Strangeness with blink?

[Aries]

Ok, so got some strange charging situation going on...

Does the RAV do anything unusual with its charging system (aside from the seemingly well known "timer issue")? I keep having strange events at home where it fails to charge at night from my BLINK and I also get unexpected unplugged events sent from blink by email.

So, I have this simple setup.. just an EV Project blink that has been set up to allow charging after midnight via its inbuilt scheduling setup. In the year and a half I had a LEAF this did not fail to function even once.

Now, with RAV it fails most of the time. I just find the car not charged in the morning and the blink says "OK to plug in your vehicle". If I unplug the car and then plug it back in, the blink notices it and gives me the option to start charging immediately if I want to.

It failed tonight too, I just happened to be up working and went out to check and saw it not charging. So I re-plugged it in and the blink started charging right away (it was after midnight). Around 14 minutes ago I got an email from "entune" saying "Charge Notification - Charge Completion Notification". Cool. It finished. Then around 10 minutes ago I got an email from BLINK saying "Your charge is complete". So, cool, blink agrees. Now, just this very moment I got another email from BLINK that says "You've been unplugged". Huh? Nobody has unplugged the car, its still plugged in. So, I go into the garage and look at blink.. blink says "OK to plug in your vehicle". So it really thinks its not plugged in. I look at car and its still plugged in just as I'd left it.

The car did fully charge up so it seems the charge completed normally.

It is interesting that this unplugged message comes 10 minutes or so after the expected charge completion message.

Could it be that RAV puts its charging system to "sleep" if theres an evse present but nothing going on (ie the car doesn't want a charge -- because its fully charged, or the EVSE doesn't want to charge the car -- because BLINKs schedule says "not now")?

Could any of this be possibly a cause or related to the various charging timer issues people report? Just to be clear I have NO charge timers set in the car itself and I've never even tried any of that. I just have to wonder if the cars inbuilt charging system goes to sleep due to no activity and that makes the EVSE think nothing is connected... well then all bets would be off wouldn't they?

Also BLINK worked great with the LEAF. This issue is an RAV phenomenon and quite curious...

-J

 

[Aries]

Ok, so I use Entunes on iphone right now and refresh the charge status. It updates to show 100% charged as expected. Now I went out there and BLINK shows the car is plugged in! I seriously didn't go touch it.

Next time this happens I will try the entunes request-status-update thing while standing in front of blink to see if the car 'wakes up' somehow when answering these SMS inquiries.

All together very strange seeming.

-J

 

[Dsinned]

I agree . . . very strange behavior to say the least!

Only thing that might be worth checking is the PHYSICAL connection to the J1772 charge port connector itself. It literally has a "hair trigger" mechanism and sometimes upon plugging in there is a possibility the latch does not engage properly. Also, if you pull back on it after it connects - just slightly - you may actually disconnect it without realizing it. Listen for the latch mechanism to fully engage wherever plugging in. Don't wiggle the connector after that or risk a partial inadvertent disconnect. I think the contact inside the connector are sort of a "sloppy fit" and any discontinuities in the physical connection can cause any number of flaky behaviors. Just my 2 cents . . .

 

[jspearman]

I've been testing my Blink unit with the RAV and had the same thing happen. I previously mentioned that I bought a Leviton unit, but returned the unit after exchanging about 20 emails with Ecotality and talked to one of their engineers. I've been religiously checking my inlet temps and I've been nowhere above 24 degrees ambient.

That said, I had the same thing happen two nights ago. I programmed a 2am charge on my Blink unit and it worked the first night, didn't work the second night, and then worked again on the third night. This appears to be a problem with the Toyota, not the Blink, since I too charged my Leaf and never, ever had that problem.

Not as worried about the charge status changing, since I see this same behavior with my Volt. It's a bit cold at night right now, so I think the cars keep requesting the juice to come back on to activate the temperature management. If the idiot in the NYT article plugged it into a socket overnight, then there would likely have been no story, but that's a complaint for another thread.

Definitely contact Ecotality and make them aware of this issue, and I'll do the same.

 

[Ampster]

As far as the sleeping or going on standby is concerned I experienced a similar phenomenon. I have a Schneider EV Link which has a built in timer. I have never used the Toyota schedule but one time I tried the timer on the EV Link and it did not connect on the first try, but after unplugging it and replugging it connected and did a 30 minute delayed charge in accordance with the 30 minute delay that I had programmed in the EV Link.

 

[jspearman]

As far as the sleeping or going on standby is concerned I experienced a similar phenomenon. I have a Schneider EV Link which has a built in timer. I have never used the Toyota schedule but one time I tried the timer on the EV Link and it did not connect on the first try, but after unplugging it and replugging it connected and did a 30 minute delayed charge in accordance with the 30 minute delay that I had programmed in the EV Link.

I understand the internal timer on the RAV4 not working, but I find this issue very strange. Something in Toyota's software apparently doesn't like the nozzle being plugged without starting a charge, as I've had no issues with immediate charges.

 

[jspearman]

So this is bizarre.

My scheduled charge didn't work again last night, but when I opened the driver's door to see how long it would take to charge on the dash, suddenly the charge started.

