Totally done with public charging.

[cwerdna]

It's been a long time since I even took a look at a public charging thread. My 2011 Leaf has had terrible luck with the L3's, but not because they are usually blocked by others. I have been able to find ones that are free, but only Blink units. I have had a failure rate of about 70% from those. I get a message saying the charger is unable to communicate with the car. It's happened with units that I charged on earlier in the day (with 5 or 6 attempts). It's happened after multiple tries and when I finally move to an L2 and prepare to wait 45 min. to an hour just to get to the next L3, someone else comes up in a Leaf and plugs in just fine to the L3 that wouldn't work with my car. So I was done long ago. It sounds like now there are some L3 chargers that actually work. Can someone tell me what is available in the Bay Area (Silicon Valley) that isn't broken or unreliable? I might just go back to using my Leaf for stuff over 50 miles again.

Well, aside from Blink hardware and Nissan-branded DC FCs (many on Blink now) not being very reliable, are you connecting it properly?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=317VrBDkBjg inspired me to create https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqjMlblghEc. These cover both styles of the crap early Yazaki handles, still in wide use. The former doesn't have the grey handle lock near the back. The latter does.

If you want to skip the chatter, skip to about 0:39 in each of the above.

If you don't push the connector far enough before locking, you might get a CAN error (for CAN bus) or maybe even communication error. And, is your car OFF when before you start charging? (The '13+ Leaf went to an electrically operated charging door opener which doesn't even let you open the charging door when the car's in READY (green car w/arrows), unlike the '11 and '12's purely mechanical pull release.)

Once I got the hang of it (thanks to the first video), I've never had charging start failures, unless the unit has an error message up already or has an out of order sign.

The latest style w/the yellow button (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qbRG8n9_IY) is great. I'd never personally seen tried one until Tokyo Motor Show 2015 a few weeks ago, at Yazaki's booth. I don't have a car w/CHAdeMO anymore anyway.

 

[Becky50]

Thank-you for posting these videos. I have been reluctant in the past to even try a quick charger. I am now excited to use the one I have seen listed at the Stanford shopping center in Palo Alto. As my battery degrades, I will feel better getting a full charge there before heading back home. Thanks again.

 

[GRA]

It's been a long time since I even took a look at a public charging thread. My 2011 Leaf has had terrible luck with the L3's, but not because they are usually blocked by others. I have been able to find ones that are free, but only Blink units. I have had a failure rate of about 70% from those. I get a message saying the charger is unable to communicate with the car. It's happened with units that I charged on earlier in the day (with 5 or 6 attempts). It's happened after multiple tries and when I finally move to an L2 and prepare to wait 45 min. to an hour just to get to the next L3, someone else comes up in a Leaf and plugs in just fine to the L3 that wouldn't work with my car. So I was done long ago. It sounds like now there are some L3 chargers that actually work. Can someone tell me what is available in the Bay Area (Silicon Valley) that isn't broken or unreliable? I might just go back to using my Leaf for stuff over 50 miles again.

As always, Plugshare's your best source: http://www.plugshare.com

eVgo's seem to be pretty reliable, but expensive. If you just want to see those, https://www.nrgevgo.com/charging-locations/

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

Unless I misunderstood, you said your normal drive was 46 miles, and were asking how you could get to a single car. You're using the Corolla for trips beyond the LEAF's range, and at least with the Volt you know you'll be getting ca. 50 miles electric on every trip (better mpg beyond AER, too). After all, if the Volt 1 is getting almost the same number of electric miles as the LEAF in real-world service on a yearly basis, the Volt 2 should equal or more likely exceed it (for a 24kWh LEAF; we'll see how things stack up for the 30kWh vs. Volt 2 - 30kWh still isn't enough to be a universal car).

ok, I did say that my office is 46 miles roundtrip but I do not work out of there. We do meetings there, I drop off various things like time sheets for my crew, pick up equipment, etc but my daily average is 43 miles day driving and ya, like everyone else, about 15% of those days consists of little if any driving at all.

