Poll : Are you having problems with your Blink EVSE ?

[bowthom]

Have you done the same diagnostic steps I did?
1. Try different EVSE's with your car.
2 Get someone with a leaf to drive over and test your EVSE.
3. Did the blink folks put a scope on the pilot signal to look at the waveform?

Armed with that data Nissan will have to repair your car. There may be a hold up on shipping a new charger to your dealer until mine has been examined and a root cause determined.

 

[Jasonpara]

Bowthom,

The symptoms are identical to yours. I have had my entire Blink replaced with no improvement. The Ecotality foilks looked at the error codes that they were getting from the Blink and they are confidant it is the same problem as your issue.
I live 2 miles from Nissan's HQ and only 20 miles from the plant in Smyrna TN. At this point I think it is Nissan's problem if they want to run tests on my car or charger. I will continue to pursue Nissan on this.

 

[fotajoye]

Interesting problem; I know nothing about the Blink; however, I understand that the Leaf will charge at other locations and on other Blinks; perhaps the Nissan brick is a red herring in all this...if your charging is location sensitive and if the Blink is WiFi, I would look for EMI or RFI as a problem. Any strong radio stations around? Microwave path, etc. Just a thought

 

[bowthom]

Hello Blinkers,
Got my leaf back and it is charging normally with the blink. They replaced the charger assembly. I will follow up with the Nissan folk to get any info I can on what they found out postmortem and post it here. It is really nice to have it back so I can park my 12 mpg van.

Got the locked up blink pink screen "cannot process your request" when trying to access the unit via ethernet. Had to cycle the power to reset it.

That's all from the home front, I'm off to go sailing around the San Juan Islands.

ON EDIT: Just called the nissan rep and talked to him about my charger. No info yet but I was blown away at how easy it was to get ahold of him. Yea Nissan.

 

[DaveL]

I'm not having any trouble with my Blink. I attribute this to my configuration:

1. Direct "Wired" Ethernet connection (not using wireless)
2. Fixed IP address
3. No timers set on Blink

I did have to re-boot it after the last software upgrade, but since then it's charged the car every time without fail.

My thanks to all the trailblazers who posted here previously and made my life so much easier!

Dave

 

[Jasonpara]

Well I dropped my car off at the dealership. I was met by a Nissan Field Service Engineer who was friendly and knowledgeable and he seemed well aware of this issue. So far the dealership said that the Engineers ran my car thru the paces with a laptop connected to the car and they (the Nissan Engineers) are analyzing the data with their Japanese counterparts. Supposedly by tomorrow they are supposed to decide what to do. I also mentioned that my heater has always acted strangely. What I mean by strangely is that you can never predict whether you will get much heat out of the car. Sometimes it pulls a lot of amps and heats well and other times it barely pulls any juice and doesn't heat well. This situations seems to have no connection to the interior temp, exterior temp, ECO or regular mode, temperature setting, state of charge, etc

 

[Jasonpara]

My car has been at the dealership for 3 days now. They are awaiting directions from the Nissan Engineers.

 

[Jasonpara]

Good news! The Nissan Engineers have determined that they need to replace the charger in the Leaf. Supposedly this will also help the heater issues I was having.

 

[fotajoye]

I know you are just happy to get the car to charge on the Blink; however, did anyone explain why the car would charge on the Nissan and Aero EVSEs? It would be interesting if a shorted diode was the problem.

In any case I'm satisfied to see Nissan stand behind their product and the resolution of this problem should result in a better product for future Leaf buyers.

 

[DarkStar]

did anyone explain why the car would charge on the Nissan and Aero EVSEs?

It's already been determined that these EVSEs do not perform a diode check.

 

[fotajoye]

That's a bit disconcerning because if you had a bad charger diode and encountered a charge point that refused you service, based on a diode check, that could become a tow point instead of a charge point.

I have Clipper Creek near by so I'll check my diode on their charger...wow!

