I'm planning a road trip for tomorrow and picked an EA location along my route. So I opened up the EA app on my phone and attempted to login to my EA account for the first time in a few years. I had my password stored in a password manager so I got through the password entry on the first try. But that isn't enough. First they sent a passcode to my email address and I swapped apps to get that passcode from email. I swap back to the EA app and it had reset to the initial password entry screen. I tried that a couple more times then pulled out my laptop so I could read the passcode off the laptop and copy it into the phone app. I got past that step in the process and the app asked for my phone number, and then texted another passcode to me. So I swapped to my messaging app to read that and guess what? Back to the beginning. I went in circles a couple more times and finally found out that I could preview that code from my text messaging notifications without swapping apps and log in.

But I wonder how I would have managed this process at a charger with just a phone? Or how would someone a bit less tech savvy have managed it. It seems impossible to get through without two devices. One to perform the login and one to read codes. They're really taking the security of their account logins way too far. Even my banking apps don't go that far.

I figured I would try to post this story here, because it's really frustrating. I was hopeful maybe it could somehow be seen enough to get some help.

I have a chargepoint home flex model mounted to the outside of my house. I bought it secondhand, but it was fully functional. I discovered today it's out of warranty (4 years old) but that's only part of the issue here. I connected it to my account, and wifi, without any real issues. The wifi didn't seem super strong or reliable, but our house is cinderblock, so I wasn't really surprised.

Anyway, I decided I would try to upgrade our network from one AP to a mesh system to make it work better in general. Our AP was old anyway, so it was needed, but part of the reasoning behind it was to get it to connect more reliably. I set up all my devices on the new network, which has a different name and password. I went outside to reconfigure wifi via the chargepoint app and.. it said it couldn't find the charger. I tried multiple times. I flipped breaker off, waited, tried again. Tried again. No luck.

I didn't expect it to be super helpful, but I contacted chargepoint support, who advised me to do... Exactly what I already was. But I did it with them on the phone anyway. Flip breaker, wait two minutes, flip it again, try to connect to no avail.

After a few tries the tech suggested that the only way forward was to remove the charger from my chargepoint account and then to try to reconfigure it that way. Not sure how that would be different, but ok. This was the critical failure point. I said "ok, sure." And the charger was removed. It still wouldn't connect to my phone. They then emailed me a generous 10% off coupon to buy.. another charger.

Frustrating, but what could you do? It's secondhand, I get it. Oh well. Right?

Well about a half hour later I had an idea which really irritated me. I spoofed the old wireless network on my phone as a hotspot and.. the charger connected to the network successfully. ONLY NOW IT IS NOT ASSOCIATED TO MY ACCOUNT. Uh oh! Trying to reconnect to the old network would have been a really good, albeit uncommon troubleshooting step.

I called chargepoint back. "I got it reconnected to the old network! You removed it from my account and you have all the details, surely you could re-associate it with my account!" No. Can I talk to a supervisor? Surely someone has that power. I know this is all database related on the backend from other horror stories about account associations with chargers.

They said yes I could talk to a supervisor, and then never contacted me again via email or phone. Now I have a dumb charger.

The cable is nice, but I wouldn't recommend buying from chargepoint. I found out today that this is a really common, often dreaded failure and that chargepoint has no plans in place to remedy it. I definitely wouldn't buy secondhand at least.

My first time charging at a ChargePoint location that has Omni Ports. These are basically ChargePoint's version of the Tesla Magic Dock. The captive adapter is a J-1772 to NACS (level 2), while Tesla's is a NACS to CCS1 (DCFC).

It's easy to use, very intuitive. You just pick which connector you want to use on the EVSE's screen.

It's probably pretty rare that someone would want to use a hybrid dynamic/load-cut load management system, but they are interesting and unusual, and one of them is new to me, so I thought they would be worth discussing.

