Can't Charge Via Nissan EVSE (With Adapter)?

[PianoAl]

We'll be visiting our daughter soon. She has a Leaf and a Nissan EVSE. I thought I could charge through that (with the J1772 adapter), but she said that that didn't work with another friend's Tesla.

Anyone know why not?

Thanks,

Al

 

[JulienW]

Nissan uses CHAdeMO and they may have a DC charger.

EDIT: Misread and thought you were going to a dealership to charge. In all likelihood the Nissan charging station will only allow recognized Nissan's to charge.

 

[Rocky_H]

We'll be visiting our daughter soon. She has a Leaf and a Nissan EVSE. I thought I could charge through that (with the J1772 adapter), but she said that that didn't work with another friend's Tesla.

Anyone know why not?

I think I do. Boy, this is going way back into the memory banks, and I'm not having luck with searching to find the threads about it. I forget which exact years it was, maybe something like 2010 and 2011 or something? In the first couple of years of the Nissan LEAF, the little 120V charging cord it came with did not correctly comply with the J1772 specification. The timing signals were wrong somehow.

So this kind of went like the Microsoft situation. Their products did not comply with the published specifications, but they had Windows versus Office both set up to work with the "wrong" stuff, so they seemed to work perfectly together. But with some other company's Office programs, they would have problems running in Microsoft Windows according to what the published specifications were supposed to be.

I've seen a couple of threads on this. If it's one of those Leaf power cords from the first few years with the incorrect communication, it won't work on Teslas or other cars that expect the actual J1772 communication. Nissan did get that fixed in later years so their charging cords implemented the actual J1772 spec and would work on other cars.

 

[jjrandorin]

I think I do. Boy, this is going way back into the memory banks, and I'm not having luck with searching to find the threads about it. I forget which exact years it was, maybe something like 2010 and 2011 or something? In the first couple of years of the Nissan LEAF, the little 120V charging cord it came with did not correctly comply with the J1772 specification. The timing signals were wrong somehow.

So this kind of went like the Microsoft situation. Their products did not comply with the published specifications, but they had Windows versus Office both set up to work with the "wrong" stuff, so they seemed to work perfectly together. But with some other company's Office programs, they would have problems running in Microsoft Windows according to what the published specifications were supposed to be.

I've seen a couple of threads on this. If it's one of those Leaf power cords from the first few years with the incorrect communication, it won't work on Teslas or other cars that expect the actual J1772 communication. Nissan did get that fixed in later years so their charging cords implemented the actual J1772 spec and would work on other cars.

This is some OG godfather EV knowledge dropped here, man! Thanks for sharing!

 

[Rocky_H]

This is some OG godfather EV knowledge dropped here, man! Thanks for sharing!

I'm not one of the real OG owners--I consider those the 2012 and 2013 people. But I was reading the forums and collecting data during that time, so I do remember a lot of that stuff that I found interesting.

 

[davewill]

Yeah, those old Nissan EVSEs (made by Aerovironment) didn't have the negative half of the pilot signal. Most cars don't care, but some do, like Teslas. This used to cause owners problems. One of the common failures was the diode in the LEAF's charger that kept the negative half of the signal from being pulled towards GND by the car. If it was, the EVSE would assume the plug was in a puddle or something, NOT plugged into a car and refuse to energize. This would cause the car to be unable to charge at most EVSEs. However, the dealers all had these Nissan units, so the car would work when people brought it in to be fixed. The portable plug that came with the car had the same issue, so no help there. Cue a long fight to get the dealer to admit there was a problem that needed fixing.

Anyway, as I remember, most of them were hard-wired, but doing a quick image search found a smattering of them installed with a plug. If your daughter's install has a plug, you would be able to use your mobile connector with the proper adapter (probably 6-50), but I don't think it likely.

 

[Rocky_H]

Ah, @davewill to the rescue. I figured there would be some other longtimer who would remember this and have more details.

 

[miimura]

@davewill and I both have RAV4 EVs. Since they have a Tesla on-board charger, the RAV also doesn't work with the Nissan EVSEs that only modulate the pilot signal on the positive side. When the RAV was introduced in 2012, it was common for people to try to use the Nissan charging cords.

 

[rjt!]

Yeah, those old Nissan EVSEs (made by Aerovironment) didn't have the negative half of the pilot signal. Most cars don't care, but some do, like Teslas. This used to cause owners problems. One of the common failures was the diode in the LEAF's charger that kept the negative half of the signal from being pulled towards GND by the car. If it was, the EVSE would assume the plug was in a puddle or something, NOT plugged into a car and refuse to energize. This would cause the car to be unable to charge at most EVSEs. However, the dealers all had these Nissan units, so the car would work when people brought it in to be fixed. The portable plug that came with the car had the same issue, so no help there. Cue a long fight to get the dealer to admit there was a problem that needed fixing.

Anyway, as I remember, most of them were hard-wired, but doing a quick image search found a smattering of them installed with a plug. If your daughter's install has a plug, you would be able to use your mobile connector with the proper adapter (probably 6-50), but I don't think it likely.

I have that charger, dating from 2014 (my first EV was a leased Leaf, for 3 years), it worked just fine with my M3 SR+. Only did 30A but it worked. Eventually replaced it with Tesla wall charger because, well, 2 more amps and I had plans for a 3LR that could do 48A that hasn’t come to fruition Yet. So it must be the earlier ones.

 

[PianoAl]

I'm visiting my daughter, and I forgot to bring my charger adapter.

She has the EVSE for charging her Leaf (shown below). However, when I use the adapter with her J1772 plug, it fails to charge, and I get a message about a failure to communicate.

Out of luck for home charging?

Thanks.

=======================================


(moderator note: Moved this post which was a separate thread created into the thread where this question was asked previously.)

 

[Transformer]

You could buy her a JuiceBox Pro (say, at Costco). That works for our Model 3 and Leaf.

It can end charging when the car gets up to 90% (which the Leaf won't do on its own) and delay charging until the grid is on low cost green energy sources.

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

It's very generous of you to buy your daughter a new smart EVSE.

 

[cwerdna]

I'm visiting my daughter, and I forgot to bring my charger adapter.

She has the EVSE for charging her Leaf (shown below). However, when I use the adapter with her J1772 plug, it fails to charge, and I get a message about a failure to communicate.

Out of luck for home charging?

Thanks.

View attachment 659156

=======================================


(moderator note: Moved this post which was a separate thread created into the thread where this question was asked previously.)

Is the that dual voltage L1/L2 120/240 volt EVSE that ships with some '18+ Leafs? If so, it can plug into NEMA 14-50 or 5-15. If using 14-50, I guess you could bring your mobile connector with a 14-50 adapter, otherwise it's 5-15, which obviously super slow.

As for failure to communicate. Is the Model 3 awake? At work, we've found when plugging in other Tesla Model 3s into our ChargePoint CT-4000 J1772 EVSEs (which aren't our car and thus we don't have their phone as key/key card), we have to tug a door handle to wake the car either before or after for it to start charging. Otherwise, it'll just sit there. It's Tesla quirk/bug.

About the only other car I know of with such a quirk is the gen 2 Smart ForTwo ED, except we can't wake it. The driver has to go there. It's absolutely stupid.

(Pre-COVID, we had (or almost) every brand of EV and PHEV sold in the US since Dec 2010 at my work.)