SF bay area Blink service?

I got an email and a call from a local electrical contractor stating that they are doing maintenance and software updates on Blink units for ecoTality. Anyone else get this? What kind of maintenance is needed for these things and I thought all firmware was pushed via wifi?

AndyN said:

I got an email and a call from a local electrical contractor stating that they are doing maintenance and software updates on Blink units for ecoTality. Anyone else get this? What kind of maintenance is needed for these things and I thought all firmware was pushed via wifi?

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I believe they are updating all the old SD cards. They are doing it in groups...I'm in group 6 and have been waiting since late last year. My Blink failed to charge my car on Thursday and called them again...sounds like they are finally getting to my group and will be scheduling the update soon. Hope it works!

I have an appointment scheduled for Tuesday. They apparently need a new SD card to update to 2.0. While they're at it, they will perform some sort of "service." When I asked what that might entail, the only thing they came up with was cleaning the display screen.

oakwcj said:

I have an appointment scheduled for Tuesday. They apparently need a new SD card to update to 2.0. While they're at it, they will perform some sort of "service." When I asked what that might entail, the only thing they came up with was cleaning the display screen.

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Yep! We got our SD card swapped out this morning and Tom did an awesome job cleaning the display screen! Blink 2.0 is now up and running, whatever that means.

Interesting, I haven't heard from them yet. My unit has been in need of service for months!

arnold

arnolddeleon said:

Interesting, I haven't heard from them yet. My unit has been in need of service for months!

arnold

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have not heard anything either, but it would be great, since my blink just started boot-looping the other day. it still charges but it keeps crashing.

just tried to log in to blinknetwork.com and the web server is down. oh looky, it's back. i cant believe these jokers.

astrorob said:

arnolddeleon said:

Interesting, I haven't heard from them yet. My unit has been in need of service for months!

arnold

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have not heard anything either, but it would be great, since my blink just started boot-looping the other day. it still charges but it keeps crashing.

just tried to log in to blinknetwork.com and the web server is down. oh looky, it's back. i cant believe these jokers.

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called blink yesterday, and due to some freak alignment of the planets and/or divine intervention, someone showed up at my house this morning to replace the SD card (which contained version 2.0 of the software.) the contractor also trimmed up the 5V rail on one of the computers a little bit.

Well, had the Blink "service" done on a mostly working fine unit and now have a screwy unit that won't connect to our wifi. No problems before but it won't connect now. See's the network but..... Anyways, wonderful service person hooks up to ugly powerline LAN extension units and half asses the connection with a cable too short where our router is so everything is pulled out of place. Dude has enough cable to run more than 10 feet from plug in garage to the POS Blink unit but gives us a cable too short to run the cable inside the house. I guess we get what we pay for.

***EDIT
Messed around with some IP addresses and copied some things off my iPhone settings (I really don't understand all this stuff) and got it to connect via wifi. BUT something is screwy with the Blinks wireless. It'll connect. Then when I test it again connection will go from excellent strength to not connected. Keep hitting retest enough and I got lucky and got all green. I'm officially "upgraded". yay.... :roll: Oh and the service broke the wheels off a storage unit we had in the computer room (granted its a $20 rolling unit but it was fine for 10 years until today). Didn't even tell us. Just balanced the thing and left it.

I also had trouble getting the network connected after the "service," which consisted of putting in a new SD card and cleaning the plastic display cover. I had assigned a static IP to the Blink. I ended up removing the assignment in my router. It still took 2-3 more tries before it finally connected. The electrician told me that this was typical and that it often takes going through the network setup numerous times before it mysteriously decides to establish the connection. So you might want to give it another try. Or two. Or three.

oakwcj said:

I also had trouble getting the network connected after the "service," which consisted of putting in a new SD card and cleaning the plastic display cover. I had assigned a static IP to the Blink. I ended up removing the assignment in my router. It still took 2-3 more tries before it finally connected. The electrician told me that this was typical and that it often takes going through the network setup numerous times before it mysteriously decides to establish the connection. So you might want to give it another try. Or two. Or three.

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yeah... my access point is almost directly above the blink unit and regardless it took the blink a couple of tries to get an IP address. then it decided it did not have a DNS server. but on the 3rd time "testing" the network connection, it found the DNS server and was able to talk to the mothership.

Is the 2.0 a mandatory upgrade? My Blink never failed to charge yet. Maybe I should make a back-up of the 1.8 SD just in case :idea: .

camasleaf said:

Is the 2.0 a mandatory upgrade? My Blink never failed to charge yet. Maybe I should make a back-up of the 1.8 SD just in case :idea: .

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maybe but for me 2.0 has been pretty stable. right now i've got 12 days 10 hours uptime, which has to be some kind of record.

After 4 months my Blink finally got serviced. They replaced the microSD card (now it has 2.0 software), adjusted the power supply and removed the RFID card. Fingers crossed that it will stay fixed.

arnold

My Blink screen seemed to have stopped working and I didn't get any info on the amount of charge (kWh) on the Blink internet site or the display. So I rebooted and the display looks normal, but will charge tonight to see if everything is ok. Looking at my Blink internet site, I see the software is Version 2.0.20120112. Was there a recent upgrade? I have not used my Blink for about a week (Apr. 22-27) so perhaps there was an upgrade.

2.0 that has been out for a while but the roll out has been amazingly slow. Of course they have had to make a non-trivial amount of service calls to replace microSD cards.

My Blink has now been up for over 24 hours so it looks like I'm back in the data collection business.

arnold

Despite the early problems and the destruction of property I must say that 2.0 seems very stable. Have not had to reboot. No missed charges. Consistent Blink charged stopped messages. Annoying but at least it works. Good job Blink.

AndyN said:

Despite the early problems and the destruction of property I must say that 2.0 seems very stable. Have not had to reboot. No missed charges. Consistent Blink charged stopped messages. Annoying but at least it works. Good job Blink.

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My Blink has been working without issue. Only annoying thing is sometimes when I go out to the garage and the car is not plugged in, or I open the garage to pull the car in, the Blink screen is on and has the "Read to charge" or "plug in to charge" or something like that, message. I wonder why the screen randomly turns on like that...

EricBayArea said:

My Blink has been working without issue. Only annoying thing is sometimes when I go out to the garage and the car is not plugged in, or I open the garage to pull the car in, the Blink screen is on and has the "Read to charge" or "plug in to charge" or something like that, message. I wonder why the screen randomly turns on like that...

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Mine has also worked reliably with no issues, and has that same lighted screen. I believe it is always on, not just random times -- a waste of electricity that seems ironic considering the eco-conscious clientele.

Rat said:

EricBayArea said:

My Blink has been working without issue. Only annoying thing is sometimes when I go out to the garage and the car is not plugged in, or I open the garage to pull the car in, the Blink screen is on and has the "Read to charge" or "plug in to charge" or something like that, message. I wonder why the screen randomly turns on like that...

Click to expand...

Mine has also worked reliably with no issues, and has that same lighted screen. I believe it is always on, not just random times -- a waste of electricity that seems ironic considering the eco-conscious clientele.

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You can configure how long the display stays on from the setup menu. When 2.0 is installed, it defaults to "on" all the time.

arnolddeleon said:

2.0 that has been out for a while but the roll out has been amazingly slow. Of course they have had to make a non-trivial amount of service calls to replace microSD cards.

My Blink has now been up for over 24 hours so it looks like I'm back in the data collection business.

arnold

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Well that that didn't last very long. My Blink is back to freezing again. I don't think it's staying up for more than a few hours (if I can I get it recover).

arnold