Good morning, all so today, i'm going to test as if it doesn't fall off my bench, my easy evse. This is uh the simple cmos and comparator circuit, sending a one kilohertz square wave out to the car and the relays, of course, transferring mains out to the car's charging socket so without further ado, let's get straight on with it and see if it works. So this is what i'm going to use to provide mains to the evse and onto the car. This is the bluet ac200 and i've charged it up to 100, so i'll, probably completely empty this power bank uh into the car and we'll see how many additional miles we get.

I've made up a couple of cables. Well, i had the commando cable there, but i've made this one, which has a 10 amp inline connector, although this thing's pretty horrible inside the only reason for that is so that i could get it through the letterbox so that i can shut the door um, but Have the evse outside the house so outside i've got um a plug in a socket that comes down to the commando plug, which is the plug. That was on my evsc here's the evse with uh, my analog, circuitry and lights on the relay, so we should be able to see if those light up and then that runs down here to the plug, which is going to go in the car's socket. So this is the car.

This is a an mg zs ev electric car is currently charging from the household mains using the mg evse that came with it, which is this one, but that's just plugged into a rather pathetic extension, lead, which i got from lidl and it's 25 meters long. It's really very excessive in length and i've estimated that i'm probably losing about 300 watts. Just in that cable warming up right, so, let's get inside the car, i need to switch on the electronics. There's a start stop button here, oh of course, i'll need to put my foot on the brake when i do that, otherwise we don't get the full electronics coming on um, because i need to stop the charging from the current charger.

Oh, i need to turn the sound off otherwise. So that's saying charger is connected. You can't go anywhere i'll, okay, that so we come down onto here. Let's look at the battery screen and it should say that it's charging at uh 14.

Oh, no, that's plus 14. Amps because the heat has come on i'll turn the heater off actually because we don't need the heater on that's just gon na draw masses of power from the battery right. The heat is off. Let's go back to the battery screen.

We should have a negative amount. Yeah minus four amps going into the car: that's not a lot! Is it and that's four amps, of course, at 356 volts, so it's not four amps at mains, but anyway, i'm going to finish charging that should mean i can pull the plug out of the front of the car. Oh yeah, i heard the relay click um. So the plug should now be released.

I can pull it out and put my plug in from my evse right. So let's point this one out, there's a little bar graph here. So it's saying two bars. That means it's under 50.

Full we'll have a look at the mileage actually because before i switch on um this charger, oh i've got to try and get this bung off the end of the plug. Now with one hand which is tricky, let's plug that one. In now the lights come on. It's not because it can see any power because it can't what it can see, though, is a resistor on the pp pin the proximity pilot pin down to ground.

So it knows, there's a connector in there, but there's no square wave on there on the cp pin and, of course, there's no mains. So we'll just do a quick check of the car's estimated range and then i'll switch on the power bank. And here in the car um, the car is at 49 battery and it has 96 miles of range and that's quite good, because i'm estimating that fully emptying that power bank, which is, i think, about 1350 watt hours 1.3 kilowatt hours, should give this car about an Extra 4 miles of range, so we should be looking at taking it up to 100 miles of range. Okay back in the house, let's turn on the ac on, so the ac is on now we should see if it starts to charge um a power amount.

Oh, it's gone up to 174 and it's gone up to 1500 watts and the fans come on. You can hear the fan running, although it's a bit erratic, which is odd. Let's go and take a look at the evse i'll, keep this shot running and there's the cat and yeah the green lights are on on the evse, so that is working in the sense that the relays are on. Let's take a look uh from inside the car.

First thing to do, of course, is just touch the metal work of the car make sure i can't feel anything. This is a non-earth non-grounded system completely from the power bank to the car. Nothing is grounded, but no there's no buzzing feeling. So let's get inside here and see what it says: oh well, the amps is tiny, uh minus three amps.

