Eaton L2 charging station software problem for '13 Leafs

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Razorbil

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 20, 2013
Messages
56
Location
Western North Carolina
I am in Western North Carolina. I reside in Buncombe county which has a robust network of L2 charging stations that so far work with the '13 Leaf. One of neighboring counties has one, yes, just one, Eaton charging station located at their community college. I attempted to recharge there last month and encountered an issue. Once plugged in, the system threw up a red flag and shut down (charger, not the Leaf). I contacted the point person responsible for maintaining the Eaton station. He said they had a bad electrical storm over the previous weekend and attempted to reset the box......no luck.

I just attempted to recharge there again today. Same problem. I called the on-campus contact person again and he had had other reports from other '13 Leaf drivers that they could not charge, even though the '12 and earlier models were not experiencing any problems. He contacted his sales rep and was told that there was something different about the software in the '13 Leafs that made them unable to recharge off of the older Eaton L2 stations. The sales rep said that they have a software update for their stations and would attempt to fix the one at this community college in the near future.

Has anyone else run across this issue? This seems like something that could really ruin someones trip.
 
Yes, I have experienced this problem. I have a '12 LEAF and there is some communication error between the EVSE and the on-board charger. So some of the Eaton stations at my workplace (5 out of 8) do not charge the car. This actually caused the EV System Warning Light to come on, which actually disables charging entirely. Luckily, if you power cycle the car, the light goes away, and you're able to charge again.

I originally took my car into the dealership, and they misdiagnosed it as a problem in which I didn't have enough juice (sounded fishy because I still had 2 bars left when I got to the dealership). I took it in again, and they had a closer look. While it was in the dealership, they gave me a '13 LEAF SL to try out. Being curious, I went to the same station and had trouble charging.

Here is the difference between the '12s and '13s: On the 12, the car appears to accept the charge, and the charging indicator (one of the 3 lights on the dash) begin blinking as if it's charging. After about 5 seconds, it just shuts off. When you see the bad Eaton station, the middle light and the bottom left light are blinking (both green lights), indicating that it's waiting for the car to accept the charge (I think this is the error, if I remember correctly). Then, you go inside the car, turn it on, and observe the EV System Warning light - the car won't let you charge in this situation because it is in "partial shutdown."

I found out (by about 15 minutes of fiddling with the Eaton EVSE), that, if I press the left button on the Eaton EVSE prior to the charge lights on the dash going out (a window of 5 seconds or less), the car charges without issue, and does not throw a warning light. This has worked a couple of times, as I just recently stumbled upon my own personal hack for this.

Unfortunately, '13s are not able to charge. Now, on the 13, when you try to charge - the blinking lights on the car's dash never even appear. The Eaton EVSE flashes a red light (as opposed to green). And no EV System Warning light appears. So this is a problem, still for '13s.

Further, the head of Service/Parts at the dealership was curious and was asked by the regional and national Nissan engineers to go to the station with a '13 - same red blinking error, and failure to charge.

As a caveat, those other 3 EVSEs are perfectly fine. I charge there without hacking - and so do others (Teslas, Volts, LEAFs).

So it appears that this happens with some Eaton EVSEs and not others.
 
jk6 said:
Unfortunately, '13s are not able to charge. Now, on the 13, when you try to charge - the blinking lights on the car's dash never even appear. The Eaton EVSE flashes a red light (as opposed to green). And no EV System Warning light appears. So this is a problem, still for '13s.

Thank you jk6. What you have described for the Eaton vs. '13 is exactly my experience as well. At this point there does not appear to be a 'hackable' option.
 
Look at the serial number plate/label on the side. If it says REV 1 then Eaton has come out with an updated and improved unit - REV 2. My unit at work was replaced free by Eaton because it would randomly shut off and regularly had to be engaged multiple times because it would fault. I don't think your problem is specific to 2013 models. I have 2011.

Eaton made the same change in Auburn WA to the unit that had failed outside their office. So Eaton knows there is a problem with the REV 1.
 
Since one person above mentioned charging Volts, etc ... we're talking Eaton L2's ??
Because the QC Eaton at So Cal Mitsu has never failed me yet ... unless someone has previously broken the handle/misuse.
 
TaylorSFGuy said:
Look at the serial number plate/label on the side. If it says REV 1 then Eaton has come out with an updated and improved unit - REV 2. My unit at work was replaced free by Eaton because it would randomly shut off and regularly had to be engaged multiple times because it would fault. I don't think your problem is specific to 2013 models. I have 2011.

Eaton made the same change in Auburn WA to the unit that had failed outside their office. So Eaton knows there is a problem with the REV 1.


