110 charging cord

[littlegreen]

The 110 charging cord that came with my leaf would not go from ready light to charge. Could not get the charge lights on dash to come on. Had to be towed home. Charged fine at home on 220. Anyone else had trouble with theirs?

 

[DarkStar]

Did you get any lights on the 120 volt EVSE when you plugged it in? If not, you should use an outlet tester on the plug.

 

[TomT]

A flashing ready light usually indicates some kind of ground fault in the outlet you are trying to charge from. I had this happen once and moving to a different outlet cured it. I now carry an outlet tester in my charger case to test the outlet first.

The 110 charging cord that came with my leaf would not go from ready light to charge. Could not get the charge lights on dash to come on. Had to be towed home. Charged fine at home on 220. Anyone else had trouble with theirs?

 

[smkettner]

Have you tried the L1 at home? Did you push the button to override the timers?

Otherwise mine works fine as that is all I have.

 

[garygid]

1. The Ready light ON means your L1 Nissan EVSE got power.

2. It probably also means that it passed the no-ground test?

3. No change in the EVSE's lights (or the car's 3 blue dashboard lights) when you plug the J1772 "nozzle" into the car USUALLY means that the nozzle did not get pushed into the LEAF's socket far enough.

 

[davewill]

Have you tried the L1 at home? Did you push the button to override the timers?...

If it was a timer issue, he should have seen the cycling blue lights. After Gary's comment, I'm beginning to think he has a bad L1 EVSE. I've got to think he must have tried multiple plug in attempts, so I doubt he didn't get the connector in right, unless his connector is defective. Anyway, trying it at home is an obvious test to do before going to the dealer.

 

[Ingineer]

Please post more information. Was the Ready light on the EVSE lit? Was it blinking?

Was the Red Fault light lit/blinking?

I can most likely tell you the problem if you give us more information.

I assume this isn't one of my upgraded units?

-Phil

 

[garygid]

OP seems to indicate that the Ready LED was ON, but maybe not?

If the Hot/Neutral of a 120v socket were wired reversed,
presumably the Ready light would be ON, but ...

If the ground check is for current flowing from the 120v Hot to Ground,
then reversed Hot/Neutral would TEST LIKE a missing ground?

And, No-Ground is an ON, but blinking, Ready LED, correct?

 

[Ingineer]

OP seems to indicate that the Ready LED was ON, but maybe not?

If the Hot/Neutral of a 120v socket were wired reversed,
presumably the Ready light would be ON, but ...

If the ground check is for current flowing from the 120v Hot to Ground,
then reversed Hot/Neutral would TEST LIKE a missing ground?

And, No-Ground is an ON, but blinking, Ready LED, correct?

Actually the EVSE doesn't care if hot/neutral are swapped, since it breaks both conductors, there is no safety issue with that situation. If the ground is not present or the line voltage out of spec (too low for instance), the unit will flash the ready light an not generate a pilot signal, so the LEAF will not "see" it.

If any of the 3 relays stick or fail open, any of the internal self-checks fail, the pilot is out-of-spec, or a ground leakage is detected you will get a flashing red "Fault" light. The unit will have to be reset in most cases to clear these faults.

The OP emailed me to say he determined it was an open ground (flashing ready light). The problem is resolved!

-Phil

 

[littlegreen]

Thanks to all that replied. It was an open ground and the ready light was flashing. The cord works well at home. Thanks again.......Dave

 

[tbleakne]

This weekend I drove to Oxnard, CA and left my LEAF in my friends' garage for two nights while we rode in their ICE on a birding trip.
My plan was the charge the car in their garage using their 120V outlet while we were gone.

The outlet tested fine with the outlet tester I always carry, but when I plugged in my 2011 upgraded EVSE, I got a flashing green light, indicating a ground fault. I tried plugging into the car anyway, and I did get the car to start charging for just a few minutes before the EVSE started flashing alternate green and amber. Finally the EVSE shut down completely. I unplugged it, tried again, same result. The outlet still indicated good on the outlet tester.

After I returned home (requiring extra charge along the way at two Nissan dealerships), I tested the EVSE on my own grounded 120V outlet for 60 minutes and it charged fine.

My conclusions:

My friends' outlet had a weak ground.
The basic outlet testers available in the stores do NOT properly test for weak grounds. They can only be relied on detecting missing grounds.
Perhaps I should carry a special 120V receptacle with a separate ground wire that I can attach to a metal pipe or other handy object.

