2011 Not Charging. Bad diode. Aerovironment Works.

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darelldd

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 21, 2010
Messages
248
Location
Nor. Cal
OK, I've been inserting my info into two separate threads that are sort of about my same issue, but not quite. And I keep getting lost as others are discussing different issues from mine. So I'm going to start my own thread about my specific issue.

My issue:
Will not charge on EVSEs that are not made by AeroVironment.

History:
Since new, this Leaf charged on every public and private EVSE that has been encountered - including countless Clipper Creek units.
Two years ago, my wife’s work installed two GE Wattstations (http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2012/07/dead-leafs-and-ge-chargers/), and after charging on those stations for a while, we began to notice erratic charging behavior that was confined to only those Watt Stations.
About a month ago (two years after beginning to charge on the GE units), the Leaf failed to charge on our Clipper Creek CS-40 (the EVSE’s “Charge Error” LED would immediately illuminate). This is an EVSE that we have been using daily for over two years.

Two weeks after it stopped charging on the CS-40, the Leaf charged 14 times on our HCS-40, and then stopped charging (same Charge Error) on our HCS-40 as well. This is an EVSE that we had been using on and off also for over two years.

Both chargers have been checked by Clipper Creek and are confirmed to conform to the global J1772 standard, and function perfectly. Both of these units will charge our other J1772 cars, and all other Leafs that we’ve tried.

I attempted to charge our Leaf on our many local public CS-40’s (charged fine from these units for the past six years) and those EVSE's now fail to charge our Leaf. In the meantime, all other Leafs in my town charge without problem on those same public CS-40’s. (I have taken the J1772 nozzle out of a happily charging Leaf, and inserted the connector into my car. The EVSE immediately shows "Charge Fault” until I plug it back into the other Leaf, where it continues to happily charge.

The shop foreman of my local Nissan dealer found and cleared DTC B29C1 - EVSE Signal Stuck Low. Full definition here:
(https://www.manualslib.com/manual/563550/Nissan-Electric-Power-Train.html?page=103) on Aug 8, 2017. After the code was cleared, the Leaf could again charge on all HCS-40 units, but still will not charge on any CS-40. I have tried six units at home and in town. Exactly 14 charge cycles later (on an HCS-40), the Leaf will again not charge on the HCS-40 unit either. Same timing as before where the car accepted the HCS after rejecting the CS. 14 charges later, the car also rejects the HCS.

The car continues to charge on the 120V EVSE that came with it, and on any other AeroVironment EVSE that has been tried.

It has been suggested by many, that the diode on my onboard charger (OBC) has been wrecked. Chances are that it happened when connected to the GE Wattstation at some point.


A Nissan engineer (contacted in my behalf by a friend who works for Nissan), had this to say.
(The "friend" in this message is me, of course).
Some of the early GE units had an issue that damaged the OBC charging diode. It sounds like this could be what happened to your friends Leaf.
The issue was that the GE Watt Station interrupted the J1772 pilot signal during charging, then the OBC turned on the inrush protection relay and the charging diode was damaged when actual current in-rush occurred.

There was a GE WattStation software change and an OBC software update to correct this, but I’m not sure the quantity of EVSEs/vehicles that were updated.
Some EVSEs detect this damaged diode and prevent charging, others do not and charging will start.

Unfortunately, I’m not sure the best way to fix this concern for customer. It most likely needs an OBC replacement at the dealership.


Diode testing advice from user 91040
If good, in one direction it should read low resistance and in the other high resistance.

If fixable by insertion of a diode in the pilot, it will read low resistance in both directions.

If there is unlimited resistance in both directions, the onboard charger will need to be replaced unless you remove it, access a circuit board and replace the surface mount diode.

With a blown diode, you can still do L2 charging with any EVSE that does not do the diode check, i.e. the original Nissan branded AV units or an OpenEVSE with that check disabled. CHAdeMO is not affected (because, of course, the OBC is bypassed with DC charging).

J1772chargersocket-InsertArrangements.jpg



Here is a great vid on the problem, and just where that charger diode is located!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5R4dGg8nIUs


The GE Wattstation/Leaf issue:
http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2012/07/dead-leafs-and-ge-chargers/


Testing the diode from Ground pin to Pilot pin:
On Aug 27, I found:
65 kohm one way.
87 kohm the other way.

