Charging suddenly stops on DC charger

  • Thread starter Thread starter juliano76
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hobbit said:
I tried my first DCFC a couple of evenings ago, on a dual-head Chargepoint
50 kW [a "Veefil", made by Tritium out of Australia]. A woman was just
finishing on her Leaf as I pulled up, on its CHAdeMO side, which gave me
time to hook up my scope to the pilot line so I could watch the fast-charge
communication. Even though the station is free, I just took it from 30%
to about 60% for proof of concept and self-education, not to mention
a bunch of geek-porn pictures. It all seemed to work. Rapid-charging
is a much more complex protocol, and it's not surprising that failures
and incompatibilities happen in some scenarios.

It happily settled in at 44 - 45 kW for most of the time, with the car and
station in good agreement on rate.

It was a little unclear how to stop the charge in the middle, other than
the "stop" button on the EVSE. The usual fob-unlock was *not*
releasing the handle latch in this case. Is that expected behavior??
Exploring alternate workarounds, such as if a station has wedged and
won't release, I pulled the "mushroom" and clicked the latch up and
listened. The relays dropped as I expected, but then the charger sat
there saying "error 50" for quite a while even after I pulled the head
out of the car.

I don't know if the car told the EVSE to actually reduced current on
the unlatch, or if I wound up arc-flashing the DC relays. The car
should have told the EVSE to stop at the moment of latch raise,
well before opening up the path itself ... this might need further
testing.

_H*
Click to expand...
You can adjust the DC (and AC) max charging level in the settings to a level lower than your SOC and stop the charge without having to lift the hood or use the stop button on the charger .
Hopefully the design of the HV contactor is constructed in an arc resistant manner.
 
Last edited:
I checked, and don't see where the Kona can limit the DC *rate* ... just the
desired SOC. For current adjustment, the OM says "for level 1 and level
2". DCFC appears to place us *entirely* at the mercy of the EVSE and
whatever mood the car's BMS is in that day.

_H*
 
hobbit said:
I checked, and don't see where the Kona can limit the DC *rate* ... just the
desired SOC. For current adjustment, the OM says "for level 1 and level
2". DCFC appears to place us *entirely* at the mercy of the EVSE and
whatever mood the car's BMS is in that day.

_H*
Click to expand...

Why would you ever want/need to adjust the charging rate? What's wrong with the car and charger negotiating a rate based on current variables?
 
Wildeyed said:
Why would you ever want/need to adjust the charging rate? What's wrong with the car and charger negotiating a rate based on current variables?
Click to expand...

ElectrifyAmerica bumps you up to a new price tier if you go above 75kW. That would be one reason to throttle it down a little bit.
 
ericy said:
ElectrifyAmerica bumps you up to a new price tier if you go above 75kW. That would be one reason to throttle it down a little bit.
Click to expand...
That's a weird pricing strategy, isn't it? Isn't the whole point of fast charging to go fast? Shouldn't they charge for the amount of power you pull rather than the rate at which you pull it? Imagine Esso saying we've got new, faster pumps but the gas in those ones costs 30% more! Use the hand pump out back and the gas is free!? Like I said: weird.
 
Wildeyed said:
That's a weird pricing strategy, isn't it? Isn't the whole point of fast charging to go fast? Shouldn't they charge for the amount of power you pull rather than the rate at which you pull it? Imagine Esso saying we've got new, faster pumps but the gas in those ones costs 30% more! Use the hand pump out back and the gas is free!? Like I said: weird.
Click to expand...
Yes I agree it is unfair particularly seeing as Kona will only hit that second tier briefly yet have to pay more for the whole session.
 
Almost precisely that. I was reading a bunch of horror stories about EA and their
flawed/buggy pricing tiers. As many others have pointed out here and on
other media -- kilowatt-hours are the "gas in your tank", not time, and other
than minor idle fees, that's clearly what everyone should be paying for.
Penalizing drivers just for having a narrow "filler pipe" is just wrong, it's
not under their control. Taking a long lunch after their charge finishes is.

Overviewing all of this is part of my shopping process, deciding which
networks to sign up with. I in fact just bitched EA out pretty hard about
the pricing tiers this evening, and the rep took it all pretty seriously and
agreed that there were unfair circumstances with some vehicles and
they need to handle it better.

Not bad, considering that it's effectively a directive to uproot their
whole business model. But it's sadly needed. In the meantime,
being able to control which pricing level one is buying into would help.

_H*
 
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