 

[Jasonpara]

It is not really a diode check that the charger is doing. The charger (Blink in this case) sends a signal to the car. The car is supposed to modify that signal which tells the charger whether turn on it's relays and start feeding 220vac. It is a safety interlock that some other chargers apparently don't have. The Blink guy told me it was to prevent an accidental shock if you were to drop the charging handle into a puddle of water. Now I'm sure all chargers have a GFI but this Blink design is even more safe and according to the Blink Engineers it is part of the SAE standard for chargers. The Blink guys say that they interpret this safety redundancy as a mandatory part of the SAE standard while other charger manufacturers believe it is an optional part of the standard. I think Nissan also believes it is necessary which is why they agreed to fix the car.

 

[Jasonpara]

Let's face it, at this time we are all Beta testers which is aggraving but at the same time it is a unique opoortunity to help make the product better. As long as Nissan works with us and doesn't ignore the issues then I have no complaints. I design machinery fora living so I know how tough it is to make a machine that is 100% error free on the first try.

 

[davewill]

It is not really a diode check that the charger is doing. The charger (Blink in this case) sends a signal to the car. The car is supposed to modify that signal which tells the charger whether turn on it's relays and start feeding 220vac. It is a safety interlock that some other chargers apparently don't have.

Close. All EVSEs send the signal and check for the modification. If they didn't they wouldn't work with the car. They don't all check both the positive AND negative part of the signal. The negative part shouldn't change. That's what's called "the diode check," since a diode in the car causes this behavior. Blink is doing it, the others aren't.

The Blink guy told me it was to prevent an accidental shock if you were to drop the charging handle into a puddle of water, causing the EVSE to energize the charging circuit. Now I'm sure all chargers have a GFI but this Blink design is even more safe and according to the Blink Engineers it is part of the SAE standard for chargers. The Blink guys say that they interpret this safety redundancy as a mandatory part of the SAE standard while other charger manufacturers believe it is an optional part of the standard. I think Nissan also believes it is necessary which is why they agreed to fix the car.

He's right. A puddle of water could conceivably modify the signal in the same way the car does, causing the EVSE to energize the charging circuit. ZAP! The diode check is the only way to tell the difference. The EVSE makers can afford to treat it as optional since they know if they have adequate GFCI protection built into their devices for safety around water, and leaving it out doesn't affect interoperability, (although personally, I agree with the Blink engineer; they should include it since it's part of the spec.) Nissan, on the other hand, absolutely cannot leave this out. If they did, it would cause interoperability issues just like this one...and possibly leave drivers stuck at an EVSE they can't use.

 

[Jasonpara]

Dave,

Thanks for the clarification. I'm an ME not an EE and I try to avoid the dark side at all costs!

 

[bowthom]

I think Nissan also believes it is necessary which is why they agreed to fix the car.

Did you get your car back?
Working OK?

 

[bowthom]

Hello Blinkers,
I'm getting slightly different numbers with the new charger.
3.53 kW/h from the wall (was 3.7)
3.15 kWh charge rate to battery (was 3.3).

This is only the first data point so I'll be tracking it closely. Looks like I'll have to head back over to Shorepower to verify the current draw.

 

[mark13]

Looks like now I will have to call Ecotality..I have been unplugging the Blink to get it to work more often now and yesterday the Blink kept showing it was charging 20 hours later even tho the leaf was already fully charged..

 

[thankyouOB]

my sim card died and the touch screen mode went with it. the unit still worked to allow the car to charge.
I called Blink and they had a fix out the next work day.
It is on and waiting to connect to the internet to download 1.6, again.

quick service and, what I liked best, it did NOT affect charging.

 

[bowthom]

Hello Blinkers,
It's nice having my blink working with my car but it has been crashing / rebooting and the blink network had a 20% failure rate on reporting kWh.

Pretty SOP, waiting for that next update that will cure everything.

Did anyone notice the blink being confused at the month end cutoff?
In the hours between 12:00 AM EDT and 12:00 AM PDT, all the STATS went to zero but the month still said June. Previous month showed May but had all my June STATS listed.

What is so damn difficult using UTC internal and converting in the blink at each location and at the network home office. Always with the sophomoric piece meal programming.

Hey blink, you can keep the swag......... hire a professional level programmer (or two).