHOOTING To do a basic check of the cable, all you need is an Ohm-meter to test some resistances. To tell the car and charging station how thick the cable wires are, every connector has a resistance built into it. You can measure this resistance between the Earth and the Proximity Pilot (PP). Without the button pushed, you should measure the following resistance: For max 13A cables (1,5 mm² wire section) : 1500 Ohm For max 20A cables (2,5 mm² wire section): 680 Ohm For max 32A cables (6 mm² wire section): 220 Ohm For max 63A cables (16 mm² wire section): 100 Ohm

10 The reading can be off a few Ohms, that is quite possible. It should be within a 2% range normally. If you don t measure any resistance between Earth and PP, most probably the wire with the resistance broke, and your car will not charge at all, because it cannot figure out what the max current is it is allowed to use. Open the connector and inspect the resistance wire. Also check the connections to the circuit board, as we have routed the resistance wire through the circuit board. If the resistance checks out OK, measure the resistance between Earth and PP, and push the button. You should see the resistance rise with about 330 Ohm. If it does not, but the chargeport opens when you push the button (meaning the button is correctly connected to the circuit board, and the application battery is not dead) then something on the circuit board is wrong and you will need to send it back to us for replacement. If the chargeport doesn t open when pushing the button and the resistance between PP and Earth pins does not change when pushing the button, you should check the connection of the button to the circuit board. If that checks out to be OK, try to bridge the 2 wire connections leading to the button on the circuit board to make sure the button itself is not at fault. If that doesn t reveal the problem, measure the voltage of the battery, it should be around 3V at least when new. If all of the above does not solve the problem, or you have found a component to be faulty, please contact us to discuss the problem and work out a solution! We wish you an electrifying Tesla Experience! EVChargeKing info@evchargeking.com EVChargeKing website EVChargeKing on Facebook EVChargeKing is not responsible for any damage caused by the installation of the Tesla Charge Cable Application by the customer. We have written this installation guide to the best of our abilities to help customers perform a flawless installation, but the final responsibility rests with the customer.