Mods for the Blink EVSE ! (was Fix)

[ttweed]

My Blink unit has started giving the self-test fault after 5 years in service, and it is getting more frequent. A reboot used to last a week, and now it is becoming a daily routine, so I am going to lobotomize it today. Thanks to the forum for the detailed instructions to turn it into a dumb charger!

TT

[QueenBee]

My Blink unit has started giving the self-test fault after 5 years in service, and it is getting more frequent. A reboot used to last a week, and now it is becoming a daily routine, so I am going to lobotomize it today. Thanks to the forum for the detailed instructions to turn it into a dumb charger!

TT

That's not likely to fix the issue, just hide it in that you'll not be able to see the screen anymore. I would instead focus on the information with regards to the GFCI CTs. Basicall you'll want to move/secure them and replace the termination on them. Instructions are covered here.

[gonefishin]

I wanted to post a follow-up to my July 18 2015 post about how to lobotomize the EVSE and my Youtube Video. The bad news is that the problems came back after a year. About half the time the car wouldn't charge and I couldn't figure out why since there was no computer to tell me what was going on. So I hooked the computer back up and threw out everything I had read about the problem. The good news is that it's been working reliably for me with the computer back in place for a month. I'm not 100% sure what I did to fix it, but here's my theory.

My initial assumption based on posts in this forum was that it was a GFCI grounding problem. After reading more about how other EVSEs work internally, I now believe that is only likely to be the problem if your charger fails on power up. In my case, the EVSE did a Self-Test fault only when connected to the car. I came up with two new theories for what was going wrong in my case and I think one was right, but I'm not sure which.

#1 - Pilot Wire not connecting. The pilot wire of the plug does all the negotiating about how much current to supply. That wire is passed through a relay that is stuck to the side of the contactor. I took that relay off and was surprised that it's not spring loaded. It relies upon the contactor to open & close the relay by grabbing onto the contactor's "arm" physically. I'm not sure if there was supposed to be a spring but I exercised it thoroughly and tried to make sure it was sliding properly. I should have tried disconnecting that wire entirely and see if it reproduces the problem but since it's working now I don't want to try it. If it fails again I may try replacing it.

#2 - Contactor RF surge bleeding into Current Transformer. The advice on the forum was to move the CT away from the splice block, but that actually brought it much closer to the Contactor. The Contactor has a coil powered at AC voltage and is designed to create a large electromagnetic force to close the Contactor relay, but of course, that also generates a large RF field. So placing the CTs anywhere near that contactor would seem to be a bad idea. I would feel more comfortable fingering this as the cause if I could reproduce the problem when close to the Contactor, but I only succeeded once out of a couple dozen tries. So I'm not 100% sure if that's it either.

A couple other random things I did which probably make no difference was to remove the RFID plate entirely, remove the external Ethernet pigtail, moved the bundle of blue power wires leading from the switching power supply to the computer so are also as far away from the CT as possible. I'm going to run with the above two fixes and if you don't hear from me then it's working. Good luck to you.

[rdhauser]

This has been a fun thread to scan. My Blink has started the Self Test fault cycle also. It was installed in June 2011 and I've seen the Self Test fault maybe for times. Three this month. I'm doing my process to figure out which one to replace it with, but in the process, I was told something by Blink customer service that was interesting. Over the phone, the CS rep said that while the old units weren't really supported anymore, they could send out a $59.99 repair kit to fix the problem. I asked if he knew what the kit did, he said no. I asked if he had a link or something that would allow me to check it out he said wait, I'll talk to my supervisor. He came back to say his supervisor had an email that described the kit and that she would send it to the CS rep who would then send it to me. Haven't received anything after a few hours, but if it shows up, I'll share it here.

Now the totally self serving part. I'm down to three chargers which would fit my needs

25' cord
NEMA 6-50 plug (ground up orientation)

The Blink installation, used the NEMA 6-50 receptical and a dedicated circuit. So I'd like to get the plug version of any EVSE that I buy so I don't have to do any wiring to replace the Blink unit. I've narrowed down to three choices:

ChargePoint Home 25 Electric Vehicle Charger Bundle $ 749

ClipperCreek, Inc. HCS-40P $ 589
Warranty 3 year parts and factory labor

Nissan Leaf Residential EV Charger (AeroVironment) $ 749

I'm still waiting to see the warranty for two of them, but I expect that the industry standard is three years factory parts & labor. The Nissan/Aero has an advantage in that it's what Nissan apparently recommends. Clipper Creek is inexpensive, but their plug is oriented ground down and their CS rep said that the pig tail is really short and he didn't recommend trying to twist it into a u shape. He did say, however, that I could just mount the Clipper Creek unit upside down (if I had the room) which I hadn't thought of. Charge Point is interesting to me because it can connect to the internet and works with things like the "Nest" thermometer

I"d appreciate a few observations that might give me more informative information.

