Hi folks
On Saturday I drove 400kms to a small village way away from "civilization". We stopped on the way to get a 32A boost during lunch but arrived with about 50kms of charge left.
I had checked the charging at the destination and it looked good, but until you connect the Roadster you never can be sure. So I wired the 32A connector up as I had done many times before and started charging. Things looked good (blue, then blue flashing) but then I got a Red. This normally means
1) the earth connection isn't good, or
2) live and neutral are switched (often happens!).
I checked 1 and tried switching the poles to investigate 2. No joy.
I then tried other phases, but in the process got neutral and a phase mixed and put 380V into the cable briefly. The cable controller made its characteristic clunk of a relay tripping and shut down. From then on regardless of the connection the cable was dead.
By this time the Roadster indicated just 8% charge (don't know what happened to my 50kms of range which is more like 12% or more) and I realised just how much out on a limb I was....
* My one charging cable was broken and I was 400km from the 13A cable back home.
* The Roadster was nearly out of charge and was using power to keep the battery cool (it was hot then)
* I was due to give a talk and show the car the next day (visions of a Top Gear -like scene of pushing the Roadster haunted me!)
After a sleepless night the car seemed to stabilize at 8% charge and I drove it to and from the talk/showing no problem. I then jumped in another car and did the round-trip to get the cable that afternoon. That night, after 24h at 8% the car charged fine at 13A (slow but steady).
The moral?
Don't experiment with 3 phase power on your only power cable when you are a long way from home and low on charge.
That said, I didn't think the charge cable and controller were that "delicate". Ok, if you stick 380V into me it might break something too , but over-voltage is not that rare, wrongly wired sockets exist and for such things to "kill" the cable seem to be a major weakness. What would you do on your next trip if your cable died just when you needed to charge? This seems to be a weak link.
From now on I am going to carry the 13A cable as well as the 32A cable. Belt and braces as they say back home!
Now, if anyone has any advice as to how to fix the 32A cablel, how to open the control box, how to re-arm any breaker that there may be, etc. I, and perhaps others, would very much appreciate reading it.
Many thanks everyone.
On Saturday I drove 400kms to a small village way away from "civilization". We stopped on the way to get a 32A boost during lunch but arrived with about 50kms of charge left.
I had checked the charging at the destination and it looked good, but until you connect the Roadster you never can be sure. So I wired the 32A connector up as I had done many times before and started charging. Things looked good (blue, then blue flashing) but then I got a Red. This normally means
1) the earth connection isn't good, or
2) live and neutral are switched (often happens!).
I checked 1 and tried switching the poles to investigate 2. No joy.
I then tried other phases, but in the process got neutral and a phase mixed and put 380V into the cable briefly. The cable controller made its characteristic clunk of a relay tripping and shut down. From then on regardless of the connection the cable was dead.
By this time the Roadster indicated just 8% charge (don't know what happened to my 50kms of range which is more like 12% or more) and I realised just how much out on a limb I was....
* My one charging cable was broken and I was 400km from the 13A cable back home.
* The Roadster was nearly out of charge and was using power to keep the battery cool (it was hot then)
* I was due to give a talk and show the car the next day (visions of a Top Gear -like scene of pushing the Roadster haunted me!)
After a sleepless night the car seemed to stabilize at 8% charge and I drove it to and from the talk/showing no problem. I then jumped in another car and did the round-trip to get the cable that afternoon. That night, after 24h at 8% the car charged fine at 13A (slow but steady).
The moral?
Don't experiment with 3 phase power on your only power cable when you are a long way from home and low on charge.
That said, I didn't think the charge cable and controller were that "delicate". Ok, if you stick 380V into me it might break something too , but over-voltage is not that rare, wrongly wired sockets exist and for such things to "kill" the cable seem to be a major weakness. What would you do on your next trip if your cable died just when you needed to charge? This seems to be a weak link.
From now on I am going to carry the 13A cable as well as the 32A cable. Belt and braces as they say back home!
Now, if anyone has any advice as to how to fix the 32A cablel, how to open the control box, how to re-arm any breaker that there may be, etc. I, and perhaps others, would very much appreciate reading it.
Many thanks everyone.