New Firmware Pushed : L2R.1.5A

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DarkStar said:
EVDRIVER said:
I don't see why anyone would use a Blink timer.
I use the timer since I'm paying for time-of-use electricity from the utility provider. The cheap stuff starts at 10pm...


The Leaf does that, many of us are on TOU.
 
EVDRIVER said:
DarkStar said:
EVDRIVER said:
I don't see why anyone would use a Blink timer.
I use the timer since I'm paying for time-of-use electricity from the utility provider. The cheap stuff starts at 10pm...
The Leaf does that, many of us are on TOU.
And then you can't use the EV Charge Sharing Protocol. If you're plugged into a public charging station and some kid presses the release button, even if it stays plugged in, the car won't start charging automatically again.

The key to EVs success will by being able to charge anywhere except at home.
 
EVDRIVER said:
DarkStar said:
EVDRIVER said:
I don't see why anyone would use a Blink timer.
I use the timer since I'm paying for time-of-use electricity from the utility provider. The cheap stuff starts at 10pm...


The Leaf does that, many of us are on TOU.

The Blink user manual recommend that you use the vehicle's onboard charge timer for timed charging when so equipped. As I expect all modern EVs to have an onboard charge timer, the timing feature of the Blink seems a bit extraneous. I use my Leaf's timer to make sure I charge during off peak TOU. Besides, the time on my Blink is always off by one hour - regardless of whether its on auto, manual or DST - so I'm not likely to trust it do turn on after midnight. ;)
 
LBCev said:
The Blink user manual recommend that you use the vehicle's onboard charge timer for timed charging when so equipped. As I expect all modern EVs to have an onboard charge timer, the timing feature of the Blink seems a bit extraneous. I use my Leaf's timer to make sure I charge during off peak TOU. Besides, the time on my Blink is always off by one hour - regardless of whether its on auto, manual or DST - so I'm not likely to trust it do turn on after midnight. ;)

I thought the Blink folks said to use the Blink timer and NOT the Leaf timer??? Am I the only one that heard that?? :?:
 
Jimmydreams said:
LBCev said:
The Blink user manual recommend that you use the vehicle's onboard charge timer for timed charging when so equipped. As I expect all modern EVs to have an onboard charge timer, the timing feature of the Blink seems a bit extraneous. I use my Leaf's timer to make sure I charge during off peak TOU. Besides, the time on my Blink is always off by one hour - regardless of whether its on auto, manual or DST - so I'm not likely to trust it do turn on after midnight. ;)

I thought the Blink folks said to use the Blink timer and NOT the Leaf timer??? Am I the only one that heard that?? :?:


Probably. regardless it is irrelevant, I was told the opposite and there is no point in using their buggy timer, besides the get the exact same data. Use the LEAF timer and you don't need to worry.
 
EVDRIVER said:
Jimmydreams said:
LBCev said:
The Blink user manual recommend that you use the vehicle's onboard charge timer for timed charging when so equipped. As I expect all modern EVs to have an onboard charge timer, the timing feature of the Blink seems a bit extraneous. I use my Leaf's timer to make sure I charge during off peak TOU. Besides, the time on my Blink is always off by one hour - regardless of whether its on auto, manual or DST - so I'm not likely to trust it do turn on after midnight. ;)

I thought the Blink folks said to use the Blink timer and NOT the Leaf timer??? Am I the only one that heard that?? :?:


Probably. regardless it is irrelevant, I was told the opposite and there is no point in using their buggy timer, besides the get the exact same data. Use the LEAF timer and you don't need to worry.

I don't care which one I use, as long as it's reliable. I'll try switching to the Leaf timer and see if that helps with the reliability.

But if I can help debug the Blink firmware, I will, so long as I don't wake up to a dead battery...
 
EVDRIVER said:
I don't see why anyone would use a Blink timer. Besides that the update added a last charge screen at the main menu but it is almost useless as it omits kwh used at last charge which is all I care about since the cost estimates are pointless and inaccurate on my plan and I don't care about times or % at peak etc. Having kwh used one does not have to note and subtract each time. Duh Blink. :idea:
Just set your cost to charge at a flat $0.10/kwh or $1/kwh, and then you'll get kwh used from the last charge cost.

Wayne
 
Jimmydreams said:
I found a bug the other day....

I had Blink set up to weekdays at midnight, weekends at 11pm. I plugged the Leaf in Friday afternoon at around 4pm. The Blink correctly displayed "Time to charge: 8:00" and the countdown went just fine.
Sounds to me like the "time to charge" is incorrect. If you only have two charge intervals set, and one starts weekdays at midnight, and the other starts weekends at 11:00 p.m., then you are not asking for a charge on Saturday mornings.

