Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Again again

So I am going to find all the blog entries I can and try to get more opinions. I am having charging problems again.....

New charger, new cable....

Arrive home 10pm, immediately plug in wall charger...
3 blinks on the dash, 4th blink, I can hear the PEU click off from the engine bay

Disconnect, wait 5 secs, reconnect......
1 blink, red light on the charging unit

Disconnect, take out the trash, come back (lets call it 2-3 mins), plug in the wall charger
20 blinks, I'm home free....

This is the worst case since the wall charger was replaced, but I have had at least one other day where 4 blinks, the PEU clicks off, but the disconnect, reconnect worked straight away that time.


IDEAS????

4 comments:

  1. Hi Michael - what is the AMP service to your house? 100, 150 or 200? I'm just wondering if that could play a part. When I was on the 110 and had mucho stuff on it was not good (I have 200 to the house) since the 110 shares a circuit. So far on the 220 I'm good even with other major appliances running. Good luck and hope we see you this Sunday to discuss further.

    Chris #402

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  2. Hey, Mike. Last week's Mini-E "Plugged In" might offer a clue . . .seems the charger is very sensitive to transient house-voltange fluctuations. If you're in an older house or even an older neighborhood, there may not be a whole lot you can do about it.

    I guess maybe one thing to try is when you plug it in and get the charging fault - leave it alone and plugged in and see if, like the article says, the system really does re-check and reset itself later . . .

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  3. Mike, I was having problems similar to this in the summer on really hot days when there was a high electric demand. The box was tripping and going into protection mode (red light) but then starting back up 5 minutes later. A couple times it just kept tripping and wouldn't charge at all. I found that I could charge 110v during that time because it uses so much less electric. I wonder if you are experiencing some sort of power supply issue. The rest of your appliances that are 220 probably wouldn't be affected at all either because they are not as sensitive. Just a theory..

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  4. I got the trip and the red light a couple times. Don't tell anybody but I opened up the Clipper Creek box to read the diagnostic lights and the Ground Fault light was lit. So phooey on the wiring theory.

    I am thinking there is a moisture problem or something in the car somewhere. I checked voltage the last time this happened (not the red light but the car stopped blinking) and both legs were over 125 volts, so I don't buy the voltage theory.

    AC Propulsion has an issue and no matter what is causing it, they need to figure out some way to indicate what is going on. Light up something on the dash, whatever. Maybe I will start leaving the key in when I start charging...

    That said, these are pretty typical prototype issues. I have had less trouble with it lately, which might fit the moisture hypothesis if it is drying out. And even when it was really bad, it would always work on the 120 volt box. Then after 15 minutes I could always switch back to 240 volts. So I say it must be the car, not your wiring or any other "blame the victim" stuff.

    But unless I can figure out how to consistently reproduce it, I don't know how to help Mini fix it!

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