Charging Stops: Turning ON Remote Restarts Charging

Over the years we've seen a number of EVSE and Remote issues, one of which is the Remote incompatibility with various L2 EVSEs that Mitsubishi still has not addressed other than Clipper Creek. Today I had a new one. Recall that my L2 EVSE is SPX Power Xpress, which is so unpredictable when using the Remote that I rarely even try using the Remote with it.

Last night I had forgotten to plug in our Mitsi into the usual L1 and she was sitting at five bars this morning. Plugged into L2 (SPX) and charged for about 40 minutes. No problem. Unplugged and wife took the car to town and when she returned (around five bars) plugged into L2. When I checked about 2-1/2hours later, the car had stopped charging! Checked my TED and saw that the car had barely started to charge and then stopped.

Now, it gets interesting: WITHOUT TOUCHING ANYTHING, I took the Remote and turned it ON. The very act of turning ON the Remote brought the car and EVSE back to life, with both the EVSE blinking green light and the car's red dashboard light indicating charging. I had not done anything with the Remote other than simply push and hold the ON button. After this, I simply turned OFF the Remote and the car continued charging.

Now, there's a bit more that is probably irrelevant: we all know that during the charging cycle the car's charger does a 'timeout' which usually lasts six or ten minutes, presumably to check for pack and/or cell sag, and then the charger turns back on and continues charging. Well, after I had restarted the charging process by activating the Remote, the 'timeout' occurred exactly one hour after the car restarted charging and lasted for 20 minutes, and then the car resumed normal charging. 1/2-hour later, it did another 'timeout' for exactly six minutes, and then continued charging. It is very rare to have two 'timeouts' in one charging session, and it's been a long time since I've seen a 20-minute 'timeout', but maybe it's ambient temperature related.

Checked with CaniOn during all this, and battery voltages were all normal (all within 5mv of each other), and battery temperature ranging between 14degC and 17degC, except for sensor #64 which was at 27degC. Temperature in the garage is about 40degF.

Subsequently, I pulled the plug and stopped charging at 13bars and CaniOn 78.5%SoC.

Just thought I'd share...

Same (expletive deleted) thing happened today as had occurred earlier this week:
Came home with five bars and immediately plugged in the L2 SPX PowerXpress EVSE.
Car started charging normally.
Came out an hour later and the car was just sitting there NOT charging.
Grabbed the Remote and simply turned the Remote ON.
Car and EVSE came to life and started charging normally.
Turned OFF the Remote and car is still charging.
Now the question is whether we'll have enough charge to get to the Xmas party and back…

Have no idea what to correlate this problem to -
- Power to the EVSE was unbroken
- J1772 connector was not touched
- All I did was activate the Remote and did not touch any other Remote buttons.
- TED showed that the charger had been active for about three minutes before it turned itself off.

If this happens again, I will switch over to my EVSEUpgraded Mitsu EVSE and run it at L2 and see if the same problem recurs.

I noticed something yesterday that *might* be related . . . . not sure

I had tried invoking pre-heating with the remote, but for the first time I can recall, the Remote showed an error. Some time later, I stepped into the garage to try it again and see what was actually happening. When I looked at the EVSE, the car was no longer in the charging mode and of course the heating wasn't running either. Pressed the button to turn on the remote (which evidently cleared whatever the error was which had interrupted the charge process) and the car immediately began charging - No other button pushes . . . . just turned the Remote on

Could it be that your SPX errored for some reason and then simply turning on the remote clears the error, as it did in my case?

BTW - I am pretty convinced that there are varying degrees of complying with the J-1772 charging protocol and that not all EVSE's are created equal. Mitsu recommended the Clipper Creek as one of their 'accepted' L2 EVSE's, so when it turned out that it didn't work properly, rather than trying to get Clipper Creek to correct their EVSE protocol, they just reprogrammed the car to accept the incorrect protocol of the Clipper Creek EVSE. The problem with that is they would likely have to add a 'fix' for all sorts of EVSE's which don't adhere to all aspects of the protocol

I blame the EVSE and not the car for most all of the charging irregularities we read about here, since it works virtually 100% correctly with the OEM EVSE, even after it has been 'upgraded'. My car also works 100% of the time with the homebuilt Open EVSE that I use for L2 charging (or at least it always has prior to yesterday) but then in some ways, my Open EVSE is in even stricter compliance with the protocol than the OEM unit is

Don

Don said:

I had tried invoking pre-heating with the remote, but for the first time I can recall, the Remote showed an error. Some time later, I stepped into the garage to try it again and see what was actually happening. When I looked at the EVSE, the car was no longer in the charging mode and of course the heating wasn't running either. Pressed the button to turn on the remote (which evidently cleared whatever the error was which had interrupted the charge process) and the car immediately began charging - No other button pushes . . . . just turned the Remote on...

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Thanks, Don. Similar symptom/response to mine. Have no idea what would generate a possible error that might interrupt the charge process. Although EMI/RFI is identified in the manual as a possible issue during Remote operation, once programmed there is no further Remote interaction with the car. Go figure...

Don, which EVSE were you using and at which voltage? My hiccup only occurs with the SPX PowerXpress running off 240vac. Haven't tried seeing if the problem reoccurs with the EVSEUpgraded Mitsu EVSE running off 240vac.

Joe- have you tried the remote while charging with your SPX off of 120 VAC? A selling point to me for the SPX/Bosch unit was that it offers all the dual-voltage versatility of EVSE Upgrade, but at a full 16A on either (and switchable down to 12 amps). I've experienced the same remote reliability issues on 240V, and will put on my 120V adaptor for some tests ASAP.

JoeS said:

Don, which EVSE were you using and at which voltage? My hiccup only occurs with the SPX PowerXpress running off 240vac. Haven't tried seeing if the problem reoccurs with the EVSEUpgraded Mitsu EVSE running off 240vac.

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99% of the time, my Upgraded OEM EVSE stays plugged into 120 volts and I use it for L1 charging @ 12 amps. My home built Open EVSE stays plugged in to 240 and I use it whenever I need a quicker L2 charge, or whenever I intend to use pre-heating/cooling. Other than that one time, it's never hiccupped on me before. I can plug either EVSE into either outlet however - I used L6-20 sockets for both 120 and 240 outlets so I could charge with either EVSE using either 120 or 240 without having to use any adapters

But, that one time, just turning on the Remote (without pressing any other button) caused the car to immediately begin charging and I knew that time there was a previous error reported by the Remote, so I thought maybe your issue was the Remote clearing some error with your SPX that you were unaware of

Don

jray3 and Don, thank you for your responses. Yes, I also purchased the SPX PowerXpress because of its dual-voltage and adjustable-current capability. No, I haven't seen this problem using either my Mitsu L1 EVSEUpgraded nor Clipper Creek L1 EVSEs, and will plug in and try the SPX at 120vac if this problem recurs.