Anything you'd say to the designers of the physical blink?

[AmarilloLeaf]

The plastic reel underneath the unit is poorly designed. It's just the diameter of four tight loops of the cord,

Wow !?!

We are supposed to wind the cord around that thing?

I just let the cord lie on the concrete, and I normally have OCD.

I'll bet you're a rare bird, or rare rat. Most of us aren't winding the cord back on...... which points out that an auto-retracting cord would score extra sales points.

 

[EVDrive]

Groundloop, for #3 on your list, I think you meant colored disco lights on the sides. When I get home and the Blink is on the Blink with the unit in fail mode and the screen randomly lighting my otherwise efficiently unlit dark garage, I would like to see pulsating flashes from the red, white and blue side lights.

Jk, +1 on everyone else's comments.

The bad:
Silly big
Short cord
Failsafe protection needed when wifi is lost
Handle needs to be bent like the Stock EVSE and the Chargepoint model

The good:
It was free :}
It plugs into a standard 220 outlet and I could unplug it and move it if I wanted

Consider v1 QA start over for v2.

1) Bigger. Needs to be bigger. If the EVSE is the size of a beer fridge, nobody will question the complexity and necessity of advanced infrastructure to support these modern marvels.

2) Shorter cord. What's one to do with all this superfluous cable? After all, it can't reach the far end of the car if parked the wrong way, and can't reach a second car in the garage.

3) MORE LIGHT. The screen is almost, but not quite enough to serve as garage illumination. Crank it up a bit and add some side lights.

4) Too reliable. My blink is up most of the time, and resets just two or three times per charge. If it would continuously cycle, it's possible the car would adapt or get a gentler charge.

5) WiFi -- it's overrated. If a LEAF driver can't be motivated to drill a few holes for Ethernet, they're really not a club member.

6) Wider. Taller. More flare at the base. Bigger spool. I'm seeing quite a bit of unused garage wall space here, and ECOtality needs to step it up.


And, while he's there, congratulate him on the tremendous productivity in manufacturing. I'm seeing public charging stations pop up all over San Diego, at a rate of one every five months or so. They must be rocking three shifts over there in manufacturing.

Out.

 

[DarkStar]

I'll bet you're a rare bird, or rare rat. Most of us aren't winding the cord back on...... which points out that an auto-retracting cord would score extra sales points.

Make that two, I loosely wrap the cord around twice.

 

[earther]

Wow !?!
We are supposed to wind the cord around that thing?

a "wow" from me in the other direction: it never even occurred to me to NOT wrap the cord around the wheel! And I agree, it's a pain to do; especially fitting the handle back into the supplied notch, which is so poorly designed that the cord invariably covers up where it's supposed to fit through!

 

[davewill]

a "wow" from me in the other direction: it never even occurred to me to NOT wrap the cord around the wheel! And I agree, it's a pain to do; especially fitting the handle back into the supplied notch, which is so poorly designed that the cord invariably covers up where it's supposed to fit through!

Am I the only one who finds the cord reel easy to use? The cord goes around four times, and there's plenty of slack to put the connector into the slot. Maybe your installers put the reel too far from the unit?

 

[Levenkay]

Negotiate with power utilities for access to the wireless smart meters, so that the unit knows who the supplier is and what the time-dependent rates are automatically, without requiring the user to key it in.

Improve the reliability of the firmware. It's atrocious, and apparently has been that way, despite the ability to be updated remotely (quite a good feature, that; now USE it, why doncha?) for quite awhile. I've had my unit display messages on its screen ludicrously inconsistent with the actual state of the equipment: saying "OK to disconnect anytime" when the Blink hasn't been plugged into the car at all for hours, or, conversely, saying "Please connect your vehicle" when it already IS connected. Or reporting that the most recent charging session was two days ago, despite the car's mysteriously having been charged that very morning. At least it seems like the central functioning of the EVSE (operating the contactor) is under control of another micro, maybe, which continues to work despite the addled state of the glitzy GUI.

Don't cycle the contactor immediately when connection to the vehicle is detected; the vehicle is likely to be set to delay its charging. Every time I plug in, I get a "Klunk.. ka-Klunk" cycle of the apparatus. Give the car a few seconds to decide whether it wants to draw current.

And, come to that, does the relay have to be as massive as it sounds? The car's charger ought to be pretty graceful about not drawing heavy current right at attach time, and even shutting off its consumption on command, so the contacts oughtn't have to be cycling under high loads.

 

[ElectricVehicle]

The WiFi is really bad, they had to use powerline ethernet for my install despite the fact there is only one sheetrock wall between the Blink and my Wifi Router and the total distance is 40 feet on a very good 802.11N router. My laptop can connect without problems from outside the garage which adds another 20 feet and a stucco wall with chicken wire in it. The Blink has the shortest range, most unrelaiable connection and flakiest setup of the 11 fixed and mobile Wifi devices I have in my home.

 

[ElectricVehicle]

Negotiate with power utilities for access to the wireless smart meters, so that the unit knows who the supplier is and what the time-dependent rates are automatically, without requiring the user to key it in.

Ahh good point. Or it could contact Blink and get Blink config for your utility rate.

Also set it up with demand response, to encourage the utilities to give better EV rates, while we help the utilities by allowing them to send a demand order and say shut the charger down for 30 minutes out of every hour during grid crisis, super peak demand. (With a user override, but overriding would cancel your demand discount for the month or something reasonable.)

 

[davewill]

... Don't cycle the contactor immediately when connection to the vehicle is detected; the vehicle is likely to be set to delay its charging. Every time I plug in, I get a "Klunk.. ka-Klunk" cycle of the apparatus. Give the car a few seconds to decide whether it wants to draw current. ...

I'm pretty confident that it's not the Blink's fault. The LEAF is purposely energizing the AC pins to discover whether we're at 120v or 240v before turning it back off to wait for the timer. This allows Carwings to correctly report regular or trickle charge and get the time to charge right. It also lets a timer with only an end time know when to start.

 

[Levenkay]

... Don't cycle the contactor immediately when connection to the vehicle is detected; the vehicle is likely to be set to delay its charging. Every time I plug in, I get a "Klunk.. ka-Klunk" cycle of the apparatus. Give the car a few seconds to decide whether it wants to draw current. ...

I'm pretty confident that it's not the Blink's fault. The LEAF is purposely energizing the AC pins to discover whether we're at 120v or 240v before turning it back off to wait for the timer. This allows Carwings to correctly report regular or trickle charge and get the time to charge right. It also lets a timer with only an end time know when to start.

Hmm.. didn't think of that; thanks. Hopefully, this kind of info could be exchanged via the communication signal wire eventually.