Electrify America CHAdeMO Possible Issue

[BenBrown]

My OBC level 1 and 2 died and I was at a loss for what to do. We figured out I could still DC quick charge it and that might give me time to try to figure out options. After several weeks while I was doing the 20 mile trip to DCQC I received a recall notice from Mitsubishi that they would fix my charger unit so I could have everything fixed. Upon receiving the car back I could charge at 120 and 240, but I could no longer DC quick charge at the nearby Electrify America DCQC. I was told when the service department checked it out everything was working and the service department had tested it in another city that had Charge Point DCQC. Long story short, I went there last week and to my surprise it did charge on dcqc. Anyone have a guess on why one DCQC works with my car but the other doesn't?

 

[JoeS]

Hi Ben,
I split your post away from the OBC thread, as you've presented a new possible issue for us. I've only used EVgo and ChargePoint and a few no-name CHAdeMO chargers, but have not yet tried EA with my i-MiEV (but I have successfully charged my Tesla on EA using the CHAdeMO adapter). Anyone?

 

[BenBrown]

Thanks Joe,

Is it possible to rename the thread: My DCQC can no longer choose between CHAdeMO ChargePoint and Electrify America

 

[kiev]

The OBC only provides charging from an AC source; Chademo is charging from a DC source and is managed over a CAN buss by the EV-ECU located under the rear seat.

For some reason that i never understood, my car would not charge at a DCQC Chademo station made by Eaton. That station was eventually replaced with a combination CCS/Chademo version of a different make. Some time later i went by to take a look and give it a try, and then it worked.

Chademo uses a proprietary protocol, and to my knowledge nobody has recorded the buss traffic and decoded how it is controlled and how it works.

 

[iwatson]

To be quite fair Electrify America's network has always been buggy. It frequently Locks, quits, fails to initiate. Software on their screens have to be re-booted. Maybe just a buggy unit on the day (s) you visited?

 

[BenBrown]

Before I took my car in to get repaired I had used the EA system for DCQC about about 20 times without issue. After getting it repaired it kept trying to initiate charging, but never succeeded and also would not release the holster taking about an hour each time before it released.

 

[JoeS]

Before I took my car in to get repaired I had used the EA system for DCQC about about 20 times without issue. After getting it repaired it kept trying to initiate charging, but never succeeded and also would not release the holster taking about an hour each time before it released.

Ben, were you on the phone with EA at the time and did they perform any resets or ask you to do anything? What exactly happened just before the handle was able to release?

 

[jray3]

Indeed, the Electrify America CHAdeMO units have been very buggy, I’ve had almost as many free sessions as paid (always call the hotline if you have trouble).
I have expected the super heavy cables torquing the connector to be a problem. The heavy cables on loose-fitting handles are definitely an issue for CCS cars. I don’t think that the J772 latch was spec’d tightly enough to support it all without the slip in the latch creating intermittent communication errors.

 

[JoeS]

So, after a longer trip down the coast today in the i-MiEV, on the way home I decided to stop at the brand-new EA group of charging stations at the Bank of America in downtown Los Gatos. https://www.plugshare.com/location/193052
One J1772 station and three dual-port DCFC stations, only one of which had one CHAdeMo. Guess, what - the two dual CCS were just fine (a Porsche Taycan pulled into one while I was there), but the one dual CCS/CHAdeMO said "Charger unavailable". Sorry, couldn't evaluate its compatibility with our i-MiEV.
Not to worry, even though there are perhaps a half-dozen CHAdeMO stations along the way, I decided to suck it up, polish up my hypermiling skills, took the back roads, and arrived home with one bar blinking. :lol:

 

[BenBrown]

Sorry... I just don't get to the internet as often as I'd like outside of work...

I gave up on Electrify America and cancelled my membership. Twice I've had heart patients in my car and charging at an EA site has been an hour to two hour delay just to unhook from the holster, without receiving any charge. (I had to call for back up) Every time I've been on the phone talking with their staff. Nice people but a useless service for my car now. No idea why. I'm even shy now to use Chargepoint DCQC.

 

[jray3]

EA has been actively trying to kill CHAdeMO by providing the absolute minimum service they can get away with since they started, but now that MR BEAN's 2nd battery is showing it's age, EA stations are shutting him down early, as early as 69%. I figure there's a minimum allowable DCFC amperage set by policy, but haven't been able to find it. My best guess so far is it shuts down below 9 kW of power. MR Bean is down below 24 kW within about a minute, and then slowly tapers down to 9 kw by about 65% SOC. I'll try to do some more testing this week, but a 45 mile range battery is still quite useful for my 23 mile commute plus occasional errands, with charging at work.
Yesterday's DCFC session delivered 3.246 kW in 13 minutes, going from 35% to 65%, implying 10.8 kWH of capacity in the pack. Anyway, I'm driving the BEAN hard this summer to use up remaining capacity before replacing the battery in time for fall.