Hot Disconnect

[Joseph Z]

To give a little background I have a VW eGolf and when you connect your charger there is a pin which locks the J1772 to the vehicle. The only way to disconnect this is with using the key to unlock the car. Very annoying to say the least.

Being that I like to tinker I removed the pin and was testing the open evse for hot disconnect. Since the locking pins locks the charger to the car when you push the J1772 trigger release it doesn't tell the car to stop charging therefore the car keeps pulling power.

My question is, I was under the assumption there was a switch in the trigger of the J1772 which when pushed told the charger to stop allowing power. When I push the trigger I don't hear the relay and it still shows 30amps when I unplug. I know there is a proximity wire that kills power before a disconnect as well. What function does the trigger serve? When it is pressed shouldn't it kill the charging at the charger?

I see some scorch marks on my charger at the two Hot Pins and looks like it is arching aparently. Any input is appreciated.

[Danny ter Haar]

This diagram is everything to charge an EV.

Left is the (open) EVSE

next to it the J1772 plug

next to it the J1772 EV inlet

right is internal EV charger parts

As you can see there should be resistors in the plug with the switch.

The car should disengage in milliseconds when you press the switch.

Best thing you can do is disconnect your openevse, measure with ohm meter between proximity pin (5) of the male J1772 and the ground (3)

You should get a reading of 150 Ohm

When you press (and keep pressed) the switch on your J1772 handle,

the resistance should change to 480 Ohm.

If that is the case, the car is ignoring one of the safety features of the J1772 protocol.

If the plug doesn't have the resistors/switch connected the right way, go back to the supplier of the cable/plug 

Keep us posted please

[chris1howell .]

The button on the handle tells the car to stop charging.

My guess is the car is ignoring the command because it is locked... Try unlocking the car (even though the pin is gone) and press the button. My guess is it will follow the command with the car unlocked.

On Jul 8, 2015 8:19 PM, "Danny ter Haar" <from...@gmail.com> wrote:

On Wednesday, July 8, 2015 at 7:45:29 PM UTC-7, Joseph Z wrote:

To give a little background I have a VW eGolf and when you connect your charger there is a pin which locks the J1772 to the vehicle. The only way to disconnect this is with using the key to unlock the car. Very annoying to say the least.

Being that I like to tinker I removed the pin and was testing the open evse for hot disconnect. Since the locking pins locks the charger to the car when you push the J1772 trigger release it doesn't tell the car to stop charging therefore the car keeps pulling power.

My question is, I was under the assumption there was a switch in the trigger of the J1772 which when pushed told the charger to stop allowing power. When I push the trigger I don't hear the relay and it still shows 30amps when I unplug. I know there is a proximity wire that kills power before a disconnect as well. What function does the trigger serve? When it is pressed shouldn't it kill the charging at the charger?

I see some scorch marks on my charger at the two Hot Pins and looks like it is arching aparently. Any input is appreciated.

This diagram is everything to charge an EV.

Left is the (open) EVSE

next to it the J1772 plug

next to it the J1772 EV inlet

right is internal EV charger parts

As you can see there should be resistors in the plug with the switch.

The car should disengage the millisecond you press the switch.

Best thing you can do is disconnect your openevse, measure with ohm meter between proximity pin (5) of the male J1772 and the ground (3)

You should get a reading of 150 Ohm

When you press (and keep pressed) the switch on your J1772 handle,

the resistance should change to 480 Ohm.

If that is the case, the car is ignoring one of the safety features of the J1772 protocol.

If the plug doesn't have the resistors/switch connected the right way, go back to the supplier of the cable/plug 

Keep us posted please

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[Joseph Z]

I tested as you described and at rest I have 150 ohms and when I trigger the switch it shows .480 ohms. According to what you said this should read 480 ohms?

I took images as well.

BTW- my J1772 cable was bought from openevse.com

[chris1howell .]

Should be 150 and 480. If you get .480 check the scale on your multimeter.

Most likely your issue is the vehicle not responding because it believes the cable is still locked.

[Joseph Z]

Thanks Chris, apparently I need to go back on a refresher of using my meter. My meter auto scales and threw me for a loop. It read 150 ohm open and .480k closed.

Cable is fine.

Since this is a safety requirement shouldn't it be illegal for the car to just ignore the trigger? Seems very odd to me but then again a lot of the quirks with the VW are ridiculous.

[chris1howell .]

J1772 is just a "recommended practice" so VW can really do whatever they want. Their implementation is a bit quirky. I understand timers do not work quite right either.

They chose to lock the cable so another person can not interfere with your charge. When locked there is no reason to respond to proximity because the cable can not be pulled. I am sure they did not expect the mechanism to be modified.