Cheers, Wayne
 
Jimmydreams said:
LBCev said:
The Blink user manual recommend that you use the vehicle's onboard charge timer for timed charging when so equipped. As I expect all modern EVs to have an onboard charge timer, the timing feature of the Blink seems a bit extraneous. I use my Leaf's timer to make sure I charge during off peak TOU. Besides, the time on my Blink is always off by one hour - regardless of whether its on auto, manual or DST - so I'm not likely to trust it do turn on after midnight. ;)

I thought the Blink folks said to use the Blink timer and NOT the Leaf timer??? Am I the only one that heard that?? :?:
Hmm... The Blink manual actually doesn't say either of these (page 23):

Your blink allows you to create a charging schedule for when you want to charge your vehicle. We recommend a charging schedule if you have a multiple-rate plan, because it helps you take advantage of time-of-use plans. For example, if you typically come home from work at 6:00, but your utility has a discount rate that starts at 9:00pm, scheduling a 9:00pm charge start time on weekdays allows you to simply plug in your vehicle when you get home and then forget about it. Your blink charging system will wait until 9:00 to start charging – saving you money. You can schedule multiple time slots, too – for example, after work on weekdays and during the early morning hours on weekends.

Note: If your vehicle can also save a charging schedule, make sure that the schedule in your blink does not conflict with the vehicle’s schedule. Only enter a schedule in your vehicle or your blink – not both.

You also can choose to have charging start immediately when the connector is plugged into your vehicle. This works well when you have a single-rate electricity billing plan, where there is no cost advantage if you delay charging.
 
Jimmydreams said:
LBCev said:
The Blink user manual recommend that you use the vehicle's onboard charge timer for timed charging when so equipped. As I expect all modern EVs to have an onboard charge timer, the timing feature of the Blink seems a bit extraneous. I use my Leaf's timer to make sure I charge during off peak TOU. Besides, the time on my Blink is always off by one hour - regardless of whether its on auto, manual or DST - so I'm not likely to trust it do turn on after midnight. ;)

I thought the Blink folks said to use the Blink timer and NOT the Leaf timer??? Am I the only one that heard that?? :?:

Nope. And they went one step further and told me the Leaf had a problem (vs. the Blink)
 
wwhitney said:
EVDRIVER said:
I don't see why anyone would use a Blink timer. Besides that the update added a last charge screen at the main menu but it is almost useless as it omits kwh used at last charge which is all I care about since the cost estimates are pointless and inaccurate on my plan and I don't care about times or % at peak etc. Having kwh used one does not have to note and subtract each time. Duh Blink. :idea:
Just set your cost to charge at a flat $0.10/kwh or $1/kwh, and then you'll get kwh used from the last charge cost.
Last charge is not reliable i.e. it could be the small cell balancing charge after the main overnight charge. I always note the cumulative charge everyday to get daily charges.
 
With firmware L2R.1.5A, is anyone able to get the correct auto-set time?

Mine is one hour FAST (Pacific DST). I have to set it manually to get the correct time.
(via web interface)
 
Okay, this is a little confusing.. the web interface is "one hour ahead" of the front-panel interface.

Which means if I want charging to start a midnight, I need to set it for 1AM?
WTF?
 
GroundLoop said:
Okay, this is a little confusing.. the web interface is "one hour ahead" of the front-panel interface.

Which means if I want charging to start a midnight, I need to set it for 1AM?
WTF?
If the time zone is set properly, the front of the Blink will display the correct time. The Intranet page always displays the incorrect "current time," but all timers are for your local time. No need to adjust how you schedule, just set the time you want it to start/stop.
 
Though I have no car yet, I turned on my Blink so that it could update the firmware. This happened within an hour or two, not waiting for midnight as the manual warned it might, and it went to L2R.1.5A. The only change I saw was that it changed the date to November 6, 2011. (Maybe they know something about my car delivery that my dashboard doesn't, eh? :)

I was a bit surprised when I turned on the Blink for the first time that it, unlike nearly every other network device, was unable to automatically set date and time from an ntp server. No problem, I thought as I manually set them. But forcing an incorrect setting with a firmware update doesn't give me a lot of confidence. I see why most people set their Blink as a "dumb" EVSE and rely on the LEAF's own charge timers instead.

This also means that all the Blink's reports on cost of charging may be useless. And charging data transmitted to the EV Project might also be useless, unless the date/time errors remain constant, and they timestamp the network transmissions so that EV Project can calculate the actual dates and times based on the relative errors in the transmissions.

