Blink charger problems

[Volusiano]

I only had a few problems initially, but since the new SD card and the latest firmware update, I've had no more problems with my Blink.

+1. I think the new SD card was a clincher. Before that I had all kinds of problems.

 

[TaylorSFGuy]

i plugged in the car for just the second time last night and almost immediately I got a charging stopped message on the Blink EVSE with a statement that I should check the status of my vehicle. The only think I can think of is that the headlights were still on as they are set to auto. I reset the Blink charger by cycling the power and then plugged the car in again after the lights were off and charging proceeded with no problem. Has anyone else experienced this problem?

Yes, I have had the same problem and same solution. See my earlier post in this thread. My headlights were not on. I'm not looking forward to these fix it yourself sessions once the winter rains come and I'm standing in it waiting for the Blink to reset and calibrate.

 

[AP1]

I know that this has been discussed before and there is a consensus that there is no connection between internet connectivity and the Blink going haywire, a consensus to which I agreed with, until...

My Blink was working fine until it started to refuse to charge even though it said it was, continued saying it was charging even though the Leaf's timer stopped it, required numerous re-boots to get it to charge at all, etc... I then noticed that the wifi connection was no longer working. I rebooted the repeater I had to use to get wifi to the garage, which re-established internet connectivity at the Blink, and guess what, no more problems.

So I did a few more charges with everything working fine but I needed to know if the wifi had been the problem. I disconnected the wifi on purpose and the Blink started acting up again, re-connected, no more problems. I did it twice with the same results. I know some of you are going to say "well, it doesn't do it on mine." But you know what? It does it on mine. Totally illogical and weird. There should be no connection between the two, but there sure seems to be. :?

 

[Volusiano]

Most people who had wifi problems before but were able to continue charging have probably seen the problem in earlier firmwares and have most likely already fixed their wifi problem. I'm wondering if maybe the wifi to charging connection didn't exist in earlier firmware but now exists in the latest firmware, causing new people to start seeing it? But for the majority who already had their wifi issue already sorted out, they don't have wifi issues now with the new firmware to run into this problem, and can only testify based on their previous experience when they were on the older firmwares.

 

[arnolddeleon]

My blink is now "hanging" on a frequent (multiple times per day) basis. The symptoms are the display is frozen, sometimes it is black (but the backlight is on) other times it is partial white bar. I haven't experienced failure to charge yet. The blink didn't respond on the network on the one time I tested it when it was in the "hung" state.

Each time I notice it I just power cycle the blink by unplugging it.

arnold

 

[Volusiano]

My blink is now "hanging" on a frequent (multiple times per day) basis. The symptoms are the display is frozen, sometimes it is black (but the backlight is on) other times it is partial white bar. I haven't experienced failure to charge yet. The blink didn't respond on the network on the one time I tested it when it was in the "hung" state.

Each time I notice it I just power cycle the blink by unplugging it.

arnold

Did you try to get Blink to come out and replace the SD card for you yet? I had all kinds of frequently hung problems and the new SD card fixed everything. Everything is stable now.

 

[patrick0101]

I am having occasional trouble with the delayed charge feature on my Blink. I started to describe the failure, then decided it would be easier to show you:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gz5R6_zWIs0[/youtube]

 

[lkkms2]

You have had your Leaf longer than I but when I got my Blink the first thing the installers (Baker Electric in San Diego) said was that many people found it easier to use the Leaf Charger Scheduling feature. So I have never used the Blink's. Why not try the path of least resistance. (Somewhere in this forum there is a discussion/explanation on the various ways you can set up for charging with the Leaf, but if you just stick with the basic Start/End times and choose 80% or 100% it is fairly easy.)

My Blink's screen sometimes seems to be stuck in "Processing" but my Leaf will still charge and later the Blink shows the correct summary information on the charging time and hours.

 

[TomT]

It is highly recommended by both Ecotality and Nissan that the timer in the Blink not be used. Apparently EVSE timers (or at least the one in the Blink) and the Leaf do not get along well together... Use the timer in the car instead.

I am having occasional trouble with the delayed charge feature on my Blink.

 

[ttweed]

I'm wondering if maybe the wifi to charging connection didn't exist in earlier firmware but now exists in the latest firmware, causing new people to start seeing it?

It would be very shortsighted of them to introduce some requirement for an internet connection to be present for the Blink to be able to charge. What about the folks who buy Blink units OTC and are not part of the EV Project to collect data? Why should an internet connection be a requirement for it to work in their case? What about when the EV Project ends? If users choose not to continue on a subscription basis with the Blink network (or whatever the business model is for post-project) and choose to disconnect their EVSE from the internet, they would be left with a useless piece of ugly wall-hanging sculpture in their garage. That can't possibly be their plan, can it? :evil:

I have to believe this is an unintended consequence of the last firmware update, if that is actually the culprit. It's possible it is interacting with some other faulty programming or component in a few systems only, but if it is an intentional change, everyone would be experiencing the same symptom. Some people are still reporting that they can charge without an internet connection, right? Are they all on the old firmware, somehow?

