Official EV Project / Ecotality / free charger thread

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linkim said:
DeaneG said:
Lucky that things are coming in the correct order. It looks like I'll have my Leaf within a week, but have not had any contact yet with the Blink Network's electrical contractor. So I'm expecting to be on L1 charging for a while.

Did you get an email 7 days prior to delivery, as I keep hearing? I am also waiting for both the LEAF and Blink install. Have not heard from an electrical contractor either, but my delivery date is now about mid April.

Yes, just this morning. My DB shows "week of March 28", but the email would have the car arriving by the 25th.
 
We had our Blink installed last Thursday and it was apparently the first one the contractors that came used, so they brought five guys along to watch.

Installation took about an hour and a half, the guys were great, and the charger is very nice so far. Our delivery isn't scheduled until April 7th, so we'll see.

The contractors mentioned that we were the first because others in the area had not filled out their information forms (what kind of power, age of the house, location, etc.) correctly. Hurray! I should put my apparently incredible ability to fill out a form on my resume. ;)
 
So I just got off the phone with my electrical contractor who asked whether I'd mind charging my Leaf via Level 1 for awhile...the reason being that my EVSE install (EV Project) is behind schedule and I just got my 7-day delivery email.

Any other EV Project participants get their car before their EVSE? If not, I may be on-track to be the first. Can't decide whether I'll just let it sit at the dealer or whether I'll pick it up early if that happens...
 
Yep. I got my car on the 3rd and my charger did not go in until the 8th.


sdbonez said:
Any other EV Project participants get their car before their EVSE? If not, I may be on-track to be the first. Can't decide whether I'll just let it sit at the dealer or whether I'll pick it up early if that happens...
 
sdbonez said:
So I just got off the phone with my electrical contractor who asked whether I'd mind charging my Leaf via Level 1 for awhile...the reason being that my EVSE install (EV Project) is behind schedule and I just got my 7-day delivery email.

Any other EV Project participants get their car before their EVSE? If not, I may be on-track to be the first. Can't decide whether I'll just let it sit at the dealer or whether I'll pick it up early if that happens...

Well, this is not encouraging. I have an April 15 delivery and haven't heard a word since the approval in January.
 
jcesare said:
Well, this is not encouraging. I have an April 15 delivery and haven't heard a word since the approval in January.
I have a April 29th delivery, was approved in January and just heard today that my install will be done next Monday, 3/28.

So, don't give up hope...
 
jcesare said:
sdbonez said:
So I just got off the phone with my electrical contractor who asked whether I'd mind charging my Leaf via Level 1 for awhile...the reason being that my EVSE install (EV Project) is behind schedule and I just got my 7-day delivery email.

Any other EV Project participants get their car before their EVSE? If not, I may be on-track to be the first. Can't decide whether I'll just let it sit at the dealer or whether I'll pick it up early if that happens...

Well, this is not encouraging. I have an April 15 delivery and haven't heard a word since the approval in January.

I've got more bad news for you, jcesare - the main reason for the delay appears to be the City of San Marcos not being familiar with the permitting process for EVSEs. They're going to try and pull the permit for a 2nd time on Friday. They claimed I was the first.

(though separately, woot! someone else in San Marcos, finally!!) :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:
 
sdbonez said:
jcesare said:
sdbonez said:
So I just got off the phone with my electrical contractor who asked whether I'd mind charging my Leaf via Level 1 for awhile...the reason being that my EVSE install (EV Project) is behind schedule and I just got my 7-day delivery email.

Any other EV Project participants get their car before their EVSE? If not, I may be on-track to be the first. Can't decide whether I'll just let it sit at the dealer or whether I'll pick it up early if that happens...

Well, this is not encouraging. I have an April 15 delivery and haven't heard a word since the approval in January.

I've got more bad news for you, jcesare - the main reason for the delay appears to be the City of San Marcos not being familiar with the permitting process for EVSEs. They're going to try and pull the permit for a 2nd time on Friday. They claimed I was the first.

(though separately, woot! someone else in San Marcos, finally!!) :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:
I think this really depends on the sub contractor Ecotality selects. In addition it really depends on your local Ecotality rep on how responsive they are to Nissan's DB. Appears like the Oregon rep is on top of it. San Diego not so much.

Overall if Ecotality can't get this right how are they going to get all these public L2 EVSEs right...

Ecotality--if you're watching this forum, why don't you respond and update us with your plans. Your plans seem lofty considering we haven't seen any public Ecotality EVSE installations across the US.
 
I suspect there's another aspect to note here, to be fair. Nissan said deliveries would spread out over a year. Then they were late. So probably 1/3 to 1/2 are getting dumped in a 3 month period... after the earthquake, i bet the same/similar happens in a few months.

In a nutshell, Ecotality's probably having to deal with ~double their planned volume. They've at least been very responsive which is more than I can say for a lot of the folks I deal with...
 
sdbonez said:
I've got more bad news for you, jcesare - the main reason for the delay appears to be the City of San Marcos not being familiar with the permitting process for EVSEs. They're going to try and pull the permit for a 2nd time on Friday. They claimed I was the first.

