San Francisco Bay Area Quick Chargers Getting them sooner

[Herm]

What is the Blink total count for DC chargers now?.. they must be fulfilling their original contract.

 

[EVDrive]

I completed the final inspection today for the Blink Fast charger located at the Good Earth Grocery store in Fairfax, Ca. It should be online for use pretty soon. They were just waiting to see if the owners want to have a ribbon cutting ceremony. I also just issued them a permit for a 230kW solar array.

I used the new charger at Good Earth Natural Foods yesterday. 5 minutes of charging gave me three extra bars so I could get home without worry as I was running low.

It was sweet. I had to wait for an ice to move to get in so be careful for now. Their is no signage or striping.

I go hiking at the redwoods in Laguntas all the time so I stop at this market every week. Now we can all go further into the boonies and make it back. The good Earth Market has an amazing made to order and take out deli as well as a coffee shop and both indoor and outdoor seating. I would encourage fellow Leafers to stop by, charge, eat some great food and say thank you to the market for supporting our dream.

 

[Solarchargedleaf]

I completed the final inspection today for the Blink Fast charger located at the Good Earth Grocery store in Fairfax, Ca. It should be online for use pretty soon. They were just waiting to see if the owners want to have a ribbon cutting ceremony. I also just issued them a permit for a 230kW solar array.

I used the new charger at Good Earth Natural Foods yesterday. 5 minutes of charging gave me three extra bars so I could get home without worry as I was running low.

It was sweet. I had to wait for an ice to move to get in so be careful for now. Their is no signage or striping.

I go hiking at the redwoods in Laguntas all the time so I stop at this market every week. Now we can all go further into the boonies and make it back. The good Earth Market has an amazing made to order and take out deli as well as a coffee shop and both indoor and outdoor seating. I would encourage fellow Leafers to stop by, charge, eat some great food and say thank you to the market for supporting our dream.

They asked if they could make the charger available before the stripping and signage was in place and I said ok. Every time I went by there today it was iced, so I need to bug them to get at least some signs up. Good Earth is very busy every day and parking is always an issue for all cars.

 

[GRA]

I completed the final inspection today for the Blink Fast charger located at the Good Earth Grocery store in Fairfax, Ca. It should be online for use pretty soon. They were just waiting to see if the owners want to have a ribbon cutting ceremony. I also just issued them a permit for a 230kW solar array.

I used the new charger at Good Earth Natural Foods yesterday. 5 minutes of charging gave me three extra bars so I could get home without worry as I was running low.

It was sweet. I had to wait for an ice to move to get in so be careful for now. Their is no signage or striping.

I go hiking at the redwoods in Laguntas all the time so I stop at this market every week. Now we can all go further into the boonies and make it back. The good Earth Market has an amazing made to order and take out deli as well as a coffee shop and both indoor and outdoor seating. I would encourage fellow Leafers to stop by, charge, eat some great food and say thank you to the market for supporting our dream.

Very glad to finally see a QC in Marin for people heading to Point Reyes, Tomales Bay and other West Marin points. This should really boost the viability of BEVs making weekend day trips out there. Now if they would just put one (or at least some L2s) in Pt. Reyes Station, and L2s at Pt. Reyes Headquarters, Limantour Rd., Drake's Beach, the Lighthouse, Pierce Point Ranch, Stinson Beach, assorted parking areas for Mt. Tam and maybe Muir Woods, some locations along both sides of Tomales Bay as well Marin ferry terminals, then BEVs would become the vehicle of choice for all these trips. We'll get there, eventually.

 

[TimLee]

Ecotality really need to do something about the touch screens on these DCFC's the left side on the unit @Intuit was not working when I tried it on Saturday.

The maintenance on them will kill them alone.

Blink has a long way to go on DCFC reliability. They have been trying for more than a year in Tennesse without any real success.
I have yet to be able to drive from Chattanooga to Knoxville due to the complete unreliability of the Blink DCFC units.
Sad and pathetic.

 

[TEG]

I think the actual high voltage transformer and rectifier mechanism is rather reliable.

It is the "user interface" (touch screen and CHAdeMO plug) which are turning out to be the problem areas.

 

[TimLee]

I think the actual high voltage transformer and rectifier mechanism is rather reliable.

It is the "user interface" (touch screen and CHAdeMO plug) which are turning out to be the problem areas.

I think you are right about that.
The problem with the L2 Blink units was grossly inadequate power supply wiring to the RFID card reader unit mostly, which they seem to have corrected.
But so far, not much success on the DCFC units.
I'm not sure the CHAdeMO plug is that much of a problem.
The Eaton DCFC at Murphy Express did have early problems the first four months and the cord was replaced.
But has been in service continuously to the best of my knowledge the last nine months.
Blink DCFC hasn't gotten even close to that reliability level yet.

 

[TEG]

...I'm not sure the CHAdeMO plug is that much of a problem.
...

I have seen one side out of order more than once due to broken CHAdeMO plug.
Eventually they replace it and they are good for a little while until it breaks again.
I was told that they are investigating a newer design (as a retrofit) that is supposed to solve some of the problems with the "Gen 1" plug that came with the original units.

 

[Ingineer]

...I'm not sure the CHAdeMO plug is that much of a problem.
...

I have seen one side out of order more than once due to broken CHAdeMO plug.
Eventually they replace it and they are good for a little while until it breaks again.
I was told that they are investigating a newer design (as a retrofit) that is supposed to solve some of the problems with the "Gen 1" plug that came with the original units.

There are plenty of better designs available now, and many are cheaper. Even Yazaki has a third generation unit due out soon:

Though based on my own personal experience with the Blink QC stations, most of their problems are software related. I've seen the software fail and leave the connector locked to people's cars, so it's not surprising they get broken!

