My Blink connector finaly failed ... kind of

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camasleaf

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 26, 2010
Messages
662
Location
Camas, WA
My Blink was dead, newer red car is damaged and the older white one seems OK but still needs investigation. I achieve all these in about 2 minutes.

For the last year we charged both cars with one Blink and we were fine. The Blink sits on a side wall towards the front of the two car garage. To charge the car parked on the other side the cord was extended, not to max, but at both ends it needed about 1.5 feet before it rested on the floor of the garage.

Around noon today we were leaving with the newer red car and I moved the cord from the red car parked close to the Blink to the white one parked on the other side. As my wife started to back out of the garage we heard this noise like she hit something. She stopped and I noticed that older car stopped charging. I looked at the Blink and it said "Please plugin your car to start charging". I got off the car and I saw the J1772 connector on the floor. We were in a hurry, and I just flip the Blink breaker off and left.

After we reached our destination (32 miles away), our daughter noticed the damage on the red car. The cord got caught by the right front fender when we backed out of the garage. The car was parked closer to the side wall and farther to the front than normal.

Car damage:


Connector:


When we got back I realized we needed L2 charging since L1 will not work for us on Monday, plus we need both cars charged to 100% on Sunday morning. After analyzing the connector and Blink, I decided that the only option I have is to put the cable and connector from the EVSE supplied with one of the cars. The Blink did not have any damage inside. The wires were stretched but there was no damage to the contactor. The pilot wire connector came apart and that save the old car from any electrical damage. I made sure on the install that I did the same thing with the pilot wire connector: it is quite shorter than the power carrying wires. About 3 hours later the newer car is charging on L2. After one hour of charging there was not heat on the contactor terminals, checked by touch.

Blink pilot-wire disconnected:


Since I will be out of town next week and the wife does not want to go with the car to a shop, I spent another two hours getting the bumper back in its place as much as I could.

Front fender after some work:


Do you think the bumper can be repaired or it need to be replaced?
The old car is charging, the port seems undamaged. I will charge it in the morning and check for temperature in the port. The port does have a temperature sensor, right?
 
Put some hair dryer heat on the bumper and you should get it back to shape. The plastic has some what of a memory to it. Make sure the fender liner is also straight. Should not need to remove it. if you want to get at the back side of bumper do it from under the splash guard under front bumper.
 
GoneSilent said:
Put some hair dryer heat on the bumper and you should get it back to shape. The plastic has some what of a memory to it. Make sure the fender liner is also straight. Should not need to remove it. if you want to get at the back side of bumper do it from under the splash guard under front bumper.

Thank you, I will try that.
 
What is good cable and J1772 connector combo? I am looking at Leviton on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Leviton-A3435-PEV-Electric-Vehicle-Connector/dp/B00CJWSUYK" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Can I buy just the connector somewhere? It is the difference in price worth the trouble of finding the right crimping tools?
 
My guess is that you would be better off buying the cable and connector already put together. You can buy parts from Tucson EV if you want.

http://tucsonev.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
 
KJD said:
My guess is that you would be better off buying the cable and connector already put together. You can buy parts from Tucson EV if you want.
Yep. The Leviton plug/cordsets seem to be the most popular given their reasonable price.

A good quality crimping tool will cost as much as the Leviton 30A plug/cord.
 
I'd suggest having one the portable EVSEs upgraded. If you had done that before, you could have just plugged it into the Blink's wall outlet to get L2 until you bought a new cord instead of having to cannibalize.

BTW, I'm sure I don't have to tell you that the cord you put on is only good for 16a, not the 30a the Blink is good for. Not an immediate problem if it's only being plugged into 3.3kW LEAFs, but it is a problem if you have the 6kW charger in one of them. If you do have a 6kW charger, someone around here posted the admin password that lets you dial the Blink back to 16a.

OK, I found it: http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=43&t=3279&p=331331&hilit=blink+admin+16a#p331331" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
TomT said:
You can go in to the maintenance menu and set it back to 30 if you want:

Select Settings on the display.
Then select Device Info.
Then press on the 16A (or whatever it is) and hold that for about 10 seconds until the maintenance password screen comes up.
Enter 906598.
Change the max amps to whatever you like.
Press Exit.

Note that this is for the 30801 firmware and the password will almost certainly change with the next version of the firmware...

BTW, there isn't much else of any interest that you can do from the Maintenance Screen that you can't already do from the other screens,
so everyone needn't rush there to check it out...
 
Reusing the old tread. My Blink kind of failed again.

So in November 2013 I replaced the cable/connector with a new Leviton 30A. In September 2014 we got a 2015 Leaf with the 6kW charger. After a month or two of charging at 30A I reduced the current to 24A.

Today while the car was charging for about 2 hours I smelled the electrical insulation melting. Unpluged the car, but the connector was not hot. Turned off the circuit breaker, unplugged the EVSE and opened the Blink. The cable that I connected in 2013 started to heat and melt at the contactor connection. I removed the contactor, and it also showed signs of getting hot. I re-terminated the cable, changed the setting to 30A and start to charge again. After 20 minutes the car started to drop from the 6kW charging. Powered everything down and all was cool to the touch. I changed the max current setting to 16A and ordered a new contactor from eBay: Cutler Hammer C25DNF340B Contactor 3 Poles, 40/50 Amp, 208/240 VAC Coil

Now I want to understand what I did wrong when I terminated the cable in 2013:
1 Solder the end of the cable. The solder was something I had from doing some small electronics work years ago. Was that the wrong solder to use? Did I use too much?
2 I torqued the new connections the same I re-torqued all the other connections high amp connections. Should I have recheck the torque after a few weeks?

Should I use Crimp Terminal, non-insulated ferrules? The top connection of the contactor has the fine stranded wire directly in the contactor's screw lug and it was fine.

Any advise? Thank you.
 
Soldering is actually a bad idea with high power connectors like this. They should be properly crimped instead.
camasleaf said:
Solder the end of the cable. The solder was something I had from doing some small electronics work years ago. Was that the wrong solder to use? Did I use too much?
 
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