[Scott Armitage]

On Wednesday, 8 July 2015 22:45:29 UTC-4, Joseph Z wrote:

To give a little background I have a VW eGolf and when you connect your charger there is a pin which locks the J1772 to the vehicle. The only way to disconnect this is with using the key to unlock the car. Very annoying to say the least.

I actually prefer that behaviour. Instead, if I forget to unlock my Volt before removing the charge cable, the alarm sounds. This is more annoying for me because it might wake up sleeping people/babies, and is all-around embarrassing when you car announces to the world that you forgot your order of operations. Plus, in the event that someone else is removing the cable, it doesn't actually stop them from disrupting my charge or stealing my cable, whereas physically locking the connector would.

I believe the Gen2 Volt has a locking mechanism for the cable.

[Danny ter Haar]

On Wednesday, July 8, 2015 at 10:30:57 PM UTC-7, Chris wrote:

J1772 is just a "recommended practice" so VW can really do whatever they want. Their implementation is a bit quirky. I understand timers do not work quite right either.

They chose to lock the cable so another person can not interfere with your charge. When locked there is no reason to respond to proximity because the cable can not be pulled. I am sure they did not expect the mechanism to be modified.

Makes great sense the way you describe it.

 

[Craig Kirkpatrick]

I'm trying to imagine workarounds so Joseph can avoid the arcing at the plug. Normally I'd say to tap the button on the OpenEVSE enclosure which has the evse sleep and normally cars will withdraw charging per the J1772 protocol. I think I remember that was the problem also with the eGolf we looked at a month ago where the evse delay timers didn't work because the eGolf dose not follow the J1772 standard and it required a bizarre firmware workaround to wiggle the pilot signal three cycles or something incredible like that.

VW is outsourcing too much of their software engineering to incompetents and VW managers just say deliver-the-car because it works with the Bosch EVSE they also sell or something equally stupid.

This is not typical of any German engineering firms. I blame VW management, they are reckless in the past decade in my humble opinion.

Sorry I got on my repeated rant of VW firmware incompetence. Tell me I'm off base, am I?

[chris1howell .]

The past issue was waking up from sleep. I think going into sleep works.

[Craig Kirkpatrick]

Joseph, hope you can avoid arcing your plug most easily by tapping the button on the OpenEVSE first. Let us know if that works.

Normally the OpenEVSE and any electric vehicle adhering to the rudimentary J1772 standard avoids destructive arcing anywhere in the circuit.

It will be wise to avoidd arcing to prolong the life of your equipment.

[Joseph Z]

Craig I share your rant, it's a pain in the butt! I'm trying to think of how to be courteous to others if I'm fully charged. Even if it locked it until a full charge is reached. I'm not a programmer but I'd assume it's simple.

They use an app to operate all the charging schedules and it is absolutely terrible. It have functions to charge during off peak and if you use them you run the chance of not charging. Amazing I know. Then if I use the delay on the EVSE for some reason my car won't charge. Amazing I know.

Half the time the app crashed or just cycles endlessly. So frustrating. I ended up reassembling everything because I don't know how other chargers will react. VW isn't saving the world. I don't like the lock and the consensus thinks alike. It's not courteous to others either.

[Danny ter Haar]

On Thursday, July 9, 2015 at 7:29:53 PM UTC-7, Joseph Z wrote:

VW isn't saving the world. I don't like the lock and the consensus thinks alike. It's not courteous to others either.

It would be nice if you were given an option :

"release plug when full" or something.

First generation BEV for them right ?

I met a lot of people at quick chargers who like the way they drive. 

I think it is a nice EV ;-)

 

[Lee Howard]

On 07/09/2015 04:16 AM, Scott Armitage wrote:
>
> On Wednesday, 8 July 2015 22:45:29 UTC-4, Joseph Z wrote:
>
> To give a little background I have a VW eGolf and when you connect
> your charger there is a pin which locks the J1772 to the vehicle.
> The only way to disconnect this is with using the key to unlock
> the car. Very annoying to say the least.
>
>
> I actually prefer that behaviour. Instead, if I forget to unlock my
> Volt before removing the charge cable, the alarm sounds. This is more
> annoying for me because it might wake up sleeping people/babies, and
> is all-around embarrassing when you car announces to the world that
> you forgot your order of operations.

You can change this behavior in the car's configuration. Just turn it
off if you don't like it.

> Plus, in the event that /someone else/ is removing the cable, it

> doesn't actually stop them from disrupting my charge or stealing my
> cable, whereas physically locking the connector would.

Every J1772 connector that I've ever seen has a little hole to clasp a
lock, so you can accomplish the same with that.

> I believe the Gen2 Volt has a locking mechanism for the cable.

Hopefully it's a configurable feature.

Thanks,

Lee.

[Fishhawk]

Depends on the model year of the Volt. I can't turn this off myself on my 2011 Volt; I have to take it to the dealer to have the alarm turned off. Starting with the 2012s there is a configuration option to turn it off.