my blink evse... stopped working (?)

My Nissan Leaf Forum

Help Support My Nissan Leaf Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

astrorob

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 21, 2011
Messages
192
over the last couple of days my EV project Blink EVSE seems to not be able to tell that it's plugged into the leaf. the leaf beeps when i plug it in, but then i don't hear the "thunks" and nothing happens. the Blink display says "please plug in your vehicle".

i am assuming some feedback signal is not making it's way back to the blink...

anyone else have this happen, and will making my blink "dumb" resolve this issue?

the car charges OK from my toyota PIP 120V EVSE, so i think the car itself is OK. i don't have another L2 EVSE to test with.

rob
 
The diode in the onboard charger may have failed. Most EVSEs do the diode check, some don't. The original AV units didn't.

If so, either the charger needs to be replaced or a diode inserted into the pilot line.

astrorob said:
over the last couple of days my EV project Blink EVSE seems to not be able to tell that it's plugged into the leaf. the leaf beeps when i plug it in, but then i don't hear the "thunks" and nothing happens. the Blink display says "please plug in your vehicle".

i am assuming some feedback signal is not making it's way back to the blink...

anyone else have this happen, and will making my blink "dumb" resolve this issue?

the car charges OK from my toyota PIP 120V EVSE, so i think the car itself is OK. i don't have another L2 EVSE to test with.

rob
 
oh boy - that's bad. is there any DTC that indicates this is happening?

the Blink will not charge my PIP either, so that seems to me to indicate that the problem is with the blink itself. does the nissan EVSE do the diode check? if so and it charges the leaf i think the car must be OK.

is there any involvement with the latch switch on the handle? i notice that my PIP stops charging when i depress the latch switch on the blink handle, but the leaf does not. maybe that switch has failed?

are there any schematics for the blink around? in theory i could at least do continuity tests if i knew where on the EVSE side each pin on the handle maps to.

thanks,

rob
 
Probably the Blink if it won't charge the PIP. Have you checked the Jplug? There is an O ring that can get out of position, blocking complete insertion. Dirt on the pins?

Pin diagrams are on line.

The Leaf does stop charging when the latch is depressed. There is no external indication though.

This thread is comprehensive for the diode failure- http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=10773&hilit=Charging+problem+Diode+failure

astrorob said:
oh boy - that's bad. is there any DTC that indicates this is happening?

the Blink will not charge my PIP either, so that seems to me to indicate that the problem is with the blink itself. does the nissan EVSE do the diode check? if so and it charges the leaf i think the car must be OK.

is there any involvement with the latch switch on the handle? i notice that my PIP stops charging when i depress the latch switch on the blink handle, but the leaf does not. maybe that switch has failed?

are there any schematics for the blink around? in theory i could at least do continuity tests if i knew where on the EVSE side each pin on the handle maps to.

thanks,

rob
 
It's not the diode. In the case of a bad diode, you get an error on the Blink. I had this exact symptom. The pilot wire in the cable was broken in my case. I could gently flex the cable (near the handle in my case) and charging would start and stop. It's the thinnest wire in the cable and therefore the most fragile. If you have an oscilloscope, you can check for the signal in the handle. I ended up replacing the cable and handle. I think it was caused by using the Blink reel with the slot to hold the handle. Now I just lay it gently over the top.
 
91040, your link to the thread was incomplete.

Supplementing what 91040 said, pressing the button when plugged into the leaf causes the charge current to drop to zero, but doesn't cause any disconnects (thunking sounds).
 
gbarry42 said:
91040, your link to the thread was incomplete.

