Copper wire thieves

My Nissan Leaf Forum

Help Support My Nissan Leaf Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Indeed. Reminds me of https://www.thedrive.com/news/thieves-steal-sfpds-catalytic-converters-right-in-front-of-the-station ("Thieves Steal SFPD’s Catalytic Converters Right in Front of the Station").

While trying to dig that up, I found https://www.kron4.com/news/bay-area/2-at-large-after-catalytic-converter-thefts-shooting-at-officers-sfpd/.
 
cwerdna said:
Indeed. Reminds me of https://www.thedrive.com/news/thieves-steal-sfpds-catalytic-converters-right-in-front-of-the-station ("Thieves Steal SFPD’s Catalytic Converters Right in Front of the Station").

While trying to dig that up, I found https://www.kron4.com/news/bay-area/2-at-large-after-catalytic-converter-thefts-shooting-at-officers-sfpd/.

Geez, no limits on what these guys will do I guess. Crazy to attempt something that brazen right in front of the PD.
 
At
Code:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/seattlenissanleaf/posts/7779363438761692/
(sorry, private group), there was a post of an image from Nextdoor mentioning that Redmond, WA had "ALL" its public fast chargers destroyed. I can't speak to all, but it has pics of EA, EVgo and Flo DC FC sites (one of each) and all of them have cut cables.

I did find these in/around Redmond w/reports of cut cables. It doesn't seem to be all.
https://www.plugshare.com/location/557032
https://www.plugshare.com/location/263842
https://www.plugshare.com/location/553073
 
Aluminum conductors in the cable might help but I don't know if that would be safe/durable enough.
They would need to be thicker and aluminum fatigues much faster. I dont know why they weren’t built with locking cabinets or reels for the cable. This was totally predictable.
 
The solution may be to not have cables and require users to bring their own. Locking cords or something.
Those for DC fast charging are expensive, esp. the connectors. And, above a certain power level, the cable and pins are liquid cooled. The assembles on Electrify America for 150 and 350 kW DC FCing are that. See the HPC500 solutions at https://www.hubersuhner.com/en/mark...ture/ev-fast-charging/high-power-charging-hpc.

It's mentioned at https://www.chevybolt.org/threads/m...eld-engineer-important-for-bolt-owners.47110/ that "the same cord and handle is used on all units, 150 or 350kW." He's of course referring to CCS1 since EA doesn't have 150 or 350 kW CHAdeMO.

In Europe, apparently, most AC charging (via Mennekes Type 2 which we don't use in the US as we use J1772) is bring your own cable. But, AFAIK, all DC FCing there also has the cable tethered to station.
 
Last edited:
In Europe, apparently, most AC charging (via Mennekes Type 2 which we don't use in the US as we use J1772) is bring your own cable.
In Australia, tethered or not depends a lot on the location. At a rough estimate, 50% of AC "chargers" overall are tethered. So I have to buy a cable anyway, even if I don't need it half the time. Plus, most charging further than the local shopping centre will be DC fast charging anyway.

I was surprised to read that the J1772 specification explicitly prohibits non-tethered operation. Then I realised that this is because of the way that the proximity pilot is handled in J1772 versus type 2. With J1772 it's the trigger switch, with type 2 it's a resistor indicating the cable's current rating (the horribly named "ampacity"). The trigger switch is replaced by a motorised locking mechanism in type 2. That way, some grub can't just yank out the plug and put it into their vehicle parked in the next bay, or just yank it out and leave it in the gutter. I guess you have the option of putting a padlock on the trigger, but how often do you use that? Perhaps only if you end up on the wrong side of the railway tracks some day. It seems to me that type 2, being a later standard, is a little better thought out.

Once again, the US has the first workable standard (J1772, fortunately Avcon didn't survive), and gets stuck with it. It reminds me of NTSC broadcast TV standards (Never Twice Same Color), and 120 V (which many people still think of as 110 V for some strange reason) for domestic outlets. Fortunately broadcast TV has presumably faded away, but the 120 V 15 A outlet (not with earth conductor!) lives on. Forgive me if I've been on about this before.

Perhaps most charging will gradually change over to the NACS standard. Does that lock automatically? I think it does. There is still the issue of some anti-EV grub trying to yank out the cable, possibly causing some damage.
 
Geez, no limits on what these guys will do I guess. Crazy to attempt something that brazen right in front of the PD.
Maybe the charger cable should always have some residual current in them. the locking reel idea is probably the best idea
 
Maybe the charger cable should always have some residual current in them.
Heh. I actually considered keeping the cooling water (if present) pressurised. Thieves getting their clothes soaked or stuff in their eyes might slow them down.

I considered even adding something like pepper spray to the fluid, if that didn't adversely affect performance or longevity. But there are always genuine accidents, and you don't want the customers getting injured by a hose wearing out or inadvertently driven over by a previous customer.

I don't think we want a cat and mouse situation like the copy protection days.
 
Those for DC fast charging are expensive, esp. the connectors. And, above a certain power level, the cable and pins are liquid cooled. The assembles on Electrify America for 150 and 350 kW DC FCing are that. See the HPC500 solutions at https://www.hubersuhner.com/en/mark...ture/ev-fast-charging/high-power-charging-hpc.

It's mentioned at https://www.chevybolt.org/threads/m...eld-engineer-important-for-bolt-owners.47110/ that "the same cord and handle is used on all units, 150 or 350kW." He's of course referring to CCS1 since EA doesn't have 150 or 350 kW CHAdeMO.

In Europe, apparently, most AC charging (via Mennekes Type 2 which we don't use in the US as we use J1772) is bring your own cable. But, AFAIK, all DC FCing there also has the cable tethered to station.
Then it’s got to be locked up in some way. Reel or whatnot BYC does seem to be the way to do it. I took one look at a “public” charger and my first thought was “that won’t last a month”. Seems it lasted a bit longer, but not nearly long enough. The design was stupid from the get-go. The EU apparently saw that as obvious too.
 
There is a lot of animosity about EV's I wonder how many are damaged just to put the charger out of action and not for the copper? If that is the reason, then who ever is doing it will look for another way to disable the charger.
Nothing can be done about coal rollers though
 
Heh. I actually considered keeping the cooling water (if present) pressurised. Thieves getting their clothes soaked or stuff in their eyes might slow them down.

I considered even adding something like pepper spray to the fluid, if that didn't adversely affect performance or longevity. But there are always genuine accidents, and you don't want the customers getting injured by a hose wearing out or inadvertently driven over by a previous customer.

I don't think we want a cat and mouse situation like the copy protection days.
Put dye in the water. And maybe some cat citron
 
Back
Top