Can't charge 2012 Leaf on 240V, but can on 208V.

So 3 days ago my 2012 Leaf decided it just wasn't going to charge at home anymore. Not on the Voltec EVSE L2, Not on an EVSE Upgrade @ 240V, and not on the same unit at 120V. At work (208V) the EVSE upgrade works for L2 charging but not L1. I took it into Nissan and they did the P3227 upgrade and claimed my contacts were dirty so they cleaned it (sure, why not). The DTC pulled was B2840 On Board Charger - Component Internal Malfunction. Not surprising, the problem persists. Of course it charges at the AV L2 (208V) at the dealership so they think I'm nuts. Now that I've confirmed it fails on 120V I can at least reproduce that for them.. Right now LeafDD shows OBC reported line voltage and ampacity only if a Brusa is detected but I think I'm going to change it to show that info whenever plugged in. Oddly a Clipper Creek unit at work which seems to be 208+27 (from a 240:32 transformer).. ie 235V works sometimes and not other times..

Oh another interesting tidbit.. On L1 (120V) it ramps up to requesting 6A DC (2.0kW!) then shuts off with the fault.. In all other cases it ramps up charge and faults within a few seconds... opening the EVSE contactors first then opening the main contactors in the car and shutting down. No faults registered on the EVSE.

Hi Greg;
Sorry you are having a problem.
Does it do this with the Brusa taken off line?
Are you going to (or have you) pulled the Brusa off before the dealer gets in under the hood?
Thanks.

I don't actually have a Brusa... I added the ability to read line voltage and pilot ampacity but for some dumb reason only display it on the Brusa info at the bottom of page 2.. I should have made it display regardless. I never thought I'd have a need for that info... It's becoming clear to me the OBC is faulty and will need to be replaced. Confirming a correlation between line voltages and OBC failure at this point would only serve my own curiosity.

Greg,

Moved to ABQ, hopefully you're still in touch with Andy.

Are you getting the EV system warning light? What do you see on your dash?

Yes the warning light comes on after a failed charge start.

So the plot thickens... I unpacked my virgin Panasonic L1 EVSE, ready to demonstrate to the local Nissan dealer how it does in fact fail to charge.. and behold! It charges! At home! So now at least I can charge at home albeit at 1kW.

Also, just now added the update to LeafDD to report what the OBC sees as the line voltage and pilot ampacity. Here at work with 208V it's reporting 270V !!! I'll try it on other EVSEs later today but this could explain a number of things.. including why the EVSE upgrade fails on 120V but the stock Panasonic works... The stock Panasonic puts out a 12A pilot so the car charges at 12A even though it may think it's 160V, but the EVSE upgrade puts out a 16A pilot so the car ramps up to 2kW before failing. Like I said I'll verify all this later today.. but it sounds like the OBC line voltage sensing circuit has failed somehow. bizarre..

So you are saying an OEM Panasonic charger will charge your car at 120V, but our upgraded version will not?

That's highly weird!

-Phil

Sounds like this will get resolved in a little bit of time. Good to hear, Greg. I had some issues charging at work once, on the Eaton L2s - turned out to be an Eaton issue with their older EVSEs. This isn't wholly relevant but I took it to the guys at Tustin and they were pretty patient with me - loaned out the Black demo car, and even drove out to my work site with another vehicle to verify it wasn't working.

I can put you in contact with Floyd, if you haven't spoken to him already.

Highly weird indeed! Yes, the Tustin guys are pretty cool.. I think by having them confirm the reported line voltage on the Consult tool I'll be able to convince them the OBC is faulty.

New data points:
On the Clipper Creek here which is boosted slightly (230-240V from 208V) the OBC reports 280V!

The stock Panasonic L1 on 120V reports 175V 12A capacity.. charges ok.
The EVSE upgrade on 120V reports 175V 17A capacity, ramps up to about 2kW then faults.
Of course if the OBC had seen the 120V as 120V it wouldn't have tried to go beyond 12A on the line.

Perhaps some sense resistor in the OBC to measure line voltage got slightly tweaked?!?!? Very odd failure though..

Oh and according to the service manual one of the B2840 faults could be a measured line voltage over 293V. I bet that's what it sees at my house on my 240V circuit. Will confirm tonight.
Confirmed: Just tried at a local Park and Ride with a 240V Clipper creek.. just barely hits 293V reported and shuts down with a fault.

Wow, that's some high out-of-spec voltage in your area... You might try talking to your power company too.

GeekEV said:

Wow, that's some high out-of-spec voltage in your area... You might try talking to your power company too.

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I'm not clear whether the line voltage is actually high or if the Leaf erroneously thinks it is that high and shuts down charging. Can you clarify Greg?

Stoaty said:

I'm not clear whether the line voltage is actually high or if the Leaf erroneously thinks it is that high and shuts down charging. Can you clarify Greg?

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It looks like he's tested this at multiple locations. I'm pretty sure he means the car is measuring wrong.

The car is absolutely measuring wrong.
On the Clipper Creek here at work the Fluke meter measures 211V and my Leaf OBC reports 272V.. But that's under 293V so it's charging. At home where it's 240V I can't charge except L1 on the stock Panasonic EVSE with 12A pilot PWM.