TT

 

[patrick0101]

...the installers (Baker Electric in San Diego) said was that many people found it easier to use the Leaf Charger Scheduling feature. So I have never used the Blink's. Why not try the path of least resistance.

I have the Leaf set to charge to 80% and charge immediately. I like having the car set this way. Then if I am on the road and find an EVSE I can plug in and it starts charging immediately. I could use the timer override to start charging, but this would turn off the 80% setting too and I want to keep that on. Generally, this feature works great. I use the Blink timer 3-5 time per week. I have had the above problem a few times, not too often, but I would still like it fixed.

It is highly recommended by both Ecotality and Nissan that the timer in the Blink not be used. Apparently EVSE timers (or at least the one in the Blink) and the Leaf do not get along well together...

Do you have a link to this recommendation? If ECOtality does not want this feature used, they can remove it from their SW. Until they do, it is a supported feature and needs to work. As I said above, I regularly use both timers together and they allow me to charge the way that I think is best for my needs (although the Leaf 80% timer is more of a setting than a timer).

 

[Volusiano]

I am having occasional trouble with the delayed charge feature on my Blink. I started to describe the failure, then decided it would be easier to show you:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gz5R6_zWIs0[/youtube]

If you've been able to get your Blink to be rescheduled as expected before and occasionally it doesn't work for you, then of course something buggy is going on.

But if this feature consistently doesn't work for you, especially because you stop in the middle of a charging session to reschedule it, then I suspect the reason you see Blink behave this way is maybe because you didn't alter your original charge schedule (which is currently enabling the timer to be ON). So it ends up working with 2 schedules, the original timer schedule (which you did not modify yet), and the new additional reschedule which you just entered. In this case, it goes back to charging because that's what the original timer schedule tells it to do.

Had it been in the OFF period according to the original schedule, and you add in a new reschedule to turn it on during this OFF period, then the reschedule acts as an addition ON point on top of your original schedule.

I'm just guessing the logic here that could explain what you're seeing. I've never tried this out on my own Blink before.

 

[Volusiano]

...the installers (Baker Electric in San Diego) said was that many people found it easier to use the Leaf Charger Scheduling feature. So I have never used the Blink's. Why not try the path of least resistance.

I have the Leaf set to charge to 80% and charge immediately. I like having the car set this way. Then if I am not the road and find an EVSE I can plug in and it starts charging immediately. I could use the timer override to start charging, but this would turn off the 80% setting too and I want to keep that on. Generally, this feature works great. I use the Blink timer 3-5 time per week. I have had the above problem a few times, not too often, but I would still like it fixed.

It is highly recommended by both Ecotality and Nissan that the timer in the Blink not be used. Apparently EVSE timers (or at least the one in the Blink) and the Leaf do not get along well together...

Do you have a link to this recommendation? If ECOtality does not want this feature used, they can remove it from their SW. Until they do, it is a supported feature and needs to work. As I said above, I regularly use both timers together and they allow me to charge the way that I think is best for my needs (although the Leaf 80% timer is more of a setting than a timer).

I'm in the same boat with Patrick0101. I program the Blink timer to reflect the peak hours of my power company. I program the Leaf timer to be ON all the times, but charging to 80% only. This way, when I charge elsewhere that is not subjected to my power company's peak program, I can enable my Leaf to charge to 80% at any time. Otherwise it'd be subjected to my power company's peak program unnecessarily if I had it programmed into the Leaf timer.

I've never had any problem with the Blink's timer turning on/off according to the charge schedule this way. The Blink and the Leaf's timer work well together this way. Even if you put the same schedule on both the Blink and the Leaf, I still don't see how it wouldn't work together.

 

[walterbays]

I have the Leaf set to charge to 80% and charge immediately. I like having the car set this way. Then if I am not the road and find an EVSE I can plug in and it starts charging immediately. I could use the timer override to start charging, but this would turn off the 80% setting too and I want to keep that on.

I do the same for pretty much the same reasons.

I have had 6 malfunctions in just under 4 months of ownership, 5 of which would have prevented car charging if I had not noticed them in time. They have occurred both when charging was initiated by the Blink timer and by the Leaf timer; never when charging was initiated manually, and when I was there to watch what happened. In these 6 events I've had 2 circuit breaker trips, 2 Blink lock-ups, and 3 Leaf EV system malfunctions. Only one of the EV malfunctions prevented charging. Nissan checked the car the first time and found no problem. All of them were cleared by turning the car off and back on. I suspect but cannot prove a common cause of all these troubles is an unsuppressed voltage spike from the Blink power relay closing. Ecotality has been very engaged and responsive in looking at these sporadic and rare, but still troublesome events.

