hobbit
Well-Known Member
The other night I popped into a car dealership that has a 50 kW CCS charger around back, it's
listed in Plugshare and on an inquiry earlier in the day I was assured that they don't block off
the lot at night. So nobody around, I pull up to the thing. It has a card reader on the front but
it's not active, it's free charging. So I hooked up and hit "start", waited a bit watching zero current
on my OBD2 app ... then realized the charger was saying there was "insufficient power" to charge.
???
It certainly had power, or the display wouldn't even be on. The "?" button brought up a help screen
about how it might be on a shared circuit with some other charger in use, or a couple of other
excuses, none of which would apply here in the single installation. Basically it was confused.
It's a 50 kW ABB CCS/CHAdeMO unit, I didn't get a model... Nissan dealership, though, so their
having one would make sense.
Seeing the honkin' disconnect box on the wall right behind it, I pulled the handle and powered the
whole thing off. *Now* it definitely had "insufficient power"... fired it back up, and am somewhat
kicking myself now for not capturing the boot screen, which definitely indicated a Linux heart.
But now it could start a charge, even though it was feeding the Kona only around 38 kW and
wouldn't go any higher. I was in ideal high-power conditions, 30-something % SOC and pack
temp around 80F.
A brief gander inside the disconnect showed a 3-phase fused setup, which has clearly been out
in the weather for a while, so maybe something has loosened up in there and it really *is* delivering
less power than it should. Maybe a phase is out but the charger is still able to limp along on 2?
I didn't try to dianose further, and with the box rated for a 480 or 600 volt feed I was a little loath
to take a low-end voltmeter to it or start poking around for heat. I didn't really need much charge
anyway, just a little push-up so I wouldn't arrive back home at low SOC, so I ran it long enough to
observe that the pack in the "new replacement" Kona is *beautifully* balanced, highest/lowest
cells locked at pretty much the same number while taking in 108 amps, and the highest/lowest
cell numbers jumping around in a reassuringly random way. Took on about 10 kWh and got on
the road again.
_H*
listed in Plugshare and on an inquiry earlier in the day I was assured that they don't block off
the lot at night. So nobody around, I pull up to the thing. It has a card reader on the front but
it's not active, it's free charging. So I hooked up and hit "start", waited a bit watching zero current
on my OBD2 app ... then realized the charger was saying there was "insufficient power" to charge.
???
It certainly had power, or the display wouldn't even be on. The "?" button brought up a help screen
about how it might be on a shared circuit with some other charger in use, or a couple of other
excuses, none of which would apply here in the single installation. Basically it was confused.
It's a 50 kW ABB CCS/CHAdeMO unit, I didn't get a model... Nissan dealership, though, so their
having one would make sense.
Seeing the honkin' disconnect box on the wall right behind it, I pulled the handle and powered the
whole thing off. *Now* it definitely had "insufficient power"... fired it back up, and am somewhat
kicking myself now for not capturing the boot screen, which definitely indicated a Linux heart.
But now it could start a charge, even though it was feeding the Kona only around 38 kW and
wouldn't go any higher. I was in ideal high-power conditions, 30-something % SOC and pack
temp around 80F.
A brief gander inside the disconnect showed a 3-phase fused setup, which has clearly been out
in the weather for a while, so maybe something has loosened up in there and it really *is* delivering
less power than it should. Maybe a phase is out but the charger is still able to limp along on 2?
I didn't try to dianose further, and with the box rated for a 480 or 600 volt feed I was a little loath
to take a low-end voltmeter to it or start poking around for heat. I didn't really need much charge
anyway, just a little push-up so I wouldn't arrive back home at low SOC, so I ran it long enough to
observe that the pack in the "new replacement" Kona is *beautifully* balanced, highest/lowest
cells locked at pretty much the same number while taking in 108 amps, and the highest/lowest
cell numbers jumping around in a reassuringly random way. Took on about 10 kWh and got on
the road again.
_H*