Why doesn't this surprise me? :roll:
 
I had my blink EVSE installation this morning by Sunwest Electric of Anaheim. It was a 2 man team and the installation took about 90 minutes. Their were very efficient and professional. The blink was installed adjacent to my electrical panel. Power to the house was shut off for about 20 minutes during the install. After testing the EVSE with their "EV in a box," they had trouble with the network connection. After 20 minutes of troubleshooting and even trying a HomePlug PowerLine LAN unit, it was resolved by unplugging the blink. My advice to avoid this problem is to disconnect power to the EVSE after testing with the "EV in a box," reconnect, reboot, and then enter your network settings. (I have a feeling I'll be having network issues with the blink in the future.) Overall, it took them about 2 hours for the whole process for a very simple install.
 
jcesare said:
sdbonez said:
I've got more bad news for you, jcesare - the main reason for the delay appears to be the City of San Marcos not being familiar with the permitting process for EVSEs. They're going to try and pull the permit for a 2nd time on Friday. They claimed I was the first.

Why doesn't this surprise me? :roll:

I've pulled several owner/builder permits myself with the City of San Marcos over the years... has always been fairly painless in-person but they have been strict about a few things. I think Sunwest's biggest issue has been in trying to deal with them over the phone vs. in-person.
 
Had my (Seattle area) Blink installed today by Prime Electric (contractor) for Ecotality.

The guys were AHEAD of schedule, and showed up early after a phone call. Were done in ~90 minutes and then we tried the set up. Like a lot of people, it took 5-6 tries with my home wireless network before it worked, but it did connect. When they left, the unplugged the unit and pulled the breaker until I have the electrical inspection done.

I plugged it back in and when I went back several minutes later, it had hooked itself back up with the wireless...so I'm hopeful it won't be too buggy.

My leaf doesn't show up until the end of April. Will provide feedback online then about how it actually works.
 
So I had never heard from the EV project after I sent in the application and then my DB said I was not approved for a free charger. I ordered the SL-QC that has the deliver date of the week of April 14. I went ahead on Tuesday of this week and I scheduled AVS to install their unit at the end part of this coming week and gave them my credit card number.
They had quoted me at $2800 (I had a private electrician quote me at 1800 without the charger or permits so it was close enough). As I thought I had a complicated install- 75 feet of run in the crawl space under the house and then up into the garage, I thought I was out of luck with the EV project. However, I just got a call this morning saying they are sending an electrician out to asses and a write up an install plan for the grant. The operator indicated that it would be approved and anything over the $1200 of grant money I would have to pay out-of-pocket. I was able to schedule for the electrician to come out Tuesday morning.

Any thoughts on how I should proceed based on everyones exp? Has anyone else been in similar circumstances. I am in LA.
 
sdbonez said:
jcesare said:
sdbonez said:
I've got more bad news for you, jcesare - the main reason for the delay appears to be the City of San Marcos not being familiar with the permitting process for EVSEs. They're going to try and pull the permit for a 2nd time on Friday. They claimed I was the first.

Why doesn't this surprise me? :roll:

I've pulled several owner/builder permits myself with the City of San Marcos over the years... has always been fairly painless in-person but they have been strict about a few things. I think Sunwest's biggest issue has been in trying to deal with them over the phone vs. in-person.

Sunwest called yesterday. My install is scheduled for 4/6. FINALLY! :D
 
Posted information about a successful Dual Blink Installation in SF Bay Area

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=3134
 
Caution:
If Nissan is re-assiging some LEAFs to their "real" owners during the next week or so, we MIGHT see some substantial changes in deliveries, in particular to those with their Order dates in 2011.

No, no special inside information, but apparently some LEAFs did not get properly assigned to some (maybe many?) Q4 2010 Orders and might need to be re-assigned properly.

Nissan USA has said that they will "fix" the "Overlooked Orders" problem.
 
My EV Project Blink was installed today by Prime Electric. Smooth, great-looking job by two professionals who took the time to update my Blink's firmware this morning, over Ethernet, before coming to the house. Zero networking config issues. Just need a visit from my friendly electrical inspector and I'm ready for my car.
 
We had our Clipper Creek swapped out for the Blink two weeks ago. With all the WiFi problems I've been reading about here on the forum I just ran a LAN cable to the charger. It's worked fine from day one, though we don't ask much from it. It is set up to be as dumb as the Clipper Creek since the car does all the thinking.

-u
 
Our Blink was installed 9 days ago (although the installers did not have the "Car in a Box Tester" with them), LEAF arrived 3 days ago.

Blink connected into our WiFi network first time and was rock solid for queries and reviewing settings.

Partially charged the car three times since Friday, with the Blink starting a charge immediately upon connection (no timers).

Today I asked the installers to bring the "Car in a Box Tester" by to test our Blink. Oops.

After the tech performed the tests (twice, in about two minutes), the Blink lost WiFi connectivity, and when I went to the garage to fiddle with it the screen locked up. Darn! First hiccup since install.

I "pulled the plug" on the Blink, plugged it back in after about 10 seconds. Plugged the J1772 into the car, heard the relay engage (and confirmed that charging started), but the screen locked up asking for my PIN and still no WiFi. Ack!

Called the Blink contact center (1-888-998-2545) and after confirming that I had the latest firmware (L2R.1.2A), they started a trouble ticket.

Then I unplugged the Blink and left to walk the dog. Plugged the Blink back in 15 minutes later and was then prompted for the full setup routine (calibrating the screen, selecting DHCP, etc.).

Yay! WiFi kicked in and charging was normal.

I even had a "Charging Suspended by Utility" event around 6:30pm which stopped the charge for about 20 minutes (displaying a BRIGHT RED message on the Blink screen and web browser) and then re-engaged exactly at the time specified (we're served by PG&E). Perhaps this was the Blink techs "exercising/testing" my Blink?

Anyway, I called the Blink contact center to say that I had a functional Blink again - they are very polite and I think they really know what they are doing.

Of course, I guess the Blink is a bit "delicate" if the "Car in a Box" device can put it into a zapped state. :roll:
 
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