CHAdeMO adapter wait frustration

[fredag]

Do other cars w/ CHAdeMO, such as the Leaf and i3, also have these issues?

The Kia Soul EV was lauched in Norway recently. When a Kia Soul charge on multiple types of chademo charging stations, the charging stations crash and stop working for days or weeks. Signal wires on the ABB Terra 53 charging stations has reportedly been fried. This has created quite a lot of difficulties for Norwegian EV owners who rely on the fast-charging infrastructure to get around.

Kia Norway is tracking down Kia Soul owners in Norway and asking them please to not use chademo fast chargers for the moment. Maybe until next year.

Way to go, chademo. You just can't ask people to give up gasoline cars to a rely on junk like that.

http://www.elbil.no/nyheter/ladestasjoner/3402-kia-soul-eiere-bor-ta-pause-fra-hurtiglading

 

[hiroshiy]

As far as I know, most charger manufacturers test their equipment with the Leaf, making the compatibility issues minimal. On the other hand I've seen several charging difficulties with Tesla, and I also heard BMW i3 owners had similar issues before with CHAdeMO. However BMW seemed to fix the issues quickly.

 

[wws]

It is astonishing to me that they could be having these sorts of problems, and that the problems could linger on for so long. How difficult could a charger protocol be?

 

[RandyS]

It is astonishing to me that they could be having these sorts of problems, and that the problems could linger on for so long. How difficult could a charger protocol be?

Not so astonishing to me...The adapter has to work with every brand of Chademo charging station out there, every brand...And they're all relatively brand new (not like there is a lot of operational history out there with some of these stations)...So if the Chademo station has any minor deviations from the standard, the adapter may not work properly with that station. Tesla will be blamed, not the the manufacturer who has a station that is not 100% compliant...

What if you had to design a computing device that was 100% compatible with every brand of USB external hard disk drive out there, it had to be plug and play, and no driver software could be installed from the hard drive vendor on the computing device? That's a job I wouldn't want....

 

[RiverBrick]

The adapter has to work with every brand of Chademo charging station out there, every brand...

Does it really? In North America, less than ten models of CHAdeMO stations probably account for over 90% of the installations. If it works with those, wouldn't it be enough to release the adapter in NA with a list of models it works with and the warning that it may not work with other ones?

Even if the goal were 95%, you might never get there. There are more and more new CHAdeMO station manufacturers and existing producers continue to release new models. Even existing models can have their firmware revised, so there may always being incompatibilities being introduced.

 

[wws]

...What if you had to design a computing device that was 100% compatible with every brand of USB external hard disk drive out there, it had to be plug and play, and no driver software could be installed from the hard drive vendor on the computing device? That's a job I wouldn't want....

Well, I did driver level programming on some (now obsolete) communications protocols 35+ years ago. It couldn't be _that_ complicated. Unless the spec is really poorly written...

 

[David99]

i really don't see why people keep making excuses for Tesla not bringing out the adapter making it sound like it's the most complicated protocol to hack. It's an open standard, well documented. Every car manufacturer that offers DC charging has it figured out! It's not rocket science. Out of all companies, the one with rocket scientist on their payroll and maker of the best EV out there can't figure it out? It's nonsense. There is no excuse for Tesla.

 

[stopcrazypp]

i really don't see why people keep making excuses for Tesla not bringing out the adapter making it sound like it's the most complicated protocol to hack. It's an open standard, well documented. Every car manufacturer that offers DC charging has it figured out! It's not rocket science. Out of all companies, the one with rocket scientist on their payroll and maker of the best EV out there can't figure it out? It's nonsense. There is no excuse for Tesla.

As I said before, CHAdeMO was not an open standard for most of its life. It was not even published as an official Japanese standard until late 2012 (with no English translation for the specs) and didn't become an international IEC standard until March of this year. In fact, if it weren't for pressure from the CCS standard, CHAdeMO may have remained as a completely closed/proprietary standard.

