Is there an issue with the Blink Chargers?

[DarkStar]

I'll just comment that my Blink has never failed to charge my car, ever. With network, without network, never has made a difference.

 

[davewill]

Damn! I've had two occasions now since the 1.7 upgrade where plugging in my LEAF got me a red screen, beeping, and an error that self test failed. The first time, unplugging, waiting for the error to clear and plugging back in fixed the problem. The second time, last night, I had to unplug the Blink from the wall to clear the problem. It looks like something has taken a turn for the worse with the new firmware upgrade.

 

[TonyWilliams]

Just had another "Blink" experience. Only charged to about 60% last night. Unplugged the power, and repowered it, which seems to work now.

I've had the SD card replaced in the Blink, and it has the latest software. What an awesome piece of engineering.

 

[TomT]

Same here in almost 8 months...

I'll just comment that my Blink has never failed to charge my car, ever. With network, without network, never has made a difference.

 

[Brightonuk]

Where is the SD card located?

 

[DarkStar]

Where is the SD card located?

If you look up under the LCD display, you should see the MicroSD card tucked into its slot. As long as the Blink is powered off, you can just push on the card to eject it.

 

[Deleted member 770]

Same here in almost 8 months...

I'll just comment that my Blink has never failed to charge my car, ever. With network, without network, never has made a difference.

Ditto here in about 3-1/2 months of use...it's never failed to charge, but has always had problems with (spontaneous) reboots, failures to upload charge data to the mothership, backlight "stuck on" wireless connectivity, etc.

As a "dumb" EVSE, it's been stone reliable. As an intelligent, web-connected EVSE - not so much.

 

[Packet]

Yeah, I've never had a failure to charge yet, but recently the blink couldn't see the network anymore. I managed to get it up and running again myself, but when I asked the blink guys about pppd segfaulting in my blink's system logs, they discovered that -- although it sends charge state through fine, so the Android keeps current charge state properly up-to-date in the status bar -- it was not sending any charge records, and apparently hadn't even stored any.

So they're going to have to come and take it apart to look at why that would be. :/

 

[thankyouOB]

as far as charging goes, the blink is solid as a rock.
i get more glitches from the 120-volt stinger.

as far as networking and data collection, the blink is an adventure. There, I feel like Lewis and Clark.

 

[CWO4Mann]

I just read this thread for the first time. Installers will be here next week to do my garage L2. Understand that they will install a Blink. Do I really need to establish an internet connection? I mean, all I will do it drive home from the salt mine, plug it in and come back out in the morning, unplug and drive away. Why do I need to be concerned about connectivity? Please, I know this sounds to the experienced users here that this is a "RTFM" question, but bottom line question is "why do I need connectivity?"

With respect to the group,

Dave

 

[TonyWilliams]

If you're part of the EVproject, they are collecting data. That's why the unit was free.

 

[thankyouOB]

chief,
you made a deal to get a free charger. stick to it.

 

[lonndoggie]

I've had issues with my Blink, as can be seen in other Blink posts (I'm on my second unit, the first having gone so far around the bend that mere power cycling wouldn't fix it).

This second unit's been pretty solid, but tonight it showed me a new trick...

I plugged in the Leaf with it set to charge, using the Leaf timer, starting at midnight, as always. Usually they do a little dance and end with the Leaf showing it's 1-2-3 lighting sequence on the dash, signalling it's waiting for the scheduled time, and the Blink saying "Not Charging".

Tonight, all that happened, except that the Blink was left saying it was charging, with the timer counting! Er, what? The Leaf was showing that it was waiting, but the Blink was certain it was charging. Unplugged, replugged, and then they ended up in the usual waiting state.

Blink is like a box of chocolates--you never know what you gonna get.

 

[Levenkay]

as far as charging goes, the blink is solid as a rock.
i get more glitches from the 120-volt stinger.

as far as networking and data collection, the blink is an adventure. There, I feel like Lewis and Clark.

You need to contact the manufacturer; sounds like you have a freakishly almost-working unit that they might want to show off or something. I'm keeping a diary of the Blink's hiccups, and about half of them have the addendum, "car failed to charge; power-cycled Blink"

 

[Ingineer]

We've gotten calls from many customers who had free Blink units installed under the EV Project. They have reported many failures to charge with a wide range of different results on the screen and possible causes. The main problem is they wake up in the morning and it has simply failed to do it's simple job of giving the car AC power. They often ask if our unit is more reliable, which I can say with great certainty "yes". We have had almost no reports of problems in the field using our unit or even the AV unit. Both are simple and reliable.

For the low cost of our upgrade, many people find it great peace-of-mind to have our unit as a backup in case the blink fails. Many simply gave up on the blink all-together and are now using our unit as their full-time charger.

If your Blink install was done with the NEMA 6-50 outlet, you can simply get an adapter and plug our unit into the same outlet used for the Blink.

There are so many people now doing this, there is even someone on ebay selling pre-made adapters.

-Phil

 

[CWO4Mann]

chief,
you made a deal to get a free charger. stick to it.

:lol: You know I will -- you must know how us CWO's are anyway -- never mess with The Chief as many a general has learned to his/her dismay. :twisted:

Regards,

Dave

 

[ttweed]

The main problem is they wake up in the morning and it has simply failed to do it's simple job of giving the car AC power.

This has never happened to me yet (knock on wood) in 6 months of charging. My Blink has been dead-nuts reliable. Maybe I just got lucky, but it has never failed to charge the car overnight, and has only been power-cycled once on the advice of Blink support when it didn't seem to be displaying the charging totals correctly. It has always been hard-wired to my router, though--I never tried using the wireless network connection after hearing about the problems people were having with that.

TT

 

[davewill]

... "why do I need connectivity?" ...

Besides the requirement for the EV Project data collection, connectivity lets you to track power usage on the Blink website and use the Blink smartphone app. It also allows you to configure, and control the Blink directly from your PC or phone at home.

 

[CWO4Mann]

... "why do I need connectivity?" ...

Besides the requirement for the EV Project data collection, connectivity lets you to track power usage on the Blink website and use the Blink smartphone app. It also allows you to configure, and control the Blink directly from your PC or phone at home.

Thanks for the answer! I'll set up a spare WiFi router with a private subnet in my garage so the charger can talk through it back to my main household network and from there to the world.

Dave

 

[Ingineer]

Carwings already has some of the functionality that the Blink provides. DOE should have worked with Nissan, maybe provide some extra money for development of the energy logging functions, then all this networking and "smart" functionality would have been not needed. The right place for this is in the car, where the charger is, not on the wall.

This would also enable more accurate statistics, such as when charging elsewhere.

-Phil