Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[DonTom]

I had a very difficult time getting any of the CCS chargers to work with my bike at the  Elk Grove WalMart. More than one problem. First, credit cards are declined. Any of them, Even the WalMart Credit card. Then later the same credit card will be accepted in a minute that was just declined.

Now the bike and charge station each say "DC Initializing ". And then in a few more seconds, the machine says "Charging Error".

Big Pappa was there too and had the exact same problems with his bike. He somehow got a charger to work and after,  I also got one to work. I was just about ready to first call the service number on the machines, but I did not expect that to do any good and was expecting to have to call a tow truck.

We spent more time trying to get these chargers to work than we did waiting for them to charge when they finally did. And we have  no real clue what we did do when they finally did work.

I never have any problems using the EV-Go chargers. But WalMart doesn't use EV-Go, they use Electrify America.

Have others here had problems charging with CCS at WalMart?  Or are these problems just at the Elk Grove WalMart?

-Don-  Auburn, CA

[BigPoppa]

I also had problems with the CCS initialization on the Greenlots chargers on my SS9. Like DonTom said, we did eventually get the Electrify America CCS chargers to work. The 2 times I had to use EVGo CCS charging it worked fine. I haven’t tried a Chargepoint CCS charger yet since the one at my job seems to broken 90% of the time.

[DonTom]

I also had problems with the CCS initialization on the Greenlots chargers on my SS9. Like DonTom said, we did eventually get the Electrify America CCS chargers to work. The 2 times I had to use EVGo CCS charging it worked fine. I haven’t tried a Chargepoint CCS charger yet since the one at my job seems to broken 90% of the time.

After I got back to Auburn, I decided I want to ride a bit more. That ride was too short.  So I picked up a few things I wanted to bring here and . . .

I had no issues charging anywhere, not even when I got home! I will put that story in the other thread in a few minutes. I am now over the 600 miles on my SS9. It will be more than 700 when I get back to Auburn. In fact, will probably be well over a thousand miles by then.

-Don- Reno, NV

[HoodRichOG]

Does EA not have their own network card or app like EVgo does?

Whenever I have a problem with credit card or RFID card on other networks I just use the app to start the charger.

Probably the best way to go.

Sent from my PH-1 using Tapatalk

[DonTom]

Does EA not have their own network card or app like EVgo does?

Whenever I have a problem with credit card or RFID card on other networks I just use the app to start the charger.

I have seen some GreenLots chargers (in Truckee, CA) that would only start with the app. Not even a phone call to them would work and neither would the Greenlots card.  They could not turn it on remotely, but the app could. BTW, it was NOT me who called them, but a woman who gave up trying to use the machine. I used the same Greenlots machine with my app. But my Greenlots card was not detected by the machine.

Now, back to WalMart . . .

So yeah, it could also make the difference with EA  as far as the payment not  being declined. But that was the least serious of the two problems. We could always get a  credit card to work in three or four or so tries. That was something I could tolerate. But after it accepted our payments and started to internalize the charge, that was the big problem. All but the two times we got it to work it said "charging error" on the machine. I was about ready to call for a tow truck. I spent more time trying to get any of the Wal-Mart chargers  to work than the time it took to charge to full.  And I was rather shocked that we could get them to work at all.

But I just checked into EA here, and it looks like they use an app, but not a card.

But I will get the app. Thanks.

-Don-  Reno, NV

[BigPoppa]

I was really hoping to use the Greenlots CCS charger as an alternative to WalMart's Electrify America CCS chargers. Greenlots (at least the one not far from WalMart in ElkGrove) charges a $0.35 connection charge and ~$0.27/kWh rate which is significantly cheaper than EA's rate of a $1.00 connection charge plus $0.25/minute.

I'll take ~$5.00 charge fee vs ~$9.00 charge fee any day. Hopefully I can figure out the Greenlots CCS issue in the future.

[DonTom]

I was really hoping to use the Greenlots CCS charger as an alternative to WalMart's Electrify America CCS chargers. Greenlots (at least the one not far from WalMart in ElkGrove) charges a $0.35 connection charge and ~$0.27/kWh rate which is significantly cheaper than EA's rate of a $1.00 connection charge plus $0.25/minute.

I'll take ~$5.00 charge fee vs ~$9.00 charge fee any day. Hopefully I can figure out the Greenlots CCS issue in the future.

