Blink EVSE - Charging Data?

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baumgrenze

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 15, 2011
Messages
114
Location
Charlottesville, VA
I am a participant in the EVSE Project and have a project installed EVSE.

I got my car late last Wednesday. I've charged it a couple of times. The Blink does not seem to have kept any record of the chargings. Should it be doing so? Perhaps it is upset because the setup is 'incomplete.' We've never entered the $/KWH we pay to the Palo Alto Utilities Department. Does the Blink need this information to start collecting data?

Clearly the wireless internet connection worked well enough to satisfy the installer. The Blink has fully charged the car twice. This evening I found it displaying a "not charging" message. I turned on the car and it reported an 82 mile range instead of 94 or 96. I was too tired to pursue it further.

Is my setup still incomplete with respect to my responsibilities to the EV Project?

Thanks,

baumgrenze
 
The website generally will show results from a day or two previous. The actual display on the Blink will show information once you plug in your rate information as it only displays the cost.
 
My reading of your reply only tells me how clueless I am. Is there a way to log into Ecotality's website and see data on my car?

I did implement Carwings but I don't have a smart phone. I OK the screen every time I start the car. (What an annoyance. Someone should tell the lawyers who arranged that, and it has to be a combination of civil libertarians and corporate lawyers who decided that the best course of action is to annoy the hell out of the consumer, because each side can then claim 'victory' for their side.)

Is there a Carwings site where I can see the charging history for my vehicle?

Thanks,

baumgrenze
 
Carwings does not show the charging data from your Blink.

Go here http://www.blinknetwork.com/index.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; , sign up and you will be able to get data on your charging.
 
Try accessing it from your intranet at:

http://192.168.0.3" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Unfortunately, you won't get any more data than standing in front of the unit.
 
TonyWilliams said:
Try accessing it from your intranet at:

http://192.168.0.3" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Unfortunately, you won't get any more data than standing in front of the unit.
This is only your internal address. Everyone else's is going to be different.

One of the screens on the LCD display can provide the proper address.
 
Here's another question. How have others dealt with entering a ¢/kWh in the Blink if they live in Palo Alto? Here we try to discourage excessive use of electricity via a 3-stage billing process. Instead of a rate break for charging a car at night we find ourselves faced with this disincentive to drive anything but an internal combustion driven automobile:

9.6¢/kWh for less than 300 kWh per month
13.1¢/kWh for 301-600 kWh per month
17.4¢/kWh for anything in excess of 600 kWh per month.

In a house with an electric oven, electric refrigerator, and electric induction range-top, we find ourselves squarely in the upper-middle of the second bracket. Should I enter 15¢/kWh as a good a guess as any? I anticipate that we will drive about 500 miles/month. A conservative estimate suggests perhaps 200 kWh/mo for the Leaf, which will push us into the 17.4¢/kWh bracket. I am open to other perspectives.

Thanks,

baumgrenze
 
baumgrenze said:
Here's another question. How have others dealt with entering a ¢/kWh in the Blink if they live in Palo Alto? Here we try to discourage excessive use of electricity via a 3-stage billing process. Instead of a rate break for charging a car at night we find ourselves faced with this disincentive to drive anything but an internal combustion driven automobile:

9.6¢/kWh for less than 300 kWh per month
13.1¢/kWh for 301-600 kWh per month
17.4¢/kWh for anything in excess of 600 kWh per month.

In a house with an electric oven, electric refrigerator, and electric induction range-top, we find ourselves squarely in the upper-middle of the second bracket. Should I enter 15¢/kWh as a good a guess as any? I anticipate that we will drive about 500 miles/month. A conservative estimate suggests perhaps 200 kWh/mo for the Leaf, which will push us into the 17.4¢/kWh bracket. I am open to other perspectives.

