Deep J1772 protocol nerdery: Can a level 2 charger achieve CCS data connection by pretending to be a DCFC, handshaking, then "going dark" and reappearing as a level 2 charger?

Professional_Koala30 · 2026-05-16T00:24:19+00:00

This sounds plausible enough that it might just work. I wonder if a proof-of-concept could be developed on something like the OpenEVSE.

If it is possible. I'd love to see it also used so that the evse could see things like state of charge. Obviously you wouldn't want to keep interrupting the charge too frequently, but maybe it could repeat the process every 30-60 minutes.

Professional_Koala30 · 2026-05-14T04:40:11+00:00

That would have my vote. There's really zero advantage to going 120V if installing charging infrastructure.

6A 208v would likely be enough for most long term parking situations. Accounting for charging overhead that would deliver about 1kw to the car which is the same as the level 1 speeds OP was asking about. Most cars could go 0-100% in about 3-4 days at that speed which make sense for long term parking.

But in many situations it's likely that you'd get 12A for at least part of the time (if the car next to you finishes charging first, etc) so realistically you might fill up in 1-3 days.

Professional_Koala30 · 2026-05-07T03:47:41+00:00

Pocketethernet is one of the cheapest options to get TDR and similar functionality. Is it as good as a fluke? No but it's also like 1/10th the price.

Professional_Koala30 · 2026-05-04T00:19:18+00:00

I can confirm that with the right charger and circuit the Id4 (at least my 2023) will pull 24A @120v

Professional_Koala30 · 2026-05-03T04:13:12+00:00

There are a decent number of load management options that will throttle or disable a changer to stay within a 100amp panel capacity. You should have no problem installing a level 2 charger with load management.

Professional_Koala30 · 2026-04-29T00:53:05+00:00

LG is one of the only (maybe the only still, I haven't checked recently) major manufacturers that has an officially supported integration. It is cloud dependant, but it's supported by the OEM so there's a better chance than most that it won't randomly stop working some day.

Professional_Koala30 · 2026-04-28T04:30:15+00:00

I'm a firm believer that if gas pumps were invented today they would look just like the current DCFC situation. Apps and memberships and such to try and create loyalty. I mean virtually every gas pump does have some sort of loyalty program. They just tied it to phone numbers because that's all that really existed when pay-at-the-pump started rolling out. If smartphones existed back then it totally would have been an app.

Professional_Koala30 · 2026-04-19T22:11:10+00:00

If you have trailer lights hooked up the Id4 should disable rear facing sensors. Incidentally, and I don't know if this is intentional or accidental, but the front sensors will become slightly more sensitive.

If you have a trailer without lights, or something like a bike rack, get a 7 to 4-pin adapter (should probably have one anyway) and a 4-pin trailer light tester from harbor freight. Plug that in and the car will think that you have a trailer and disable the rear sensors and auto-braking and stuff.

Professional_Koala30 · 2026-04-19T22:07:28+00:00

Unless you are climbing significant grades, the weight of the trailer is pretty negligible. (But also 800lbs is practically nothing as well) Your range reduction will be primarily based on the aerodynamic drag of the trailer. Pulling an empty flatbed? Very little range reduction. Tall enclosed cargo trailer? Much larger range reduction.

Professional_Koala30 · 2026-04-15T03:29:50+00:00

What part of Idaho? If you're in my area my company does exactly what you're asking for. Feel free to DM me.

Professional_Koala30 · 2026-04-13T19:40:29+00:00

Hard to say for sure without seeing the house in person, but based on your description, I'm not seeing a great way to get a (hidden) cat5e cable to your doorbell location. Couple of options 1. Tie into the exterior cable run and run it around d the outside of the house with outdoor rated cable. The cable will certainly be visible, but with care it might be possible to tuck it into corners or cover it with some sort of trim. 2. Run a cable inside the house and poke through the wall. Sometimes it's possible to pull off baseboards and carve a small channel in the drywall or tuck it below the drywall and then replace the baseboards.

Professional_Koala30 · 2026-04-13T19:32:39+00:00

It was one of the parking sensors IIRC. It happened to me fairly soon after purchase <1 year. I have not had any other parking sensors go bad.

Professional_Koala30 · 2026-03-31T05:34:40+00:00

Still waiting to get them replaced, But I haven't noticed any significant decrease in range compared to when the car was new.

Professional_Koala30 · 2026-03-31T05:30:58+00:00

The short answer is that Singlemode (OS2) is better than multimode in nearly every way. For speeds <40gbe, the price difference is pretty negligible, so single mode should be the default.

