Main thread for http://electric.carstations.com

[ranchleaf]

Hey all,

First wanted to announce we now have filtering by EVSE brand/manufacturer in addition to charge type. A lot of this is going to get updated and changed in the coming months, but it's a nice start. Yet again, thanks to everyone's help.

Second, I started this thread from your suggestions, so all info, announcements, comments related to the site will be here and not in multiple threads.

Thanks.

David

 

[ranchleaf]

James Poch over at http://www.plugincarolina.org, is doing yoemans work getting some Eaton Level 2 stations installed. If you go to our site @ http://electric.carstations.com and put in Columbia, SC in the search on the site you'll see some of the new ones and links back to Plugin Carolina. Raleigh Amphitheater in NC has one as well. You can also filter by the Eaton brand as well to see them all.

I believe we have all of the sites so far. For those folks in SC and NC could you swing by and grab some more photos and info? According to James, there are lots more coming too. Great Job James!

Thanks.
David

 

[ranchleaf]

Hey,
I know this has been a pain for everyone including me. I put it off for a while as it was a pain to get the cookie in the right spot, but it's all good now. go to the main page http://electric.carstations.com, type in an address, find a location, click to go to a station page. Now click the back button and voila, your zoom and location are maintained. The way it's set now it will maintain your location as long as your browser is open.

Next up is maintaining the check boxes you select when you click the back button so you don't have to re-filter.

Our Development team is hard at work on V2 of the site and our mobile apps. Going to be cool!

David

 

[palmermd]

awesome, thanks.

 

[Anonymous]

Very nice.

It seems that stations can be added by us, which is great. I'm willing to make my charging station available (once I have it) to fellow EV drivers, particularly while the charging infrastructure is so limited. Of course, I'd have to be home, so it would require you to call me first to see if it's available. Do you envision this type of model as well on your site?

Perhaps an easy way to distinguish on the map whether a charging station is considered Private or Public?

 

[ranchleaf]

Very nice.

It seems that stations can be added by us, which is great. I'm willing to make my charging station available (once I have it) to fellow EV drivers, particularly while the charging infrastructure is so limited. Of course, I'd have to be home, so it would require you to call me first to see if it's available. Do you envision this type of model as well on your site?

Perhaps an easy way to distinguish on the map whether a charging station is considered Private or Public?

Hey Thanks. You got the idea. This is like a moderated wiki. You can add and update any stations with info, photos, etc. There are several people already with home "public" stations. Most people just ask that you call before coming over like you. We may even make it a separate category at some point so you could filter by home "public" stations since many people would like to meet folks I would suspect. But to get a flavor check out McKemie HomeGrown here in Texas:

http://electric.carstations.com/4067

Or here in Idaho:
http://electric.carstations.com/2974

 

[Anonymous]

Excellent. Very very cool.

So, since you mention that you're working on mobile, here are some suggestions that I'm sure you've already thought about:
1) Auto-locate based on GPS
2) In detail, auto-link the phone numbers so it's a quick "touch to call" system (and/or email)
3) One-touch "find me the nearest appropriate charger" which automatically takes you to the details of the closest charging station of the type you have saved in your system

I'm seeing this as an extremely useful tool for those time when you're going "Oh crap, I'm really running low on juice, let me see where I can go" when the built-in Nav doesn't display all the available stations.

I'm more than happy to offer up "free juice" to any fellow EV-er, the payment being that you have to let me see your car and swap stories!

 

[ranchleaf]

Excellent. Very very cool.

So, since you mention that you're working on mobile, here are some suggestions that I'm sure you've already thought about:
1) Auto-locate based on GPS
2) In detail, auto-link the phone numbers so it's a quick "touch to call" system (and/or email)
3) One-touch "find me the nearest appropriate charger" which automatically takes you to the details of the closest charging station of the type you have saved in your system

I'm seeing this as an extremely useful tool for those time when you're going "Oh crap, I'm really running low on juice, let me see where I can go" when the built-in Nav doesn't display all the available stations.

I'm more than happy to offer up "free juice" to any fellow EV-er, the payment being that you have to let me see your car and swap stories!

Awesome. your fully embracing the idea we want to foster around community. I wouldn't mind people arranging a charge with me either. Indeed the nav is not going to have even half of the stations we already have as far as know because this is user driven. Also the site lends itself well for the person to person approach your talking about. It's giving me some good ideas to add in that we can do now. Stay tuned.

Yep our mobile apps should be able to much of that. Hadn't quite thought of the calling feature, but shouldn't be too hard once we get things going. some of the commercial sites don't necessarily have numbers, but definitely people like yourself will

Thanks

 

[dactec]

nice site so far. I've been looking at the map, and noticed all the Nissan dealerships are listed. Has it been confirmed that ALL Nissan dealerships will get two AV EVSEs, or just the dealerships that sell the Leaf? Also, what about Chevy dealerships?

 

[ranchleaf]

nice site so far. I've been looking at the map, and noticed all the Nissan dealerships are listed. Has it been confirmed that ALL Nissan dealerships will get two AV EVSEs, or just the dealerships that sell the Leaf? Also, what about Chevy dealerships?

Hey thanks for stopping by.
We are working on getting all Leaf Dealers up. So far it's California, OR and WA should be done probably today. Other states are next. Also keep in mind this site is crowd sourced so if you find a site not up yet or incorrect, feel free to add it or update it. You can edit any site at any time. Think of it like a moderated wiki. I would check the map first though.

