AJ is the tech who has been working on my car. I suspect that Tysons is serving as the tip of the spear for the factory, in terms of dealing with customer issues on these new plug ins. At least that's how it *feels* from my perspective.

Initially, the "interrupt" messages were being blamed on my utility service. But I think we're past that now, due to the fact that the messages were occurring at a fixed length of time after the charge cycle was initiated.

 

Car goes in tomorrow for further "updates."

There is new software release for the onboard charger. And my car will also be receiving a new charge port and associated onboard wiring.

I spoke with the PCNA field rep last week. He told me that the parts which were to be installed on my car a few weeks ago were "B" series (first revision) and that the factory pulled back on that authorization because "C" series (2nd revision) were about to enter the pipeline.

I have still not experienced any display flicker on the EVSE following its software update. Nor have I received any "charge interrupted externally" messages on the PCC.

I did offer a number of suggestions to the field tech on my call. I also followed up with a stack of information concerning public charge station etiquette, which the PSeH may violate (by virtue of the charge port pin). Interestingly, California has even tried to codify this etiquette. I see this as an emerging, yet potentially significant issue, which auto manufacturers will have to address.

 

The flickering is gone but interestingly sometimes the charging station will lock up oif it is not connected. I cant seem to be able to use the touchbuttons to set PIN etc.

 

That's good to hear! I gather then that you're still charging the car, then? Are you parking it where it won't block anything if you experience sticking again, or are you relying on the "whittle a stick" method if it happens again?

By the way, thinking about my earlier posts, I hope you didn't see them as a criticism. It was more diagnosis, "so that's why I'm not experiencing it despite colder weather."

I agree that Porsche really needs to re-think locking the cable, for exactly the reasons you state. The security feature seems nice enough on the surface, but in practice it's a rare situation. Charging at home is most common, followed by charging at a public station where the cable cannot be stolen, and locking the cable bad manners. Charging using an EVSE that can be stolen in public is unusual.

It's usually when someone's improvising. For example, I remember reading one BMW i3 owner talking about his experiences on the road, using what outlets he could find, and 220v dryer outlets when he could. His problem wasn't so much worrying about the EVSE so much as people unplugging the car at the outlet. Either because hotel management didn't like him charging his car, or because they wanted to use the dryer.

 

so i got bored at work and decided to build a 2015 ( just for fun)

i noticed there was an option for a 7.2 onboard charger..

i can't imagine there being that big of a change between the 2014 and the 2015 I wonder if this can be retrofitted.

 

I was correct, they didn't have any idea how to update the EVSE. I explained it in detail, told them that they should contact Porsche of Tyson's corner, and they still didn't do it. Instead they wanted to leave the car on their charger overnight to see if their charger would blink.

Ah, well. The blinking EVSE display is very infrequent for me, and doesn't seem to prevent charging. Or maybe it does, and I just haven't experienced it because the car was charged before the blinking started.

 

Absolutely idiotic.

And Porsche thinks they're going to be able to sell (and support?) an all-electric car? LOL

 

Their reasoning was that it might not be the EVSE, it could be the car's onboard charger. Since the EVSE is largely controlled by the on-board charger, and they just replaced that as part of a service bulletin. I can imagine a situation where a charging controller problem would produce the EVSE rebooting issue, where (for example) the car keeps resetting the handshaking due to a software fault in car, rather than the EVSE.

Still, in their shoes, if there's a problem that's visible on the EVSE side, I'd be inclined to look their first. My first thought would be a problem with the EVSE's internal power supply, the one driving the EVSE's embedded computer.

 

For what it's worth mine was the EVSE since only that had it's firmware update. Have not had the blinking issue since then. Also on my last oil change visit, they had some other software updated too on the electrical system. Maybe its the placebo effect but the vehicle seems to stay in electric mode much longer when in "mixed hybrid/electric/gasoline mode".

 

I tend to agree that since the last update (not related to the EVSE) the car operates more effectively (for lack of a better word).

Perhaps they smoothed out some of the logic related to the charge/coast/regen modes.
.

 

Funny timing. Earlier this week, my PSeH failed to fully charge on a public charging station. It's a station I use regularly, so I I chalked it up to perhaps someone messing with the charge handle. I didn't receive a message on my PCC.

Then last night at my home charger, PCC sends me the dreaded "Charging Interrupted" message, and I find my car sitting there without any juice going to it, despite the handle with good connection and the household circuit being energized. The EVSE appeared to be locked up as I couldn't use the buttons on the unit to wake it. I cycled the wall plug, and it booted up fine and resumed charging.

I suspect there's a service visit in the near future me.