I will check now. Thanks.
 
Hi there,

Just got a 13 Leaf SV, and I am having problems charging it at some Eaton L2 stations, despite the fact that they are Rev 2. Looking at the Style of the units, SKR3B3ML0000 does not work for me (works very intermittently and only after resets), but SAR3BX000000 works every time. All of these are 91C3262 REV 2.

Also, there is a 13 Leaf SL charging pretty much without problems on the SKR3B3ML0000, which makes this even more strange.
 
I live just down the road in Wake County, and without a hitch I've used a couple of Eaton L2s around here for my 2013 SL. The only specific ones I can remember are the Eaton L2s at the visitor center in Chapel Hill. Started right up and kept on charging for almost two hours until I returned to the car.

I'm not sure if they are Rev1 or Rev2, but I think they're fairly new so likely Rev2.
 
jimmyz80 said:
I live just down the road in Wake County, and without a hitch I've used a couple of Eaton L2s around here for my 2013 SL. The only specific ones I can remember are the Eaton L2s at the visitor center in Chapel Hill. Started right up and kept on charging for almost two hours until I returned to the car.

I'm not sure if they are Rev1 or Rev2, but I think they're fairly new so likely Rev2.
The one I am attempting to use is two years old.
 
I also have a 2013 Leaf (S model with charger upgrade package) and I have had this problem at the Durham County (NC) main library. I have talked with the best Nissan Leaf customer service person, who says that Eaton needs to send a service tech to update the firmware on the machine. Apparently, it is related to the new 6.6 kW charge system. Nissan is aware of this problem, and apparently Eaton is too.

I have had no problems charging at non-Eaton charging stations. Fortunately, there are many charging stations in or near downtown Durham.
 
susananc said:
I also have a 2013 Leaf (S model with charger upgrade package) and I have had this problem at the Durham County (NC) main library. I have talked with the best Nissan Leaf customer service person, who says that Eaton needs to send a service tech to update the firmware on the machine. Apparently, it is related to the new 6.6 kW charge system. Nissan is aware of this problem, and apparently Eaton is too.

I have had no problems charging at non-Eaton charging stations. Fortunately, there are many charging stations in or near downtown Durham.

I have not run into any issues with the non-Eaton stations either.
 
Do they look like this? I'm fairly new but my '12 doesn't have a problem charging off the 2 units installed at the local Metrolink station. Only "glitch" I know of is when you flip the power switch to the unit, it takes like 30sec sometimes to initialize or startup and sometimes it just RED X's out. Just turn off and on again unit it's ready..

232768e7385468d0c88ba88d749b85ce.jpg
 
JasonA: Yes, that's what the charger looks like. I think the conflict is between the cars equipped for 6.6kW charging, like the 2013 Leaf. You have a 2012, so you might be dealing with a different issue. Sustainability Office in Durham (amazing people, btw!) says they will update these chargers so they're compatible with newest technology.
 
susananc said:
JasonA: Yes, that's what the charger looks like. I think the conflict is between the cars equipped for 6.6kW charging, like the 2013 Leaf. You have a 2012, so you might be dealing with a different issue. Sustainability Office in Durham (amazing people, btw!) says they will update these chargers so they're compatible with newest technology.
Thank you Susananc. You are correct. This affects the 2013 Leafs only.
 
susananc said:
Sustainability Office in Durham (amazing people, btw!) says they will update these chargers so they're compatible with newest technology.

susananc: Did the Durham Sustainability Office give a timeframe for the update? I found out yesterday that the Eaton EVSEs at both the Durham main library and Human Services Building lot haven't been updated yet (no charge for my 2013 Leaf SV :( )
 
KRMax said:
susananc said:
Sustainability Office in Durham (amazing people, btw!) says they will update these chargers so they're compatible with newest technology.

susananc: Did the Durham Sustainability Office give a timeframe for the update? I found out yesterday that the Eaton EVSEs at both the Durham main library and Human Services Building lot haven't been updated yet (no charge for my 2013 Leaf SV :( )

No, they didn't. They said I was the first one to be affected by the problem. I encourage you to contact them to ask for a timeframe. I reached them via Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/GreenerDurham.net" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;. There are compatible chargers at Golden Belt and American Tobacco.

Please post any updates you get. Good luck!
 
The sustainability Durham ones were fixed some time ago, but I just ran in to some in Raleigh, at Nash Square that still haven't been fixed. They had notes on them saying that they don't work with 2013 or newer LEAF.

I'd love to find out the technical details of the incompatibility and build an adapter to allow charging.
 
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