Anyway, because of those sporadic problems, I don't leave the car to charge by itself at midnight super off-peak if I might really need the charge the next day. Either I start the charge manually before I go to bed, or I confirm by looking in the garage or by looking at the smartphone app that charging started successfully. This often means starting charging 30 minutes or an hour before super off-peak. So I pay a few cents extra.

An advantage of using the Leaf timer is that I can manually start charging via the smartphone app from my bedroom instead of walking to the garage. But having to charge to 100% in such cases is a bigger disadvantage. By starting the charge at the Blink I have to go into the garage to press the button, but I can get an 80% charge. An additional advantage is that if I ever manage to catch the charging system malfunctioning when I start a charge in this way, I'll be right there next to it and might be able to learn something that would lead to getting the problem fixed.

I'd like it a lot better if the Blink and the Leaf talked to each other, so the Leaf would know if it was plugged into an EVSE which was delaying charging based on a timer, and communicate accurate status through Carwings. And if the Blink would know if it was plugged into a Leaf which was delaying charging based on a timer, and not try to give it a jolt of power it would reject. And if all means of starting charging, timer, dashboard, web app, smartphone app, would allow you to set an arbitrary charging limit - not just 80% or 100%.

 

[TomT]

I highly doubt that. The Blink works like every other EVSE: The power comes in and goes to a mechanical relay which then closes and supplies power to the vehicle. There is no real way for this to cause a surge or spike.

I suspect but cannot prove a common cause of all these troubles is an unsuppressed voltage spike from the Blink power relay closing.

 

[leafkabob]

I haven't been paying too much attention to everyone's blink problems since mine was working pretty much without issue since late May. But a little over a week ago the car failed to charge. At the time I chalked it up to not having a good connection. I hadn't waited to see the blinking blue lights (leaf timer on).

But last night I plugged the car in, waited to see the blinking blue lights, and closed up the garage.

Went out to the car this morning and found it hadn't charged.

I called Blink and they acknowledged that my blink was "within a range of serial numbers that need to have the SD card replaced." :shock:

Silly me. I figured Blink would be proactive and fix what they knew was broken.

 

[EVDrive]

I have the same problem as you. My car has failed to charge twice and not started to charge 5 or 6 other times but I caught it. I just have to restart the Blink to get it to work. I haven't called Blink but nice to know they know about the problem. I hope they fix them. I'll call tomorrow. Let us know if/when they fix yours.

I haven't been paying too much attention to everyone's blink problems since mine was working pretty much without issue since late May. But a little over a week ago the car failed to charge. At the time I chalked it up to not having a good connection. I hadn't waited to see the blinking blue lights (leaf timer on).

But last night I plugged the car in, waited to see the blinking blue lights, and closed up the garage.

Went out to the car this morning and found it hadn't charged.

I called Blink and they acknowledged that my blink was "within a range of serial numbers that need to have the SD card replaced." :shock:

Silly me. I figured Blink would be proactive and fix what they knew was broken.

 

[linkim]

I haven't been paying too much attention to everyone's blink problems since mine was working pretty much without issue since late May. But a little over a week ago the car failed to charge. At the time I chalked it up to not having a good connection. I hadn't waited to see the blinking blue lights (leaf timer on).

But last night I plugged the car in, waited to see the blinking blue lights, and closed up the garage.

Went out to the car this morning and found it hadn't charged.

I called Blink and they acknowledged that my blink was "within a range of serial numbers that need to have the SD card replaced." :shock:

Silly me. I figured Blink would be proactive and fix what they knew was broken.

On 9/2, my Blink stopped working - got the Self fault error. Called Blink and did online analysis with me, and they concluded that my SD card needed to be replaced. I was placed on "expedite status" for replacement. Fortunately, I could charge at 240 V using the modified EVSE.

Well 9/7 arrived and no contact from Blink so called them again. Got same response. So I rebooted the Blink several times, and now was able to charge. Every since then, the Blink has been working as before, and no further contact from Blink. Maybe they did some other fix through the internet connection. I figure if it works I don't see any reason to deal with them.

 

[leafkabob]

I haven't called Blink but nice to know they know about the problem.

It is nice to know that they know about the problem, but it would be even nicer if they would fix what they know is broken instead of waiting for folks to call. If in fact they have a range of serial numbers that have proven to have problens, why not replace all of those SD cards before folks start having unexpected "did not charge" events?

Their advice to me was, until the SD card is replaced, to reboot every time I charge. The customer service rep I talked to yesterday said he would have someone call me for an appointment, but so far no call.

 

[EVDRIVER]

Did anyone else see the BS presentation Ecotality gave at the Green Car Expo? This is one incompetent company that is milking tax dollars for their benefit and not doing what they should.