Bay area Blink DCFC is on the map!!

[TEG]

...I was surprised that the blue lights indicated I was still in the middle 1/3 when the charge ended...

It seems that QC doesn't track pack fill the same way as the J1772 AC charging does.
Along with less bars than one might think (from what the Blink QC said), I also get Carwings charge done email notifications that seem to have very wrong number of bars listed compared to the % full the Blink claims.
Perhaps the on-board charger can't track how much power comes in through the DC charge port?
So the power just sort of "snuck in" to the pack. Then maybe it then has to measure pack voltage to make a guess at how full it is now? I am not sure exactly how it works, but it does seem that tracking pack fullness is a bit 'different' when using the DC QC.

 

[TEG]

Considering the location of this particular Blink DC, the only ones likely to park there longer than an hour would be an employee (VW or SunEdison) or someone taking an extended walk around the bay. From what I've seen, the employees are the ones more likely to park longer than an hour (so I doubt that the towing provision will be used anytime soon).

I ran into multiple VW and SunEdison people who now own LEAFs and charge there. Having a CHAdeMO DC QC in your parking lot is good advertising to convince people to buy a LEAF! Plus there is a Nissan dealership close by.
Maybe those LEAF owners will help convince VW to put the eGolf into production sooner rather than later!

What I worry about someday though is that they will convert the QC to use SAE instead of CHAdeMO, as VW has more interest in charging their own vehicle and would probably rather not encourage LEAF buying.

 

[Rat]

...I was surprised that the blue lights indicated I was still in the middle 1/3 when the charge ended...

It seems that QC doesn't track pack fill the same way as the J1772 AC charging does.
Along with less bars than one might think (from what the Blink QC said), I also get Carwings charge done email notifications that seem to have very wrong number of bars listed compared to the % full the Blink claims.
Perhaps the on-board charger can't track how much power comes in through the DC charge port?
So the power just sort of "snuck in" to the pack. Then maybe it then has to measure pack voltage to make a guess at how full it is now? I am not sure exactly how it works, but it does seem that tracking pack fullness is a bit 'different' when using the DC QC.

I wish now that I had looked at the bars before and after charging here. I had read that the QC charge can be completed -- empty to full -- in half an hour, so I expected that in 15 minutes I could go from a bit over half charge (my GOM showed 59 miles of range when I started the QC, I do remember that) to full. The middle blue light was on when I started charging, and exactly 15 minutes later it was still on when I stopped. The Blink unit said it was 80% full, but the dashboard was still on the middle blue light. This is what surprised me. I did not look at the GOM miles left or bars showing when I got in, as I was in conversation with a friend.

I made a couple more stops in Belmont before going home, totaling about 2 miles of driving. When I got home my GOM showed about 55 miles left, I believe, but of course that display is affected by recent driving, and right before the QC I had been driving city traffic, whereas when I got home I had been freeway driving, so that means I may have had more bars left with 55 miles showing on the GOM than when I had 59 showing. Still, the fact that I had about the same state of charge or less when I got home as when I arrived at the QC station means 15 minutes of quick charge apparently got me only 19.2 miles of added range (the distance from the VW QC to my house) plus the 2 in Belmont for around 21-23 miles. That's really disappointing. 1.1 added miles per minute of QC is not good enough to make EVs accepted by mainstream drivers.
(Note: numbers edited after I first posted, since I realized the amount of driving in Belmont affected the conclusion a lot. I verified that I only put on 2 miles in Belmont, then recalculated. If anyone read the first numbers, this version is more accurate.)

 

[leafster]

Considering the location of this particular Blink DC, the only ones likely to park there longer than an hour would be an employee (VW or SunEdison) or someone taking an extended walk around the bay. From what I've seen, the employees are the ones more likely to park longer than an hour (so I doubt that the towing provision will be used anytime soon).

We have been watching how long vehicles are parked and have been politely reminding drivers that there is a one hour limit, regardless if they are employees or not. We will enforce the towing provision if needed, right now its still a grace period. If someone repeatedly parks for more than an hour, they will likely be the first to be towed.

 

[grommet]

I wish now that I had looked at the bars before and after charging here. I had read that the QC charge can be completed -- empty to full -- in half an hour, so I expected that in 15 minutes I could go from a bit over half charge (my GOM showed 59 miles of range when I started the QC, I do remember that) to full.

FYI: Charging slows down as the pack fills up. If you pulled in at Low Battery Warning, you'd get significantly more energy in 15 minutes. The claimed 30 minute quick charge time is LBW to 80%. (100% quick charging is not a good practice if you are below 50%... and the LEAF will not allow this.)

Also, look back in this thread to understand the Blink target SOC a bit more. In a nut-shell, just pick 100% or 90% on the Blink DC and let the LEAF stop the charge at the appropriate point (unless you honestly want less energy or are in a rush.)

 

[TEG]

VW ERL Blink seemed to be down again this morning. Left port says "Out of Service" and right port wouldn't try to read the card to start.

 

[waitingforaleaf]

It seems like the RFID card reader on this Blink DC charger "breaks down" quite often. It's failure to respond and the inability for Blink to restart the charger remotely make this charger extremely unreliable. I wonder which charger breaks down more often: this Blink DC charger or the 350green Efacec DC Charger at Stanford Mall...

 

[ElectricVehicle]

It seems like the RFID card reader on this Blink DC charger "breaks down" quite often. It's failure to respond and the inability for Blink to restart the charger remotely make this charger extremely unreliable. I wonder which charger breaks down more often: this Blink DC charger or the 350green Efacec DC Charger at Stanford Mall...

The 350Green Efacec DC Charger at Stanford Mall has been very reliable so far (relatively speaking). It was down once for less than a day. Superwoman appeared on site and fixed it herself, significantly reducing the time to repair over waiting for an EFACEC technician. I used the 350Green Efacec DC Charger at Stanford Mall again today. One of the biggest issues with using this DCFC is that you may show up and find another LEAF charging! Fortunately, the charging time is short, and LEAF drivers have been good about coming the car when it finishes and moving so the next person can charge.

 

[grommet]

The Efacec unit at Stanford has been known to stop quick charges significantly prematurely (yes, even recently) forcing one to restart the session... which does require a call to 350Green to get a $7 session credit back. But it's definitely more "stable" than the VW ERL Blink DC ever since the left Yazaki CHAdeMO connector was damaged.

I'm fairly sure the Blink DC UI can reset remotely at least in some situations, because I arrived there last week about 10 minutes after someone claimed it was "frozen" (and reported it to Blink)... and it was working just fine.

 

[TEG]

I watched someone reset the Blink recently. They said that the RF card reader does get stuck sometimes, so they had to open the front panel of the unit, and unplug the power cord to the card reader/touch screen mechanism.
(Basically a 'hard power cycle'.) There is no reset button, and no way to remotely fix some of these problems.
There really isn't a whole lot inside that pedestal with the plugs. The real high power components are in the large box kept away from view.

They did say that they were expecting new firmware soon that is supposed to fix this glitch.