Thanks,

baumgrenze
I'm willing to guess that it is actually 9.6¢/kWh for the first 300kWh, 13.1¢/kWh for the next 300 kWh, and 17.4¢/kWh after the next 300 kWh. Either way, what I would do is take your monthly electric bill and divide the total $$ by the number of kWh used to get your average, including taxes and surcharges and enter that in, adjusting after the first month or so of ownership.
 
baumgrenze said:
Here's another question. How have others dealt with entering a ¢/kWh in the Blink if they live in Palo Alto? Here we try to discourage excessive use of electricity via a 3-stage billing process. Instead of a rate break for charging a car at night we find ourselves faced with this disincentive to drive anything but an internal combustion driven automobile:

9.6¢/kWh for less than 300 kWh per month
13.1¢/kWh for 301-600 kWh per month
17.4¢/kWh for anything in excess of 600 kWh per month.
There's no way to enter your electricity rates on the Blink using a tiered billing rate as is typical for most households. You would need a way to enter your billing start/end dates and keep track of your cumulative kWh which would need to be fed back into the Blink on a very regular process and program in your tier levels.

Your best bet is to simply enter an estimated rate and adjust as necessary. I assume you normally use between 301-600 kWh / month without the LEAF?
 
I notice that although the Blink web site says:

" ... This area allow you to build your own customer report from our data marts. To create a new report, click the new button next to the data mart
Click on a report name to run the report, or click edit to change the details of a report. ...."

There doesn't seem to be any "new button" in the data mart area (where ever that may be, although I am assuming it is the area in which the Widgets are placed).

Any clues?

Dave
 
TonyWilliams said:
Try accessing it from your intranet at:

http://192.168.0.3" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Unfortunately, you won't get any more data than standing in front of the unit.


:lol: I tried that and got my neighbor's WiFi porno collection .... :roll:

Seriously, your Blink unit will have it's own local Internet address as part of your home network. For example, you may have a router attached to the Cable Modem. (Cable Modem is what converts the data from the actual cable TV cable so you can use it). Then to the cable unit you may have a router or a switch connected. The router is what is usually found. It will distribute the signal from the Cable (your Internet connection) to the various Internet connected devices in your local area. Por exhemplo:

----->Cable-----> Adaptor --------> Router (192.168.0.1) ---------> (see below)

192.168.0.100 ---------> Your computer or workstation
192.168.0.101 ---------> Printer
192.168.0.102 ---------> Wii box (if you have one)
192.168.0.103 ---------> Internet capable HDTV Set
192.168.0.104 ---------> Blink Unit


and so on ... and so on ... etc...

Remember, that YMMV and that your PC may not be 192.168.0.100, as in the example. Also your Router may not have 192.168.0.1 assigned as it's personal address. You have to RTFM to get that address or use a port scanner application.

The Blink unit (as has been explained in several other areas herein) is a Kluge of various components and looks to your Router just like another computer. Matter of fact, it IS a computer with the entire operating system (Linux) and so forth on a single small-format PC board and then crapified with other stuff by the Blink people who finally got it to work. Let's be charitable and say that the Blink device is a "Work in Progress".

Once the non-disclosure, anti-tampering and other restrictions are off the Blink unit (which you signed up to in exchange for a free unit) you may be certain that we will swiftly conduct a Hacker's defenestration upon the Blink unit and redesign it.

HTH, YMMV,

Dave
 
CWO4Mann said:
I notice that although the Blink web site says:

" ... This area allow you to build your own customer report from our data marts. To create a new report, click the new button next to the data mart
Click on a report name to run the report, or click edit to change the details of a report. ...."

There doesn't seem to be any "new button" in the data mart area (where ever that may be, although I am assuming it is the area in which the Widgets are placed).

Any clues?

Dave
At your prompt, I just found the same area of the website. If I had to guess, it's part of a "future expansion" that isn't online yet. It sounds like they'll allow custom report generation and then (hopefully) the ability to access the data from external apps using the "token" that the website allows you to generate today.

At least, I hope so...time will tell.
 
Here's a closing report from the OP.

It turned out that the meter in our original Blink was faulty. Once the unit was swapped out, and a Cisco Valet and a pair of Alfa AHPE 303 powerline adapters were installed at the same time, everything has worked as expected.

I should point out that the Blink charged the car from day 1, it just failed to collect data and would not communicate with the EV Project.

All's well that that ends well.
 
Hopefully you've discovered the Usage Stats in your BlinkNetwork accounts.

If not, from the BlinkNetwork home page click on My Chargers -> Manage -> Usage Stags. Enter your date range and click View Tabular Data. A fair report is reported that would be much better if you could export it to Excel.

Regards,

Don
VIN 15033
 
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