 

[palmer_md]

every post here seems to point in the same direction. The Rav is putting the computer to sleep at night, so when the charger tries to initiate its handshake to begin it does not get a response and the charger fails to begin charging. Once someone wakes it up either via mobile app or opening door or some other means, it begins charging. Somehow the charger's computer that controls the pilot handshake needs to remain powered at all times. Should be a simple fix for Toyota or Tesla (whoever is in charge of the installation of the charger).

On a purely speculative basis : Probably Tesla designed it to be always powered and then Toyota is turning off power to this unit in order to protect the 12v battery.

It'll be interesting to see how fast this gets fixed. Need some engineers to monitor the car overnight....several nights probably.

 

[SeaMonster]

Well my car is now fully instrumented with a recording device plugged into both the Toyota OBD connector in the front and the Tesla connector in the back. Toyota put this in about a week ago and I go back on Wednesday for them to remove it. Then they will scrounge through the data and hopefully come up with an answer. They tried to diagnose it in their shop and finally realized that they need to see what's going on all night long. The issue is compounded by the fact that Tesla doesn't share all of their diagnostic tools with Toyota, or at least not with the dealers. Toyota (corporate?) sent their techs to my dealer to install these recorders and when they remove them, they will take them back.

Specifically they are looking to understand why the Toyota timed charging sometimes fails. Since my charger doesn't have a timer, I never reported that issue. Hopefully this is all related and a solution will address both issues. Hopefully we get a solution!

 

[TonyWilliams]

My car did some funny business when I checked the charge last night with the iPad (not connected or some other BS), so I initiated the charge from the iPad and it charged normally.

 

[jspearman]

I just called Toyota to report the issue. I think Palmermd is right, that the car is asleep due to the potential 12v battery drain. The charger is requesting the go ahead, but nobody is home. This should be an easy software update. Does Toyota do OTA updates like Tesla?

He said there is automatic escalation for any issue with the RAV EV, so the next level of Toyota calls me on Tuesday, he said.

 

[Dsinned]

Well my car is now fully instrumented with a recording device plugged into both the Toyota OBD connector in the front and the Tesla connector in the back. Toyota put this in about a week ago and I go back on Wednesday for them to remove it. Then they will scrounge through the data and hopefully come up with an answer. They tried to diagnose it in their shop and finally realized that they need to see what's going on all night long. The issue is compounded by the fact that Tesla doesn't share all of their diagnostic tools with Toyota, or at least not with the dealers. Toyota (corporate?) sent their techs to my dealer to install these recorders and when they remove them, they will take them back.

Specifically they are looking to understand why the Toyota timed charging sometimes fails. Since my charger doesn't have a timer, I never reported that issue. Hopefully this is all related and a solution will address both issues. Hopefully we get a solution!

I talked to Toyota "corporate" yesterday at length about this problem. It is surprising how so very few if any peeps in there customer support "hotline" org are aware of this issue. Anyway, the guy I talked to is trying to escalate the problem to the "right people"; presumably a liaison group to Tesla for technical assistance. I was also told tat Toyota is concerned that the problem may somehow relate to their Entune Infotainment system, since there is an "EV" Battery Charging Management app in there. It may not be conveying charge related commands properly to the Tesla Battery Management computer.

 

[jspearman]

So I plugged in at 7:30 tonight, the Blink told me charge would start in 6.5 hours. Normally it would continue counting down until the charge starts, but went out to garage at 11:15 and the Blink asked me to plug in, as if it wasn't already. Opened the driver's door and voila, it recognized the nozzle was plugged and the countdown again showed up on screen. I decided to go ahead and charge immediately and not take a chance.

 

[Aries]

So I plugged in at 7:30 tonight, the Blink told me charge would start in 6.5 hours. Normally it would continue counting down until the charge starts, but went out to garage at 11:15 and the Blink asked me to plug in, as if it wasn't already. Opened the driver's door and voila, it recognized the nozzle was plugged and the countdown again showed up on screen. I decided to go ahead and charge immediately and not take a chance.

Yep, this is exactly it. Sure seems to me like the car is asleep. That's been my theory for a bit now.

Wonder if the car going to sleep could also cause it to not process the timers set in the car - the other issue people have been reporting?

Might be easy to test... Seems the car goes to sleep after 10 minutes or so. So, someone with those timers set could use the app to query charge status or just manually open a door .. Something to ensure its awake maybe 5 minutes before their timer would be set to start. Then watch and see if the timer works. Bet its something like this...

 

[Aries]

Its definitely going to sleep. I just watched a charge cycle end normally then exactly 10 minutes later the blink changed to say "please plug in your vehicle". I then used ENTUNE to query the state of charge while standing there watching blink. A few moments after starting the Entune inquiry I heard a small noise from the car and watched the Blinks display change to indicate the vehicle was now plugged in.

So.. yes. Something is very definitely going to sleep in the car. No question. Bet this is affecting those charge timers too.

 

[Blastphemy]

I posted in another thread that I let my Blink determine the charging schedule and don't use the car's programmable delayed charging. But then I realized that I never come home during my Blink's "off" time, so I'm basically getting an immediate charge when I plug in. I'll have to try plugging in before 8:30 p.m. on President's Day (neither the Blink nor my car knows it's a holiday to allow the weekend charging schedule) to see what happens.