That means it's charging with three amps. But of course that's three amps at 356, volts um, the evse is set to pull six amps at mains. So it's pulling six amps at mains, two stroke, three amps at 356 volts and we're looking for the mileage to increase by about four miles, i believe and on the driver display you've got similar numbers. Um can't see the power or the current and voltage at the moment, yeah there's current and voltage uh voltage 356 volts current minus three amps uh estimated range 96 miles bottom left there and battery percentage 49 on the bottom right.

Okay: let's go and look at the power bank. Well, a quick pit! Stop at the evse. I've left the lid off because it's there's no chance of rain today. I suppose the cat might sniff the yeah.

I don't want to think about that. Anyway, the green lights are on the relays are clearly on and on the power bank um already down to 93. For this power, bank 1500 watts is quite a high power pool. I mean it will do two kilowatts from the pure sine wave inverter, so we're running at three quarters maximum power, but that's a fairly consistent 1500 watts now at 230, volts, which i believe this is actually.

I think we can see it data, oh, where is it uh inverters and charger ac output, yeah 230, volts 6.5 or 6.6 amps here? So we did see didn't we that the pulse width was slightly greater than 10, which means it's a bit more than six amps and it is it's 6.5 amps and the watts there is uh. 50.. No, that's hurt 1500 watts. So that's all as i might have expected: okay, let's go back back! Okay, now down to 91 percent on the bluet power bank and inside the car, still 96 miles 49, and it says here is: it is estimated to complete charging at 5 31 in the morning tomorrow.

It's about midday, i think. Oh, it's, 12, 31 now um and that would be up to 90, because i've set my charge limiter to 90 percent. They call it long journey mode. They recommend you only charge to 80 percent for normal use, which i guess makes sense for lithium, nmc chemistry, but that's definitely bobbing between three amps and two amps still 356 volts.

The battery is charging at the slowest i've ever seen it, which is not surprising because i don't think i've ever charged at six amps. That's six amps at mains, of course, uh two to three amps at well, i'm tempted to say 400 volts. But it isn't because the battery is quite low, 356. volts.

Now my estimate of adding four miles to the range of the car. Oh, has it gone up a mile? Yes, it's saying: oh, no, that's interesting. It says 96 miles on the instrument dash, but over here on the charging screen, it's saying 97 miles. So yes, it's gone up by a mile, but the percentage hasn't gone up from 49, which is odd.

Oh no, that's right! It's about a ratio of two to one at the moment, so you get about two miles per kilowatt hour. In fact, you can see the number down here in that gray box at the bottom, i'm averaging 2.6 miles per kilowatt hour. Now, that's not very good! For this car, this car can do three and a half miles per kilowatt hour, but i like to have the heater on flat out. So, of course, a fair amount of my electricity is going in running the heater uh and it's not just going to the motor, and i don't mind that i think it's perfectly acceptable to be in comfort.

So i'm getting a low miles per kilowatt hour, i'm getting 2.6, probably in the summer, i'll be getting 3.5 or possibly even better, because i don't tend to do a lot of motorway journeys. I tend to do a lot of local journeys and electric cars are better at that sort of thing. There's a home screen here which you can get to either by pressing the home icon there or you can use the physical buttons which are easier to use while driving, there's a home button there and that shows the charging so 49 96 miles. That's interesting! That's different! From the battery screen, let's go back to the battery screen, i'm moving a little battery toggle down here.

It's got mode for eco, normal and sport. It's got kers, which is kinetic energy recovery system or or what they call it recuperation regeneration. I can't think of a word and then there's a battery button, so you can get directly to the battery charging screen. That's definitely saying miles the home screen, so that was 97.

The home screen is 96. bizarre that there are different parts of the software that are making different estimates of mileage. That's very strange: the radio is tuned to magic, which is easy listening, i would say, and that's a navigation system but uh yeah. You get more information.

If you go to the battery screen, perhaps i'll go back inside and have another look at the power bank but uh. In any case, this works with that simple sort of digital and analog circuitry cmos and comparators just the three comparators. This actually works as a car charger as an evse. Those green leds definitely do help, so i can see that those relays are on.

