Wall Charger Wiring

[justinalanbuckley]

Hello all. First post here - recently picked up a 2022 R1T Launch Edition that came with the Rivian Wall Charger. However, the charging cable was disconnected from the box and I'm trying to verify how it would have been originally wired. The instructions show all the conductors from the charging cable passing through the 2 black circular devices that I assume measure the current being drawn when charging (see image below). However they are far too small for that. Also when looking around online at other tutorials, it appears that maybe only the red and black pass through these?

Can anyone confirm for me exactly which conductors are suppose to be fed through these loops? Note that one of them has mounting tabs and the other does not (however I don't any place to mount the one with tabs).

Thanks in advance!

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[redantpile]

Here is how mine was set up.

 

[justinalanbuckley]

Perfect - thank you! Looks like I got it right. Out of curiosity, when you pull up the charger in your phone app, does it show the Power/Voltage/Amperage readings? Mine doesn't seem to:

 

[redantpile]

Yes mine is showing that info. I'm using Android and the firmware for the charger is v03.04.12. Same model as yours. Seems like it took a while (weeks/month) for my firmware to update compared to others on the forum.

 

[DeafPug]

That's too bad the drawing isn't accurate. The key thing they are trying to show is how to route the power input wires, but the other items should be accurate to avoid confusion.

Passing one of the large conductors through the top CT (Current Transformer) in the pictures above let the wall connector sense how much current is flowing to the vehicle. It does this to be able to read the instantaneous power (needs both voltage and amperage to calculate that) and also possibly track per-session and lifetime kWh that flowed through the wall connector.

The larger CT that has both conductors running through it is for implementing a GFCI (Ground Fault Circuit Interruptor). This will stop all electricity flow if the electricity flow to/from the vehicle is not perfectly balanced. This will shutdown charging if there is current leaking from the vehicle to ground, which protects you from becoming a conductor and having electricity pass through your body.

The extra wires leading to the lower CT in the pictures are there for the EVSE to do a test of the GFCI CT and verify it's functioning properly. This has a wire wrapped through the CT which it can send a small current through and then attempt to detect that current with the CT. If this isn't detected, it knows this critical safety feature isn't working properly.

The build guides for the OpenEVSE hardware show a similar setup for the CTs. The orange wire wrapped around the lower CT is the same GFCI test wire as described above. https://openevse.dozuki.com/Guide/Current+-+v5.5-v5.6+OpenEVSE+Advanced/26?lang=en#s161

 

[godfodder0901]

Perfect - thank you! Looks like I got it right. Out of curiosity, when you pull up the charger in your phone app, does it show the Power/Voltage/Amperage readings? Mine doesn't seem to:

Mine only shows this when actively charging.

 

[Gman]

Hello all. First post here - recently picked up a 2022 R1T Launch Edition that came with the Rivian Wall Charger. However, the charging cable was disconnected from the box and I'm trying to verify how it would have been originally wired. The instructions show all the conductors from the charging cable passing through the 2 black circular devices that I assume measure the current being drawn when charging (see image below). However they are far too small for that. Also when looking around online at other tutorials, it appears that maybe only the red and black pass through these?

Can anyone confirm for me exactly which conductors are suppose to be fed through these loops? Note that one of them has mounting tabs and the other does not (however I don't any place to mount the one with tabs).

Thanks in advance!

I think it is good practice and suggest you use torque screw driver for proper installation of screw/wire.

 

[R1Thor]

Mine only shows this when actively charging.

That's correct.
You cannot measure amperage when current isn't flowing.

 

[godfodder0901]

That's correct.
You cannot measure amperage when current isn't flowing.

But you can measure voltage, which isn't displayed either.

 

[justinalanbuckley]

That's too bad the drawing isn't accurate. The key thing they are trying to show is how to route the power input wires, but the other items should be accurate to avoid confusion.

Passing one of the large conductors through the top CT (Current Transformer) in the pictures above let the wall connector sense how much current is flowing to the vehicle. It does this to be able to read the instantaneous power (needs both voltage and amperage to calculate that) and also possibly track per-session and lifetime kWh that flowed through the wall connector.

The larger CT that has both conductors running through it is for implementing a GFCI (Ground Fault Circuit Interruptor). This will stop all electricity flow if the electricity flow to/from the vehicle is not perfectly balanced. This will shutdown charging if there is current leaking from the vehicle to ground, which protects you from becoming a conductor and having electricity pass through your body.

The extra wires leading to the lower CT in the pictures are there for the EVSE to do a test of the GFCI CT and verify it's functioning properly. This has a wire wrapped through the CT which it can send a small current through and then attempt to detect that current with the CT. If this isn't detected, it knows this critical safety feature isn't working properly.

The build guides for the OpenEVSE hardware show a similar setup for the CTs. The orange wire wrapped around the lower CT is the same GFCI test wire as described above. https://openevse.dozuki.com/Guide/Current+-+v5.5-v5.6+OpenEVSE+Advanced/26?lang=en#s161

Thanks for this information! So, from the pictures I've found online and those posted by redantpile, it doesn't appear that the orange wire is wrapped around either CT, but runs straight to the board. Is that ok? Also, what are the zip ties for? Do I need to add those back?

 

[DeafPug]

In post 2 in this thread, the orange wire is a signal that is running from the control board to the charging plug that gets connected to the vehicle. This is likely the pilot signal that lets the EVSE inform the vehicle of the available amperage. If you routed this through the lower CT, you would not be able to charge because it would believe there was an electrical fault.

In the same picture, the red, black, blue, and yellow wires are for the lower CT. Two of those wires are the sense signal from the CT and two wires are likely wrapped through the CT to as the signal to test the GFCI. While the OpenEVSE pictures I linked to showed a wire wrapped around the CT, in the case of the Rivian unit, the CT is made with this behind the plastic cover. Different parts = Different designs; but same functionality.

I’m not certain what the zip tie is for. It could be something as simple as they temporarily use it during assembly, but don’t remove it to save a few seconds on assembly per unit. I wouldn’t worry about it.

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