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smart car owners forum model 451 fortwo - Discuss upgrades, modifications, ideas > smart car owners general chat forum > Off topic lounge > GE Wattstation Level2 electric vehicle charger (EVSE) |
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smart car owners forum model 451 fortwo - Discuss upgrades, modifications, ideas > smart car owners general chat forum > Off topic lounge > GE Wattstation Level2 electric vehicle charger (EVSE) |
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| GE Wattstation Level2 electric vehicle charger (EVSE) | Rate Topic |
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| Posted: Mon Dec 26th, 2011 11:27 pm |
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1st Post |
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ALephart Administrator 
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  Condensed from earlier posts in the Del Sol thread: November 3rd Today I got a GE wattstation 30amp Level2 electric vehicle charger. This is a quality piece! When I showed up at the local LOWES for the purchase I contacted the store manager to take a few photos. My initial concern was just from a PR point. I did'nt want the photo to involve a guy named Bubba giving me an evil grin. A perfectly suited dame by the name of Brittany fit the bill perfectly! Alas it was not to be. I was quickly informed LOWES has a strict "NO CAMERA" policy. So the purchase was made and the charger was taken home. I came back to the charger tonight to do a little inspection and unboxing. GE sells 2 models of this charger. The only difference being one was is setup for hardwired installation and one had a NEMA 220v plug. This LOWES only had the NEMA socket version but I felt pretty confident it was easily replaceable. I was right the NEMA pigtail and plug are easily removed. Looking deeper into the charger I could see multiple PCB's with some neatly routed wires. Ever so curious and only 1 final metal shield blocking my view I removed it. I saw a main PCB with alot of empty plugs! From LED light bars (ohh ahh), RFID ports, VFD display, 2 serial COM ports, and the icing on the cake, an ethernet port! I plan on using the plug that was originally used for NEMA power port to house an easily accessable CAT5 cable that connects to the ethernet port. No idea if I will ever use it but, I might get bored one night!  November 8th The charger was installed today. I have heard horror stories of a thousand dollar install quotes. I am happy to say it came to $125.00 installed on a dedicated 40amp breaker (as per the instructions).   December 20th I got bored today. 2 things can happen when this occurs. I either try and overengineer something and it fails horribly or I do something that makes me feel good for the day. Simple thing really. I finally got around to installing a Cat5 cable into the GE Wattstation ethernet port. It turns out I was right, the circuit board is shared with another GE charger called the Durastation. All the features I mentioned seeing on the board are used on this model. I will clean up the installation and mount the game adaptor I am using to connect to my network. I looked through all the documention I could find and no IP was given for this machine. Instead it relies on the software to find the charger and map the network from there. And of course this software is nowhere to be found. So I hooked up the charger to my laptop and am scanning all IP's from 1.1.1 to 255.255.255.255 I could'nt think of a better way. I am also scanning ports. My guess is this could take a couple days! What am I hoping for? Are these features even turned on? If nothing turns up, those 2 COM ports look promising. It may be a waste of time but I have to at least try. December 26th Well, I did find a way in. But when I went to the configuration page in a web browser there wasn't much there. You can assign it an IP, turn off the proximity sensor portion of J1772, setup charger authorization via a connection to another computer. That's it! That empty "socket" I saw on the mainboard inside the charger is for a GPRS/WIFI module. With the lack of any real time data being displayed on the web browser I am thinking that the COM ports or certainly the 6pin output for a "VFD" display will have information. The display is a 4x20 line display for those wishing to add this in the future. There are tons on eBay.  Summary You have to switch the #8 dip switch to the "on" position with the power off to enter configuration mode when you power the unit on. The switch is located behind that plastic fascia and the metal shield. Although it is only 4 screws it is not necessary to remove the metal shield. You can get in there with a long flat bladed screwdriver (with the power off at the breaker of course) and flip the jumper. The #8 jumper is the last jumper all the way at the top of the orange dip switch. For verification after you power the unit on you can hook up the light bar switch and it will cycle the green and red lights. If you are using a direct connection to a computer it must be a "crossover" ethernet cable. Otherwise you can use it with a regular router and cable. The default wattstation IP is 192.168.2.2 with a subnet of 255.255.255.0 default gateway is left blank. To properly configure the other settings for a direct connection I would download the following PDF file and refer to pages 58-66. http://www.geindustrial.com/publibrary/checkout/Installation%20and%20Instruction%7CDEH-44160%7Cgeneric GE @ some point may disable this feature but until then...be safe and have fun!