Supplementing what 91040 said, pressing the button when plugged into the leaf causes the charge current to drop to zero, but doesn't cause any disconnects (thunking sounds).

interesting, ok, i associated the thunk with the end of current flow but of course i've never measured the current...

davewill said:
<span>It's not the diode. In the case of a bad diode, you get an error on the Blink. I had this exact symptom. The pilot wire in the cable was broken in my case. I could gently flex the cable (near the handle in my case) and charging would start and stop. It's the thinnest wire in the cable and therefore the most fragile. If you have an oscilloscope, you can check for the signal in the handle. I ended up replacing the cable and handle. I think it was caused by using the <a href="http://www.myelectriccarforums.com/electric-vehicle-charger/" class="interlinkr" target="_blank">Blink <span class="tip">Compare EVSE equipment</span></a>reel with the slot to hold the handle. Now I just lay it gently over the top.</span>

i suppose this is what's going on since the day before it completely failed, i managed to get the leaf to charge by laying the cable up over the charge port door.

any chance of repairing the broken pilot signal wire, or is it all buried in insulation?

is there anything special about the EVSE side of the charging cable, or will any cable sourced from ebay work? i have yet to take my blink apart so i have no idea if there are just a bunch of lugs in there or if the cable terminates in a special connector...

thanks,

rob
 
Before buying a new cable from ebay I'd at least take a shot at contacting whatever remains of Blink customer service. Since it's very likely their device that failed maybe they'll provide a new cable. I expect it's out of warranty, but the first round of blink cables were known to be defective, so perhaps there's some additional flexibility there (wasn't there a recall?)

If you do end up buying a new cable, just make sure that it's rated for at least 30 amps, and be sure to get enough length for your needs. I suppose you could in theory repair it, if you could find where exactly the problem is, but you'd probably end up with a dangerous hacked-together cord. If I really wanted to try to fix it I don't think I'd cut into the cord - maybe I'd just get a long piece of wire and connect it to the pilot terminal in the EVSE (instead of the cord's pilot wire) and somehow connect it to the pilot pin in the handle. That would at least serve as a way of isolating the problem. It could just be that the pilot wire connection is loose either in the EVSE box or in the handle, or even a dirty pin - if one of those then it's a much easier fix.
 
You can forget Blink doing any work on these. They terminated all the warranties long ago. The only thing they will do is give you $100 off their newer unit (or at least they were).

The cable and handle Blink used on these old units is so marginal that I simply considered the failure an opportunity to fix it properly. I also figured that if the Blink ever finally actually died, I'd reuse the replacement cable (and maybe most of the guts of the Blink) to make it an OpenEVSE. As it turns out I didn't try to remove the cable from inside the unit. I instead cut off the handle and the last several inches, and spliced it to the new cable inside a junction box I mounted on the wall closer to where the port on my new EV was. Since the old cable isn't being moved around every day, I don't worry about it happening again.

If you search on here you'll find pictures of the inside. It does have termination block with screw connections for terminating the wires, but they are also marginal. Lots of people found theirs looking burnt. Mine looked OK (no signs of heat) so I didn't worry about leaving it alone, but if I were wiring the new cable inside the Blink, I'd try to replace the termination block with a better solution.

Theoretically, if you can localize the break, you might be able to cut it before there and put on a new handle, but it requires a specialized crimping tool to do it properly. Plus you'd still have the same fragile cable attached.
 
Looks like the 240V wires are landing directly onto the contactor. Not clear if there are lugs with screws on the contactor or the slip-on connectors are crimped onto the wires (black/brown, probably screws if that is their reflection showing). I think the problematic terminal block you're referring to is the one connected to the wires feeding the EVSE (white plastic block with 6 screws on the left), shouldn't be a big deal to change it for something more robust I would think. A cord replacement on mine has been long on my todo list, one of these days...

Clipboard01.jpg
 
Valdemar said:
... I think the problematic terminal block you're referring to is the one connected to the wires feeding the EVSE (white plastic block with 6 screws on the left), shouldn't be a big deal to change it for something more robust I would think. ...[/img]
Yes that's the one I've seen pictures of burnt. I guess I hadn't bothered to notice it was connected to the input cable rather than the output.
 
Exact same problem with mine a couple of months ago.

I agree that it's probably the pilot wire. We had a short period of intermittent function including a couple of very incriminating instances where nudging the charge cable on the ground caused it to kick in. Then it finally failed for good.

