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Makes And Models => Zero Motorcycles Forum | 2013+ => Topic started by: Булгаков on June 07, 2018, 07:58:59 PM

Title: Can't enable some Tesla chargers
Post by: Булгаков on June 07, 2018, 07:58:59 PM
Hello all,
I have a Tesla charge adaptor, with a separate switch to toggle between "vehicle present" and "enable charge" states. It has worked for me well at the 3 (public) places with Tesla plugs that I normally frequent.
I know at some point Tesla changed their chargers to start requiring a 10 or 11 second delay before enabling charging, and so I am accustomed already to counting to 11 seconds before flipping the switch.

On my recent road trip, I found that I could not enable 50% of the Tesla chargers I tried to use at all. These were all stations with high ratings and recent check-ins on Plugshare, so I doubt the chargers were faulty. On several additional stations, I could enable charging, but after either a few seconds or a few minutes the station would reset, even if I was testing using a very low charge rate of 3kW. At many of these same locations, their J1772 plugs would work without any problems.

For what it's worth, it appears that the La Quinta Inn Tesla/J1772 charging stations in central and east Texas all work well.

Anyone have any thoughts what could cause this?
Possibly some new test to verify that an actual Tesla car is connected?  Maybe some more sensitive ground-fault detection?
Title: Re: Can't enable some Tesla chargers
Post by: clockfort on June 07, 2018, 10:47:06 PM
I imagine it's because a bunch of newer destination chargers shipped from Tesla at some point that started requiring a handshake on startup that makes most adapters not work / become 'tesla only' chargers.

The people on the Tesla Roadster forums were also annoyed because it kicked them off of a bunch of the chargers as well, with their 3rd party adapter ( https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/posts/1905613/ ), but Tesla eventually changed the firmware to at least allow these older Teslas to charge with that adapter, and flashed it to at least all of the North American destination chargers. As to what they did to make it compatible, really only Tesla and 3rd-party adapter maker HC Sharp would know, and they're probably not going to say anything.
Title: Re: Can't enable some Tesla chargers
Post by: Булгаков on June 08, 2018, 01:01:24 AM
I see. I didn't realize that they had made additional changes beyond just requiring the 10 second delay.

Damn.
Title: Re: Can't enable some Tesla chargers
Post by: Richard230 on June 08, 2018, 03:21:27 AM
I think I read that owners of Model 3 cars (but not the S and the SUV gull-wing-thing that got free lifetime charging privileges) are now going to be charged for charging at Tesla stations.  Perhaps Tesla is getting their stations upgraded to accommodate a flood of Model 3 owners and that is why you are experiencing charging difficulties at times.  ???  (You know how those firmware upgrades are.  ::) )
Title: Re: Can't enable some Tesla chargers
Post by: Erasmo on June 08, 2018, 11:05:41 AM
That's only for the Superchargers.
Title: Re: Can't enable some Tesla chargers
Post by: Richard230 on June 08, 2018, 07:35:47 PM
That's only for the Superchargers.

Oh, I see.  We are talking about using a "J" level 2 charging station, with an adapter that connects to the Tesla charging cord and the public station?  Just goes to show my lack of knowledge of Teslas.  About all I am hearing now in the news is how they crash into medians, fire trucks and random other things on their own when you take your hands off of the wheel and start checking your smart phone for the latest celebrity drama news story.  :o
Title: Re: Can't enable some Tesla chargers
Post by: Erasmo on June 09, 2018, 01:11:57 AM
Overhyped by the news because Tesla is a hot topic, when an ICE'er flips his gas car because the driver is a texting twat there is barely any coverage.
Why they have their own connector in the US is a riddle for me.
Title: Re: Can't enable some Tesla chargers
Post by: Булгаков on June 11, 2018, 07:26:43 AM
Oh, I see.  We are talking about using a "J" level 2 charging station, with an adapter that connects to the Tesla charging cord and the public station?  J

