Adapters for mobile charging

[Maquis]

I don't have an EVSE .. just the dryer plug connected to the 10G cord and the car charger that I plug into my EV. It a Leaf cable that can support level 2 charging

What you call a car charger is really an EVSE. The charger is in the car.

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[ChrisC]

What you call a car charger is really an EVSE. The charger is in the car.

Yes, I know the charger is in the car. What I have is a cord that has a small box attached that I think is the charge controller to limit the amount of electricity that goes to the car. It is like a bigger version of a power supply to a laptop with a box between the plugs. I guess that is considered an EVSE except it is a just cord, not a box on the wall.

 

[Calvin H-C]

If you get better efficiency with 1PD, that means that your braking technique when not in 1PD isn’t optimal and the friction brakes are being used (in part) to stop the truck.

True, but all the practice in the world will never have you braking as optimally as the software that controls 1PD will.

In the five and a half years I've been driving a Focus Electric, which has no 1PD mode, it's not that easy to make every single stop a 100% score. I've brought it to a steady and gentle stop numerous times only to find the score is something like 97%, though I've made stops I was convinced could not be 100% only to have the brake coach say it was.

That "100%" only means that 100% of the possible regenerated energy was actually regenerated. There is a point where the speed is too low for regeneration to work and the pads must be used. It does make for a good challenge to see how close to 100 you can get each time.

Before I had my front brakes done (at 132,000 km), there was a faint noise just as they engaged (if the weather was nice enough to have the window down to hear it), and this coincided with the stopping of the dash image that indicates regeneration is occurring. Shifting to neutral before pressing the brake pedal would create that noise instantly as the pads are there is no regen when in neutral. Probably not a bad thing to do every so often to "clean" the rotors - try as I might to get a low brake score by stomping on the brakes, it's actually pretty hard (at least with the FFE) to get a score below about 40-45%.

Getting back to the issue of 1PD being better at recovering energy, it makes a fairly small difference, though it would be slightly more effective in heavy stop-and-go traffic.

 

[hturnerfamily]

Yes, I know the charger is in the car. What I have is a cord that has a small box attached that I think is the charge controller to limit the amount of electricity that goes to the car. It is like a bigger version of a power supply to a laptop with a box between the plugs. I guess that is considered an EVSE except it is a just cord, not a box on the wall.

an EVSE is any cord or box or device that you must use to allow the vehicle to 'accept' a charge... it doesn't matter whether it hangs on a wall, or is simply a larger looking 'extension cord', similar to the BOLT 120v charge cable. It will have a J1772 connector on the vehicle end(for CCS vehicles), and a 120v or 240v male receptacle on the other end(or it is hardwired)... the EVSE is really the 'box' in between.

 

[hturnerfamily]

I also have several different ADAPTERS, for various and different situations - such as charging at Campgrounds. I come from the 'camping world', where when you own a camper, you run into these same 'adapter' situations on a infrequent basis.
Many RVs are 120v, which is your typical home outlet voltage... but, their 30amp male plug end does not 'fit' into a regular 120v outlet, so if you want to plug in your camper while at home, and a 120v outlet is all you have, you need to use a 30 amp to 15/20 amp adapter, easily found on the shelf in Walmart and Lowes, etc. Sometimes it's a 'puck' style adapter, and other times it's a 'dogbone' type.

If your motorhome or large camper is a 50amp type, though, you have a situation that is more like us EV owners - you need 240v power. If all you have at a campground is 30amp 120v, though, you'll need a 50amp 240v to 30amp 120v adapter. A motorhome that adapts 'down' to 120v power will have to monitor it's power usage, otherwise tripping the 30amp breaker will happen often.
If you're an EV owner trying to charge from this same outlet, you will see a MUCH SLOWER charge speed, so slow you'll pull your hair out if you check it every hour, since you won't see much change. This is really just for an 'emergency' situation, or maybe a situation, like at a campground, where you are going to be there several days, and you can afford to 'wait' for the slow charging.

Another adapter is the 'Y' adapter, for bringing TWO 30amp 120v outlets into a 'combined' 240v power. This 30amp Dual Y to 50amp 240v adapter provides 240v power to your motorhome, or EV, and certainly gives you up to 60amps of 120v power, or for EVs, 240v power to charge at 4-6 times the speed of a regular 120v outlet.

I come from the camping world, and already have several adapters that work for both my camper AND my Lightning, but I would doubt you'd need to rush out and purchase adapters that you may never make use of - the ones that tends to be the most often used is the easy-to-find 50amp to 30amp adapter, and the 30amp to 15/20amp adapter. If you can find a direct 50amp to 15/20amp, that would be an even easier route to take, but I don't see those too often.
The other part of this equation is your ability to ADAPT DOWN the amount of power the EVSE will try to use... an ADJUSTABLE EVSE is the way to go, to carry with you. This allows you to find 240v power, although you may not want it to use the max 30amps, like the Ford Mobile EVSE does. You may only want it to use 16amps, or 20amps, so as not to trip a breaker, etc. The Ford Mobile EVSE gives you both a 120v option, which is nice, and also a 240v option, although it is not adjustable.

If you find yourself in a very low battery state, and just HAVE to try to plug in to some type of power, then more-than-likely you're only going to have access to a regular 15/20amp outlet... you'll be there a LONG time, though.
If, by chance, you know that there might be a campground nearby, you may just find that you can pull into a campsite with a 240v 50amp outlet that will get you on your way MUCH QUICKER... even though that will also take some hours to accomplish, or get you enough to your next DC Fast Charger location.

 

[ivan256]

an EVSE is any cord or box or device that you must use to allow the vehicle to 'accept' a charge... it doesn't matter whether it hangs on a wall, or is simply a larger looking 'extension cord', similar to the BOLT 120v charge cable. It will have a J1772 connector on the vehicle end(for CCS vehicles), and a 120v or 240v male receptacle on the other end(or it is hardwired)... the EVSE is really the 'box' in between.

EVSE is electric vehicle supply equipment. It's plural, and includes the bits that are installed in your truck, the wire, the connector, the part on your wall, the software that drives both ends and - grammatically inexplicably - the protocol definitions that the software uses to talk to each other. If you take the cord and the controller and the connectors apart, then individually they're all still EVSE. "An EVSE" is just a misappropriation of the term that has gained probably-unstoppable momentum as a description for charging cords and stations.

Yes I'm aware I'm insufferably pedantic. Sorry, I think.

Everybody (and by "everybody" I mean "people who aren't EV enthusiasts") would be a lot less confused about these things if we just referred to EV charging cords as "chargers." The battery charger for your phone is technically in the phone just like the battery charger for your EV is technically in the vehicle, but we all still call the wall adapter and USB cord the "phone charger."

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