IOW; a Volt for me would be roughly 50/50 gas/electric. a HUGE step backwards

 

[GRA]

Unless I misunderstood, you said your normal drive was 46 miles, and were asking how you could get to a single car. You're using the Corolla for trips beyond the LEAF's range, and at least with the Volt you know you'll be getting ca. 50 miles electric on every trip (better mpg beyond AER, too). After all, if the Volt 1 is getting almost the same number of electric miles as the LEAF in real-world service on a yearly basis, the Volt 2 should equal or more likely exceed it (for a 24kWh LEAF; we'll see how things stack up for the 30kWh vs. Volt 2 - 30kWh still isn't enough to be a universal car).

ok, I did say that my office is 46 miles roundtrip but I do not work out of there. We do meetings there, I drop off various things like time sheets for my crew, pick up equipment, etc but my daily average is 43 miles day driving and ya, like everyone else, about 15% of those days consists of little if any driving at all.

IOW; a Volt for me would be roughly 50/50 gas/electric. a HUGE step backwards

Then an i3 Rex would seem to meet your needs better at the moment, assuming that getting down to a single car is really a priority. How many miles a month do you put on the Corolla vs. the LEAF?

 

[Rat]

I always push the kill timer switch before trying to use the QC or L2 for that matter. As I said in my post, I've been able to charge on a machine on the first leg of a route and when returning, that same machine won't communicate with my car. I do everything the same, try maybe six or eight times, pushing the kill timer switch every time, trying all kinds of variations, squeezing the handle, not squeezing the handle, pulling the squeeze lever apart, pushing the button on top of the handle, not pushing the button, unplugging, replugging, etc., then I switch machines and it works on another machine, then someone else comes and has no trouble with the one I couldn't get to work. It's not user error. It's machine error, but I don't know if it's something about my car or the Blink QC units, or both. From the posts in this thread, it appears I'm not alone.

 

[cwerdna]

I always push the kill timer switch before trying to use the QC or L2 for that matter. As I said in my post, I've been able to charge on a machine on the first leg of a route and when returning, that same machine won't communicate with my car. I do everything the same, try maybe six or eight times, pushing the kill timer switch every time, trying all kinds of variations, squeezing the handle, not squeezing the handle, pulling the squeeze lever apart, pushing the button on top of the handle, not pushing the button, unplugging, replugging, etc., then I switch machines and it works on another machine, then someone else comes and has no trouble with the one I couldn't get to work. It's not user error. It's machine error, but I don't know if it's something about my car or the Blink QC units, or both. From the posts in this thread, it appears I'm not alone.

Re: timer kill switch, I believe the time has no effect on DC FCing. How about just turning off the timers via the menus on the nav system? You've turned the car totally OFF before starting, right?

As for all the variants, I don't understand why you're doing that. Some of them are definitely WRONG.

You need to push the connector far enough on to hear a soft click WITHOUT pulling or pushing ANYTHING but the connector itself. Then, you lock the connector by squeezing on the large black handle until it locks. Then, you start the DC FC. To release, you need to push on the black button on top to release the first stage. Then, you push it again to release the second stage. If there's a grey handle lock on the back, you need to slide that back (see videos).

The DC FCs I've used usually have a sticker on the side w/the instructions. One of them used to also have an animation on the LCD itself.

As for Blink's hardware, yep, the chances of their hardware being broken or something wrong w/the DC FC is definitely well above 0.

 

[TimLee]

... From the posts in this thread, it appears I'm not alone.

The Yazaki can be aggravating.

I ran into several that were hung in locked position and took lots of fiddling with release button and handle to get it into unlatched postion.

Has to be fully unlatched with handle up against cable body before inserting in LEAF.
If working properly as it seats into the connector, handle will be free to rotate down into locked position.

The ones with the slide plastic retainer, that has to be held back out of the way to let the handle latch, and then it slides over the handle.

 

[camasleaf]

I quick charged 5 times in the last 24 hours. Last evening at Fred Meyer in north Vancouver, today in Cascade Locks, Hood River, Cascade Locks again, and Alan Webb Nissan. I did not have to wait to any of them, they all worked fine, and with no charge to charge were free. At Fred Meyer a car was charging, but the owner came as I was getting ready to plug mine.
Public charging still works.

 

[Rat]

I always push the kill timer switch before trying to use the QC or L2 for that matter. As I said in my post, I've been able to charge on a machine on the first leg of a route and when returning, that same machine won't communicate with my car. I do everything the same, try maybe six or eight times, pushing the kill timer switch every time, trying all kinds of variations, squeezing the handle, not squeezing the handle, pulling the squeeze lever apart, pushing the button on top of the handle, not pushing the button, unplugging, replugging, etc., then I switch machines and it works on another machine, then someone else comes and has no trouble with the one I couldn't get to work. It's not user error. It's machine error, but I don't know if it's something about my car or the Blink QC units, or both. From the posts in this thread, it appears I'm not alone.