My chargers have have Anderson Powerpole PP-45 connectors on them, so that I can receive power from different power plugs, or a J1772 inlet, or a Tesla inlet depending on what I have plugged into my chargers' PP45 connector. I have been using Tesla charging stations successfully in places that have either no J1772 plug, or only one 6.6kW J1772 plug, when i want to be able to charge at 8 or 9 kW. My question was about some new Tesla charging stations not working when a non-Tesla car is plugged into the outlet.
Title: Re: Can't enable some Tesla chargers
Post by: Richard230 on June 11, 2018, 07:57:37 PM
Oh, I see.  We are talking about using a "J" level 2 charging station, with an adapter that connects to the Tesla charging cord and the public station?  J

My chargers have have Anderson Powerpole PP-45 connectors on them, so that I can receive power from different power plugs, or a J1772 inlet, or a Tesla inlet depending on what I have plugged into my chargers' PP45 connector. I have been using Tesla charging stations successfully in places that have either no J1772 plug, or only one 6.6kW J1772 plug, when i want to be able to charge at 8 or 9 kW. My question was about some new Tesla charging stations not working when a non-Tesla car is plugged into the outlet.

I wasn't even aware that non-Tesla vehicles could use Tesla Superchargers.  Which goes to show you what I know, I guess. ???
Title: Re: Can't enable some Tesla chargers
Post by: Ashveratu on June 12, 2018, 08:00:50 AM
He is not using using Superchargers, he is using the "destination" chargers which are AC, not DC.
Title: Re: Can't enable some Tesla chargers
Post by: Richard230 on June 12, 2018, 07:29:50 PM
He is not using using Superchargers, he is using the "destination" chargers which are AC, not DC.


And of course, I had never heard of Tesla "destination" chargers, since I get all of my news from my morning newspaper and they have never mentioned these chargers in their articles about Tesla cars - just their production problems and their worker burnout and injury issues at the factory.
Title: Re: Can't enable some Tesla chargers
Post by: Ashveratu on June 13, 2018, 08:53:21 AM
The majority of that "news" is greatly inflated, exaggerated or imaginary. Take what you ready with a few grains of salt. Hell, don't believe anything I type here either. I may have an agenda too...
Title: Re: Can't enable some Tesla chargers
Post by: Булгаков on June 13, 2018, 11:24:36 AM
yes, destination chargers -- AC 208V or 240V in USA. (tho technically up to 277V is possible). Tesla of course only wants tesla cars to charge at them, but if the owner of the station says it is ok for me to charge at them then I am happy to have 10-20kW of power available for free/cheap, especially in small towns between big cities, versus lame 6.6kW chargers only available sometimes.
Title: Re: Can't enable some Tesla chargers
Post by: Richard230 on June 13, 2018, 08:13:46 PM
yes, destination chargers -- AC 208V or 240V in USA. (tho technically up to 277V is possible). Tesla of course only wants tesla cars to charge at them, but if the owner of the station says it is ok for me to charge at them then I am happy to have 10-20kW of power available for free/cheap, especially in small towns between big cities, versus lame 6.6kW chargers only available sometimes.

That is interesting and was news to me.  In other news: I just heard that Tesla will by laying off 9%, or 3,800, of their employees to save money.  Supposedly these people will be not be factory workers who are assembling the Model 3 cars, but instead will be mostly salaried workers.  I wonder what they are doing and why they are no longer needed?  I hope they are just marketing staff and not engineers.
Title: Re: Can't enable some Tesla chargers
Post by: 2014ZeroSR on June 14, 2018, 08:15:29 AM
Булгаков, Good question on why some won't work. I have also experienced the same here in California (Sonoma and Lake Counties). I'm thinking - unless someone from Telsa submits a post saying why, we'll never know for sure. The only other person that might have a clue is Brandon as he offers the SCv2's with Telsa inputs. For now, enjoy that some do work, but I'm pretty sure Telsa is working to correct all their destination chargers to allow only Telsa's use of them. 
Title: Re: Can't enable some Tesla chargers
Post by: Булгаков on June 14, 2018, 07:55:41 PM
Yeah 2014ZeroSR -- i assume that it would be a limited time before Tesla got rid of this "feature" ... I just wish that it was common for J1772 stations to support the full range of charging that the standard allows -- 19.2kW if i remember correctly. I have an extra J inlet for #DubJay charging, but on road trips often find only one hotel in a small town with a single J1772 plug (which may or may not work) or often only two Tesla plugs. All of the Tesla stations whether owned by Tesla or by a hotel have consistently high ratings on Plugshare, but if a J1772 station isn't owned/operated by Chargepoint (who don't really have stations outside large cities here), then they frequently don't work.

