Blink J1772 Cable Repair

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.
I have soldered around a half dozen cables. In fact I have been for the last week charging my Mercedes B at 32A with an OpenEVSE and Blink cable combo to burn in the unit. Phil Childs has also soldered his cable.

It does take flux in addition to solder. Only one was burned and that one took scraping the wire bright first. If you have experience soldering it is certainly possible. Since there is several inches of cable in the handle stiffness is not an issue.
 
I am using Weller Soldering Station with Resin 44 solder. It is a very common station. It is hard to get the terminal and wire hot enough to bond. The flux really helps.
 
GlennD said:
I am using Weller Soldering Station with Resin 44 solder. It is a very common station. It is hard to get the terminal and wire hot enough to bond. The flux really helps.

Looks like the least powerful Weller station is 40W, I suspect my 25W iron won't be up to the task. Oh well, basic soldering irons are pretty cheap.
 
I use a Weller temperature controlled unit with a digital display. I think they are currently just under $200. I like them since there is a full line of tips. In recent years they have gotten very expensive. Tips are now over $5.
 
GlennD said:
I use a Weller temperature controlled unit with a digital display. I think they are currently just under $200. I like them since there is a full line of tips. In recent years they have gotten very expensive. Tips are now over $5.

While I can certainly appreciate such a tool considering the amount of electronics work I do these days (basically none) it is hard to justify spending that much for something that I will rarely use. A sub-$20 60W iron from Amazon should work just fine, just need to be careful to not overheat the parts and solder.
 
I just replaced the cable and J1772 connector on my Blink- Ecotality Project EVSE. (again)

Car Charging Group (Blink) came out and replaced it once for overheat, and then dumbed the EVSE down to 16 Amps.
I couldn't live with that, so I set it back to 32Amps and it ran for almost 2 years.

Then the weirdest thing started happening.
I would find the car not fully charged.
A little investigation led to the discovery of a 160F connection point, and either the car or the EVSE was kicking out.

Only I cannot figure why?

It's a 4 wire system; No temp sensor on the EVSE side, and No temp sensor that I'm aware of in the Cars side of the J1772.

But I'm glad it did so.

Anyway, the Blink OEM was obviously exp. Increasing corrosion.

I had nice a cable and plug assembly that I had purchased when it overheated the first time, and did a quick swap out.

Bought a whole set of security torx at home depot.
(Thought that would be harder.)

Not going to get embroiled in the Solder vs. Crimp debate, but there is a reason they are all crimped.
 
You can either repair the Rema cable or replace it with a Quick Charge Power cable. It really depends on your skill level. Quick Charge supplies a quality cable. It is certainly more money than repairing the crimps but it is much easier.
 
One reason why I'm hesitant to just get a replacement cable is that to properly land it on contactor terminals you need to crimp on ferrules on the fine-stranded wire before tightening it with the set screw. I don't want to invest in a good crimper and the cheap ones may produce a crimp that is less reliable than the soldered pins in the Rema handle.
 
KillaWhat,

Maybe the voltage dropped below the minimum threshold for L2 under load as the connection got hotter so the onboard charger shutdown.

All,

Regarding crimp vs. solder: Crimping is faster under assembly line conditions and should be more reliable with properly-adjusted automated crimping tools. Unfortunately, Rema/Blink proved that is not always the way things happen. Soldering makes a good connection when done properly so it is certainly worth fixing a cable at home if the wires and pins are not damaged beyond use.

Gerry
 
GerryAZ said:
KillaWhat,

Maybe the voltage dropped below the minimum threshold for L2 under load as the connection got hotter so the onboard charger shutdown.

All,

Regarding crimp vs. solder: Crimping is faster under assembly line conditions and should be more reliable with properly-adjusted automated crimping tools. Unfortunately, Rema/Blink proved that is not always the way things happen. Soldering makes a good connection when done properly so it is certainly worth fixing a cable at home if the wires and pins are not damaged beyond use.

Gerry

Only one of the cables I have used had a burned connector. That made soldering more work. I had to scrape the cable bright. This was only on one pin. Blink's downgrade is proactive since they had no way of knowing which cables had a bad crimp. Most that I have seen are OK. Soldering is just a precaution. Tony's cable was specially selected to burn up.

I think if I was a technically challenged owner I would just replace the cable and J1772 connector. At the same time you could extend the length. When I upgraded to a 24 ft cable I no longer had to back in my Leaf. It does take years of soldering to get good at it. Tony's cable is a good replacement. And it is available in up to 24 ft at full ratings. Longer derated,
 
Valdemar said:
One reason why I'm hesitant to just get a replacement cable is that to properly land it on contactor terminals you need to crimp on ferrules on the fine-stranded wire before tightening it with the set screw. I don't want to invest in a good crimper and the cheap ones may produce a crimp that is less reliable than the soldered pins in the Rema handle.
My understanding is that with the right size ferrule, you don't need to crimp it. The ferrule's job is to keep the fine strands contained while the set screw is tightened down. So in effect, the set screw is going to do the crimping for you.

Now, whether you can find the right size ferrule is another question. I don't recall what I did when I replaced my Blink cable; if you find the thread I started a few years ago, it probably says.

Cheers, Wayne
 
wwhitney said:
Valdemar said:
One reason why I'm hesitant to just get a replacement cable is that to properly land it on contactor terminals you need to crimp on ferrules on the fine-stranded wire before tightening it with the set screw. I don't want to invest in a good crimper and the cheap ones may produce a crimp that is less reliable than the soldered pins in the Rema handle.
My understanding is that with the right size ferrule, you don't need to crimp it. The ferrule's job is to keep the fine strands contained while the set screw is tightened down. So in effect, the set screw is going to do the crimping for you.

Now, whether you can find the right size ferrule is another question. I don't recall what I did when I replaced my Blink cable; if you find the thread I started a few years ago, it probably says.

Cheers, Wayne

On this point, a crimp is likely still better but I wonder if Polaris Grey Connector sleeves are better suited for this as they are specifically designed to be used with set screws, I'm thinking they might be less rigid than your typical ferrule.
 
I have never seen a Blink cable connected to a charger. All of mine were replaced cables from eBay. They are generally around one hundred dollars plus shipping.

On Tony's dual #12 wires I have used a clamp type connector from McFadden Dale Hardware. It serves two purposes, It makes the connections
neater and the extra mass dissipates heat better.
 
I believe all original Blink cable ends had crimped-on ferrules on them:

bf78f3dc-58ee-48f6-a98e-72f86a9b21c9.jpg
 
OK, A few cables had the ferrals . I just ignored them. The last cable I received had the pilot through a crimp barrel and ferrils..

I have zero interest in owning a Blink charger. In my biased opinion OpenEVSE is much better. The cables after repair are fine. You could certainly add a replacement Quick Charge Power cable to the Blink EVSE. A 24 ft one runs just over $200 with shipping.
 
I was told by Tony Williams (Quick Charge Power) that he did not believe in soldering. Considering that he owns the proper crimper hie h can just recrimp the terminals. For me since I do not have a bug buck crimper soldering works fine. Use what you have.
 
Well, I just soldered another one. The cable had not yet overheated but the crimps were appalling. This one was $80 shipped from eBay.

It may be that Blink's derating scheme works. In any event the cable I received had not overheated.
 
Back
Top