Charge interrupted?

[Andre Eisenbach]

When I set the pilot to +12 while charging to suspend the charging process, my Nissan Leaf does indeed ramp down the power to 0 in response. And after maybe 10s it goes to STATE_B.

However, the next time I start the car there is an orange warning light with an exclamation mark through it.

A quick Google search seems to indicate that interrupting a charge will cause this light.

The owners manual makes it sound more dire:

ELECTRIC VEHICLE (EV) SYSTEM WARNING LIGHT

The warning light will illuminate if there is a

malfunction in the following systems:

• Traction motor and inverter system

• Charge port or on-board charger

• Li-ion battery system

• Cooling system

• Shift control system

• Emergency shut-off system is activated

Is there a way an EVSE can suspend charging temporarily without having the car freak out?

[Danny ter Haar]

Not with the standard hardware AFAIK
The way to make it work would be to add 2 resistors and a transistor and use a pin available on the ISP to activate the above mentioned parts. The output of that addition would be used to pull the proximity signal out of the normal range to stop charging. Like someone pushed the lever on the j1772 handle. You will probably get a charging interrupted message, but no error. And when you release it of would continue charging again.
That is what I intend to add soon to my setup because of my braindead charger software in my EV.

[Craig Kirkpatrick]

Setting the pilot to +12 sounds like the normal way to pause charging.  The EV should cease drawing current within 5 seconds per the specification - or at least the experts here tell me it is 5 seconds.

The existing OpenEVSE firmware will go to a charging-paused-state when the button is tapped.  If I remember I'll try that later this morning and see how much my Ford Focus complains.  The Ford sends me txt messages on my iPhone for anything it wants to complain about the EVSE.

Setting the pilot to -12 definitely should have the EV alerting the user that something is in need of service in the EVSE like a GFCI fault or over-temperature fault.

[chris1howell .]

Setting pilot HIGH is a transition State between BC signaling the EVSE is not ready (but not an error). EV should recover when pilot is resumed. OpenEVSE uses this state for Sleeping, it works with my Leaf.

Setting pilot LOW is an error state. EV will not resume until disconnect/reconnect.

[Nick Sayer]

Moreover, the -12 signal is like an EVSE closing its eyes and putting its fingers in its ears and saying, "na na na, I'm not listening to you." Because of the diode in the vehicle required by the spec, there's no way for the EVSE to detect anything about the vehicle state when the pilot is negative. You can't tell whether the vehicle has been unplugged or re-plugged at all.

[Craig Kirkpatrick]

I did just test tapping the OpenEVSE button during charging my Ford Focus.  The Ford seemed to react within one second and I could hear it quit charging.  It did not generate any error messages at all.  Tapping the OpenEVSE button again resumed charging normally and the Ford was completely happy.

[Andre Eisenbach]

Chris,

What year is your Leaf? (Mine is a 2015)

You don't get the orange warning light the next time you want to drive?

I can resume charging by enabling PWM again and the Leaf does play along.

Just the warning light next time around...

Thx

On Sunday, May 10, 2015 at 8:11:58 AM UTC-7, Chris wrote:

[chris1howell .]

Mine is a 2011, sleep has never resulted in an orange light on my leaf. I have tested sleep quite extensively with RAPI tracking solar to dynamically adjust current to match solar output. When solar output results in less than 6A I put it to sleep and wake it back up again.

OpenEVSE also uses the BC transition (pilot high) when waiting for a timer to trigger. It works perfectly on my 2011 Leaf and 2012 Tesla S.

[lincomatic]

I second that with my 2011 as well. When the car sees +12VDC, it blinks the right blue LED (as viewed from the front of the car), and throttles down the current. After several minutes, opens its contactor and and the LED turns off.  There are never any errors thrown by the car. 

Sent from my iCrap

On May 10, 2015, at 11:34 AM, chris1howell . <chris1h...@gmail.com> wrote:

Mine is a 2011, sleep has never resulted in an orange light on my leaf. I have tested sleep quite extensively with RAPI tracking solar to dynamically adjust current to match solar output. When solar output results in less than 6A I put it to sleep and wake it back up again.

OpenEVSE also uses the BC transition (pilot high) when waiting for a timer to trigger. It works perfectly on my 2011 Leaf and 2012 Tesla S.

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[Andre Eisenbach]

Thanks guys!

Figured out the problem. Didn't turn the contactor off quickly enough. Apparently the Leaf checks :D

All good now!