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[ddennis669]

BTW, did you see my message number 34 here?


-Don-  Gila Bend, AZ

I did see that one. That is what encouraged me to keep trying other stations and to try at 76%.

One additional note from last evening, I saw an error light on my dash appear very quickly after I plugged the Charge Point into my Experia. The warning shuts off when I disconnect the charger. When I got home and plugged in an OBD2 reader, it showed the error code C1012. My Experia Manual shows that as a "SLAC PROCESS ERROR". Any Idas what that might indicate?

David - Santa Maria, CA

[joesedroid]

Just spent about 20 minutes and 3 different chargers with evgo in Parker Co with no luck. Might try chargepoint on my way home.

[DonTom]

I did see that one. That is what encouraged me to keep trying other stations and to try at 76%.

One additional note from last evening, I saw an error light on my dash appear very quickly after I plugged the Charge Point into my Experia. The warning shuts off when I disconnect the charger. When I got home and plugged in an OBD2 reader, it showed the error code C1012. My Experia Manual shows that as a "SLAC PROCESS ERROR". Any Idas what that might indicate?

David - Santa Maria, CA

Sorry, I have no clue on what that could mean. But can a normal car type OBD2 reader be used on the Experia?   BTW, where is the OBD port located? I am not near my Experia so I cannot look for it right now.


-Don-  Tucson, AZ

[smithy]

Sorry, I have no clue on what that could mean. But can a normal car type OBD2 reader be used on the Experia?   BTW, where is the OBD port located? I am not near my Experia so I cannot look for it right now.

-Don-  Tucson, AZ

Don,
OBD-II port on the Experia is behind the left side "flap", just lift it up as you would the other side to charge. Quite convenient actually. I have a few OBD-II readers and all of them will "talk" to the Experia in some fashion...not much can be done using their own software though. I was able to see the bike's software version and erase an "indicator" fault code using an old Autel 308 reader but it could do nothing else that I could find.

Smithy.

[ddennis669]

Just spent about 20 minutes and 3 different chargers with evgo in Parker Co with no luck. Might try chargepoint on my way home.

I'm sorry to hear that. Traveling on the Experia from Santa Maria, CA to Phoenix, AZ and back, I used EVgo chargers at six locations and always got a fast 25kw from them. Only once (Victorville, CA) did I have to call the support number to get a remote start. I hope they didn't "fix" something.

[Specter]

You know.
This reminds me back in the old modem days, the war between K-Flex  and X2 .....and of course Hayes standard.

They really NEED to settle on a standard and ALL adhere to it.  THAT would make e vehicles so much more attractive to new customers.  They all hear how difficult it is to get a working charger, and that scares them.  and it should !!  Nobody wants to be stranded in Bugtussle, OK.

It just makes more business sense too, WHY would you turn away customers and alienate people?  Oh that makes them want to buy MY product because it's all that is supported.  umm no that makes them RESENT you because you did that and avoid your product out of anger.... (pay attention Elon).

I mean, it's NOT that hard, pick a protocol and standard and DO IT.
Ok, car and charger have to talk, THIS is the communication protocol..... x,1,3200,4.  ADHERE TO IT.
the 'config' file which tells the charger what the car can take has a design, say 10 lines or blocks.
Block 1, port type
Block 2, battery capacity
Block 3, max charge rate
Block 4, top off rate
Block 5, ramp rate
Block 6, finishing charge
Block 7, min voltage
Block 8, max voltage
Block 9, temperature
Block 10, safety crap

Ok ok, you get the idea

The charger now, has a config file so the car knows what it is dealing with.

Block 1, min voltage
Block 2, max voltage
Block 3, max amps
Block 4, max kw
block 5, ramp rate
Block 6, max charge time....

etc ok bla bla you get the idea.

You build a charger you ADHERE to this protocol for your communications.
You build a car you ADHERE to this protocol to TALK to the chargers.

This way, no matter who you are, what you built, it charges properly and EVERYONE benefits.

.json   how f hard is it???

Aaron

[Richard230]

How about designing charging stations that only need a regular credit card to activate and pay, without needing to join the charging company's program first and paying a monthly fee? Allow selling electric power at a charging station to be just like the way gas stations sell gas. If has worked for over a hundred years to refuel ICE vehicles, why can't the same payment system work to refuel EVs?  I have no doubt that would help to make owing an EV to be much more comfortable for long-time ICE owners.

[Specter]

That would be real nice but everyone is stuck on internet TARD mode where 'advertising dollars' is the only thing supporting their shitty product.  You need to sign up so they can spam you, and pay for their charger if you use it or not, etc etc.

Im getting a 30 kw fast charger for my bike that runs of 240 vac single phase.  A gas station could easily order something for THEM, that they can feed from their 480, and maybe do 100 kw or more, without all the 'MY PROGRAM' crap.  since it is not having to deal with all the other bullshit of payment methods, club members,  the ccs coms are pretty crude, and they tend to work on most everything.

Aaron

[DonTom]

How about designing charging stations that only need a regular credit card to activate and pay, without needing to join the charging company's program first and paying a monthly fee? Allow selling electric power at a charging station to be just like the way gas stations sell gas. If has worked for over a hundred years to refuel ICE vehicles, why can't the same payment system work to refuel EVs?  I have no doubt that would help to make owing an EV to be much more comfortable for long-time ICE owners.