Today, I decided to take a risk and go to the Fernley Walmart. If those chargers didn't work, I would have to be towed back home. So here is what happened:

My credit card was accepted on the very first try. It also charged on the very first try. No playing around at all with anything. It was even easier to use than the EV-Go chargers which often time-out on me. This  EA Wal-Mart charger was  the easiest I have ever used.

So obviously, the chargers at El Grove have the problem. Not the other WalMarts.

BTW, the Fernley Walmart has NO J1772 at all (unlike Elk Grove which does have it). So I will not be able to take a Zero to Fernley, NV.

I have been riding this bike all day. It sure is a fun bike to ride!  I am way over my 600 miles. It will probably hit 1,000 miles by the time it gets back to Auburn. Then I will stop riding it and deal with Energica and the lost key problem. Looks like they will not find the master key so they will have to take the bike back and change the immobilizer. All at their expense.

BTW, the Walmart in Fernley charges a buck to use and then 25 cents per minute.  More expensive than gasoline, when it comes to motorcycles. So from there, I went to the Harley shop here in Reno and charged again for free. From there, I went to Carson City and did some riding around. Now I am back in Reno slow charging from my Tesla station and Tesla tap that gave me trouble a couple of weeks ago.

But when I did plug in my AC here today, using my Tesla-Tap, the bike again said "Initializing DC Charging" for a few seconds and then charged normally. Does your bike ever show a DC internalization message for a few seconds when you first charge with AC?

I got the same message as when it did not work, but now it works.

-Don-  Reno, NV

[BigPoppa]

I don’t recall seeing a “DC Initialization” message when AC charging but I’ll try to check the display the next few times I charge up.

[DonTom]

I don’t recall seeing a “DC Initialization” message when AC charging but I’ll try to check the display the next few times I charge up.

I am thinking the message probably has something to do with the Tesla-Tap, but as long as everything works, it's not important, just curious.

Someday I will check for that message when I plug in a normal J-1772. In fact, I just now realized I can already do that at my house in Cold Springs Valley. But since I am now well over the 600 miles, I want to stop riding it except for taking the bike back to Auburn, sometime later in the week.

-Don-  Reno, NV

[RFlashman]

The trick for Electrify America is to start the session first from the App. Once started, THEN plug it in to the Energica. If you plug it in, it will fail. Same general principle seems to apply to everyone else. Ignore the "plug in first" request and just start the session first, plug in second.

[DonTom]

The trick for Electrify America is to start the session first from the App. Once started, THEN plug it in to the Energica. If you plug it in, it will fail. Same general principle seems to apply to everyone else. Ignore the "plug in first" request and just start the session first, plug in second.

That's nice to know. But sometimes it's so sunny that I cannot even see the app running at 100% brightness unless there is nearby shade. I try to not use the app.

But yesterday at the WalMart  in Fernley, everything worked perfectly by following the instructions on the machine. No issue at all, on the very first try.

But the next time I am at the WalMart in Elk Grove, CA, if   it is still  flaky, I will use your instructions with the app.

Thanks!

-Don-  Reno, NV

[2014ZeroSR]

The trick for Electrify America is to start the session first from the App. Once started, THEN plug it in to the Energica. If you plug it in, it will fail. Same general principle seems to apply to everyone else. Ignore the "plug in first" request and just start the session first, plug in second.

RFlashman - Thanks for the tip. I've struggled the few times I've used CCS and was sure there had to be a simple method to activate the charger vice calling customer service.

[Electric Cowboy]

Just confirmed EVGo had an outage yesterday with several stations using the verizon network.

[DonTom]

Just confirmed EVGo had an outage yesterday with several stations using the verizon network.

Does that mean the DC Chargers could not be used at all by any method for anybody?

-Don-  Reno, NV

[RFlashman]

Just confirmed EVGo had an outage yesterday with several stations using the verizon network.

Does that mean the DC Chargers could not be used at all by any method for anybody?

No, EVGo will allow RFID cars to work without network. It caches those sessions and they get billed to your account on a future connection. Hence why it is a smart move to get the RFID cards for EVERY network that supports them (Greenlots and EVGo). I don't have a ChargePoint card any more as their "phone RFID" works perfectly. Electrify America doesn't have cards yet, but they told me that is coming.