How-To
An assembled AmpEase charger. The sticker on the front of the charger can be generated by our software and printed at home. It helps a driver activate the charger by taking them directly to the payment page. The lock ensures that a user can't plug in and steal electricity from your plug.
What we're making
AmpEase is an open-source Level 1 electric vehicle charger. These are much easier and cheaper to deploy than the level 2 and level 3 chargers you may be familiar with that require more than a regular 120V outlet. You likely have an outlet like this on the exterior of your building, or in a parking lot. They can charge an electric vehicle such that they recover 3-5 miles of range per hour, making them great for stops where they driver will be there for a longer period of time such as offices. shopping centers, and hotels. You can register your new charging station on services like PlugShare, making your business a destination for EV drivers!
AmpEase uses an off-the-shelf smart plug and toggles the power automatically based on if the customer has paid. You plug it in behind a locking outdoor outlet cover. While these plugs often have an external button, our software checks the status of the plug and toggles it on and off to ensure that a user hasn't tampered with the plug to get a free charge or disable charging for a paying customer. The required hardware can be acquired online or at a hardware store. The accounts needed to deploy our open-source software are free, with the exception of Render which will incur a small fee per month for hosting.
What you'll need
The following are affiliate links to Amazon, which will help support this project. You can purchase these products online or at your local hardware store!
Hardware
Accounts
You will need three accounts to deploy your charging station. The first is Square, which is the payment processor this project uses. Next, an account on KasaSmart, which is the service that controls TPLink smart devices, like the outdoor smart plug linked above. Finally, you will need a Render account to deploy the software to. Render is a cloud service provider that enables us to deploy our code to your new server with a single click later in this guide- no code required.
Deploying the Software
We will deploy the software first. Collect the information about each account from the previous section and have it ready. We will deploy the smart plug now so you have your Kasa credentials.
Set up your Smart Plug
Follow along here to set up your smart plug for the first time using your smart phone. Name your smart plug something unique and easy to remember, especially if you have other TPLink products. We recommend you name your outdoor smart plug "Ampease" or similar. If deploying multiple units, give each one a unique name (you will also need to deploy the software below one time for each unit). You will need this device name, or alias, in the following sections.
Deploy to Render
Click the button below! You will need to log in to Render and name your new server. The software will take a few moments to deploy. Follow along with the screenshots below.
The blueprint name here should be something memorable. Consider something like "carportcharger1" or something equally descriptive. Click the deploy button at the bottom of this page.
When AmpEase has finished deploying, you will see a screen like this on your Render dashboard. The link on the left will take you to your new AmpEase software.
Click this link to continue!
Configuring the AmpEase software
Fill in this table with the information from your accounts. You will need to go to the Square Developer console to get the first bits of information: https://developer.squareup.com
Log in with your Square account and follow the prompts to create a new application. Name it whatever you wish
Click the "Credentials" tab on the left. Toggle the display to "Production" as shown. Copy the application ID and your access token into the AmpEase form. Always keep these values a secret! We will get your location ID next.
Click "Locations" on the left hand side of the screen. Again, toggle the display to Production if it is not already set as such. Copy the location ID from this table. Paste it into the AmpEase setup form.
The remaining fields are your new Kasa credentials, the cost for a charge, the duration you want users to be able to charge for, and finally the voltage of your outlet. If you are in the USA, for example, this should be set to 120. Set this to the appropriate voltage for your country's system. Click "Submit". You will be brought to your new payment form that customers will see.
You should see a screen like this, populated with the values from the previous screen.
If you encounter an error, or these values are incorrect, click the Render deployment button again and repeat these steps with your corrected information. You can always delete the original deployment later.
In the URL bar, add "/graphics" to the end of your URL (e.g. https://<my app name>.onrender.com/graphics). This will give you your QR code for your sticker! You can print from this page, scaling the printout appropriately to about 2" by 3.5", or you can take a screenshot and load the image in your favorite photo software for printing and editing.
Physical Assembly
Gather your materials
Affix the sticker
Reminder- you can get your graphics from your new Render site by adding /graphics (e.g. https://<your server name>.onrender.com/graphics)
Plug in the smart plug and lock the box
Put the key somewhere safe!