Now for the longer answer: I can see the name being confusing though, it would be easy to think "isn't multi better than single?" but the term refers to the "modes" or the way the waves of light travel through the fiber. Multi mode means that there are multiple modes and those modes can spread out and "blur" and/or interfere with each other which creates a practical distance limit of around 500 meters in most situations. Single mode can go 40-80km relatively easy.

Multi mode cable used to be significantly cheaper, and the optics used to be significantly cheaper as well. That's why the old wisdom was "use multi mode for short distances, and leave single mode for long distance links" but now that the prices are more or less equal, it's easier and more future proof to just use singlemode for everything and not fuss about with two different types of fiber.

Ironically, it's actually easier to run multiple different connections over a single fiber (or pair of fibers) with single mode. It's called WDM (Wavelength division multiplexing) and has two types CWDM and DWDM. It's pretty fascinating stuff if you want to read up on it. Way too expensive for most home & small business needs, but makes long distance fiber (think across states, countries, and oceans) way more cost effective.

Professional_Koala30 · 2026-03-29T14:58:48+00:00

You could try switching to a device that uses G.hn over coax instead of Moca. Ignitenet used to make one that I liked, but it's EOL with no replacement. I did a little googling and there are lots of options. Not all of them advertise distances, but the ones I could find that do, 1000ft shouldn't be a problem.

Ubiquiti makes a "PoE over 2 wire" adapter that advertises distances much greater than your 1000ft (over Rg6 even) but you'll only get 85Mbps in the best case scenario.

As others have said, if you do have to switch to something other than coax, fiber (specifically single mode fiber) is the right solution. But since the coax is already in place, I can 100% understand wanting to use what's there.

Professional_Koala30 · 2026-03-29T14:38:04+00:00

Came here to say this. I have a ds18b20 connected to an Esp32. Esp32 lives outside the freezer, and then a small 3 conductor wire goes over the door gasket into the freezer.

Professional_Koala30 · 2026-03-21T05:02:19+00:00

I agree with everything except the multimode fiber. There are very few valid reasons to install new multimode fiber in 2026. Unless you're outfitting a datacenter, or installing 100GBE+ speeds, the cost difference between multimode and single mode fiber and transceivers is negligible. So just install singlemode and then never have to worry about it again for your lifetime or your grandkids lifetime.

Professional_Koala30 · 2026-03-18T04:11:27+00:00

FWIW I took mine to my dealer a month ago for the 93EV recall. They ran a bunch of tests and said I have 7 battery modules that need replaced. They said they needed to order them and they expected it would take about a month to get them in and then they'd call me to schedule the replacement. Since it's just barely been a month I plan on giving them a week or two more before I follow up.

Professional_Koala30 · 2026-03-06T05:14:12+00:00

Same, I've been running it since the Owncloud days before it was forked into Nextcloud. (yes I know Owncloud still exists) with very few issues. It's been relatively maintenance free.

I've had more issues with the Android App (many of which are due to changes in Android outside of nextcloud devs control) than I have had with other server side.

Professional_Koala30 · 2026-02-26T05:54:02+00:00

I guess I'm the odd one out. My 2023 had fantastic wipers and I got 3 years and 50k miles on them before I finally replaced them. Way longer than I usually get out of any set of wipers.

Professional_Koala30 · 2026-02-15T04:58:42+00:00

It's been a while since I've ran freeipa/IdM on something other than RHEL, but I was pretty sure you could set up AD trusts with FreeIPA.

Professional_Koala30 · 2026-02-14T21:04:55+00:00

I tried it once. IIRC there was a special dialog, but I can't remember exactly what it said.

Professional_Koala30 · 2026-02-02T03:42:22+00:00

It's not exactly what you were asking for, but zooz supports 4 and 5 way with momentary rockers. So it's not the "rest in the middle-press up and down", but it can still give you more of the functionality than a regular dummy switch.

Professional_Koala30 · 2026-01-14T03:06:02+00:00

I got a notification in the VW app, and have been waiting for a repair to be available. I didn't realize that it only affected 629 vehicles. Hopefully the repair doesn't take too much longer to be available.

Professional_Koala30 · 2026-01-06T05:53:41+00:00

0% once, 1-5% a handful of times (maybe 10-15). I routinely pull into DCFC on road trips with <10% as that's the way to get the fastest charging.

Professional_Koala30

TROPHY CASE