There is no monthly fee unless you join a deal, which is cheaper only for those who charge a lot. And it's only a couple of bucks per month. Handy for those who need a fast charge every couple of days or so, from the same type of charger. 


On April 19, 2023, I paid direct by my credit card here. First time I have ever done that. Many CCS and other charge stations CAN be started with a CC, but many of them do not work. I used my CC on the machine above because Electrify America Chargers do not have their own card and are designed to be used with a Smartphone. I don't even like to turn on my Smartphone unless I really need to.


I see I forgot to check in there, but it works, they charged my CC 48 cents for my CCS charge:


04/10/23   + 8336322778 ELECTRIFY A HUNT VALLEY MD   $0.48

I don't know why it was extra cheap, as I charged up several KWHs. But the charge rate in KWs was extra slow, something like 12KW where I usually get above 20KW.

-Don-  Tucson, AZ

[DonTom]

Just spent about 20 minutes and 3 different chargers with evgo in Parker Co with no luck. Might try chargepoint on my way home.

With some EV-GOs, do NOT follow the instructions. Activate the charger first and wait BEFORE plugging in. But you cannot wait too long as it will timeout. Wait as long as you can get away with before plugging in to the bike.


I never found a EVGO that didn't work for me. But what you have to do to get it to work varies and can take more than one or two tries.



-Don-  Tucson, AZ

[Richard230]

Just spent about 20 minutes and 3 different chargers with evgo in Parker Co with no luck. Might try chargepoint on my way home.

With some EV-GOs, do NOT follow the instructions. Activate the charger first and wait BEFORE plugging in. But you cannot wait too long as it will timeout. Wait as long as you can get away with before plugging in to the bike.


I never found a EVGO that didn't work for me. But what you have to do to get it to work varies and can take more than one or two tries.



-Don-  Tucson, AZ

How is the run-of-the-mill public that is just into electric vehicles supposed to deal with issues like that? Of course, around here almost everyone has a Model 3 Tesla, so it is likely they just use Tesla chargers when needed on a trip. My guess is that most of them work just fine.

[ultrarnr]

Richard, Sometimes I think the biggest enemy of EV adoption is the charging companies who don't seem to really care about installing chargers or whether or not they work. At least it seems that way in North Carolina. A few months ago EvGo removed a single 50 KW CCS charger in a gas station near the RDU airport and I-40 and was never replaced. Now it turns out that Tesla is installing 12-250 kw chargers at that same gas station. There are many more examples just like that in this state. One or two 50-62kw CCS chargers right next to 8 or more Tesla 250kw chargers. If you want to travel east of I-95 to the coast in an EV you will find very few CCS chargers but Tesla has a lot of locations. The example of how to get a charge going at an EvGo station sounds a lot like how to get a charge going at an EA station. Last time I took my Ribelle to the dealer I stopped at an EA station and there was a Porche there that had been trying for an hour to get a charge going. She was not very happy to put it mildly. And yes like you said, Tesla chargers just seem to work. It doesn't matter how fast or how slow you plug in or whatever technique you decide to use they just seem to start charging. In the 3 1/2 years I have had my M3 I have only had a charger not work twice. Simply moved to the one next to it and it worked. No question, there are some really nice EVs on the market now that use CCS. But there is no way I would consider one over a Tesla just based on the difference in charging networks.

[Richard230]

An article in my newspaper today titled "State hits ambitious goal for electric cars" (In California), written by Paul Rogers of the bay area news group, contained a statement that caught my attention. Currently there are 87,707 charging stations statewide, according to the California Energy Commission. However, 1.2 million more charging stations will be needed to meet the projected EV charging demand. Roughly 250,000 are expected to be built by 2026 with funding by the state and private companies. The article goes on to say that "the private sector really takes over the market and these charging providers start making money from charging."

What I wonder is what happens to the publicly-funded charging stations in the future? Will they be turned over to private companies so that they can start making money from charging?

[DonTom]

How is the run-of-the-mill public that is just into electric vehicles supposed to deal with issues like that? Of course, around here almost everyone has a Model 3 Tesla, so it is likely they just use Tesla chargers when needed on a trip. My guess is that most of them work just fine.

Yep, I have yet to even hear of a broken Tesla Supercharger. Also, they are the easiest to use of all (when you own a Tesla--not so much with their new Magic Dock "charge your non-Tesla"). The only button on the thing is the one that opens your Tesla charge door via wireless. All the rest, billing and all, is figured out by the charger itself. It reads the VIN number and charges your Tesla account automatically as it is charging your Tesla. Just plug in and walk away, cannot get any simpler than that. Perhaps that is what makes Tesla so popular.


But the Tesla Superchargers is my least used charger by far. It's my motorcycles that I more often need to charge on the road.


-Don-  Tucson, AZ

[Specter]

California... that's going to be a clown car show here very shortly.

They can't even keep the lights on and the AC running now for their people yet want to add gigawatts of load via electric cars.

Infrastructure takes decades to build up more robust, especially in that state with it's beaurocracy and the tree huggers trying to shut down anything that resembles progress.

good luck with 300 e car owners wanting to use the 10 stations in the area at an hour each, since they can 't charge at home because they been threatened with getting jacked for using electric during the 'crisis' times...

Get a bunch of solar, get a bunch of batteries, do your own stuff.  The govt is NOT going to help you, support you, be there for you.  If you can, stay off the grid as much as possible, it probably won't be available most of the times anyways come a year or two from now.

Aaron