In 2 and 1/2 years of LEAF ownership this is only the second time I have tried L1, and the first time I have had a ground fault.
Has anyone else experienced this condition?
I would certainly not want a ground fault on a 240V 14-50 outlet at an RV park, but in that case I could just ask for a different outlet.
Do electricians carry better ground fault detectors ? If so, what model ?

 

[johnrhansen]

Do the EVSEs test the ground with an appreciable amount of current? If ohms law still holds true there is no way to discern between a good ground and a weak one without flowing at least an amp or two through to the ground. .I really don't think a test like that would be safe because if the ground for that circuit was bad it would raise the voltage on all of the ground terminals of every plug on the downstream side of the bad ground connection. I have done confidence tests of grounds by wiring in a big light bulb between hot and ground and measuring the voltage between the neutral and ground (or just seeing if the light comes on).. I wouldn't do it with any other plugs on the circuit. And it's hard to tell what's on the circuit if it's not your house... It's best to not even go there. If you are looking for a good outlet aim for the washing machine or bathroom outlet. By code that needs to be a dedicated outlet.. some exceptions for bathrooms... also kitchen counter tops are good ones too. they aren't dedicated, but they have to be on 20 amp circuits.. and they are GFCI protected too..

 

[LeftieBiker]

Rather than carry a whole spare outlet, carry a grounding wire with a high amp alligator clamp on one end and a copper ring terminal on the other. You can connect the latter to either a case screw on a metal box, or the cover plate hold-down screw on a wall outlet.

 

[Ingineer]

The EVSE sends a few milliamps of current through grounds for it's verification test.

If you have revision 3 firmware in your EVSE Upgrade, it supports programming to bypass the ground detection. If you don't have one, the best way to "simulate" a ground safely is to use a 100k resistor (1/2 watt minimum). Of course, the best solution is to repair the bad ground.

-Phil

 

[adric22]

I carry an outlet tester in my EVSE bag as well. I think I paid $4 for it at Home Depot. The sad thing is, of all o the outlets I've ever tried to use to charge my Leaf, at least half of them have been bad. Almost all of those were GFCI outlets. It seems to me that when mounted outdoors, these outlets seem to have a limited lifespan and, because they are rarely used, the building/home owners often don't realize they are no good and so they are never replaced.

 

[MikeD]

adric22: Another reason for "bad grounds" is that an older house may have an ungrounded circuit that has 3 prong receptacles on it (and following code they are usually GFCI protected). You can't buy new two prong 15a (NEMA 1-15) or 20a receptacles easily, I believe I recall they are all 3 prong (NEMA 5-15 or 5-20) at Lowes, Home Depot, and Ace Hardware. However, it is against code to use a 3 prong receptacle that is not grounded unless they are GFCI protected (for obvious reasons -- they give the false appearance of providing the safety of an "equipment ground" for appliances that use a 3 prong plug). See this link, for example: http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/article/0,,20065922,00.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
I don't have the time to look up specific relevant code articles, so please anyone correct any inaccuracies in this post...

So if a circuit is ungrounded, it may very well have GFCI receptacles on it (which I believe are all 3 prong) or 3 prong non-GFCI receptacles -- and no label indicating "NO EQUIPMENT GROUND".

 

[JPWhite]

The EVSE sends a few milliamps of current through grounds for it's verification test.

If you have revision 3 firmware in your EVSE Upgrade, it supports programming to bypass the ground detection. If you don't have one, the best way to "simulate" a ground safely is to use a 100k resistor (1/2 watt minimum). Of course, the best solution is to repair the bad ground.

-Phil

How do you determine the Firmware revision?

I used an outlet at work just fine for 2 days, then this morning flashing green ready light and circuit tester now shows open ground. Will have to wait until later today when I can gain access to the outlet itself to see if the extension is loose/bad or if the outlet is at fault.

JP

 

[goaliepride]

Why do people carry outlet testers in their kit? Wouldn't the EVSE just test this itself? Sorry if that's a dumb question.

Sincerely,
New owner with little understanding of electrical stuff.

 

[JPWhite]

Why do people carry outlet testers in their kit? Wouldn't the EVSE just test this itself? Sorry if that's a dumb question.

Sincerely,
New owner with little understanding of electrical stuff.

The outlet testers are small and light and can fit in your pocket. Much less bulky than the EVSE. So when hunting for a good outlet it's much more convenient to use the little circuit tester rather than lug the EVSE around and plug it in.

 

[Kelangst]

Agree with carrying the tester. Just feels better to see the good outlet indicator before plugging in. FYI - I just returned a defective 110 charging cord this am. So that happens too. Having the inexpensive Kill-A-Watt meter is also helpful.