Siemens VersiCharge home unit having problems

Long story short, my L2 home charger no longer charges the car. Heres there deal:

Vehicle: 2014 Leaf SV, 30k miles, runs great, no problems.
Charger: Siemens VersiCharge, 2nd gen. Professionally installed. Used daily for 3 years, no problems (until now).

Here’s what happens when I plug the Siemens into the car:

• 1. The car beeps once, but doesn’t click. None of the 3 dash lights illuminate.
  2. No lights change on the Siemens box (the green “Power Available” light on the Siemens box continues its slow flash). Halo doesn’t light. The box also doesn’t click.
  3. Thats it, nothing else happens.

Troubleshooting done so far:
* I’ve confirmed that the port works (connected it to both the L1 cable that came w/ car, as well as other L2 chargers).
* May not be relevant, but the L3 port also works.
* There are no fault lights lit on the Siemens box. I’ve reset it twice (by flipping the circuit).

Any ideas?

(pardon my semantics. I know that what I’m calling “charger” is an EVSE, and it doesnt actually charge the car. But it was easier to write it up this way).

Shut it off over night for a full reset. Top off your 12 volt battery. Compare If your trickle charger works. Also check if you have any car codes. A faulty cell threw off a ground fault on my Siemens.

Thanks for the feedback. Some follow-up questions:

Phatcat73 said:

Shut it off over night for a full reset.

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No prob, will do.

Phatcat73 said:

Top off your 12 volt battery.

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I'm not sure what you mean here? I took it to a L3 at the dealer to get me up to 85%. Its currently finishing on L1. Is there something else you are recommending?

Phatcat73 said:

Compare If your trickle charger works.

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On trickle charger now, working fine.

Phatcat73 said:

Also check if you have any car codes.

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Car isnt throwing up any flags or warnings. It even shows the green charge plug icon on the screen on the dash, so it knows the plug is connected. But no errors. Is there something else I should check?

Phatcat73 said:

A faulty cell threw off a ground fault on my Siemens.

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Was the fault indicated on your Siemens? My Siemens isn't registering any faults.

Best guess, the pilot wire in your J1772 cable is broken. Without that wire, the car and EVSE would both simply think it wasn't plugged in, so no errors. Easiest way to diagnose is with an oscilloscope. You might try flexing the cable near the plug to see if it comes to life. You can also try testing continuity between the pilot wire connection inside the EVSE and the plug. Make sure you have the power off before opening the EVSE. If that's the problem, you can replace the cable and plug.

davewill said:

Best guess, the pilot wire in your J1772 cable is broken. Without that wire, the car and EVSE would both simply think it wasn't plugged in, so no errors. Easiest way to diagnose is with an oscilloscope. You might try flexing the cable near the plug to see if it comes to life. You can also try testing continuity between the pilot wire connection inside the EVSE and the plug. Make sure you have the power off before opening the EVSE. If that's the problem, you can replace the cable and plug.

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Thanks for the feedback. It seems that the car does know the Siemens is connected to it, as evidenced by the single beep when first plugged-in. Also by the little green plug icon on the dash. Actually, if I try to start the car with it connected then the "Disconnect plug before starting" (or whatever the wording is) also message pops-up. Does that change anything in your theory?

AthLeaf said:

davewill said:

Best guess, the pilot wire in your J1772 cable is broken. Without that wire, the car and EVSE would both simply think it wasn't plugged in, so no errors. Easiest way to diagnose is with an oscilloscope. You might try flexing the cable near the plug to see if it comes to life. You can also try testing continuity between the pilot wire connection inside the EVSE and the plug. Make sure you have the power off before opening the EVSE. If that's the problem, you can replace the cable and plug.

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Thanks for the feedback. It seems that the car does know the Siemens is connected to it, as evidenced by the single beep when first plugged-in. Also by the little green plug icon on the dash. Actually, if I try to start the car with it connected then the "Disconnect plug before starting" (or whatever the wording is) also message pops-up. Does that change anything in your theory?

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No, it doesn't. There's a proximity signal inside the plug (it doesn't connect to the EVSE) that would let the car know the plug is there, but the car wouldn't know how much power is available or try to actually start charging. I wasn't 100% sure how the LEAF reacted to no pilot as I've never tested it. That behavior is consistent, though.

Thanks for the feedback everyone. I called Siemens and found them to be very responsive. They created a case, and an engineer called me within 75 minutes. He stated that the slow-flashing of the "Power Ready" indicator means the unit is dead. Apparently its not publicly documented anywhere, but he stated that it essentially means the unit is unrepairably dead. He gave some technical reason regarding the internals, but I have since forgotten what it was. Alas.

I have one of these units (10 months old) and really like it. Curious if Siemens did anything for you on the dead unit. It has a three year warranty. Were you just outside the warranty period?

Don't just chuck it out! It would make a great base for an OpenEVSE install.

mkwilkes said:

I have one of these units (10 months old) and really like it. Curious if Siemens did anything for you on the dead unit. It has a three year warranty. Were you just outside the warranty period?

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Siemens was very responsive, so I give them high marks. Unfortunately, I was almost a year out of warranty, so there wasn't anything they could do for me regarding a replacement. But their customer service team was super fast to respond, and freely connected me directly with an engineer for troubleshooting.

It was actually my second experience with them. My original purchase was a gen1 unit from Home Depot. Died within a few months. Siemens replaced it immediately with this gen2 model. Piece of cake, no squabbling or hassles.

davewill said:

Don't just chuck it out! It would make a great base for an OpenEVSE install.

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Interesting. But what do I actually do with it? I'm not going the OpenEVSE route, (already gone down another path), so it's not useful to me in that regards. Does it have some retail value for this otherwise? If so, anyone wanna make me an offer?