Yes, it's all rather encouraging really i'm already thinking about what i need to add to this, of course, to take um it to the next step. The next step, fundamentally is to put an arduino in here, and that creates some issues, because this all the circuitry in here at the moment is 12 volt circuitry. When you put a 5 volt microcontroller in here, you need to interface that 5 volt micro controller to 12 volt circuitry, and that means some minor challenges. Yeah.

This screen really doesn't show up terribly well at all. Does it, but anyway, down now to 76 still running at 15, 20 15 30 watts uh ignore the date. That's completely wrong. This does seem to lose its date fairly, frequently, probably when i run it down to zero percent and it shuts down.

So we've done about a quarter of the discharge, so i'll do a little bit less talking now and a bit more sitting than watching it and yeah we'll run it all the way down to zero, fair amount of warmth actually coming out of the fan output. So, of course, you do lose some efficiency in the inverter, but i think taking that into account. Uh 1350 watt hours was about right for this unit, which is the blue etti. Ac200.

I've just turned the cars electronics off actually by pressing the stop start switch and you get a slightly different screen. You get a charging screen there 96 miles 49, but that goes off after a while um on here. You can just still see the numbers there. Oh it's difficult because i'm getting lots of reflections, the screen's all grayed out 49 97 miles and the worst english i've ever seen.

It cannot operate when the vehicle is unactive. Please start your vehicle first with some very strange full stop spacings! That's terrible! Isn't it you'd? Think they could um, they could have that checked at the very least yeah shockingly bad. I think i worked out. You can get that um instrument display to come back on just by toggling the locks here.

So if i lock the car's doors yeah that comes back on so when that goes off again uh in a few moments, i can unlock the car doors and that should come back on again so a little bit about uh mg. Of course, mg was a british brand. I think i read the other day that it stood originally from morris garages um, but they disappeared all way back decades ago, but the brand was bought by a chinese company, and so this is a chinese car. It's one of the first of the chinese electric cars that i think are going to dominate the car market um in the future.

Uh the legacy car makers, i'm sure, will try to keep up. If you look at this uh badge on the window, that says sake, motor and sake is shanghai, automotive, industry company, or something like that, i seem to remember. Actually i meant to just see whether this was getting warm. It's not actually that feels fine um, because the the overlap of the pins in here is only about one millimeter.

The pin goes into the receptacle only by by about one millimeter, or maybe one and a half, it's really horrible. This thing, but i wanted something with a low profile, as i say that would fit through the letterbox, but that actually seems to be okay. It is rated for 10 amps and it's only having to pass six amps, but yeah seems fine, and i thought that was quite an interesting shot from my vantage point here. Looking at the power bank, you've got the mains plug and socket dangling out the front door.

The commando plug and socket the evs e sitting on a piece of wood, because it's actually upside down the nice shiny top, where the display shines through or shows through, is actually on the underside there. So i didn't want it getting scratched on those flagstones and then the car just beyond that. Actually it's a really nice sunny day today, let's have a look at the export meter from my smart meter, yeah exporting to the grid. That's what that pylon means.

Um! Three kilowatts, of course, the car's not connected, so all of the solar is going out to the grid and actually the grid export rates. I'm on a agile export tariff now are huge um. I think you can get up to 60p a kilowatt hour because of all this um geopolitical tension. Yes, the electricity export rates are now very high down now to oh, i just missed 50 percent 49 still pulling 1500.

What let's go back into the car and see if we've got an extra mile of range right? This display has shut off for some reason and probably because i opened and closed the door. But this display here is showing now 98 miles and the 49 has now increased to 50. So it's definitely charging if rather slowly, oh - and i just found out that by pressing the home button, it turns the screen on even when you're in uh power, not there's a yellow light and a green light still haven't quite fattened out what they mean. But both are off so there's no power at all, but uh yeah.

