This Hacker Built His Own Open Source, Arduino-Controlled Electric Car Charging Station

EV chargers can be very expensive, which is why Sebastian Dehne designed this custom charging station with an Arduino Nano 33 IoT.

Cameron Coward
3 years agoVehicles / Automotive

There is little doubt that electric cars are the future. They’re far more efficient than their gasoline-powered counterparts, while also offering better performance and no direct exhaust emissions. The only practical downside to driving an electric car is charging. If you run out of gas in a car with an internal combustion engine, you can simply stop by any of the many gas stations on your route to fuel up in just a few minutes. But, while charging speeds have dramatically improved in recent years, it still generally takes a least an hour to charge an electric car. That’s why you’ll likely want to charge your car at home before you leave, and Sebastian Dehne designed his own electric car charging station to do exactly that.

There are three common levels of EV (electric vehicle) charging available today. Level 1 chargers connect to a standard 120V outlet, but can only add about 5 miles of range to your car’s battery per hour. Level 2 chargers operate at 240V, which is typically the highest voltage available in residential locations. They can charge a car significantly faster — up to 60 miles of range per hour. Finally, Level 3 chargers, also called “DC Fast Chargers,” can work at up to 800V. But those, like Tesla’s Superchargers, are very expensive and you’ll usually only find them at public charging stations. Dehne’s charger design, called the DehneEVSE, works with three phase 400V power at up to 32A. That isn’t typically available in residential locations, especially in the US, but you can tweak the design to work with the 240V power you likely have access to.

The DehneEVSE is controlled by an Arduino Nano 33 IoT development board, which has a powerful Microchip SAM D21 microcontroller. Dehne chose that board because it has eight available analog input pins with ADCs (analog-to-digital converters) that can be used to detect voltage levels and built-in WiFi connectivity that lets the charger communicate with a central server. The Arduino, transformers, and relays are soldered onto a custom PCB that Dehne designed in KiCAD. The PCB is housed in a weatherproof enclosure along with the other components, which include a ground fault breaker, the contactor, and the charging socket. The total cost to build the entire charging station was 441.27 euros (about $524 USD). The server, which is located separately, runs custom software written in Kotlin. It provides all kinds of useful features, including the ability to set charging time periods, balance multiple chargers, and monitor charging through an app. If you have an electric car and need a charger for your home, it is absolutely worth taking a look at this open source DehneEVSE design.

Cameron Coward
Writer for Hackster News. Proud husband and dog dad. Maker and serial hobbyist.
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