[wmcbrine]

This should really be in a different thread, but...

I've narrowed down to three choices:

ChargePoint Home 25 Electric Vehicle Charger Bundle $ 749

ClipperCreek, Inc. HCS-40P $ 589
Warranty 3 year parts and factory labor

Nissan Leaf Residential EV Charger (AeroVironment) $ 749

... The Nissan/Aero has an advantage in that it's what Nissan apparently recommends.

I don't think that's a real advantage. It's just that Nissan made a deal with them to supply a Nissan-branded version. But I don't think the design has been updated in five years, and there's nothing special about it AFAICT. For the same price, the ChargePoint is much more fun.

ClipperCreek seems to be almost the benchmark for reliability, although I agree the plug situation is annoying. I'd consider getting a "hardwired" version and attaching the pigtail of your choice yourself -- it shouldn't be that difficult.

[rdhauser]

I agree, Wmcbrine, the request for recommendations probably should have been on a different thread. Perhaps this will pull it back on track:

The blink CS folks sent along an email today about what is included in the kit they sell for fixing the "self test fault".

The Residential repair kit includes;

1 cable, power, mcb to EVSE, EVSE Lvl 2
1 seal, security padlock
2 cable tie, black 8” locking
2 cable tie mount, 4 way, adhesive backed
2 ferrule, 24 AWG, uninsul
2 end cap heatshrink, 5.7 mm, blk
1 SD card, micro

This list of ingredients makes me think that they could have (perhaps did) just read through this thread. No instructions though. I'd love a PDF.

After reading this thread and particularly the summary by RickS and the video by Gonefishn' (is that right?) I think I might be capable of doing the open box fix myself. I told customer service that I'd appreciate something to let me see what I'd be getting into and they said in their email that next week (Aug 22 - 26) a repair kit tech would get in touch to answer questions for me. I'm tempted to give it a try instead of buying another EVSE.

[QueenBee]

I agree, Wmcbrine, the request for recommendations probably should have been on a different thread. Perhaps this will pull it back on track:

The blink CS folks sent along an email today about what is included in the kit they sell for fixing the "self test fault".

The Residential repair kit includes;

1 cable, power, mcb to EVSE, EVSE Lvl 2
1 seal, security padlock
2 cable tie, black 8” locking
2 cable tie mount, 4 way, adhesive backed
2 ferrule, 24 AWG, uninsul
2 end cap heatshrink, 5.7 mm, blk
1 SD card, micro

This list of ingredients makes me think that they could have (perhaps did) just read through this thread. No instructions though. I'd love a PDF.

After reading this thread and particularly the summary by RickS and the video by Gonefishn' (is that right?) I think I might be capable of doing the open box fix myself. I told customer service that I'd appreciate something to let me see what I'd be getting into and they said in their email that next week (Aug 22 - 26) a repair kit tech would get in touch to answer questions for me. I'm tempted to give it a try instead of buying another EVSE.

This sounds like the kit that techs were getting sent out with back when these were still under warranty as these aren't new problems. $60 seems like a lot but I'm sure that cable is custom and they must have been having some failures on the original designs. SD cards wear out, etc. so probably just proactively replacing those or something. Then the rest of the parts are to fix GFCI issue with a new crimp and securing things better.

[rdhauser]

Thanks, Queen Bee.

Today I got the promised the PDF and you're right, it looks like the repair kit for technicians. It has instructions and pictures (photo, not drawings). It lists symptoms and repair procedures for four specific failures: Display Flicker, Boot Failure/rapid reset, Self Test Failed, and Screen freezing. The kit, it seems, has the required elements (but not the tools) for the repairs. I've ordered the kit and asked for their recommendations for local technicians.

[QueenBee]

Thanks, Queen Bee.

Today I got the promised the PDF and you're right, it looks like the repair kit for technicians. It has instructions and pictures (photo, not drawings). It lists symptoms and repair procedures for four specific failures: Display Flicker, Boot Failure/rapid reset, Self Test Failed, and Screen freezing. The kit, it seems, has the required elements (but not the tools) for the repairs. I've ordered the kit and asked for their recommendations for local technicians.

Any chance you could post the PDF.

[rdhauser]

I'm reluctant to post the whole PDF on line since it contains this generic sort of copyright like language:

"No part of the contents of this document may be reproduced or transmitted in any
form or by any means without the express written permission of Blink Network"