Sigh. But "free" was a very good price for the unit!

Update 5/16:

Besides setting the date/time wrong the other thing the firmware update did was to undo my screen calibration. This problem manifested as the unit seeming to lock up every time I went a couple of screens in any direction - as in attempting to adjust the date/time. Turning the Blink off/on "fixed" it temporarily. Also leaving it frozen "fixed" it, as after an hour (or maybe less) it would go back to the home screen; but still it was unable to do anything. I couldn't find a setting to recalibrate the screen because it would always lock up before I could explore for that screen.

The answer was to turn it on and watch and wait, wait, wait. It takes it maybe 5 minutes to boot up and I always walked away to come back later when it was ready. But just after it boots up it goes through the screen calibration screen, and if you aren't standing there waiting for it, you'll miss it - and miss your chance to fix it. Once I recalibrated the touch screen began working again.
 
DarkStar said:
GroundLoop said:
Okay, this is a little confusing.. the web interface is "one hour ahead" of the front-panel interface.

Which means if I want charging to start a midnight, I need to set it for 1AM?
WTF?
If the time zone is set properly, the front of the Blink will display the correct time. The Intranet page always displays the incorrect "current time," but all timers are for your local time. No need to adjust how you schedule, just set the time you want it to start/stop.

The blinknetwork site also has incorrect times. (or rather, times that don't match the front-panel display or observed timer behavior.) The timer values showing on the intranet page are incorrect.. 1AM and it starts at Midnight instead.

I have my Blink on Ethernet LAN, and it kept dropping off the network. I switched it from DHCP to Static configuration and it seems better now. Strange.
 
GroundLoop said:
DarkStar said:
GroundLoop said:
Okay, this is a little confusing.. the web interface is "one hour ahead" of the front-panel interface.

Which means if I want charging to start a midnight, I need to set it for 1AM?
WTF?
If the time zone is set properly, the front of the Blink will display the correct time. The Intranet page always displays the incorrect "current time," but all timers are for your local time. No need to adjust how you schedule, just set the time you want it to start/stop.

The blinknetwork site also has incorrect times. (or rather, times that don't match the front-panel display or observed timer behavior.) The timer values showing on the intranet page are incorrect.. 1AM and it starts at Midnight instead.

I have my Blink on Ethernet LAN, and it kept dropping off the network. I switched it from DHCP to Static configuration and it seems better now. Strange.


IP conflict.
 
EVDRIVER said:
GroundLoop said:
I have my Blink on Ethernet LAN, and it kept dropping off the network. I switched it from DHCP to Static configuration and it seems better now. Strange.
IP conflict.
Not likely. I assign each device a fixed IP number on my LAN, and configure DHCP to hand out only that number to that MAC address. Unrecognized devices get numbers from a different pool.

I've recorded every packet sent or received by the Blink ("trust, but verify"), and I'm certain there is no ambiguity in what is assigned or anyone else using that address.

Over 150 devices have worked fine with my DHCP server.. just the Blink is failing to keep its lease.
 
The blink unit is chatty on it's dhcp requests. Locking your blink to a Mac address is a VERY good idea. If you know how, everyone should do that or better run the unit in static ip mode. Frankly, the Blink installers should probably start doing this for users so that the intranet address stays the same.

The way that the blink unit drops/restarts linux networking in the current release makes static ip addressing better than dhcp for the unit as well. Wired networking is also far more reliable with these units than wireless as well. On top of the well commented on antenna issues, the wireless driver for the chipset chosen in the embedded Linux world is sub par, IMO. I have a wireless gaming adapter connected to my blink unit which is more reliable than the internal wireless connection. It may work well for some, but this solution has been far better for me.

-Scott
 
My Blink also seems to reset itself (software) during charging.

Curiously, the charging is NOT interrupted. The Leaf gets continuous power, even as the Blink goes spontaneously through the startup screen, and instructs me to "plug in", and eventually detects that the car is charging.

I have had ZERO networking failures since I hardwired the ethernet and assigned it a static IP address.

There is a bug in the timer handling I haven't seen discussed here:
If you enable an "All Day" timer, to allow charging anytime during Saturday & Sunday, for example, it seems to create a midnight-to-midnight timer schedule.

Exactly at Midnight, the Blink will initiate a new charge to the Leaf.

So, if I plug in on Saturday, get a full charge by 8PM, then at Midnight (Sat/Sun), the Leaf will charge again, topping off the 100% battery over the next 15 minutes or so. This probably doesn't do any favors the battery, and it costs kWh.
 
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