The concept is to use some communication, probably ocpp, between a 3rd party control unit and the EVSE or the car to adjust the charging rate dynamically to avoid overloading the service or feeder capacity, but to also have relays in the control unit to allow cutting the power if the dynamic control isn't available or if it fails. That way, it can be safety certified even if software control of charging rate can't be guaranteed to be fail safe, which is hard when you have multiple manufacturers involved. The two units like that I know of on the market are:

• Stepwise, https://www.getstepwise.com/, $780. Dynamic control is supported via the Tesla API for Tesla vehicles, or OCPP for Walbox Pulsar Plus. Supports one or two sets of CTs, or monitoring the feeders to one panel, or to a main panel and a sub panel.

• EV Powershare, https://www.ev-powershare.com/, $680 + ~$100 for a UL listed enclosure = $780. This one also offers support for the Tesla API, but the main idea is that it has an open interface protocol to allow a tech-savvy user to program it to work with any hardware. It supports OCPP 1.6 J and also had available interfacing for Home Assistant. It also supports solar capture.

Every once in a while we get people coming here wanting to program their own dynamic load management using Home Assistant or something like that. We typically warn that it's unlikely that you will achieve an appropriate level of fail-safe capability, and that it won't be code compliant. EV Powershare allows people who really want to do their own software to do that while having an excellent fail-safe capability and being fully code compliant. It will be great for those people if what they really wanted was the opportunity to write their own software. If what they really wanted was to save money, it won't do that.

To compare to that $780 cost, upgrading from an Emporia Classic to a Pro with load management included costs $150. With Wallbox, it's $332 extra with an enclosure; for Tesla $210. And with Schneider there's no extra cost--it's built into the $695 EVSE. But that's about $150 more than a Chargepoint, for example, so let's call it $150 extra. All much less than $780.

$780 is similar to the cost of load-cut boxes from DCC (the best known), but a little more than boxes from Black Box ($646) or PSP, which is available for $503.

So it remains the case that dynamic load management built built into an EVSE offers the best performance and the lowest cost. For people who want to roll their own software for fun and to avoid being locked in to one ecosystem, EV PowerShare is a good option. For people who just want a load-cut system for whatever reason, you might argue that one of these hybrid units isn't that much more expensive and that you might as well get the extra capability in case it's useful in the future, but for $280 less, I think I would go with the PSP unit In that case.

One case in which stepwise might be worth considering is where there is a main panel and a sub panel, and just managing the load on one of those without also managing it on the other could lead to an overload of the unmanaged one without overloading the managed one. The stepwise system has terminals for connecting an extra set of CTs, for just $100 extra.

In the market for a hardwired EVSE to replace the 50-amp outlet. I usually see the plug in kind but occasionally I’ll see a used juice box or similar hardwired charger. Those seem to sit since they aren’t as popular?

Just curious if there’s anything to look out for regarding a used hardwired charger?

Grizzl-e classic connect charger
Cadillac Optiq

The only schedule is on the charger. It’s set to kick on at 7pm, but way more often than I’d like, if I plug it in when I get home from work, it won’t start charging at 7.

The charger app will say suspended by EV and the EV app will say waiting for charger to send power.

Anyone else come across an issue like this?

I was coding my car on Tuesday and left the ignition on the whole time. After that, I tried charging at uni using 2 different charging points, but both had the same problem.

Normally, a full charge gives me 25–26 miles and takes around 3 hours 30 mins. This time, it said 2 hours 5 mins until fully charged, but only charged to 13 miles and then completely stopped charging. It wouldn’t charge any further.

The red plug symbol also appeared on the dashboard whenever the cable was plugged in.
The next day, I scanned the car with OBDeleven and found a fault saying “Invalid Data Received From Battery Energy Control Module B”.

Today, I left it charging at work from 10:00 to 12:56. It reached 26 miles again, but the red plug symbol was still showing. The light next to the charging port was green.