Stoaty said:

GeekEV said:

Wow, that's some high out-of-spec voltage in your area... You might try talking to your power company too.

Click to expand...

I'm not clear whether the line voltage is actually high or if the Leaf erroneously thinks it is that high and shuts down charging. Can you clarify Greg?

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davewill said:

It looks like he's tested this at multiple locations. I'm pretty sure he means the car is measuring wrong.

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Ah, gotcha. Yeah, that's probably out of spec for the internal inverter, hence the error charging. I'm going to go out on a limb and say they're going to need to replace your inverter.

Ok, there's your problem. The likely reason the Gen1 EVSE doesn't charge on 120v is the 16A Pilot. If you set the amperage to 12A it'll probably charge. (Would require the Rev3 firmware.)

Sounds like something on the control board has failed.

-Phil

Ugh.. this is going to be a challenge.. I talked to the service guys at Tustin Nissan and they don't seem to appreciate the difference between line voltage (208 vs 240) and the brand of EVSE. I tried to explain how the EVSE is not the issue and it's a matter of measuring line voltage but some of these guys don't seem to be aware of the difference between 208 and 240 for L2 charging. My hope is to take the car in on Wednesday and have them do a Consult Freeze Frame Data snapshot of my car charging vs one of their cars charging.. that should show a dramatic difference on the "AC Input Voltage". But I'm still left with: "Well, it charges ok here (at the dealership, on 208V) so the problem must be with at your house". sigh.

Although I must confess the urgency is gone now that I can charge L1 at home with the stock Panasonic unit. Oddly it seems to be charging faster than I would have expected L1. Last night I got a 60% charge in under 8 hours. I'm surprised I didn't pop a breaker. Is it at all possible that the 2011/12 OBC does NOT measure line current? If it really thought it was getting 170V and told to charge at 12A by the pilot PWM (it does think it's on a normal charge btw.. not a trickle charge) would it charge at 2kW AC (170x12) on the line side? It seems to be putting out closer to 1500W DC to the pack rather than 1000W or 1200W.... ?

Just out of curiosity, what is the max AC a Leaf wants to see or will charge on? I know it's become a thing with me everytime I plug in I goto the Brusa page and look at the voltages..

Highest I've seen is 270v (yeah!).. and the Brusa is rated for 100-265v

But it and the Leaf charged! :twisted:

Sucks about the OBC.. hope it gets resolved soon!

GregH said:

Ugh.. this is going to be a challenge.. I talked to the service guys at Tustin Nissan and they don't seem to appreciate the difference between line voltage (208 vs 240) and the brand of EVSE. I tried to explain how the EVSE is not the issue and it's a matter of measuring line voltage but some of these guys don't seem to be aware of the difference between 208 and 240 for L2 charging. My hope is to take the car in on Wednesday and have them do a Consult Freeze Frame Data snapshot of my car charging vs one of their cars charging.. that should show a dramatic difference on the "AC Input Voltage". But I'm still left with: "Well, it charges ok here (at the dealership, on 208V) so the problem must be with at your house". sigh. ...

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Can you get to somebody's house, preferable someone who bought the AV EVSE? Then you can at least report that it is failing at multiple residences, and on "their" EVSE.

GregH said:

Oddly it seems to be charging faster than I would have expected L1. Last night I got a 60% charge in under 8 hours. I'm surprised I didn't pop a breaker. Is it at all possible that the 2011/12 OBC does NOT measure line current?

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No, that's just what the effect of a shrinking battery does for you. Used to take me 3.5-4 hours to charge from LBW to 80%. Now it takes less than 3 hours!

GregH said:

If it really thought it was getting 170V and told to charge at 12A by the pilot PWM (it does think it's on a normal charge btw.. not a trickle charge) would it charge at 2kW AC (170x12) on the line side? It seems to be putting out closer to 1500W DC to the pack rather than 1000W or 1200W.... ?

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No, electricity doesn't work that way. Your car only gets utility line voltage (~120V) no matter what. And it won't exceed the 12A dictated by the EVSE, either.

davewill said:

GregH said:

Ugh.. this is going to be a challenge.. I talked to the service guys at Tustin Nissan and they don't seem to appreciate the difference between line voltage (208 vs 240) and the brand of EVSE. I tried to explain how the EVSE is not the issue and it's a matter of measuring line voltage but some of these guys don't seem to be aware of the difference between 208 and 240 for L2 charging. My hope is to take the car in on Wednesday and have them do a Consult Freeze Frame Data snapshot of my car charging vs one of their cars charging.. that should show a dramatic difference on the "AC Input Voltage". But I'm still left with: "Well, it charges ok here (at the dealership, on 208V) so the problem must be with at your house". sigh. ...

Click to expand...

Can you get to somebody's house, preferable someone who bought the AV EVSE? Then you can at least report that it is failing at multiple residences, and on "their" EVSE.

Click to expand...

Greg, if you need to show that it doesn't charge on an AV EVSE on 240, you can use my AV unit. Just PM me.