I never even knew that. I've just learned that you can get the screen on by pressing the home button and we can see that if i can get my shadow out of the way 50 percent and 98 miles, so i just thought i'd lift the bonnet briefly um. I do believe the mains is coming in here, because you can see brown, blue and green and yellow wire, so i think it's going into. I think this is the car charger.

The battery charger takes mains in and then puts out all between uh dc output, 230 to 450 volts at 22 amps max. So i think that's the car charger unit and, of course this has the v2l. So this can. This is also an inverter.

It can generate rains and put it back out through the front charge socket, but when we can buy the the accessory lead to do that, there's another unit here which i think is just a distribution unit. It does actually say there pdu a bit of chinese and then underscore cappy whatever. That means, i don't quite know, and electric cars still have a lead acid batteries. So there is a good old-fashioned.

Pb uh lead acid battery 12 volt 63 amp hours. I don't think it's anything fancy. It's just yeah a lead acid battery and then lots of bottles of fluid. I think one of these is for battery cooling or battery heating and there's another one over there that might be air conditioning brake fluid there washer fluid there.

Some bits of air con there and this is a fuse box. I don't know whether i should open this. I can't really do it one-handed, but there's a there's, a fuse box in the engine bay, not that there's an engine and there's another fuse box inside. I do believe right.

Power bank is now at 25, 1560 watts going out now. Let's check the car. Yes, this is pretty much what i thought it was going to be. Can i get that in there 99 miles of range now 50 battery? So i do think it's going to just hit 100 when that power bank is fully discharged.

10 left on the power bank, 1560 watts. Now, should i let the power bank just shut itself off when it gets to zero percent, or should i do a graceful uh? Stopping of the charging from inside the car - i don't know i don't as it matters really perhaps i'll, just let the power bank shut itself off, okay with 10 left here, let's go and see what's happening in the car and so on. The instrument panel yep 100 miles battery at 50 percent. That didn't change.

Much did it because it started at 49. It's now 50.. Let's come out of there and look at this display and that's saying the same 50 percent 100 miles. Okay, i'll uh just allow the power bank to fully discharge and see if there's a graceful shot.

Well, it won't be graceful. The mains will drop out but uh. Let's go back to the power bank. Now: okay, two percent on the power bank, fifteen 1560 watts i'll just wait for that to drop to one percent and then i'll run outside and see.

If i can catch the moment when the relays drop out on the evse, although that doesn't really mean anything, does it because it's just gon na lose power basically and you'd expect one percent you'd expect relays to drop out when they lose power. Let's do that anyway. There are the green lights, that's not going to run for much longer. I don't think.

Oh there they go. The relays have dropped out. So let's get in the car and see what it says. Uh, oh charging stopped as you'd expect because the car is no longer seeing the pulse width, one kilohertz square wave at 100 miles on there.

How did we do on this display? Oh the same 50, 100 miles. So yes, um. 1550, no 1350 watt hours from that power bank resulted in a range increase in the car of uh four miles and one percent of battery capacity. It is quite a big battery in this car.

It's 72 kilowatt hours, i believe um, but having gone from 49 to 50, we've just actually gone over the threshold of the third quadrant of this little display uh, because that started on uh two bars didn't it now. Will this come out? Oh, it does yeah. So the um, the unlocking pins unlocked, i don't think they ever locked actually because i think the cut is because the car is unlocked uh up here. The evse, of course, is now off and inside the power bank is at zero percent.

So that's it fully discharged this bluetooth power bank got four miles of additional range. Oh those lights have gone green. Now when it's charging. Oh that's one thing i didn't look at with my evsc, but anyway they're green.

When it's charging blue, when it's not, it does make sense to charge the car today, because it's actually turned into a pretty nice sunny day with reasonably clear blue skies. So what i'm calling easy evse, this simple, cmos and comparators circuit seems to work. The car seems happy with the um one kilohertz square wave. The relays turn on and mains goes to the car so very pleased with that um another thanks of course to bernhard valtter for his analog evse project i'll, put links to that in the description below.

But as for my day of testing, this i'm very pleased with the result: cheerio.