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Keep your 110V UMC adapter handy - charging oddity after power outage

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ORB

Member
Jun 22, 2012
161
60
Had a power outage early this AM during overnight charging, and I need to leave before the power came back on. I had enough accumulated range by that point, but I noticed that I couldn't unplug the charger cable from the charge port because the button on the UMC handle wouldn't release the electrical interlock (the UMC evidently needs AC mains power for this function to work). Pressing the "open charge port" icon on the touchscreen had no effect.

So I unplugged the UMC from my 220V outlet and used an extension cord to temporarily plug it into an AC outlet on my computer's UPS (which was running on its gel cell of course). The UMC displayed a red error indication because the UPS inverter output was not suitable for charging, but all I needed was temporary availability of 110V to unlock the charging port, which worked fine and I was on my way.

Just something to be aware of, this situation doesn't occur very often. Didn't see this topic covered in my forum searches, but apologize if I missed it.
 
Had a power outage early this AM during overnight charging, and I need to leave before the power came back on. I had enough accumulated range by that point, but I noticed that I couldn't unplug the charger cable from the charge port because the button on the UMC handle wouldn't release the electrical interlock (the UMC evidently needs AC mains power for this function to work). Pressing the "open charge port" icon on the touchscreen had no effect.

So I unplugged the UMC from my 220V outlet and used an extension cord to temporarily plug it into an AC outlet on my computer's UPS (which was running on its gel cell of course). The UMC displayed a red error indication because the UPS inverter output was not suitable for charging, but all I needed was temporary availability of 110V to unlock the charging port, which worked fine and I was on my way.

Just something to be aware of, this situation doesn't occur very often. Didn't see this topic covered in my forum searches, but apologize if I missed it.

May have fried the UMC or damaged it somehow. When the UMC is plugged into the vehicle, it will still release when pressing the button. The button will NOT work when the UMC is not plugged into car or ac outlet. But once again, when Plugged into the CAR, it WILL release. If not may be either faulty UMC, or UMC may have been damaged somehow during the power outage.

And before anyone goes saying that I'm wrong. I have just gone out to my car to test this before posting to confirm that I am correct.

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Had a power outage early this AM during overnight charging, and I need to leave before the power came back on. I had enough accumulated range by that point, but I noticed that I couldn't unplug the charger cable from the charge port because the button on the UMC handle wouldn't release the electrical interlock (the UMC evidently needs AC mains power for this function to work). Pressing the "open charge port" icon on the touchscreen had no effect.

So I unplugged the UMC from my 220V outlet and used an extension cord to temporarily plug it into an AC outlet on my computer's UPS (which was running on its gel cell of course). The UMC displayed a red error indication because the UPS inverter output was not suitable for charging, but all I needed was temporary availability of 110V to unlock the charging port, which worked fine and I was on my way.

Just something to be aware of, this situation doesn't occur very often. Didn't see this topic covered in my forum searches, but apologize if I missed it.


Almost forgot, if you were still having trouble, you didn't need 120v or extension cord. You can just hit the "Unlock Charge Port" button on the Charging menu on the center screen.
 
One possibility....I have noticed that if you pull a little bit aggressively to remove UMC from port while it is not unlocked, you can somehow put the plug in a bind that seems to keep the lock pin from releasing. In my experiance, if you push plug back in to reseat it, then hit unlock, it will release.
 
It is possible that your car didn't recognize the cord was plugged in fully. The box on the charging screen will read "unlock charge port" if the UMC is plugged in, with or without power. We have this frequently at car shows where I don't have power but leave the UMC plugged in to ensure someone in the car + me with FOB nearby != someone driving it.

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he clearly states he did exactly that, and it didn't work.

Actually, he said that he had hit "open charge port"... which signals that perhaps his car doesn't see the port status correctly.
 
Interesting responses. I replicated this event this morning after charging again last night by unplugging the UMC from its wall outlet and checking the charging screen. On the touchscreen, the button in question still read: "Open Charge Port" (not "unlock"), even after I tried reseating the UMC connector within the car's charging inlet (plugging the UMC plug back into the AC outlet allowed me to remove it).

On rare occasions after charging I have to fiddle with the UMC and/or its pushbutton to get the UMC to release. I'll have the SC look at the mechanism next time I bring it in.

Thanks!
 
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Just now did this test again, turns out that pressing the "Charge Port" button in the lower left corner of the screen DOES unlock the charge port even if there is no AC power to the charger. Good to get this cleared up now in case this happens to me at a RV outlet somewhere.