CHAdeMO Make/Model Review — Using with a Tesla

[ChadS]

I agree the Aerovironment L3 units are the best. Washington and Oregon have a good number and we have really been using them.

Unfortunately I just tried my first Aerovironment CHAdeMO unit a few days ago, and didn't have such luck. Like you and Skyhawk, I tried to activate a single session by calling. But the unit I was using in Cannon Beach OR did not respond at all. I know it's not my adapter as I have used it successfully at a different brand of charger.

It is good to hear Aerovironment can work with our adapter, but I'm mystified as to why it wouldn't work for me.

 

[dirkhh]

Unfortunately I just tried my first Aerovironment CHAdeMO unit a few days ago, and didn't have such luck. Like you and Skyhawk, I tried to activate a single session by calling. But the unit I was using in Cannon Beach OR did not respond at all. I know it's not my adapter as I have used it successfully at a different brand of charger.

It is good to hear Aerovironment can work with our adapter, but I'm mystified as to why it wouldn't work for me.

Hey ChadS, I know of a local Model S owner who has charged at the Cannon Beach station - what went wrong? Did the unit show an error? Was your adapter fully connected?

 

[ChadS]

I tried connecting/disconnecting several times. I plugged the adapter in to the station cable first, then in to the car, then tried to press the Start button.

But the station would not acknowledge anybody was there doing anything. It just kept displaying the "Welcome" screen. Aerovironment tried to reboot it remotely...and I still just saw the "Welcome" screen flash repeatedly, no evidence that it rebooted.

 

[dirkhh]

Ok. That sounds more like a network problem to me...

 

[GregTexas]

I just ordered a 70D. I have a 50 AMP 240 V service already installed. Do you guys recommend I buy the CHAdeMO adapter to leave in the car and leave the charging cable that comes with the car at home?

 

[EdA]

I just ordered a 70D. I have a 50 AMP 240 V service already installed. Do you guys recommend I buy the CHAdeMO adapter to leave in the car and leave the charging cable that comes with the car at home?

For roadtrips bring all the "ammo" you have.

 

[jerry33]

I just ordered a 70D. I have a 50 AMP 240 V service already installed. Do you guys recommend I buy the CHAdeMO adapter to leave in the car and leave the charging cable that comes with the car at home?

I'd think you'd always want to take the UMC on a trip. Additional charging options are never a bad thing.

 

[Cottonwood]

I just ordered a 70D. I have a 50 AMP 240 V service already installed. Do you guys recommend I buy the CHAdeMO adapter to leave in the car and leave the charging cable that comes with the car at home?

To paraphrase EdA, for road trips, put all the arrows you can into your quiver.

I am slightly obsessive, but then again, I have been road tripping for 5 years with Teslas, and have seen a little of everything. The minimum set of arrows that I would recommend to put in your quiver are a UMC with 14-50, 5-15, and 5-20 adapters; a J1772 adapter; and a CHAdeMO adapter. My quiver also contains TT-30, 14-30, 10-50, and 10-30 adapters as well as a 50 Amp extension cord, but that is my obsessiveness coming out, carrying all of that.

$45 for the 5-20 and $450 for the CHAdeMO are cheap insurance to avoid frustration on a trip.

 

[Cosmacelf]

For any one road trip, you'll usually just use one or two adapters, but different road trips will require different adapters. Here's a selection of adapters I've used in the 2+ years I've had my car:

Destination charging on a NEMA 5-20 at a condo (with UMC).
Destination charging on a NEMA 14-50 at an RV site and at a hotel (with UMC).
Destination charging using the J1772 adapter (public charger was across the street from my hotel).
On the road charging using the Chademo adapter.

I ended up buying an extra UMC to leave in my car all the time (in addition to the adapters, get all of them). In hindsight, I would have bought dual chargers and installed an HPWC, and then left the supplied UMC in the car. There have been about three times in the last 2 years where I could have used the quicker daytime HPWC charge. At any rate, having a UMC always in the car is peace of mind for me. I'm forgetful enough, I don't need to get to my destination and realize I have no UMC...

 

[cgiGuy]

So when you use a Nissan charger, the first thing to do is to going behind the charger and clean the bottom air inlet. If this is full of dirt, the charger will overheat in about 10-15 minutes. Once I cleaned the filters I was always able to charger until battery was full.