For official Leaf dealers we have the understanding that each dealer will have at least 2 outside EVSE units. Maybe non-leaf dealers are installing units, but I can't imagine they would put up the money to do it if they aren't selling the leaf? Many people seem to have confirmed EVSE units with visits to dealers and dealers themselves have posted information. Dealers also have some installed "in the back" for service. Some dealers actually have more installed as some users have already updated on our site and some are even getting Level 3 units. Our goal was to get the Leaf dealers up there so people could begin to add pertinent info which they have begun doing. Thanks everyone!

It is also our goal to start adding Chevy dealers at some point, but it's not quite clear which dealers are getting public charging if at all really. There was a recent announcement by SPX about installing dealer EVSE's, but are they just for service? We are trying to find out.

Thanks.

 

[ranchleaf]

Ok. Check it out. WA and HI Leaf Dealers are up: http://electric.carstations.com. We couldn't resist Hawaii, since they just announced the dealer EVSE installs and the first delivery. Arizona is up next.

Hopefully we'll have some HI forum members here posting about their Leafs soon

thanks everyone!

 

[ranchleaf]

Arizona Leaf dealers are up now up and ready for your photos and info: http://electric.carstations.com

Thanks.

 

[ranchleaf]

Many have requested the larger edit and reference links made larger on station pages. Done
The larger text works on all browsers except firefox right now. Should have that resolved shortly.

Here is an example station: http://electric.carstations.com/2519

Thanks.

 

[jcesare]

I think you have a bug in your filter logic/data. On the San Diego map, when I filter by j1772 the Nissan dealers disappear. They only show up when you include a brand filter (AeroVironment)

 

[palmermd]

I think you have a bug in your filter logic/data. On the San Diego map, when I filter by j1772 the Nissan dealers disappear. They only show up when you include a brand filter (AeroVironment)

Seems to work for me. If you turn off the Aerovironment stations, they all disappear, and if you turn off the j1772 they all disappear. My question is, why would you ever want to filter by brand. It might be something to do out of curiosity, but not on a regular basis. I'd suggest the brand filter be placed somewhere more difficult to access since brands should be rarely filtered out. I don't care what brand it is, just as long as it has the right connector.

 

[ranchleaf]

I think you have a bug in your filter logic/data. On the San Diego map, when I filter by j1772 the Nissan dealers disappear. They only show up when you include a brand filter (AeroVironment)

Seems to work for me. If you turn off the Aerovironment stations, they all disappear, and if you turn off the j1772 they all disappear. My question is, why would you ever want to filter by brand. It might be something to do out of curiosity, but not on a regular basis. I'd suggest the brand filter be placed somewhere more difficult to access since brands should be rarely filtered out. I don't care what brand it is, just as long as it has the right connector.

Thanks for checking it out. Seems to work OK for me too. Basically if you un-check something it should disappear since it wouldn't make sense to un-check J1772, but not make it disappear if you have Aerovironment checked and vice-versa. If it does not disappear then it will because there are multiple charge types or brands at a location.

By the way, I'll post quick updates on twitter/facebook. If you go to the site you can sign up from the link there.

Regarding filtering by brand, some people requested it and some companies were interested in it for obvious reasons . The thinking is some people may belong to certain networks vs others down the line. If your a coulomb customer, you may be more interested in that vs Ecotality Blink customers(which I have to add yet). If it becomes too cumbersome moving it somewhere more obscure could be a good idea and honestly let's hope it won't matter in the future much anyway.

A few more updates are on the way.

thanks.

 

[Coffee_Slurry]

I agree that branding is important, not so much because of the make/model, but because of which "network" they participate in.

Only the ECOtality/Blink chargers will be free until May. (Really! All of them! Go to any public Blink charger, and.. Oh.)

Coulomb requires their $10 card or a phone call.

Dealer AV units seem to be free (dumb) EVSEs, so that's cool.

 

[ranchleaf]

I agree that branding is important, not so much because of the make/model, but because of which "network" they participate in.

Only the ECOtality/Blink chargers will be free until May. (Really! All of them! Go to any public Blink charger, and.. Oh.)

Coulomb requires their $10 card or a phone call.

Dealer AV units seem to be free (dumb) EVSEs, so that's cool.

We'll see what happens with networks. Most of the other types like Clipper Creek are free too. From what I understand the Eaton ones so far are free, (mostly in the Carolinas) and many others including some Chargepoints actually. You just have to call to get the door open. Honestly, my gut feel is a lot of businesses like Starbucks, Hotels, etc. it will be free. They'll see it as just another way to get you there. I do like the idea of a paid service too since it should mean more reliable units, but we will see how it all plays out.

Connectors could get interesting as right now it's J1772, Nema5 and Nema 1450, but if you look at Leviton for instance, they are talking NEMA 6-50R and likely others. Don't know if folks have seen this much below from the Leviton page:

http://www.leviton.com/OA_HTML/ibeCCtpSctDspRte.jsp?section=33398&minisite=10026

 

[AndyH]

Connectors could get interesting as right now it's J1772, Nema5 and Nema 1450, but if you look at Leviton for instance, they are talking NEMA 6-50R and likely others. Don't know if folks have seen this much below from the Leviton page:

http://www.leviton.com/OA_HTML/ibeCCtpSctDspRte.jsp?section=33398&minisite=10026

This shouldn't affect you, ranchleaf, as these EVSE are designed for plug-in installation rather than being hard-wired.

Unless you'll entertain database entries for places like campgrounds?

 

[LEAFer]

Not necessarily specifically campgrounds ... but there are other locations which provide 14-50 in addition to legacy (and soon "new") charge stations ... listing the other available receptacles will be useful. ( Could allow someone "inventive" or properly equipped to charge while the regular station is already in use. (This assumes separate circuitry.) )