L2 Charging Issue, 2015 Leaf, Duosida EVSE

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DeudeMann

Active member
Joined
Jun 20, 2017
Messages
32
Location
South Texas
OK I have read through some of the threads here and have not found a discussion on this exact issue I am having. So I am posting this thread in the hope that someone here has seen something similar.

Background:
2015 Leaf SV
Duosida EVSE L2 Charger, 240V 16A
Charging via 220VAC (60 Hz) single-phase outlet at home (properly sized breakers, proper wiring, proper NEMA plugs)
Charging via 208VAC (60 Hz) two-phase at work (properly sized breakers, proper wiring, proper NEMA plugs)

When charging at work, I have never to my recollection experienced any charging faults. I can L2 charge when I arrive and be sure that I will have a full charge when I leave at the end of the day.

However, charging at home, with the SAME car and SAME EVSE (I carry it with me) I have so many charging faults that it is becoming an issue. When plugging in, the first three lights on the EVSE will light up as they normally should, and the Leaf will beep and flash the dash top charging lights as normal. However, if I return in the morning, more often than not, the EVSE fault light (amber) will be lit up, and the car will not have a full charge. Based on how little charge it has received (less than 10 miles or so) the fault must be happening shortly after plugging in. The problem seems to be getting worse.

I have used a DMM and checked the voltages across the two legs, and with respect to ground, while charging and while not charging. I do not see any issues. Both legs carry the same amount of voltage with respect to ground. The outlet the charger is plugged into has a dedicated breaker, wiring, and plug, with a short run (less than 20 feet) to the breaker box.

Since the problem is only at home, and not at work, the problem is IMO either from wiring issues at the house, or from power fluctuations on the grid. My house power company and work power company are two different companies by the way, so the latter is possible. In fact I had the power company at my house today to look for problems on their side of the meter. No word yet on whether they found anything.

Since I have no problems charging at work, and the car has the latest dealer-installed software on-board, I do not suspect it is an issue with the car or the EVSE.

So, that's the story. The question is, has anyone seen this sort of behavior before? If so, were you able to resolve it, and if so, how did you? It is to the point now where I am considering the purchase of a 240V power conditioning unit (with enough amperage of course) to put between the EVSE and the house. They are on the order of $300 from what I have seen.


Thanks
 
I'm thinking it could have something to do with your ground to the outlet, is it continuous(from the outlet to your panel) ground wire and not just greenfield or a conduit ground? Does your outlet also have a neutral, if so do you see any voltage between the neutral and ground? there should be none.
 
I have 2 of those 16 amp chargers in my house, and one of them gives errors once in while but only in the summer, and looks that being expose to sun light and high temperatures causes the problems, but is winter and I dont think is your case, make sure all wiring is propertly installed by checking all the screws that hold the wires, replace the braker to see if it works even new brakers may fail
 
OK so there is no neutral at the plug on the house side of the EVSE. Even though it is 240V, it is a three-prong plug (leg-leg-ground) which is the way the Duosida EVSE comes.

Checking ground with respect to neutral, at the breaker panel (load center) and at several different outlets in the house:
- At the breaker box, there is almost no detectable difference in voltage between the neutral and ground. It is much less than 0.5V
- Checking at various plugs throughout the house, the difference between neutral and ground is 0.3V or less. Most are 0.1V. There should be some voltage drop in the neutral wire since it is what completes the circuit on a 120V plug and thus it carries current. I do not have superconducting house wiring, at least not yet.

Checking (again) the voltage on the two legs at the 240V plug, while the charger is loading the plug, the two voltages are within 0.3V of each other with respect to ground. Also, checking the plug wiring back to the breaker panel, there is a continuous, dedicated ground wire, the ground is definitely attached to the ground lug on the plug on one end, and to the grounding bus in the breaker panel on the other end.

So, the house wiring all looks good, and thus I am still scratching my head. I wonder how picky the Leaf is about slight imbalances on legs with respect to ground? Is 0.3V imbalance too much? I would hope not.
 
