DC Fast Chargers are Back on the BlinkMap

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Blink

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 5, 2012
Messages
47
Hey All,

You may have noticed that recently, we removed all of our DC Fast Chargers from the BlinkMap while we made hardware and software upgrades. We are pleased to report that all DC Fast Chargers are back on the BlinkMap and available for your use.

We'd like to encourage you to get out and test these enhancements, and let us know how we're doing. All Blink DC Fast Chargers are free to use during this test period, so please visit them often!

If you see a problem, contact us at [email protected]. Please note that on some units, the large monitors are still undergoing testing. The screen may be dark, but it is likely that the unit can still charge your car.

Thanks, and we appreciate your patience while we continue to improve the Blink charging experience!
 
Speaking of DC fast chargers, do you have any place on your website that we can go to see where you're planning place future DC fast chargers, or offer proposed locations? I'm sure that the members here can offer a number of high-traffic locations (*cough* I-5 around Mission Viejo *cough* I-5 in Lebec *cough*)... :)
 
I have to say that I am very pleased to see so many QC's cropping up in the Seattle Metro area. My prediction is that public charging use is going to skyrocket and the miles people are putting on their Leaf's will go up appreciably! Personally, I'd recommend putting in QC's first in new markets, as they are the key to consumer confidence and utility!
 
stanley said:
There are still non in the greater San Diego area. Are any planed ?

There is one planned to go in at Santa Ysabel (up by Julian). I was there a few weeks ago, and they had the teeny tiniest of physical preparation work done. This unit will be located at Don's Market, nearest the highway. You can see the picture I took here.

The company representative for this project has been coming to our San Diego bi-monthly LEAF meetings since January.

Blink currently has five in the state of California; two in the San Francisco Bay area, one in LA (locked up in a private parking lot and therefore inaccessible part of the day), and one in Santa Rosa at the Nissan dealer.

Seattle has one, and Portland has two. That's the entire western USA. Then, the Tennesse chargers at Crackle Barrel restaurants.
 
ahagge said:
Speaking of DC fast chargers, do you have any place on your website that we can go to see where you're planning place future DC fast chargers, or offer proposed locations? I'm sure that the members here can offer a number of high-traffic locations (*cough* I-5 around Mission Viejo *cough* I-5 in Lebec *cough*)... :)

Hi ahagge,
Great question! Send all your requests for installation locations to Jessica, [email protected]. Jessica will make sure that your request is passed on to the right team. For all things Blink, please follow us on BlinkShare. - (http://www.blinknetwork.com/share" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;) -It's the place to find all the latest Blink news!
 
WA actually has 3 Blinks (all in Seattle) 12 AV's and a few Eatons with recently announced plans for 9 more Blinks. we were told that Fife and Puyallup were on the list but have no info on the other 7 despite the fact we were led to believe that the "paperwork" is in.

this is great news and as one who has used quick charge several times, it is a game changer big time
 
Blink said:
All Blink DC Fast Chargers are free to use during this test period, so please visit them often!
Hm, you make this announcement on 8/10 and today I got an email from Ecotality/Blink that the free charging period will end on 8/15. So is it true that this "test" period you mentioned is only good for 5 days? What's the point? The test period will be over before it's barely begun...
 
Volusiano said:
Blink said:
All Blink DC Fast Chargers are free to use during this test period, so please visit them often!
Hm, you make this announcement on 8/10 and today I got an email from Ecotality/Blink that the free charging period will end on 8/15. So is it true that this "test" period you mentioned is only for 5 days?


This is for L2 units, only. DC fast charging pricing will still be free.
 
As far as DC FC suggested locations go, what they really need are "interested host" suggestions and not "put it here" suggestions. They are not the same thing...An "interested host" would be willing to spend some funds to install the charging station and be willing to host it by paying electricity costs (which may be more than revenue collected).

A successful host will see the bigger picture of attracting customers to their business and the value in that and the statement it makes, and not just look at net revenue (the difference between billing and O&M costs)...
 
Randy said:
As far as DC FC suggested locations go, what they really need are "interested host" suggestions and not "put it here" suggestions. They are not the same thing...An "interested host" would be willing to spend some funds to install the charging station and be willing to host it by paying electricity costs (which may be more than revenue collected).