-Phil

 

[EVDrive]

Blink's User Interface software needs help for sure and their plugs are way to heavy and unwieldy to get out of the holder let alone on and off the car. Especially hard with a new unit, older ones seems to be easier to connect and disconnect. I can mange it but I am a 200lb guy. I feel bad for people who need to use these Blink DC Chargers who are not ready to completely wrestle with the plugs to get them plugged in and then unplugged from the cars. I can easily see how people can break them by dropping them (destroyed by their own hideous overweighted mass), or break them trying to get them on/off the car. The Yazaki Handle is a clunky Piece of Sh*&. I try to ignore the hassle of the plug and just be happy about having a QC to use, and still free for now. Thanks Blink!

If I had to pay to use their setup, I would complain to Blink. I have to give Blink some credit though for finally getting some of these DCFC's in the ground.

The thing that Telsa is doing which Blink is not is installing multiple chargers at each fast charge location. Blink Units have 2 plugs and that is awesome but 4 plugs and 2 chargers would be way better so if one entire unit was down, we could still have a reasonable guarantee of a charge.

 

[carlcarrott]

Blink map say:

Chateau Montelena Winery
1429 Tubbs Lane
Calistoga, CA 94515

Currently says "offline" but who knows. Can anyone check this one out? Would be a nice location for one...

I used it on Sunday and posted review on Plugshare. Winery folks very helpful. They are also 100%
solar! Also have 240 charger. Nice to have a Quick Charge in Napa Valley. Lake County now within worry free travel as long as your doing during morning and early afternoon.

 

[mxp]

Blink map say:

Chateau Montelena Winery
1429 Tubbs Lane
Calistoga, CA 94515

Currently says "offline" but who knows. Can anyone check this one out? Would be a nice location for one...

I used it on Sunday and posted review on Plugshare. Winery folks very helpful. They are also 100%
solar! Also have 240 charger. Nice to have a Quick Charge in Napa Valley. Lake County now within worry free travel as long as your doing during morning and early afternoon.

Do you have to be a customer at the winery to use the QC ? I suppose this is not a 24hr/7 charging station right?

 

[Phoenix]

I completed the final inspection today for the Blink Fast charger located at the Good Earth Grocery store in Fairfax, Ca. It should be online for use pretty soon. They were just waiting to see if the owners want to have a ribbon cutting ceremony. I also just issued them a permit for a 230kW solar array.

I used the new charger at Good Earth Natural Foods yesterday. 5 minutes of charging gave me three extra bars so I could get home without worry as I was running low.

It was sweet. I had to wait for an ice to move to get in so be careful for now. Their is no signage or striping.

I go hiking at the redwoods in Laguntas all the time so I stop at this market every week. Now we can all go further into the boonies and make it back. The good Earth Market has an amazing made to order and take out deli as well as a coffee shop and both indoor and outdoor seating. I would encourage fellow Leafers to stop by, charge, eat some great food and say thank you to the market for supporting our dream.

Blink QC not working as of 12/3/2012, 2:30PM. Called, was told loss of connectivity--all screens dark. Manager did not have key to re-set yet. Too bad, worked great on 12/1/12. Also, SR Nissan DC QC has been down since at least mid-Nov.

 

[TEG]

VW ERL Blink QC was being flaky yesterday in a way I had not seen before.
It would start charging but then a couple minutes later it would shut down with a charging error.
I reset it a couple of times, and restarted, but after about 5 total minutes of QC, I gave up and went elsewhere.

 

[GRA]

And Blink continues establishing its record for dependability :roll: . I did talk to a guy charging a red Leaf at the Hayward QC a couple nights back, so at least that one was working then.

 

[EricBayArea]

This past weekend I was planning a trip to Russian River Brewing in Santa Rosa and my buddy thought it would be fun to take my LEAF.

I called Nissan of SR on Saturday and the LEAF guy told me it was down (I also saw on Plug Share but wanted to confirm). So we ended up taking the other car instead.

It's so sad because I really want to drive to further destinations with the LEAF. But without DCQC available and ESPECIALLY as unreliable as they are, it's not going to happen.

Last thing I want is to have to sit at a random location for 4 hours while the LEAF charges back up.

I really wish Nissan would deploy their DCQC to their dealerships... similar to Tesla and their QC stations.

 

[ericsf]

DCQC at Intuit in Menlo Park was down on Saturday. I had enough charge to go to Belmont instead. Someone was already using it but at least it was working. I was showing friends around the Silicon Valley and that didn't give them a good impression on how good the infrastructure is. If Nissan really want to sell more EV in the US they need to take the QC infrastucture in their own hands. The prototypes that Ecotality is puting up here and there are not ready for prime time.

 

[TEG]

...The prototypes that Ecotality is puting up here and there are not ready for prime time...

+1000

 

[peter]

And to add insult to injury, as of today all 4 local DCFC's are confirmed offline by Plugshare comments - and all show as ok on Blink map.

Way to go Ecotality!

 

[nlagnew]

Speaking as someone from a state (entire state, mind you) that is totally without ANY QC chargers... (unless one has been added somewhere far from me that I don't know about)

Is there a type that is reliable and not terribly "fragile" in terms of software, user interface, plug, and so forth?

My employer has on its back burner the notion of putting in a QC, but is looking for "technology that is sound and available".

Based on what I read here, that is easier said than done? I have to admit, the notion of being able to use a QC every now and then is appealing. You all out there on the other coast seem to have plenty of them, but the reliable part doesn't seem quite there??? :?: