Aerovironment EVSE trouble light blinking

[Vitor]

I had my EVSE since 7/11 and last week I got a a trouble light blinking after connecting the car. I turned off the breaker for a minute, reconnected and it was all well.

This morning I find the EVSE with the red trouble light blinking and my car did not charge last night. Resetting did not work, I have a permanent fault now.
I called Aerovironment and waiting for a response on my issue.

Have you had this problem with your EVSE? If so, how did you resolve the issue?

 

[Ingineer]

We have had customers report this issue before, sometimes it fixes itself, (wet handle) and other times warranty work is needed. This could also indicate a flaky ground connection.

Many of our customers have their Nissan supplied upgraded as a backup for just these kinds of scenarios.

-Phil

 

[Vitor]

Moisture in the handle could be an issue, we have had rain in our area last week and that is when the problem started.
I will check the grounds just in case.

 

[cwerdna]

Interesting... I hope the person I sold my AV L2 EVSE to (which I won but have no use for) isn't hitting anything like this.

Apparently, he found out, (after the fact) that the warranty isn't transferable. So, he's got no warranty. When he found out, he didn't seem too upset about it though... But still, I had no idea. I'd feel guilty if he is... I paid nothing for it but will have to pay the tax hit.

He's got his installed outdoors too.

 

[SalisburySam]

And I thought I was the only one!

My AV unit has been doing this since I got it 11 months ago, roughly twice a month, sometimes several days in a row. Of course it is intermittent, but very inconvenient when the LEAF is not charged in the morning. Since my AV unit is inside my garage, I'm not sure if moisture in the handle or the LEAF socket area is at issue. As you've learned, the only "fix" is to cut the breaker to the AV unit, let the capacitors discharge inside the unit, and reconnect. This has always worked for me, the last time as recently as two days ago.

I've called Nissan (through whom I contracted the AV quote and install), and AV. No one other than me seems very concerned and I call again about every few weeks. To date, no fix.

It could be a ground issue, but the installer ran a new 40-amp service from a new service line near the meter and tested the ground. I had to have a permit and the local inspector also confirmed proper installation and ground.

Only suggestion I have is to keep hounding Nissan and AV, and replace with something more reliable after warranty.

If you learn more, please post; suggestions most welcome.

 

[Ingineer]

If you have one of our upgraded units, and it charges fine on the same outlet, it's not a ground issue. If you don't have a 240v outlet because your unit is hardwired, it may be worth having one added.

We've never had even one single report of our units failing to charge the car if the ready light was lit when it was connected. It really stinks that you could hop in the car ready to head to work only to find you won't make it because your EVSE flaked out during the night.

Based on our customer reports the #1 unreliable EVSE is the Blink. (by a wide margin) #2 is the Schneider EV-Link (though in their defense, I think the newer ones are better as we haven't heard much more recently) #3 is the Legrand (Lear), and #4 is the Aerovironment, so while they can be problematic, they are still pretty good compared to others!

If you are charging outdoors and experience an unable to reset fault on your AV, here's my advice:
Cut power to the unit, take a hair dryer and warm up the handle for about 3-4 minutes, let it sit for about 5, then re-apply power. If it's still faulted, call AV.

-Phil

 

[devprius]

Interesting... I hope the person I sold my AV L2 EVSE to (which I won but have no use for) isn't hitting anything like this.

Apparently, he found out, (after the fact) that the warranty isn't transferable. So, he's got no warranty. When he found out, he didn't seem too upset about it though... But still, I had no idea. I'd feel guilty if he is... I paid nothing for it but will have to pay the tax hit.

He's got his installed outdoors too.

I was the person who bought cwerdna's EVSE. I haven't had any problems with the EVSE, despite some torrential downpours we've had recently this month. The handle is always either plugged into the car, or plugged into the holder in the EVSE, so there's little chance for water to get into it.

I'll keep these suggestions in mind should a problem occur. The panel that feeds the EVSE is about 6 feet away, so it'll be easy to do and check to see that things are fixed.

 

[devprius]

I don't know if the Leaf's do the same thing, but when I use the timer charging function of my PiP, when I plug the PiP in, the EVSE turns on briefly for about 10 seconds, and then shuts off until the timer fires. I'm assuming that the PiP is making sure it's got valid power for charging later. I would hope that the trouble light that people are seeing comes on when you first plug the car in, and not part way through the charging session, or when the timer fires.

 

[SalisburySam]

Unfortunately, no. I see the same green charging light for about 5 seconds when I plug in the charging station. I assume all is good for the timed charge that evening. Then I wake up to find a red light and no or only partial charging.

 

[davewill]

So much for AVs promise of on-site warranty service, I guess. At least Blink comes out when you call.

 

[SalisburySam]

Good news: AeroVironment's local installation contractor was authorized by AV to replace my misbehaving charging station. Today, I have a new unit at no cost to me, though interestingly the serial number is lower than my original one. As part of this, I learned a few things about this unit:

• 1- warranties matter (guess I already knew that one).
  2- the AV device can be user-tested by pressing and holding both START and STOP buttons. The unit is OK if at the end of the test the top two green lights are on steady. Any other combination and it's a call to Nissan/AV.
  3- there are several causes for the red trouble light illuminating and the light blinks n number of times per second to identify the underlying cause. Twice a second is for a vehicle problem, 3 times a second is a utility problem, 4 times a second indicates the unit is too hot, rapidly blinking cause not mentioned. For almost all of these conditions, the solution is to disconnect power to the unit, wait for capacitors to discharge, reconnect, and try again. If problem doesn't go away, call Nissan/AV. This is all described in the "User Manual" that comes with the unit (pp42+), but I didn't have my original manual as I undoubtedly filed it someplace very safe.
  4- whether or not these units are reparable in the field, the installers are given instructions by AV to replace, not repair. Fine for warranty work, but a concern after warranty expiration.

Here's hoping the replacement charging station works better in my environment (heh, heh) than its predecessor.

 

[Reddy]

The lower serial number could indicate a refurbished unit

 

[SalisburySam]

The lower serial number could indicate a refurbished unit

Thanks! Hadn't thought of that. I checked the unit and there is nothing that states remanufactured or refurb'd but wholly possible. Don't really care if it works.

 

[vin944]

Had the same red blinking after 1.5 yrs. Called AV and they said they would ship me a replacement and I return the one I had. Catch was I had to pay $49 to ship it back. After a few choice words and a direction to have the manager call me, I had a tidy UPS label pdf in my email.

They shipped to me, I shipped back to them, all is good. I called after a couple weeks to see out of curiosity what the problem may have been and they said they haven't had a chance to debug it.