Charging in San Bernardino, Riverside, E. LA Counties

[tbleakne]

Things are starting to move with the Eaton DC QC, in no small measure thanks to JeremyW.

This morning I called Eaton tech support using the number JeremyW had found on the Eaton unit in Cypress. This time I got a real person, a helpful woman named Janice. She had a record of Jeremy's call on Monday, but not much more information. She took my number, spent an hour trying to reach various folks within Eaton, including sales manager, product manager, etc, but finally called me back to report she had only been able to leave messages. I thanked her anyway.

Then at 6 pm my phone rang with a call from South Carolina, which is where this Eaton unit is manufactured. I almost didn't pick up, thinking it was probably yet another telemarketer, but I did so because it was a cell phone. It turned out to be a lady named Tracy, who was working out the logistics for the repair of the San Bernardino Eaton QC unit.

It turns out that the host's problem report of the charge failures I experienced on the Eaton DC QC some weeks ago was so garbled that Eaton didn't know how to respond. When JeremyW explained the problem to Eaton tech support this past Monday, something clicked, and they sent a field technician out Tuesday to capture the fault codes. With this information they now know what they need to do. They are sending an engineer named Dorian Gray, most likely from the East coast. He plans to spend Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning on the repair, so it sounds like more than just a software update.

Tracy called me after seeing the emails posted by Janice. They realized that they needed an EV to test the unit, and they were considering flat-bedding an iMev from Cypress. I told her there was no need to do that, that I would be glad to meet Dorian in San Bernardino if he and I could arrange a time. The plan now is for Dorian to call me Monday afternoon to make the arrangements.

My opinion of Eaton product support is rising; it is not really their fault that the host people have difficulty with technical communication.

 

[abasile]

As one who will clearly benefit from having this QC working, my thanks go to tbleakne and JeremyW for their efforts and follow-up, especially since I've been busier than usual for work reasons. This is exciting!

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

looks like Spring 2012 is gonna be the breakout for QC. OR has literally quadrupled their stations in the past few days.

 

[GRA]

Things are starting to move with the Eaton DC QC, in no small measure thanks to JeremyW.

<snip>

It turns out that the host's problem report of the charge failures I experienced on the Eaton DC QC some weeks ago was so garbled that Eaton didn't know how to respond. When JeremyW explained the problem to Eaton tech support this past Monday, something clicked, and they sent a field technician out Tuesday to capture the fault codes. With this information they now know what they need to do. They are sending an engineer named Dorian Gray, most likely from the East coast. He plans to spend Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning on the repair, so it sounds like more than just a software update.
<snip>

Dorian Gray? I wonder if the QC unit will quickly become more and more decrepit, while the engineer retains his youthful looks into old age :twisted:

 

[tbleakne]

Dorian Gray? I wonder if the QC unit will quickly become more and more decrepit, while the engineer retains his youthful looks into old age :twisted:

Actually his name is Donovan Grey, not Dorian. My bad.

He called me today, Sunday. He is flying out tomorrow and I am meeting him at the Eaton QC unit Tuesday morning. He has three levels of fix to try, the first taking 10 min, and the 3rd taking all day. He prefers to test the unit with my car before he starts any work to watch what happens.

Any suggestions on technical questions to ask him about the unit?

 

[GotMyleaf]

Excellent!

I don't have any questions but I plan to try using that charger this week.

 

[abasile]

The San Bernardino QC is working and available for public use!!!

After hanging around for a couple of hours while an Eaton rep. performed troubleshooting and a repair, tbleakne just called to inform us of the good news! He and JeremyW are on location with a successfully-QCed LEAF.

For the time being, my understanding is that charging is free, but don't expect that to last.

 

[TonyWilliams]

Woo hoo! Truly the first truly public DC charger in California.

 

[Kataphn]

Great news! Thx to Tom and Jeremy for their persistence.

 

[Boomer23]

Great news. Now I need to invent a reason to come to San Berdoo!

 

[abasile]

Now I need to invent a reason to come to San Berdoo!

The mountains are gorgeous right now, with 2-3' of new snow and no chain restrictions! QC on your way up, and again on your way home.

 

[Boomer23]

That's a pretty good reason!

 

[tbleakne]

Quick report on status of DC QC at 7-11 in San Bernardino. I will post pictures later. Donovan, JeremyW, myself, were joined by the installing electrician John and the general contractor. These latter two soon left, but the Eaton sales rep arrived later.