Aug 29, I found:
7.95 kohm
7.5 kohm


Instructions for replacing diode from user 91040
If I remember correctly:
1. Remove the cover over the space between the radiator and the front frame above the charge ports, which is fastened with plastic fasteners.
2. Remove the 4 bolts that hold the Jplug receiver.
3. Detach the plastic connector, which is on the orange wire harness about 8" behind the Jplug receiver. It is held by clips and may take some effort to separate.
3a. Detach black plastic connector on the black harness that connects below the charge ports.
4. Remove the Jplug receiver and wire harness from the car.
5. Remove the orange corrugated plastic cover on the wire harness.
6. Find an accessible location on the pilot wire in the harness, with space for the diode.
7. Cut the pilot wire and solder the diode in line with the band on the diode facing towards the back of the car. (I probably used shrink tubing over the diode and signal wire as well.)
8. A piece of wood alongside the diode and the wire will act as a splint to strengthen it from vibration.
9. Tape over the diode and the splint with electrician's tape, then over it and the rest of the harness.
10. Reverse the directions in #5 through #1.
Be sure to fully reseat the plastic connectors when reconnecting.


From GlennD, I learn
Any diode in the series 1N4xxx is good to use. Except for 1N4007, because it uses multiple diodes. And that's bad for some unknown-to-me reason.

The EVSE output is through a 1K resistor so the max current shorted at 12V is 12MA. That is so low that most any diode will work. You would install the diode with the bar pointing to the charger (back of the car, away from the J1772 connector).
 
So here's what I'm gonna do:

I'll use a 1N4003 that I have in stock. And I'll splice it into the pilot wire of my Clipper Creek CS-40, because it is drop-dead easy and accessible. If it works there, I'll move it into the Leaf's wiring behind the J1772 input as described above. If anybody has any more tips (will the pilot wire be obvious? Of course I'll test it for continuity to the pin, but still...) I'd love to hear them. I have high hopes, even against the weirdness of my randomly different resistance readings.
 
The EVnut website still serves its purpose in helping folks keep their Rav4EVs on the road. Including mine! Back in the day, my site was the only one to chronicle this stuff. With today's EVs (certainly like the Leaf!) there are so many more resources, that there's no way I could keep up... and honestly no need for me to do so. My advocacy continues - I'll be showing my 2002 Rav4EV at a local event this weekend in fact. I'm just no longer spending much time keeping the site updated. I look at it as a valuable historical document now!

Good to hear from you, Sage!
 
My 2011 Leaf with the same issue has had six visits to two different dealers. Still not fixed. I keep saying "it's the diode; it's a known issue", but they never respond.
 
I am sorry, though not surprised, to hear that!

I've had just the one interaction with the dealer. First thing the tech did was plug in the DC fast charger to show me that there was no problem. Yeah. And then when I mentioned that the problem is only when the OBC is engaged... and the whole diode thing... he had no idea what I was talking about, naturally. But he cleared the code, and it started to work again (which nobody understands). So he thought this was totally a DTC issue that was now fixed.

The tech contends that Nissan has its own J1772 charging protocols, and that every EVSE maker who isn't AeroVironment was not willing to follow the Nissan Way.

If what I'll try this weekend works, I'm in great shape. If this doesn't solve the problem - I need to continue down the dealership rabbit hole. Please post here if your dealership manages to turn the corner and become helpful!

In the meantime - had you ever used a GE Wattstation? (Of course not everybody pays attention to the brand of the EVSE they use! Nor should they have to!)
 
@darelldd You asked what you are doing wrong when pasting in a YouTube URL - just simply paste in the URL without using the "youtube" tag on the editor - it's useless.
 
For those of you who have been holding your breath:

The diode solution is going to work!

So far I have temporarily added the diode to the pilot wire of my Clipper Creek CS-40. The test was a success. Clearly I even managed to install it the correct way around. Now I just need to install it in the car, and I will be set.

Only other thing left after that will be to figure out what to do with the thousands of dollars I'm not going to spend on a new charger.

Pictures and more details when I can.
 
darelldd said:
For those of you who have been holding your breath:

The diode solution is going to work!

So far I have temporarily added the diode to the pilot wire of my Clipper Creek CS-40. The test was a success. Clearly I even managed to install it the correct way around. Now I just need to install it in the car, and I will be set.

Only other thing left after that will be to figure out what to do with the thousands of dollars I'm not going to spend on a new charger.

Pictures and more details when I can.