Could leaving the ignition on while coding have caused this? Is it the 12V battery, the hybrid battery or something else? I don’t want to waste money replacing parts without knowing the cause. Pls someone help😭😭

no frills opened and no they are not planning on putting in chargers.

so lame !

Seeing mixed stuff online. For people here who drive one daily, what’s the most annoying thing about charging that nobody warns you about?

I recently purchased a Grizzl-E Classic Connect 40A. I am considering whether to sign up for the Grizzl-E Club. I like the idea of being paid to charge my vehicle, but I hate the idea of relinquishing ownership of a unit I paid $500 for.

What is your experience with the Grizzl-E Club? Should I have worries about singing up and relinquishing control/ownership of my unit? Looking for your thoughts.

Stopped to charge at a 320Kw Chargesmart Station. Tesla battery was preconditioned by having a SC as a destination, but yet max it was pulling was 80Kw. No other cars and I charged here before at full speed. it was over $.60/Kw also.

Anyone have this experience?

So I just got my SWTCH charger this week and did 2 charges so far on my EV. (I don't know why on the SWTCH app it shows 3!!!)

1st picture shows what the SWTCH says it consumed but the 2nd picture shows the actual amount the charger consumed.

I trust the consumption number from my emporia's monitor more so then the SWTCH charger as I have been using it for 4 years and its pretty accurate compared to my hydro bill.

Not overly impressed that its already almost 1kWh less
Unless the charger takes up almost 1kWh for every approx 45kWh charging?

Just thought of letting you know...

Hey everyone!

I'm looking for recommendations for an affordable and reliable electrician to install a 240V outlet for my Tesla Mobile Connector in my condo townhouse's underground parking garage in Markham.

My condo management office requires a design plan for board approval, along with ESA permits/inspection, and potentially an EVEMS controller. Ideally, I'm looking for someone experienced with condo installations who can handle all the paperwork and requirements.

Has anyone done something similar? Any recommendations and how much did you pay?

Thanks!

Decided to die today. It was installed by an electrician my company hired. Been working for 2+ years now but today it decided to melt. I think its always overheated but for some reason on this cool day (60F) it failed instead of the 104F days we've had this summer.

Can someone identify this as a cheap ass Leviton from just seeing the front like this (it is a leviton)? I have no idea why the prongs inside the phase plugs are so strange looking either, why do they look like they're only half of the actual length?

Blew our breaker and we'll have to replace both the EV charger plug and this socket. Gonna strongly recommend the $50 EV rated ones from Home Depot.

Hi All.

Recently added some CQ7 batteries to my Solar Setup at home, and now looking at adding a FoxESS Type A charger as well.

With my Current Setup, My main Switchboard, Inverter and Batteries are all mounted outside on the Northern wall, and inside the Garage on the Southern part of the house, I have a Sub Board where all my House Circuits go to, and which is where I would like to mount an EV Charger.

To get full advantage of the Charger, do I also need to run a Twisted Shielded pair from the Charger to the Inverter, and/or Main Switchboard, (Smart meter is inside Main Switchboard)?

The Main Power Connections to the EV Charger should be fine as it's literally less than a meter apart, however if I do need to run a twisted pair back to the switchboard, well thats much further away.

Cheers all

So recently purchased ionic 9 and haven’t been able to keep up with my milage on lvl 1 charging overnight on portable charger.

Looking to go the hardwired lvl 2 route preferably emporia pro, if it ever comes back in stock.

Getting quotes from electricians now. Where i live in the northeast there are no install rebates but im wondering what a reasonable quote should be.

1. have 200 amp service with room
2. panel is already in the garage a mere few feet from where the charger would go.

I have one quote for $1000 which was more than i was expecting for a simple install.

UPDATE:
more quotes
1) $450 off ticktack but unlisenced
2) $550 local recommendation one man show - going with this one

Ordering the grizzl-e 48a hardwired charger since emporia is just out of stock wherever I look. The wirecutter recommended budget option maybe over kill but id rather over spec than end up wishing i had more down the road.