When I took the cover off my unit I noticed that the cable had pulled some of the way through the strain relief, and the bullet connector for the pilot wire was actually disconnected! BINGO I thought. No joy, it still didn't work when I hooked the connector back up. Which was consistent with the fact that for a while it was actually flaky when moving the cable itself far away from that junction but still worked sometimes. I had a flaky connection within the cable and the connector coming apart just made it a permanent failure, not directly related.

Anyway...you can easily check the continuity of the pilot wire once you get the cover off the unit. The blink end terminates in a junction block (might need a fairly thin probe or wire to get the J1772 end).

Solution was to buy a new Leviton cable off of Amazon ($170 or so) and wire it in. The crimps at the Blink end were not something I could reproduce easily so I used wire nuts at that end, repurposing the last few inches of each wire from the original cable so the crimps would be solidly in place in the screw terminals. Other than that hack, which I hope won't burn down my house, it works great now.

As noted in the thread I followed from someone else who did the same thing, the Leviton cable is slightly larger than the original, so the strain relief pieces are a very tight fit. I had to dremel out one piece, and remove a rubber gasket to get it all to fit back together, but now it's nice and snug.

Here's the thread which I followed, and the link to the replacement cable:

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=43&t=13557&start=20

http://www.amazon.com/Leviton-A2034-PEV-Electric-Vehicle-Connector/dp/B00FH7EVN8
 
Nothing's wrong with wire nuts, but I'd personally use Polaris connectors instead of wire nuts in this situation, they are a bit expensive but it is good stuff:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/polaris-connector-2-Hole-4-14-AWG-600v-IT-4-/291582202649?hash=item43e3a75319
 
yeah, i think if i had signed up again for the EV project extension that they might service it. but then again even when i was under warranty during the initial EV project, they were unable to resolve the issues with the unit, including the ground fault problem.

i think rather than messing with this thing i'll just get rid of it and get coulomb's new home EVSE. i assume that one's going to be reasonably trouble free... almost anything would be compared to the blink :)

rob

edit: i'll take a look inside and see if the pilot came disconnected there, but seems unlikely - most of the stresses have been on the car side of the cable as we park right next to the EVSE and the bulk of the cable is lying on the ground.
 
I know Blink gets a lot of bashing on this forum, but mine was nearly trouble-free for 4 years of regular usage. $600-800 for a new EVSE or $200 for a new quality cable which will likely give you years of usage, your choice.
 
well i had one of the first blink EVSEs and believe me it's been nothing but trouble. i had planned to do the "dumb evse" mod if it ever started acting up again, but of course that won't fix this problem.
 
The pilot wire most likely got damaged at either end: at the strain relief or the handle. I would take my chances with cutting a 8-10 inches of end at the strain relief. Strip the wire and put it directly on the contactor, that is how the top side is and it works just fine. Check the tightness of the screws after a few weeks.

In 4.5 years I replaced the cable and later the contactor. Both failed because something I did, I cannot blame Blink.

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=14894#p416604

Edit: I just checked the cable connection at the contactor. No signs of heating, the insulation is still soft, screws still tight. The Blink is set at 24A and charges 99.9% of the time the 2015 Lead. I feel confident that it is just fine to put the bare wire in the contactor. I did not want to give bad advise.
 
anyone know if it's possible to disassociate a blink evse from one's blink account? also there does not seem to be a "reset to factory settings" in the blink's menu system... does that feature even exist?

thanks

rob
 
astrorob said:
anyone know if it's possible to disassociate a blink evse from one's blink account? also there does not seem to be a "reset to factory settings" in the blink's menu system... does that feature even exist?

thanks

rob

Can they still get through when calling home? I remember seeing errors in the log it could not connect, now Wi-Fi no longer works so it doesn't even matter anymore. You can hack into the Linux OS it's running and disable communications module, not exactly a complete didsssociation but close.
 
well i thought if i gave it to someone then it's going to be reporting in to my account when they use it, which i don't really want. i think it's more an issue of disassociating it from blink's side. but i can't find anything on their website to delete an EVSE. i guess i have to call them.

you are right though, on the EVSE side i don't think there's any association. it's probably just reporting it's GUID and all the work is happening on the server side.

rob
 
Back
Top