Tesla Universal EVSE Connected, but 12V battery drained

No problem. I’m grateful for those in this thread who helped me find a solution to carry forward until (hopefully) they figure this out.

 

@Keanen - Supposedly there were firmware updates this month to the U Wall Connector intended to solve problems on non-Tesla vehicles. Did those change anything on the device you still have? I can dig up the forum or reddit posts about them if you need.

 

My wife has the car tonight. Let me ask Tesla, and I'll try to check sometime this week during off-peak times. Worst case, I will try this weekend. Thanks for the heads up!

 

I did check, and it seems my version has not changed "HEAD (3CAE3FBA856679)-3cae3fb." I wonder if I have a pre-release of the version you refer to.

 

An update from Tesla today. I had asked for a credit for the Lectron adapter I had to purchase for their 'Universal' charger and if the new update was the same I was testing. They not only denied any credit but also offered a rather sad mitigation. I guess they expect me to schedule a 20-minute charging window per day so their charger doesn't misbehave. I do not think I will be making any Telsa purchases anytime soon. They are not showing me that they care about the customer experience.

That update is the same update that we have pushed for a while now. No new updates for non Tesla vehicles just yet.

For the reimbursent request for Lectron adapter, they will not be providing one, I am sorry. This is the current operation for the adapter of the Universal Wall Connector and they are looking to improve this in the future.
With another customer, our understanding was the Honda didn't have a way to set a charge limit, so the mitigation was then to schedule charging to not end before they unplug.​

 

This thread is gold!
I just had 2 Universal Wall chargers installed just 2 days ago (in power-share mode) and this morning the 2020 Clarity exhibited this issue (wasn't noticed after the first night of charging).
I also have a 2017 Volt that hasn't had any problems.
I'll definitely be watching for updates from Tesla.
For now, I guess we'll just go unplug the clarity before going to sleep. Should be fully charged by then most nights.

 

Welcome to the club. I highly recommend that you let Tesla know that you’re having the problem. The more people that report this issue hopefully gives them more urgency to fix it. You should be able to provide a link to this thread.

 

I was even looking up the product manager for the Wall Connector and found a person previously in this role who is now at Rivian. Unfortunately, they did not know who took over their role.

Does anyone have a connection with Tom?

 

FYI - I pinged Tom on Twitter - https://twitter.com/KeanenWold/status/1759994310890545160

Great idea!!

 

Tom responded and said that Tesla does not respond to inquiries like this. Demian and I have reached out to someone at Tesla via LinkedIn. Let's see if they respond.

 

Well crap... I just installed this charger last night since it was supposed to be one of the better ones and heard cars are moving to Tesla's connector in the future. Woke up today with car that wouldn't start and after searching around found this thread. Sounds like it kills our batteries if left plugged in?? So much for having it warm my car up in the morning

 

Sorry to hear this. You can buy a NACS to J1772 adapter, and it fixes the problem. It sucks that we have to spend more money to get it working correctly. So much for "Universal"

 

FYI - I have been working two angles to get some movement on this issue:
1. I have asked for an update on my ticket
2. I'm reaching out to Telsa employees who work in "charging". One has responded and said they would pass on the information as they said they should not comment, which I understand.

I'm crossing my fingers something will happen.

 

And if they're going to blame the car, hopefully with an excuse (a detailed excuse).

 

Which doesn't fly because using another passive adapter with their charger works just fine For that reason, it's not an acceptable answer.

 

I thought a detailed excuse would at least prove they looked into the problem rather than simply ignoring our limited-production/out-of-production vehicle.

 

They tried to direct me to Honda and I was insistent there were no problems with other chargers and then the good folks here encouraged me to try a Lectron adapter which I did and it resolved the issue (for $200). That proved it's a hardware issue with their 1772 adapter. They had problems with some other vehicles they've fixed. You are right, Tesla may shake off the Clarity as a limited case and say it's not worth it. That would be a shame for the hotels using these chargers as folks wake to dead 12v batteries because they didn't fix it.

 

I had an Amazon-special L2 EVSE die on me recently, and when it died my 12V battery drained as well. I'm guessing that the current in the proximity pilot circuit (which detects e.g. when the eject button is pressed) can drain the battery. It really shouldn't, but maybe the Clarity is weird somehow?

 

Don't think I'm right about the proximity pilot, actually. Checking the wiring diagram, the control pilot line has a transistor connected which can pull it up to 12V on the car side via the "CPLFS" wire. Not sure why; the car side only sinks current via a diode in the J1772 standard, and never puts voltage on the line. Could be for a self-diagnostic?

In any case, if the EVSE is pulling the control pilot to ground rather than turning it off, this could cause power to flow out of the control pilot and back to the equipment ground pin via the EVSE. Pretty sure that's what my failure was.

Edit: CPLFS is apparently "control pilot line feedback status." Not to be confused with the CPL ("control pilot line") wire, though both are connected to each other in the power inlet wire harness.