I want to thank you for posting this information. I'm sitting at Rouses in New Orleans and the Nissan charger here was overheating until I removed the filter. Tried cleaning it, but because it was so filthy and it's been raining the humidity has basically made it muddy. So I let the manager know that it needed service and then I removed the filter and was able to charge up the rest of the way.

 

[cwerdna]

I want to thank you for posting this information. I'm sitting at Rouses in New Orleans and the Nissan charger here was overheating until I removed the filter. Tried cleaning it, but because it was so filthy and it's been raining the humidity has basically made it muddy. So I let the manager know that it needed service and then I removed the filter and was able to charge up the rest of the way.

Please see CHAdeMO adapter wait frustration - Page 49 re: the filter cleaning guide and ALSO my caution there.

Prior to knowledge of this guide, in the SF Bay Area, some of our Nissan-branded CHAdeMO DC FCs were overheating on non-hot days (e.g. below 80 F) and IIRC would show such an error upon arrival. Power cycling and trying again would result in overheating in even less than 10 mins, charging Leafs.

Nissan Quick Charger - CHAdeMO DC Fast Charging for Electric Vehicles REQUIRE periodic filter servicing of its FIVE filters.

 

[SarahsDad]

I found there are 4 different "strengths" of Eaton CHAdeMO chargers, all of which look identical from the outside: 20kW, 30kW, 40kW, and 50kW. These are fairly common in this area. If you look above the handle rack, the rated output will be listed in Amps. I've seen 75A (30kW) and 100A (40kW). I've added the 125A version from the online manual but haven't seen that one "in the wild".

From the Eaton Manual: "The 50 kW charger housing consists of five individual 10 kW power drawers, giving the flexibility to offer a 20 kW, 30 kW, 40 kW, or 50 kW configuration."

Good idea to check as it definitely changes your charge time.

 

[ThosEM]

Just did my first charge with eVGO CHAdeMO charger at Tanger Outlets in Queenstown, MD, along MD 50 east of the Bay Bridge. Hookup took a few minutes to figure out without reading the directions posted on the station ;=). The CHAdeMO connector is big, clunky, and has multiple mechanical interlocks to be manipulated. Worked fine once I got through that.

I arrived with 80%, charged for the standard 30 minutes (more below), and left with 97% (about 12.9 kWh, I estimate). Initial power was almost 40 KW; average power was about 25.8 kW at a pretty high state of charge. I just wanted to get familiarized with the equipment and went on to use the Salisbury SC later in the day.

I was initially flustered at the news that a 30 min limit would apply, so I called customer service and they told me they do that to prevent one party from monopolizing the charger. It's no problem to just do another 30 minutes if no one else is waiting for the charger, by tapping the card again. I imagine the rate of charge would have been significantly higher had my SOC been lower, but can test that another time, now that I have confidence in the system.

Can't resist posting the sign stating that the nearby Level 2 charger only delivers 3.3 kW/hr and will be replaced. LOL; I guess the kWh is a unit of measure that troubles even the experts. Maybe we should switch to megaJoules (1 kWh = 3.6 MJ, so a Tesla MS battery holds 306 MJ of which perhaps 270 MJ is useful. 1 gal of gasoline has about 120 MJ.

 

[Cottonwood]

I drove to Longmont to try out the CHAdeMO there at the Longmont Museum, Longmont Museum | Longmont, CO | Electric Car Charging Station | PlugShare

It is a Efacec QC50 Efacec QC50 Brochure managed by EV Connect. I drove there figuring that with an iPhone and a credit card, I should be able to charge. Wrong!

I tried to download the App onto the iPhone; that worked, but I was unable to register because of a broken App GUI. Next I tried to call the number on the box; that failed after their credit card interface refused to accept Boulder, CO as a valid city, state pair. Finally, I tried to create an account using the Tesla Web Browser. That failed... After about 30 minutes, I drove home with no extra Joules in the battery. I went home, used my computer, created an account, verified that I could log in with the App.

Today, I went to try again. After 3 failures to connect the adapter to the charger and the car, I got through the iconish instructions and charging started without problem. The charging current ramped up to 125 Amps, then settled down to 114 Amps, but after a while charged at 122 to 125 Amps until it hit the taper limit at about 75% SoC. After 55 minutes, I added 42 kWh at a total session cost of $3. After all the frustration of getting the charge going, I think that I could make all this work easily. It very much proves that it is important to try things out before you really need them.

The most interesting part of the equipment was that the unit was built in November 2011. That is ancient in the world of DC Fast Chargers. The second surprise is that a 50 kW CHAdeMO was as big as a 135 kW Supercharger Cabinet.