First we confirmed the fault behavior that I had seen: The charge stops in a few seconds after starting up the QC current ramp.
Next he retrieved the fault code history. He does this by entering a secret password-protected mode on the main display panel. Earlier in the week the local Eaton sales rep, based in City of Industry, had driven out and retrieved these codes.

First fix Donovan tried was to replace one of the control boards. No change.
Next he took out the bottom one of the 5 power modules to gain access to a main current sensor, and he replaced that. I got some good pictures of the power module. He replaced it. No change.

Finally he noticed that one of the fault codes contained a tag for the bottom module. He placed that module off-line, and programmed the unit to report a constrained maximum power of 40 kW with this module missing. He also talked with a sales rep back at headquarters who revealed that her records showed that this installation was NOT wired for a full 50kW because of power limits in the building. It therefore was connected to a 150A 3-phase breaker, not 200A as would be normal for a unit drawing 156A at full power. Unfortunately John was no longer around to confirm this. So the unit's failure was fortuitous.

We try it again, and the unit worked fine. We tested on and off several times. A yellow message on the display announces that the maximum power is constained, but as we all know well, this will not extend the charging times very much given the rapid taper of the charge profile. I got confirmation from Gil that the unit would remain unlocked and available for use by anyone in this reduced power mode.

This is one of Eaton's very first units, installed last October and lying dormant all this time. It currently has no provision for accepting a credit card or doing self-metering. Like the unit at Mitsubishi, it does report the kWhrs used at the end of the charge on its display, but the contractor does not know how to capture this data.

(Edit). After I called in a report to abasile, Donovan treated us to lunch at a nearby diner. When we got back, asharpleaf (Dan) and his son had arrived in a pair of matching red Leafs. They were happily charging. A good day.

 

[TonyWilliams]

Thanks Tom. I'll bet we see more power limited DC chargers than not in the future.

 

[GotMyleaf]

Thanks for taking the time to help make this happen guys!

 

[GotMyleaf]

The ower has turned the QC OFF!
The owner got the electric bill, turned the charger off and is working on a way to charge a fee for use.

Bummer.

 

[z0ner]

The ower has turned the QC OFF!
The owner got the electric bill, turned the charger off and is working on a way to charge a fee for use.

Bummer.

Old news. http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=8325" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[tbleakne]

Some time since my last check several months ago, 350green has added L2 charge stations in our area to their map.
https://350green.com/locate/
I had previously reported the two nice Charjit (350green) stations at Ontario Mills, which others discovered without a map.
Now, in addition to many stations at OC and South LA Walgreens, there are stations showing at Walgreens in:

North Hills (San Fernando Valley) (Shown on plugshare with negative report - not operating)

Not shown on Plugshare:
Reseda, Downtown (near 4th & Alemeda), Arcadia, Chino Hills

<Edit>
Yesterday I visited the the Chino Hills Walgreens; their station is not yet operational. The pillar is installed, conduit has been laid, and the sidewalk re-surfaced, but the EVSE has NOT been installed. This experience, together with the negative report at North Hills, suggests that the 350Green map should not be relied upon until locations have been verified.

I called the Arcadia Walgreens. Their station has been installed for a month and they believe it is operational. I will check it out.

Is anyone available to check out the Reseda location ?

 

[tbleakne]

I drove to the Arcadia Walgreens. Their charger station is installed but it is not operational, with no power (display off). It is a Chargepoint, unlike the units at Ontario Mills, which are Charjit.

The Walgreens manager, Tommy, was very helpful. He said the installer had told him the unit was "good to go" a few weeks ago, and he had seen the display on at that time. He called the Chargepoint number, and they had a record of the address, but they told him since Walgreens was not the owner of the unit, there was nothing they could do. I told him 350Green was the apparent owner of the unit, and he promised to followup tomorrow.

So far 350green is not impressing me about their business practices.

 

[baronvonshush]

Yesterday I visited the the Chino Hills Walgreens; their station is not yet operational. The pillar is installed, conduit has been laid, and the sidewalk re-surfaced, but the EVSE has NOT been installed. This experience, together with the negative report at North Hills, suggests that the 350Green map should not be relied upon until locations have been verified.

Interesting! I didn't know they were actually going to install a station at that Walgreens.

Chino Hills actually just got its first public (J1772) charging station a little over a week ago - a ChargePoint at The Shoppes. We've used it a couple of times so far. I'm actually curious who owns that one, but haven't had a chance to research it. If it's one of the stores there or The Shoppes in general, then we will definitely try to patronize them more often to thank them as long as it's free.