It's great to charge at 40A on a 240V NEMA 14-50 plug at RV parks, but if I have to do my driving at night because of the battery overheating issues, then I don't want to have to wake up the RV park owner at night just to ask if I can pay them a few dollars for charging ...
Here in east Texas, even at 8 or 9AM my battery temperature reads already  95F after cooling all night because humidity never lets night get very cold... and there are not many non-highway roads between towns that also have charging available along them, so I can't just ride at 40MPH ... so I am stuck with trying to charge at night if I want to ride a couple hundred miles between towns before I reach battery overheating limits ... which brings me back to why I like to find Tesla stations where I can just plug in at 4AM and not bother anyone.

In cities Houston and Austin and San Antonio it is easy to find charging, but challenging to drive between the cities.
Title: Re: Can't enable some Tesla chargers
Post by: Doug S on June 14, 2018, 08:31:23 PM
It's great to charge at 40A on a 240V NEMA 14-50 plug at RV parks, but if I have to do my driving at night because of the battery overheating issues, then I don't want to have to wake up the RV park owner at night just to ask if I can pay them a few dollars for charging ...

Under circumstances like those, I might be inclined to slip a $5 bill in an envelope with a short note, drop it in the mail slot, then just go hook up to an open outlet. If a guard or somebody comes around, explain what you did and he should be able to verify the envelope you dropped in the mail slot.
Title: Re: Can't enable some Tesla chargers
Post by: Doctorbass on June 15, 2018, 02:53:44 AM

This is also hapening to me. I just got the Tesla  compatible inlet from Diginow and I tested on 5 different destination charger stations ( Level II at 208-240V) and none of these are working. At first I have tought  that the gun was not going fully deep enough in my tesla  inlet  and that the  little pin  that the switch is connected to was not reaching the female pin of the tesla station gun and could not make the contact for activation but I also tried to just insert the pins alone and not the black plastic inlet.. and I got the same problem…. All 4 pins( L1, L2, GND and activation pin) insert fully into the tesla charge station gun.

The green led on the tesla station main ON  all the time and I have no sign of any  possible detection of the plug I connect to it. Normally after 11-30s if you flip the switch ON the charge would begin and the green led would be sequentially flashing  on the station but in my case it simply never happened.

I am just out of idea.. Brandon told me that in California that they all  work, but I confirm I am the only user in Quebec that use these tesla inlet and that  it does not work for me.

Doc
Title: Re: Can't enable some Tesla chargers
Post by: Булгаков on June 17, 2018, 05:22:25 AM
It's great to charge at 40A on a 240V NEMA 14-50 plug at RV parks, but if I have to do my driving at night because of the battery overheating issues, then I don't want to have to wake up the RV park owner at night just to ask if I can pay them a few dollars for charging ...

Under circumstances like those, I might be inclined to slip a $5 bill in an envelope with a short note, drop it in the mail slot, then just go hook up to an open outlet. If a guard or somebody comes around, explain what you did and he should be able to verify the envelope you dropped in the mail slot.

Doug -- thanks - I have done that a couple times, but I would hate to be accused of stealing power if they wish to charge a ridiculous minimum price for charging (one place said $10 minimum even though I don't have a 80kWh Tesla battery .. ).

Has anyone had a problem with just throwing a few dollars in the mail slot before?

Also Doctorbass -- I'm sorry to hear about your bad luck in Quebec ...
I wonder how long it is until someone reverse-engineers the Tesla handshake that is used to verify that a Tesla car is connected?