Installing Electrician Told to Swap SD?

I just received a call today from the electrician who installed my Blink a few months ago. Said they received a notice from Blink/EVP to swap my SD card. I told her that the only issue I ever contacted Blink with was a software question that they answered. So I'm not sure why they want to swap the SD card.

Any thoughts?
Perhaps it has some relation to the email I sent to EVP telling them I do not accept the new terms of their agreement?

They have SD card issues with early SD cards.

I just received an email from Blink that they want to swap out my SD card, also. I've had fewer-than-average issues with my EVSE, so I'm guessing it's a preventative move.

sproqitman said:

I just received an email from Blink that they want to swap out my SD card, also. I've had fewer-than-average issues with my EVSE, so I'm guessing it's a preventative move.

Click to expand...

I haven't had a single issue (yet) with charging, so I suppose it's preventative as well.

EVDRIVER said:

They have SD card issues with early SD cards.

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I've never designed an SD card into anything, but I'm completely dumbfounded by the amount of trouble the Blinks appear to have with theirs. FLASH storage has been around for a decade or so, and seems to be pretty reliable as storage for BIOS programs, pictures in cameras, etc. What in the name of Babbage did the Blink's "designers" do that makes their SD cards appear to have such a high failure rate???

Maybe the installers should just leave a McDonald's bag full of spare SD cards along with every unit..

Levenkay said:

I've never designed an SD card into anything, but I'm completely dumbfounded by the amount of trouble the Blinks appear to have with theirs. FLASH storage has been around for a decade or so, and seems to be pretty reliable as storage for BIOS programs, pictures in cameras, etc. ...

Click to expand...

The SD standard has done a lot of evolving of the last few years. It had to be updated when cards went over 4GB, and as cards have been asked to hold bigger and bigger media there have been changes to boost their speed. This has resulted in lot of devices having issues with particular cards. A device like the Blink with the SD card embedded could be more prone to this since testing against a wide range of cards might not have been considered necessary. After all, end users aren't going to be ordering cheap cards from China and plugging them in. That might have been optimistic, though.

EVDRIVER said:

They have SD card issues with early SD cards.

Click to expand...

I got the email this weekend, and the call today; they're coming Thursday morning.

They replaced my whole Blink in July, with a brand-new (then) SD card--so apparently it's not the vintage of the card that's the issue.

The email said "...your Blink Charging station has been flagged for needing an SD card replacement...". It's been charging like a champ since they replaced it (before that, not so good).

Odd.

So they came to replace the SD card today. These guys are new contractors to the EVP, this was apparently one of their first.

I told them the unit had been replaced in July and has been fine since, they said that they were giving me the latest and greatest new system on this new SD card. OK, cool.

When they were done, I asked how it went. They told me that I already had the latest, that there was no need to do a swap.

Jeez...

And later that same day, I get an invitation to become a beta tester for the next round of updates. To do so will require...

...A SITE VISIT to check out my Blink.

I'm starting to think I need to give these guys a garage door opener.

My Blink SD Card was replaced yesterday. After the SD replacement, the unit wouldn't connect via wi-fi. Sporatically during setup it wouldn't even find my network.

After about 30 minutes trying to get it to work, the tech connected it via hard wire. It was pretty simple as I already had conduit from my PV monitor.

Everything seems to be working fine now (seem to be working fine before too).

Seems the problem is related to the SD Card Manufacturer (although replaced with same brand).

I also have volunteered for the Beta software program.

So I got the original call from the electrician, saying that Blink wants them to come exchange my SD card.

I get a hold of the electrician company and tell them sure, fine, whatever, I don't mind. The lady asks if I've been having any issues and I say no, I have not. So she tells me she'll call me tomorrow after she talks to Blink because it sounds weird.

She calls me the next day and says she spoke to Blink and they said there were network issues or something and I have an "old" SD card. So while on the phone, she looks up my install date and sees that it is 3 weeks after the "new" batch of SD cards came in and she is sure I have a new one. While on the phone, I look at the Blink and pull up "Network Status" and everything says "FAILED." So I click "Retest" and viola! Everything is now "PASS." I tell her this while we're on the phone. She says, "you know what, I'm going to call Blink back and tell them you have a card from the newest batch. And if they STILL want us to replace it, I'll call you back. Otherwise, let's assume they didn't know that and we don't need to do anything." I'm good with that!

And yes, I received the email about being a beta tester for their software. I didn't see anything about a site visit, but who knows...

EricBayArea said:

And yes, I received the email about being a beta tester for their software. I didn't see anything about a site visit, but who knows...

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It wasn't a definite thing:

To prep for the process, one of our contractors may schedule a visit to your home to make sure your Blink unit is correctly configured before the software push.

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Maybe today's visit qualified.

Levenkay said:

EVDRIVER said:

They have SD card issues with early SD cards.

Click to expand...

I've never designed an SD card into anything, but I'm completely dumbfounded by the amount of trouble the Blinks appear to have with theirs. FLASH storage has been around for a decade or so, and seems to be pretty reliable as storage for BIOS programs, pictures in cameras, etc. What in the name of Babbage did the Blink's "designers" do that makes their SD cards appear to have such a high failure rate???

Maybe the installers should just leave a McDonald's bag full of spare SD cards along with every unit..

Click to expand...

(Not that I know anything about Blink EVSEs and their SD cards...)
You might find http://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?p=918" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; to be interesting reading regarding problems the makers of Chumby had w/some Kingston microSD cards. There's a lot more to it than that...

If it's a case of garbage in, garbage out, leaving an entire bag of spare SD cards might not do any good, if they're all the same garbage.

SilverLeaf said:

My Blink SD Card was replaced yesterday. After the SD replacement, the unit wouldn't connect via wi-fi. Sporatically during setup it wouldn't even find my network.

After about 30 minutes trying to get it to work, the tech connected it via hard wire. It was pretty simple as I already had conduit from my PV monitor.

Everything seems to be working fine now (seem to be working fine before too).

Seems the problem is related to the SD Card Manufacturer (although replaced with same brand).

I also have volunteered for the Beta software program.

Click to expand...

Ditto here.

New SD card installed yesterday. Replaced original with Sandisk brand.

I'm now back on 1.6 firmware, but am signed up for the 2.0 beta.

Had identical wireless issues as you did. Had to hard-wire to resolve. I had a wireless repeater so used that instead of the powerline Ethernet extender they wanted to put in. I may make the wireless repeater a permanent feature and keep the Blink off wireless if the 2.0 firmware doesn't improve its wireless reliability. The installer said they are hopeful once the firmware is updated across the hard-wire, the wireless will improve. I'll believe it when I see it.