Blink 2.0

[Ingineer]

The Email Ecotality sent out is titled "Look Out for the New Blink Software!". How appropriate! =)

2.0 seems to have even more bugs than the old 1.8!

-Phil

[SanDust]

It would be great if the new version stopped the public chargers from going into an endless loop, effectively taking themselves offline until they are reset. Seems like at any given time 30% of the chargers are in this state. Since Blink wants to start charging you'd think eliminating this problem would be high on the list of things to fix.

[TonyWilliams]

It would be great if the new version stopped the public chargers from going into an endless loop, effectively taking themselves offline until they are reset. Seems like at any given time 30% of the chargers are in this state. Since Blink wants to start charging you'd think eliminating this problem would be high on the list of things to fix.

I think collecting money from Uncle Sugar is number one. They don't have enough of these chargers to pay one employees salary.

[walterbays]

It would be great if the new version stopped the public chargers from going into an endless loop, effectively taking themselves offline until they are reset. Seems like at any given time 30% of the chargers are in this state. Since Blink wants to start charging you'd think eliminating this problem would be high on the list of things to fix.

+1

I sure hope 2.0 fixes it. With so few public chargers we really can't afford for 1/4 or more of them to be broken at any time. It looks like this is the same problem that happens to our home chargers, where we just unplug the Blink and plug it back in to reboot it. There's no such quick fix possibility with a public charger.

Another thing they must fix before they can start collecting money, is to set some reasonable charging session timeout after unplugging, and/or to implement a session logout button. Else much of the public charging is going to be mis-billed to the previous driver's account.

A third thing that would be highly desirable before they start collecting money is the ability like Chargepoint users have to reserve a charging station. In that way you could feel more confident before driving past the half-range point that you would be able to charge and make it back home again. I believe they said they are planning to do this.

I wouldn't be surprised if the start of money collection were delayed past ECOtality's announced date in order to fix the necessary software bugs first.

[garygid]

With the typical Blink-in-Public EVSE:

Could one unplug it from a paying customer's charging car,
plug it into a different car, and "continue" to charge ...
billing the first guy's account, no Blinking card needed?

Further, in those AB475 "specially marked" parking spaces,
to add major injury to minor injury, have the first car ...
towed away for being unplugged?

[ahagge]

What I noticed is that the display showed the amount of energy passed (12.2 kWh), which was about the same as what showed up on my Blink internet site (12.15 kWh). I don't recall seeing an energy display on the Blink screen with 1.8. Or am I just not observant?

You're correct - 1.8 didn't have a "kWh" display, only a "charge time" display - the only way to see the kWh was via the blinknetwork site.

That's one of the things I was hoping they'd add in 2.x. Now I just have to keep waiting for it...

[DarkStar]

With the typical Blink-in-Public EVSE:

Could one unplug it from a paying customer's charging car,
plug it into a different car, and "continue" to charge ...
billing the first guy's account, no Blinking card needed?

Further, in those AB475 "specially marked" parking spaces,
to add major injury to minor injury, have the first car ...
towed away for being unplugged?

Once the car is unplugged, the Blink requires a car be swiped again to restart charging.

[waitingforaleaf]

Unfortunately, there's nothing to prevent the second part from occurring.

As far as I remember, the J1722 connector for Blink units doesn't even have an area to put in a small travel lock to prevent your vehicle from being easily unplugged.

[garygid]

OK, Blink needs a card swipe to start a new session?
No swipe needed to END a session?

Why was "walterbays", 5 posts above, asking for a session timeout after unplugging?

From what you say, the session timeout is immediate upon unplugging, right?

[walterbays]

OK, Blink needs a card swipe to start a new session?
No swipe needed to END a session?

Why was "walterbays", 5 posts above, asking for a session timeout after unplugging?

From what you say, the session timeout is immediate upon unplugging, right?

When you disconnect it may stop "charging" in the electrical sense but I don't think it will stop "charging" in the monetary sense. Every time I use a public Blink I get notifications on my smartphone: charging, plugged, unplugged. This is great. But for hours afterwards I continue to get notifications, e.g. that my car is once again charging at Ikea, which is by then miles distant from my car. So I think they continue to associate all charging events with the same card that originally activated the unit for quite some time after unplugging, which does not give me confidence that I would be correctly billed for use of the unit. Maybe it's an easy bug to fix. I'm hoping that firmware 2.0 delivers the fix, and that it makes the public units more reliable.