You sound like you know what you are doing more than the average EV owner so I offer these as just checks you can add ot your list to mark off as done. Is there a chance that you have a timer set on the car?

Also, another thing a 12v battery that is not fully and completely charged can have issues for charging the traction battery. testing it with equipment doesn't prove anything, even the voltage will show as happy. the only way I got rid of issues was to hit it over night for a few nights with a Battery tender.

Do you have a USB dongle on the OBD port and leaf spy pro so you can run to see if any DTC errors are there?

Are there any other circuits in your house that are dodgy? if one of them has an issue they could trip the EV ground and cause it to stop. maybe switch off all unused circuits in the house and only have the CAR one on and see if it works.. then you can work your way through the issue. I don't know if it would be possible to do that.

Does the error happen, every night or just once in a while? if every night it would be easier to find the gremlin.
 
You may also want to find someone who has a leaf with no charging issues use your L2 to charge their car. If they have the same issue as you do, then it's the charger. If they have no issues, then it's most probably your car.
 
DuncanCunningham said:
You sound like you know what you are doing more than the average EV owner so I offer these as just checks you can add ot your list to mark off as done. Is there a chance that you have a timer set on the car?

Good question. I had verified that the charging timer is off.

Also, another thing a 12v battery that is not fully and completely charged can have issues for charging the traction battery. testing it with equipment doesn't prove anything, even the voltage will show as happy. the only way I got rid of issues was to hit it over night for a few nights with a Battery tender.

I will try that next.

Do you have a USB dongle on the OBD port and leaf spy pro so you can run to see if any DTC errors are there?

Good idea. I did that a few times today and there are no errors related to the charging. There are some codes from the removal of the Bose stereo, and the still-not-working Nissan Connect unit, but I knew about those.

Are there any other circuits in your house that are dodgy? if one of them has an issue they could trip the EV ground and cause it to stop. maybe switch off all unused circuits in the house and only have the CAR one on and see if it works.. then you can work your way through the issue. I don't know if it would be possible to do that.

It is a newer house, about 10 years old that was built for us, and everything was done to code by a qualified electrician. No problems with the house wiring that I know of.

Does the error happen, every night or just once in a while? if every night it would be easier to find the gremlin.

It has been happening every night at home, and never happens at work, ever. But it gets stranger... On two different nights, after the EVSE showed a charging fault, I reset it by unplugging and plugging in the EVSE on the outlet side. Both nights, the car charged fully after that. I am going to try the same thing again tonight.

The electric company has installed data recorders on my meter and in the house to look for electrical anomalies. The jury is still out, but the technician mentioned they did see some power fluctuations. More testing needed.
 
I'm still trying to figure this problem out. The power company did not find anything unusual on my electrical feed based on a week of recording data at the meter and on both branches of the house wiring.

I am still getting charging faults. It's frustrating when I come out to drive somewhere and the car is only partially charged.
 
You did say the fault occurs soon after charging starts. Have you observed the behavior directly?
No charge timer? Should start right away, yes?
Or adjust the timer to start when you will be present.

Only thing that pops in my mind is how the plug is placed in the vehicle... does it have the same angle of tension on the cord as you have at work? Such as at either place does it drop straight to the floor or something else? I am looking at the possibility of a poor plug to vehicle connection. Probably a long shot.

Is power at work 208 or 240 volts? Again a long shot looking for differences.

Does the OEM L1 work at home?
 
I would try a few things. First, a daytime charging session at home to see if the problem occurs then or not. Second a night time charging session someplace else where there's 240v. After that would be a different EVSE one night, and your EVSE with some other LEAF.

Also, it would be good to have an electrician back out to check the wiring and the connection to the grounding rod.
 
I wonder if the fault happens when a major load switches on/off, like a refrigerator, freezer, heater, water heater, air compressor, or well pump. Large loads like that, especially with motors, can cause noise and sagging voltages.

Also, electronics with switching power supplies (like a TV, stereo system, computer, cell phone charger) can cause a lot of noise.