Sounds like it should be pretty simple to show the dealership. Look, no diode and it charges the new shiny leaf on your lot. No diode and my car doesn't work. Add a diode, it now works on both. One of these things is not like the other, fix the OBC Nissan...
 
2k1Toaster said:
Sounds like it should be pretty simple to show the dealership. Look, no diode and it charges the new shiny leaf on your lot. No diode and my car doesn't work. Add a diode, it now works on both. One of these things is not like the other, fix the OBC Nissan...
Ha! You're confusing this with a customer service experience that cares! My car charges - on basically ONE EVSE. The one at the dealer shop. And it charges on the little110V device that came with my car. Because it charges on the two Nissan devices (that fail to check for that diode), the dealer (and the company by the way!) claim there's nothing wrong with the car, only with the untold millions of installed EVSEs in the world that actually conform to the J1772 communication standard.

They are, of course, willing to replace my OBC at my expense if I really want to be compatible with non-Nissan-branded EVSEs.
 
170914.001-X2.jpg


Here's what I've done. The orange wire is the pilot wire from the cable assembly that terminates in the J1772 connector. The blue wire is the pilot wire from the CS-40. You see how easy this was. I just put the diode inline with that wire. Taped for insulation, and I was pretty obvious where the band was, and which way to the car. :)

Now, if installing it in the car were this easy. I mean this took me all of 30 seconds.

Works!
 
I am happy to announce that the fix is in place, and working perfectly. I'll put a few pictures together that may help others do this in the future. I'm pretty dang happy about this! The entire project took me less than half an hour, including taking pictures, dropping screws, cleaning up, and opening a cold IPA.

That half hour (and really no other expense because the diode, the shrink tube and solder that I used were all in stock here) has saved me countless trips to, and hours at the dealership, plus probably thousands of dollars for a new OBC and labor. The best news? The diode I used is well beyond the spec of the OEM part, and so should survive where the last one failed. In fact, I plan to boldly go charge on those pesky GE stations again, and see what happens.
 
darelldd said:
I am happy to announce that the fix is in place, and working perfectly.
Congratulations, Darell! I'm glad to hear you have conquered the diode issue. I'll look forward to seeing your pictures showing your fix.
 
https://darelldd.smugmug.com/Automotive/Electric-Vehicle/n-7QXrQ/Nissan-Leaf-charging/i-rcsHp8p

Some pictures with captions.
 
Wow. Awesome! You didn't even need to screw with the OBC itself.

Re: the GE Wattstations, those pesky decent looking black home units I always tell people to stay away from, as it was unclear if the issue was finally resolved, given the amount of finger pointing and ambiguity.

About a year or two ago, someone on a Leaf FB group bought a used or had an '11 or '12 Leaf and and wanted to buy a used GE Wattsation (the black pesky ones). I advised against it, esp. on an '11 and '12 Leaf, I pointed her to all the stories on the net at the time (e.g. from TTAC and EV sites), some of threads here but that woman would have none of it.

From her behavior, I could only infer that she seemed to have a mistaken idea that somehow, the car or EVSE would be updated (e.g. by magic or OTA) and that it wouldn't be a problem. She seemed to not understand the concepts of EVSE vs. charger, let alone anything about J1772. Worse yet, someone else in a reply posted some incorrect info. I asked for the source but the original poster deleted the entire thread, taking all our replies and conversation with it. :evil:

Too bad I don't think i copy and pasted any of that stuff nor took any screenshots as I didn't expect a thread to get deleted. So, I don't remember the name of that person.

I think she started another thread berated me again about the GE Wattsation, telling me to stop bringing it up, which I did. If I remembered her name, I'd at least know that I shouldn't waste my time giving her advice or chiming in, given the treatment I got.

I think I later recall a woman (possibly even the same person) on an FB group having trouble w/their black GE Wattsation. Haha.
 
darelldd said:
https://darelldd.smugmug.com/Automotive/Electric-Vehicle/n-7QXrQ/Nissan-Leaf-charging/i-rcsHp8p

Some pictures with captions.
Sweet, thanks.

Your photo #13 looks like a nice solder on the right side; I hope the final is better on the left ;-)
 
Well, you made me go look at the pics again.

The joint on the right has a bit too much solder. The joint on the left is actually higher quality. Regardless, both of them are fully bonded. Fear not. Neither of those solder joints will be the failure point!

Four charges later on the two EVSEs that would not charge the car before....All is well
 
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