 

[SarahsDad]

First experience with a Greenlots / Brightfield CHAdeMO charger. I scanned the QR code with the Greenlots app and it started charging, $1 minimum then $0.20/min ($12/hr) thereafter. I saw 147MPH with 385V@116A, around 45kW. But not before a few false starts. Got a "Remote Start Request Rejected" error, then "Alarm Occur, Emergency Stop" error. Turns out the emergency stop button had been pushed in - I gave it a quarter-turn and it popped out. Charging went fine thereafter.

Brightfield DC Fast Charging Stations | Brightfield Transportation Solutions

SKY Network - Greenlots

 

[miimura]

I drove to Longmont to try out the CHAdeMO there at the Longmont Museum, Longmont Museum | Longmont, CO | Electric Car Charging Station | PlugShare

It is a Efacec QC50 Efacec QC50 Brochure managed by EV Connect. I drove there figuring that with an iPhone and a credit card, I should be able to charge. Wrong!

I tried to download the App onto the iPhone; that worked, but I was unable to register because of a broken App GUI. Next I tried to call the number on the box; that failed after their credit card interface refused to accept Boulder, CO as a valid city, state pair. Finally, I tried to create an account using the Tesla Web Browser. That failed... After about 30 minutes, I drove home with no extra Joules in the battery. I went home, used my computer, created an account, verified that I could log in with the App.

Today, I went to try again. After 3 failures to connect the adapter to the charger and the car, I got through the iconish instructions and charging started without problem. The charging current ramped up to 125 Amps, then settled down to 114 Amps, but after a while charged at 122 to 125 Amps until it hit the taper limit at about 75% SoC. After 55 minutes, I added 42 kWh at a total session cost of $3. After all the frustration of getting the charge going, I think that I could make all this work easily. It very much proves that it is important to try things out before you really need them.

The most interesting part of the equipment was that the unit was built in November 2011. That is ancient in the world of DC Fast Chargers. The second surprise is that a 50 kW CHAdeMO was as big as a 135 kW Supercharger Cabinet.

View attachment 77814

Equally surprising is the fact that they elected to install the version with the remote pedestal instead of the one that has the front panel and holsters integrated on the main cabinet. Seems silly when they're right next to each other. Both versions are pictured in the brochure you linked to.

 

[RiverBrick]

Equally surprising is the fact that they elected to install the version with the remote pedestal instead of the one that has the front panel and holsters integrated on the main cabinet. Seems silly when they're right next to each other. Both versions are pictured in the brochure you linked to.

The hardware was probably donated with the host having no say or expertise and the donor pre-selecting a solution without regards to the final setup.

 

[cwerdna]

After 55 minutes, I added 42 kWh at a total session cost of $3.

That's quite cheap! I can't even charge at home for even half that. If I start hitting higher rate tiers on PG&E, my marginal cost to charge hits many times that cost.

For those using the CHAdeMO adapter in the US/Canada, would probably be a good idea to include a Plugshare link.

For instance, I'm guessing that CHAdeMO Make/Model Review — Using with a Tesla - Page 4 was from PlugShare - EV Charging Station Map - Find a place to charge your car!. I've charged my Leaf using that CHAdeMO DC FC a few times before.

 

[Cottonwood]

I drove to Longmont to try out the CHAdeMO there at the Longmont Museum, Longmont Museum | Longmont, CO | Electric Car Charging Station | PlugShare

It is a Efacec QC50 Efacec QC50 Brochure managed by EV Connect. I drove there figuring that with an iPhone and a credit card, I should be able to charge. Wrong!

...

Today, I went to try again. After 3 failures to connect the adapter to the charger and the car, I got through the iconish instructions and charging started without problem. ...


View attachment 77808

What i did not explain well is how frustrating the non-intuitive method of connecting this CHAdeMO connector combined with the instructions written in Iconish with no supportive words was. I finally studied the diagram above, and figured out that you have to push the CHAdeMO connector in, then squeeze the large, lower level.

Is this a CHAdeMO thing to put all the instructions in Iconish? Tesla did that also with their CHAdeMO instructions. :frown:

 

[Cosmacelf]

Yes, that chademo connector with the lever also threw me for a loop the first time I had to use one. Talk about counter intuitive and hard to use. Many people seem to have problems with that kind of connector. Unfortunately there seems to be many different kinds of Chademo connectors, all requiring a different set of gymnastics and button presses.

And people wonder why Tesla developed their own standard!