Do you share a transformer with any neighbors? If so, the problem could come from their house.

Any nearby commercial radio towers? Ham radio? Cell tower?

On the other hand, you said the power company ran some checks and saw nothing -- presumably the fault happened during these checks and still nothing showed..?
 
smkettner said:
You did say the fault occurs soon after charging starts. Have you observed the behavior directly?
No charge timer? Should start right away, yes?
Or adjust the timer to start when you will be present.

Only thing that pops in my mind is how the plug is placed in the vehicle... does it have the same angle of tension on the cord as you have at work? Such as at either place does it drop straight to the floor or something else? I am looking at the possibility of a poor plug to vehicle connection. Probably a long shot.

Is power at work 208 or 240 volts? Again a long shot looking for differences.

Does the OEM L1 work at home?

I have not observed it directly, no. It is hard to know when it will happen.

No I don't use the charge timer so it starts right away.

Tension on the plug is about the same at work or home. I considered that one but don't think that's it.

Power at work is 208V (tapped from two phases). Power at home is 240V (tapped from two different legs like normally done for houses).

I have not used the L1 charger at home in a long time. Last I remember it did not have this issue but I might try it.
 
brotherjethro said:
I wonder if the fault happens when a major load switches on/off, like a refrigerator, freezer, heater, water heater, air compressor, or well pump. Large loads like that, especially with motors, can cause noise and sagging voltages.

Also, electronics with switching power supplies (like a TV, stereo system, computer, cell phone charger) can cause a lot of noise.

Do you share a transformer with any neighbors? If so, the problem could come from their house.

Any nearby commercial radio towers? Ham radio? Cell tower?

On the other hand, you said the power company ran some checks and saw nothing -- presumably the fault happened during these checks and still nothing showed..?

I was also wondering about large appliances like the stove, clothes dryers, water heaters etc. We do have a BIG well pump since it is about 800 feet below grade (no kidding). It is 3 HP IIRC.

I have a dedicated transformer, and it is oversized, so that should be OK.

No radio towers nearby, just wifi in the house which is pretty weak by the time it gets out to the driveway.

Yes faults happened while power company was recording the data and they did not see anything.




I was wondering this morning if it was due to the voltage differences, in that perhaps the Duosida EVSE does not like 240V for some reason. I also charged at a Chargepoint station the other day for about 1-1/2 hours and had no problems.

I just remembered to mention that I put an intelligent charger on the 12V battery and it is showing that it is full.
 
Are you plugging into a dedicated outlet at home?

Before you spend money on a power conditioning unit I would get a Clipper Creek EVSE for home use. Or other name brand.

Have you contacted Duosida?
 
Duosida will charge off 110 vac,
How well does it work plugged into 110vac at your house?

Depending on your model of leaf and EVSE you can pull up to 24 amps out of a properly sized 110vac outlet, more than enough for an overnight charge.
 
Given the amount of electrical line checking that's been done I'd start suspecting the EVSE is throwing bogus faults.
 
So to follow up, I am returning the EVSE to Amazon and getting another one. There seems to be other instances of the Duosida EVSEs doing what mine is doing. I'll let you know how it works out after I use it a few times to verify that the fault is gone.

By the way, be careful who you purchase the EVSE from on Amazon if you use a third-party seller. I purchased mine from Charge Plus about 7 months ago so it is still under warranty. After asking for my address, and indicating they would send me a replacement unit, they suddenly stopped returning my messages. I tried to contact them repeatedly over at least 6 weeks but never got a reply. Fortunately Amazon is giving me a refund, and I am purchasing another Duosida from another seller.

So, despite all of their positive reviews, watch out for ChargePlus on Amazon. They are not honoring the warranty on my EVSE.

From looking around, the Duosida still appears to be the best (only?) option for a (truly) portable L2 EVSE that will work with a NEMA 6-20 plug. I have to be able to take it with me since my commute is long and I need to charge at work and at home.
 
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