A successful host will see the bigger picture of attracting customers to their business and the value in that and the statement it makes, and not just look at net revenue (the difference between billing and O&M costs)...

you are right and you need to contact your local Blink guy to push suggested locations his way. "our" Blink guy has been asking us for good locations for quite a while now. hopefully, it is helping
 
I have a dumb question here. I assume that the timer on the LEAF only applies to its own built-in charger, right? For example, if I set my timer on the LEAF to charge to 80% only, but I set the DCFC to charge to 90%, the DCFC, with its owner charger, will proceed to charge the battery to 90% because the 80% limit doesn't apply to the DCFC and only applies to the 3.3kwh LEAF charger, right?
 
Volusiano said:
I have a dumb question here. I assume that the timer on the LEAF only applies to its own built-in charger, right? For example, if I set my timer on the LEAF to charge to 80% only, but I set the DCFC to charge to 90%, the DCFC, with its owner charger, will proceed to charge the battery to 90% because the 80% limit doesn't apply to the DCFC and only applies to the 3.3kwh LEAF charger, right?
Yes, although if the car starts at a state of less than 50%, it will stop automatically at the 80% mark. Worse, this behavior seems of interact badly with the Blink's % settings.
 
davewill said:
Volusiano said:
I have a dumb question here. I assume that the timer on the LEAF only applies to its own built-in charger, right? For example, if I set my timer on the LEAF to charge to 80% only, but I set the DCFC to charge to 90%, the DCFC, with its owner charger, will proceed to charge the battery to 90% because the 80% limit doesn't apply to the DCFC and only applies to the 3.3kwh LEAF charger, right?
Yes, although if the car starts at a state of less than 50%, it will stop automatically at the 80% mark. Worse, this behavior seems of interact badly with the Blink's % settings.
Wow, so even if you set it to 90% or 100%, the DCFC still stops at 80% if the original SOC is less than 50%? That's confusing and misleading...

Would the Blink folks on this thread care to comment on this?
 
This isn't Blink. The LEAF will stop the charge when it deems appropriate... 80% (LEAF SOC) if you start below 50%, or closer to 100% if you start above 50%.

The Blink DCFC is one of the few (or possibly the only) unit that lets you set a target SOC. If you want it to behave like most other brands, just set it to 100% and let the LEAF stop it. (FYI: 90% Blink SOC is close to your LEAF 80%.)

The SOC the Blink DCFC reads via CHAdeMO will not match your LEAF's dash SOC. (Yes, the LEAF lies to the unit... by design.) So, if you pick the 80% default target on the Blink unit, your car will actually get around a 70% charge before stopping.
 
Is it true what I heard that if you set the DCFC to 100% charge, it'll fast charge to 80% then switch over to L2-comparable charging rate for the rest of the way?
 
That is false. You can start a new session -- and it'll be painfully slow since it's at the top of the battery. But you can consider this "bad behavior" from Nissan's point of view, or... well... they wouldn't have stopped the charge at 80% in the first place. ;)

(The best energy bang for your time is from LBW to LEAF 80%. This can happen in a little over 20 minutes total.)
 
grommet said:
That is false. You can start a new session -- and it'll be painfully slow since it's at the top of the battery. But you can consider this "bad behavior" from Nissan's point of view, or... well... they wouldn't have stopped the charge at 80% in the first place. ;)

(The best energy bang for your time is from LBW to LEAF 80%. This can happen in a little over 20 minutes total.)
I'm confused. On one hand you said it's false (charge fast to 80% then slow the rest of the way). On the other hand, you said best bang for time is 20 minutes from LBW to LEAF 80% (implying that it's slow the rest of the way). So are you confirming that LBW to 80% is fast and 80%-100% is slow?

Is it slow between 80%-100% because it's designed like that on purpose (to cut down on heat generated or something)? Or is it slow between 80%-100% because of some physical phenomena in the reaction of the battery chemistry or resistance or something like that?
 
Hello,
The reality is the DCQC starts out at 50kW input to the car but within just a few minutes the battery temp begins to rise and the leaf actually commands the DCQC to slow down. At the ten minute mark it's only putting in ~20kW. The AV reads output in W/sec. It starts out at 13 ~14 W/sec, ends up at 1 = L2 = (60*60=3.6 kW/h). When I charged to 100% in Eugene it was charging at ~.6 W/sec when it was finishing. So it is a sliding scale, ever decreasing over time based on SOC and temp.
 
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