____________________ I got my smart car! |
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| Posted: Sun Feb 12th, 2012 12:35 am |
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2nd Post |
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ALephart Administrator
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I am being watched! Google Analytics is fun to mess around with. And when I saw traffic coming from North Carolina on a GE IP to this thread I had a hunch. And I was right, Salisbury N.C. is indeed where this charger is made and they must be keeping tabs. So welcome G.E. employee's and thank you for making a great product! All the best, Aaron Lephart
____________________ I got my smart car! |
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| Posted: Thu Mar 1st, 2012 09:09 pm |
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3rd Post |
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cliftonk Member
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Hi Aaron, Just fyi on where GE makes the WattStation, that would be Mebane, NC. Mebane is about 100 miles from Salisbury, NC. GE does have a small facility in Salisbury, but as far as I know they just make load centers -- not charging stations. I am probably responsible (in part) for your traffic from Salisbury. I teach Computer Science, Renewable Energy topics and solar energy. I showed your internal photos of the GE Wattstation during a "Green" class that I was teaching. By the way, great stuff on the internals of the Wattstation. I have one that I use every day to charge a Nissan Leaf. I do check your site periodically to see if you have connected anything to the serial ports on the Wattstation board. I am sure there is lots more information there. Best Regards, Ken Clifton Website: http://www.kenclifton.com
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| Posted: Fri Mar 2nd, 2012 12:51 am |
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4th Post |
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ALephart Administrator
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Hello!, Welcome to the forum and thank you for the clarification of the GE Wattstation's production source. Thank you for the praise, I do still plan on trying the serial port soon. Maybe in the next couple of days. I will report back of anything I find! Since you teach, a question if I may. What question do you get asked as being the biggest hurdle in EV adoption? If you don't already I highly recommend watching http://www.evtv.me for EV related discussion. All the best, Aaron Lephart
____________________ I got my smart car! |
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| Posted: Fri Mar 2nd, 2012 01:09 am |
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5th Post |
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cliftonk Member
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Hello Again Aaron, In my opinion the biggest hurdle to EV adoption is changing the mindset of the public. Most folks might answer "charging infrastructure," but I believe that would come if the demand were there. Right now too many folks want that big vehicle burning all the fuel they can pump into it -- without any regard for the environment or the finite limits to how much oil is available. I found your site by reading a review of the Wattstation you posted on Amazon. I had purchased mine from Lowes home improvement before Amazon started carrying them. I completely agree with you on the quality and functionality. My wife uses a Siemens 8EM1111 EV charging station -- it retails for over $5K. I got it for free by participating in a Duke Energy Pilot program. Given a choice between the Wattstation and the Siemens unit, the Wattstation would win every time. For something that is used everyday, ease of use, cord storage, lighted socket, super rugged design, etc. the Wattstation has it all -- and I don't work for GE. I'll keep checking back to see how things are going with the serial connection  .Best, Ken Clifton
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| Posted: Fri Mar 2nd, 2012 01:17 am |
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6th Post |
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ALephart Administrator
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I thought that might be the case! I am sure the younger generation are more open to this as they dont have alot to compare it to, even then only on paper. All the best, Aaron Lephart
____________________ I got my smart car! |
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| Posted: Thu Apr 26th, 2012 12:04 pm |
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7th Post |
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ALephart Administrator
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More things to think about! http://cleantechnica.com/2012/04/26/fully-networked-wattstation-and-wattstation-connect-software-launched/ All the best, Aaron Lephart
____________________ I got my smart car! |
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| Posted: Sat Apr 28th, 2012 01:28 pm |
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8th Post |
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cliftonk Member
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Hi Aaron, Looks like GE has big plans for the Wattstation. I wish that I had a "spare" one to experiment on. I can't do anything to the unit I use every day to charge the LEAF. I have been considering buying a spare control board. That is really all that one would need to do some testing. I know that board can do way more than what it is doing in the wall mount unit. Thanks for posting the link. I am going to watch for their APP for the iPhone. Let us know what you find out if you get the serial to USB working! Best, Ken Clifton http://www.kenclifton.com
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| smart car owners forum model 451 fortwo - Discuss upgrades, modifications, ideas > smart car owners general chat forum > Off topic lounge > GE Wattstation Level2 electric vehicle charger (EVSE) | Top |
