DC Fast Chargers are Back on the BlinkMap

[Volusiano]

Any one experience any problems with the queuing feature of the DC QC?

With the launch of the first San Diego County public QC, we found that trying to queue up a 2nd car while the other was charging would either result in jumping back to the start screen after briefly flashing the charging options screen, or displaying a message that says something like "problem communicating with the car - please check your owners manual".

Other than that, the QC worked great, though many had problems with releasing the plug since it takes 2 button presses to fully release it.

I've used the queuing feature of the DCQC at the PADT site in Phoenix (where Tony Williams used as the staging point for his range test) successfully once. But then a few weeks later (about a month ago), I tried to use the queuing feature at the same site again (on the same side), and it stopped working for me. It complained about some kind of communication problem with the car and went back to the start screen. I tried to reconnect several times with the same error message.

The other guy, who was sitting in his car while being charged, finally poked his head out of the car and said "Hey, I think only one car can charge at a time", like I'm an idiot trying to charge mine at the same time. So I told him "I know, I'm just trying to queue up here for when yours is done". But in the end, I looked like an idiot because I couldn't queue up anyway and had to wait until he was done.

I haven't had a need to use the queuing feature since, so I don't know if it's still a problem or not.

 

[grommet]

Never had a problem with the Blink DCFC queue feature... but yes, for CHAdeMO... the LEAF must be "off" when starting a charge.

 

[camasleaf]

About half of the Blink DCQC in Portland area are down. Half of the working ones only work on one side. The map shows some of the chargers that are up as being down and vice-verse. Status is never updated, I am charging and the map still does not show the charger as being in use. What is Blink thinking? How do they plan to charge money for such service? Is this their punishment for me because I refused to use public L2 chargers (even when they were free)?

It is in the weekends and around the Holidays when these chargers are most useful. But that is also when they are mostly down.

 

[LEAFfan]

ECOtality/Blink is going to start charging soon for QC. I received an email this morning that they updated the software at the ECOtality QC and now as a test, starting today, are charging $ .50/charge. I'm using it now. The software update also changes the display to reverse the %s. The starting charge % is larger now. They've also added another QC behind their building.

 

[thisguyfel]

About half of the Blink DCQC in Portland area are down. Half of the working ones only work on one side. The map shows some of the chargers that are up as being down and vice-verse. Status is never updated, I am charging and the map still does not show the charger as being in use. What is Blink thinking? How do they plan to charge money for such service? Is this their punishment for me because I refused to use public L2 chargers (even when they were free)?

Seattle is dealing with similar issues.

We have 2 DCFC's that have been in the ground for close to a month:Totem Lake (or more:Fife) and haven't been powered on and now a third:Bellevue College - in which they are all dealing with dead screens, un-responsive touch, one side completely down, re-booting, etc...

I guess this counts as "half" as well, since the other 3 Blink units in the area are a little more reliable, but still have their fair share of problems. (Lake City Way, South Lake Union, Harvard Market)

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

and AV marches on. The Tumwater AV QC has been down 3 times for total down time of less than about 4 days. There was a handle locking issue that did prevent some people from getting a charge but I was able to make it work. The handle lock was fixed in less than 24 hours so not sure I can count that.

keep in mind, most of the down time happened on Labor Day ? or one 3 day weekend where the issue started Sat night and was resolved first thing Tues. That has been the only time the downtime exceeded 24 hours.

the difference in reliability has been HUGE