odd behavior L2 charging with Leaf's timer

I installed a Clipper Creek HCS-50 for home Level 2 charging and it seems to work fine most of the time for my 2018 Leaf SV. But occasionally, when I think I've got it set up to charge during the night (when our electric company gives us a super-offpeak rate of less than $0.03/kwh) I'll go and check it later (when the Leaf's timer is supposed to have begun the charging) and it's not charging. Usually all I have to do is to unplug and re-plug the connector and it immediately starts charging.

Is there some counter-intuitive behavior of which I should be aware ? Does it matter if I turn the Leaf's timer "on" before or after I plug in ? Seems like this happens more often if we plug in the car, and then enable or change the on-time of, the car's timer.

It seems to happen more often when my wife plugs the car in. She is a person who tends to not close doors all the way, not put jar lids on tight, that sort of thing. How easy is it to think you plugged the thing in securely, but you actually haven't ?

Hard to answer w/o knowing the model year and trim level. (e.g. '13 to '15 (and probably thru '17) S timers are NOTHING like that of '11 to '15 SV and SL).

cwerdna said:

Hard to answer w/o knowing the model year and trim level. (e.g. '13 to '15 (and probably thru '17) S timers are NOTHING like that of '11 to '15 SV and SL).

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Sorry, I thought that info automtically showed up below my name (if I put it into my profile). But I guess it doesn't work that way. Was thinking of Subaru forum.

It is a 2018 SV (40kwh).

My wife was occasionally not fully plugging ours in and found that it failed to charge the next morning.

I taught her to now confirm that the car is properly plugged in by listening for the car clicking a second or so after being plugged in and then watching that the lights on the dash sequence before leaving the garage . If not she unplugs and plugs it back in. Sometimes it takes her a few times to fully set the plug.

Haven’t had any further issue.

RustyShackleford said:

Sorry, I thought that info automtically showed up below my name (if I put it into my profile). But I guess it doesn't work that way. Was thinking of Subaru forum.

It is a 2018 SV (40kwh).

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Thanks.

You can edit your signature: http://www.mynissanleaf.com/ucp.php?i=ucp_profile&mode=signature.

Jerryr said:

My wife was occasionally not fully plugging ours in and found that it failed to charge the next morning.

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Just curious - if you know - when she plugged it in insufficiently, did it still do the little dance of the blue dashboard lights (where the 3 blink in sequence for a few seconds) ? My wife thinks - but not sure - it did.

Seems possible the logic pins made contact, so the blue lights did the right thing, but the high-amperage contacts did not, hence no charging. Of course, when this has happened, I've also gone out to check when the charge is supposed to have started, and I don't see the blue lights blinking to indicate 1/3,/2/3, full charge, so maybe that theory is bogus.

RustyShackleford said:

...Seems like this happens more often if we plug in the car, and then enable or change the on-time of, the car's timer. ...

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Yeah, I think that's your problem. When you plug in, the car evaluates the EVSE and checks to see if a timer is set. It then "schedules" the beginning of charge based upon either the set time, or in the case of an end-time charger, calculates the proper start time based on the charge rate.
It makes these decisions during that "clickety-clunky" period when you plug in. I expect that changing the timer after the fact doesn't initiate a re-evaluation and the new settings will only apply to the NEXT charge session. So if you decide to change settings after you've already plugged-in and want them to take effect immediately, unplugging/replugging is the way to go.

It makes these decisions during that "clickety-clunky" period when you plug in. I expect that changing the timer after the fact doesn't initiate a re-evaluation and the new settings will only apply to the NEXT charge session. So if you decide to change settings after you've already plugged-in and want them to take effect immediately, unplugging/replugging is the way to go.

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Ok, thanks for explaining.

We usually plug in the car when we get home, and then I later tweak the timer settings to try to approximate 80% charge (wife can't seem to accept the "don't charge above ~80%, at least in summertime" so I do it on the sly; just have to reverse that sequence, not so bad I guess.

This all sucks, because if I understand correctly, you used to be able to tell the car to sop charging at 80%, but that was eliminated for beaurocratic reasons.

RustyShackleford said:

...This all sucks, because if I understand correctly, you used to be able to tell the car to sop charging at 80%, but that was eliminated for beaurocratic reasons.

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That's Nissan's claim. But to me it doesn't hold water because other vehicles give user charge-limiting options.

I would have posted what Nubo just said if he hadn't beat me to it. Changes to the timer settings (I can't be sure about a 2018, but on a 2015 SV,) aren't recognized until the next time you plug in. IIRC, I may have once provoked an exception by pressing the start button through ACC-ON-OFF, but clearly the prudent thing to do is replug.

My experience has been that the blue lights don't come on until the plug clicks, and the plug doesn't click until it has made both the pilot and HV connections.

If it matters, I would think it would be better not to be pressing the plug's release button while plugging in. I.e., let it click.