Re: timer kill switch, I believe the time has no effect on DC FCing. How about just turning off the timers via the menus on the nav system? You've turned the car totally OFF before starting, right?

As for all the variants, I don't understand why you're doing that. Some of them are definitely WRONG.

You need to push the connector far enough on to hear a soft click WITHOUT pulling or pushing ANYTHING but the connector itself.

Of course that's what I do first. I do it multiple times and it just doesn't work. You seem not to have read my first post on this. In several cases I was able to get it to work the first time, then later the same day the same QC wouldn't work for me. Obviously I did the second time exactly what worked the first time, but it doesn't work. If I had been doing it wrong, it wouldn't have worked the first time. Then it becomes even more aggravating when someone else drives up while I'm using the adjacent L2 charger and he is able to successfully use the same QC that wouldn't work for me.

So I try all the variants in the hopes that one of them will work. In fact, on one of these occasions, I saw another driver park next to me in the adjacent QC (I was successfully charging on QC#2 after #1 wouldn't work for me) and it didn't work for him the first time, so he pulled down on the lever under the handle and tried again. That time it worked for him. So fiddling with the lever and button can make a difference sometimes.

 

[JimSouCal]

I quick charged 5 times in the last 24 hours. ... Public charging still works.

You are fortunate... Here, around Santa Monica, the free ones are often filed, ironically often with Volts... Hence, the pay ones are the more reliable choice...

The last time I tried public charging I was down to a couple of bars, and both chargers in a Santa Monica Park were filled, but I left my port open while I headed to a meeting, and the Volt was nice enough to plug me in....

However, then I get an email shortly stating charging stopped... A guy showed up and simply unplugged me because "he needed it" and was on "his lunch break". I walked up to him, and he was talk dancing, but I just shrugged and told him I'd go eat lunch, and to plug me back in when done...

There are a couple of trips I occasionally make where I absolutely need a bump to make it in the ole 2011... Sadly, I'd say I'd need to sit there just to make sure nothing goes awry... Or figure out a way to lock the charge head... Some J-plugs have a hole to do just that... Or maybe a combo U lock on the cable...

Maybe if I left a note, but really, to assume a charge without supervision seems to be a bad bet.

When I bought the LEAF, I kind of assumed given the electrical distribution system is everywhere urban, that this would be easy... Bad assumption..

 

[eloder]

This isn't an EV problem. Tesla doesn't have this issue and they actually have cars capable of long-distance road trips, and they are #2 on total cars in the US.

How viable would gas stations be if there was only one pump per station? In peak hours, long distance travel, and holidays it wouldn't work at all.

I think people will just realize this and primarily buy Teslas as they become more affordable. I love my Leaf to death but it's nowhere near what Tesla's Model 3 will be or Leaf Gen 2 thanks to the Supercharger network.

 

[Firetruck41]

This isn't an EV problem. Tesla doesn't have this issue and they actually have cars capable of long-distance road trips, and they are #2 on total cars in the US.

How viable would gas stations be if there was only one pump per station? In peak hours, long distance travel, and holidays it wouldn't work at all.

I think people will just realize this and primarily buy Teslas as they become more affordable. I love my Leaf to death but it's nowhere near what Tesla's Model 3 will be or Leaf Gen 2 thanks to the Supercharger network.

The analogy only works if you also add that everyone has a gas pump at home, and can fill up with 3 gallons every night...

 

[RonDawg]

This isn't an EV problem. Tesla doesn't have this issue

They're starting to. In some areas, the SuperCharger stations now have queues, thanks to those who want to take advantage of "Free Charging for Life." Tesla is asking people to refrain from using them unless they are a long ways from home, but can't penalize them as the cars were sold with that specific promise.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/tesla-owners-frustrated-by-recharge-waits-1435690694

http://www.valuewalk.com/2015/07/tesla-buyers-irritated-charging-queues/

http://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-could-have-a-big-problem-with-one-of-the-best-things-about-owning-its-cars-2015-7