what level am I charging at?

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.

rickbol

Member
Joined
Sep 1, 2011
Messages
10
Location
Western North Carolina
This seems like a stupid question to me, but can I tell what level the car is charging at? Some chargers in my area don't have displays, and I'm not sure they're all maxxing the L2 charge port (@ 3.3kW). Seems the car should provide some way to indicate charge level in real-time. I'm looking for some indication in the car, not from the smart phone apps.

thx,

Rick
 
Any time you find a public J1772 you will be doing 208 or 240V @ 16A.

The only time you would do L1 (120V@12A) is when using the portable EVSE plugged into a household outlet.
 
There is no way to tell, that I am aware of, short of attaching extra instrumentation. The best you can do is compare the time it took and the amount of charge you got, meaning you can find out after the fact. Nonetheless it should turn out as TEG described.
 
The iPhone and iPad APPs gives you the answer.
Probably the computer URL too.
It delineates the charge by name, as well as indicating by stating how long to go.
 
I used a free chargepoint charger at Sea World. I called the phone number posted on the charger to activate it. The person who activated it gave me the option of 120 or 240.
 
120v is "Level 1"
240v is "Level 2"

I think that the LEAF's dashboard does not tell you which is being used.

The SOC-Meter shows you Power into the Battery Pack, about:
1 kW for L1 charging
2 kW for L2 at 12 amps
3 kW for L2 at 16 amps.
 
daleandwendy said:
I used a free chargepoint charger at Sea World. I called the phone number posted on the charger to activate it. The person who activated it gave me the option of 120 or 240.
Had you chosen 120V you would have had to plug your Nissan L1 EVSE into a standard plug that some Chargepoints have behind a locking door to use it. The J1772 plug on the Chargepoint is always L2 (240v or 208v).
 
Nubo said:
If all else fails, you can take a direct measurement

triplett_9200.jpg


http://www.cabletiesandmore.com/american/catalog/triplett-9200-mini-clamp-meter-p-614.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Actually, no. If you just clamp this around the J1772 cable, you're read 0 amps. You need to actually split out one of the conductors and clamp that. When you clamp the entire cable, you read one conductor with current going one way and the other conductor with current going the other way; they cancel out.
 
DoxyLover said:
When you clamp the entire cable, you read one conductor with current going one way and the other conductor with current going the other way; they cancel out.
...you hope! :lol:

May as well spring for one that does DC amps, too. I recently picked up a decent one for about $100.
=Smidge=
 
DoxyLover said:
Nubo said:
If all else fails, you can take a direct measurement

triplett_9200.jpg


http://www.cabletiesandmore.com/american/catalog/triplett-9200-mini-clamp-meter-p-614.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Actually, no. If you just clamp this around the J1772 cable, you're read 0 amps. You need to actually split out one of the conductors and clamp that. When you clamp the entire cable, you read one conductor with current going one way and the other conductor with current going the other way; they cancel out.

AHA! should have realized that. Never measured 240 :oops:
 
Nubo said:
DoxyLover said:
Nubo said:
If all else fails, you can take a direct measurement

triplett_9200.jpg


http://www.cabletiesandmore.com/american/catalog/triplett-9200-mini-clamp-meter-p-614.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Actually, no. If you just clamp this around the J1772 cable, you're read 0 amps. You need to actually split out one of the conductors and clamp that. When you clamp the entire cable, you read one conductor with current going one way and the other conductor with current going the other way; they cancel out.

AHA! should have realized that. Never measured 240 :oops:
Voltage doesn't matter. You clamp one around a 120V extension cord and you'll read 0 amps, unless you have a ground fault that's not flowing over the ground wire in the cord.

