Blink intermittent failure

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Rat

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 25, 2010
Messages
977
Location
Silicon Valley
My home Blink EVSE was purchased in 2011 and has performed flawlessly until recently (except for one failure the first year which was promptly fixed by Ecotality at no charge). Now it's become unreliable, occasionally failing to charge at all on its nightly schedule. When I discover this I press the timer kill switch on the car to start charging immediately but it doesn't start because the Blink is not working. I unplug and replug the Blink and the EVSE starts up again normally, but it always displays a message that charging is delayed, sometimes for hours, sometimes only minutes. Once that delay is over it will then start charging normally, but of course the timing may be inconvenient either because I need to use the car or because I end up charging when rates are high.

So I have several questions. Does anyone know the cause or fix of of this? Does anyone know whether Blink will repair these now and if so at what cost? I'm retired and we put low mileage on the car. We charged with the Nissan Level 1 EVSE for several months back in 2011 with no problem, so I am unlikely to get the Blink fixed unless it is cheap to do so and the fix is known to be reliable and long-lasting. I am not handy with tools or electronics and have no interest in repairing the unit myself. Any advice or suggestions would be most appreciated.
 
Mine has a self-check fault one out of about ten times and needs to be rebooted. If I am correct, i think both of us could solve the problem by converting them to the basic (dumb) EVSE without the computer. I'm sure someone with more expertise will have something to say on that. see: http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=43&t=3279&hilit=blink+dumb#p77669" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
 
I would suggest removing all timers on the Leaf (and on the Blink, if any) to simplify the charging process for a time to see what difference that makes. If that proves to be reliable, try a different timer process that you weren't doing before using only one device and see how that goes, etc.
 
I appreciate the suggestions. The unit has worked fine since I posted. I probably won't do anything about it until it happens again, but if it does, I'll try these. My first line of defense is to be more observant about my email. I should notice when I don't get the usual notice in the morning that the Leaf is finished charging. If I don't, I can reboot the Blink unit and charge. Since most days we drive it less than 10 miles, very little is lost in terms of time or cost to charge then.
 
I had issues with mine where it would stop working until it was rebooted. I turned it into a dumb EVSE and I haven't had any issues since then. I think it's been working for around a year or more now without issues.
 
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