To measure the current, you need a wire splitter, such as http://www.multimeterwarehouse.com/M920f.htm. Unfortunately, they don't make one for a J1772 :lol:
 
Smidge204 said:
DoxyLover said:
When you clamp the entire cable, you read one conductor with current going one way and the other conductor with current going the other way; they cancel out.
...you hope! :lol:

May as well spring for one that does DC amps, too. I recently picked up a decent one for about $100.
=Smidge=
Nice price. I use one of these at work:
i30.jpg

http://www.amazon.com/Fluke-I30-AC-Current-Clamp/dp/B0012S60X0

3x the price and needs a separate multimeter, but then, It's a Fluke :D
 
That there is no indication of current charge rate available in the car interface(s) somewhere blows my mind. I forsee the future situation where the "smart grid" "manages" the maximum current deliverable to a number of chargers by kicking them down to a lower level of charge in order to accommodate more connections (without exceeding max current for the given infrastructure).

I'm pretty sure I plugged into a GE charger recently at a nearby museum, and while being a big, shiny, colorful, charge terminal, I don't think it was delivering 16A@240V, Likewise for some round Aeroenvironment chargers in a local public parking deck (fortunately, they're marked as 120V chargers).

Geez, that's a feature that should be added to a firmware update.
 
DoxyLover said:
Voltage doesn't matter. You clamp one around a 120V extension cord and you'll read 0 amps, unless you have a ground fault that's not flowing over the ground wire in the cord.

To measure the current, you need a wire splitter, such as http://www.multimeterwarehouse.com/M920f.htm. Unfortunately, they don't make one for a J1772 :lol:

That'll tech me for talking out my butt. But I could have sworn I'd seen some type of measurement device like this that gauged current in a cord. Is there some other thing that does this? :?
 
A lot of the public L2 are running on 208v and seem slower than my home unit that is on 240v

This stinks especially since the leaf is limited so much on L2


Charge times are longer when I am at the mall, maybe it's a scheme to get you to shop more :ugeek:

Anyway I wish the leaf could ramp up the amps in response to the 208 voltage
 
kmp647 said:
Anyway I wish the leaf could ramp up the amps in response to the 208 voltage
I thought it did, to some extent. Didn't Phil tell us some time back that he had measured 17 or 18 amps when he dropped the voltage? I recall this coming up was while he was testing his Rev 2 EVSEupgrade.

Ray
 
(Wow, I just realized I resurrected a thread from 6 years ago.)
rickbol said:
That there is no indication of current charge rate available in the car interface(s) somewhere blows my mind. I forsee the future situation where the "smart grid" "manages" the maximum current deliverable to a number of chargers by kicking them down to a lower level of charge in order to accommodate more connections (without exceeding max current for the given infrastructure).
...
Geez, that's a feature that should be added to a firmware update.
Not many other EVs/PHEVs display it in the vehicle either. Tesla Model S can though. At the time rickbol asked for this, the first Model S hadn't shipped yet. 1st delivery didn't happen until June 2012.

As for what you foresee, it's already available. See https://www.chargepoint.com/products/power-management-faq/. I only became aware of it when a Chargepoint rep came to a meeting w/our facilities person who's been assigned charging station-related duties. I attended since I'm an enthusiast and had been communicating w/facilities a bunch relating to our EV charging situation.

As for the feature... use Leaf Spy. This is probably the 1st time I've hear for such an ask in the UI of the car here on MNL and I've been on the forum since mid-2011. Your ask would be nowhere near the top of a list of top 20 feature requests.
 
I am surprised that this didn't irk more people. It really irked me. How hard could that have been to add? Even more important once the LEAF had either a 3.3kW or 6.6kW onboard controller options.

I haven't tested for 3.3kW charging, but the dash UI shows how long till full charge @ 6.6 if I enable accessory mode while charging. Of course, Leaf Spy tells me what I wanna know (Thank You Turbo3!!!). Now, if I could only route that data wirelessly and securely... maybe with the server option and an old rooted phone?

The thing is, if I pull into a place to charge, I very well may want/need to know about how long I need to charge. There's a big difference in time between 6.6kW and 3.3kW charging (or otherwise) for the first 80%. As charging infrastructure gets smart and dynamic, it may make it harder to plan one's time.

I haven't had to think about this for awhile, and now I have 6.6 and QC, and there actually are a number of QCs around, so my charging options are considerably greater than they were 3 years ago.

Cheers,

rickbol
 
Back
Top