And being well documented (which it may not necessarily be) is completely different from working in the real world. Every standard has some flexible gray areas or places where it may neglect to specify and that's where compatibility issues pop up. Even something as simple as J1772-AC had compatibility issues. There needs to be lots and lots of field testing or it will end up being the customer having issues (for example the Kia as mentioned above).

And keep in mind Tesla is building an adapter that has to translate between the two, not simply a car with a CHAdeMO connector built in.

 

[hiroshiy]

Test, test and test over test. That's the only way to solve compatibility issues and Tesla needs to put more technical resouces on it.

 

[islandbayy]

Test, test and test over test. That's the only way to solve compatibility issues and Tesla needs to put more technical resouces on it.

And maybe get some more out in the Wild here in the USA, do people, say, like me, who (now) always have a charging backup plan that would be willing to put up with non-operation and document everything (as I'm known for... hehe)

 

[freds]

And keep in mind Tesla is building an adapter that has to translate between the two, not simply a car with a CHAdeMO connector built in.

Also you have a non tesla device feeding power directly to the entire battery pack, wondering what threats the external adapter had to be engineered for?

 

[miimura]

Also you have a non tesla device feeding power directly to the entire battery pack, wondering what threats the external adapter had to be engineered for?

If the car detects something bad happening, it can always open the contactors between the inlet and the battery as a last resort to protect itself. Of course, the more elegant way is to tell the charger to shut down or simulate the connector about to be unplugged.

 

[RiverBrick]

The Kia Soul EV was lauched in Norway recently. When a Kia Soul charge on multiple types of chademo charging stations, the charging stations crash and stop working for days or weeks. Signal wires on the ABB Terra 53 charging stations has reportedly been fried. This has created quite a lot of difficulties for Norwegian EV owners who rely on the fast-charging infrastructure to get around.

Kia Norway is tracking down Kia Soul owners in Norway and asking them please to not use chademo fast chargers for the moment. Maybe until next year.

There are only three models of CHAdeMO currently in service in my province. It turns out that Soul's are having problems with one of them. Either the Soul can't establish communication or charges fine, but crashes the station for subsequent users. It only takes a couple of hours to fix, though. As far as I know, Kia Canada hasn't warned any owner.

 

[dhrivnak]

I actually had a chance to see a CHAdeMO. Tesla was willing to lend a few to some Tennessee drivers to make it Nashville for the hearing with auto dealers. While not as fast as a SuperCharger, the ability to charge at 148 MPH sure beats your standard J-1772. With many CHAdeMO's in the state of Tennessee it was a huge help.

 

[Tedkidd]

And maybe get some more out in the Wild here in the USA, do people, say, like me, who (now) always have a charging backup plan that would be willing to put up with non-operation and document everything (as I'm known for... hehe)

30-40 beta testers. Works for Google. Must be a reason they don't do that...

- - - Updated - - -

I actually had a chance to see a CHAdeMO. Tesla was willing to lend a few to some Tennessee drivers to make it Nashville for the hearing with auto dealers. While not as fast as a SuperCharger, the ability to charge at 148 MPH sure beats your standard J-1772. With many CHAdeMO's in the state of Tennessee it was a huge help.

Very cool!

 

[SarahsDad]

Seems as though there are some CHAdeMO adapters out there in the wild - saw this posted on Plugshare:

 

[Adrian]

Lot of weight on that connector though, isn't it?

 

[Chipper]

Lot of weight on that connector though, isn't it?

Not really. Not the way the adapter is constructed. It only looks like a lot of weight.

 

[wycolo]

Lot of weight on that connector though, isn't it?

Yeah, I'd put a milk crate under that mess.
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[susteki]

Yeah, I'd put a milk crate under that mess.
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CHAdeMO adapters are included with every TESLA Model S purchase in Japan. I asked the same exact question about the weight to the DS. Response was they have been testing these adapters for some time now and no issues with the connectors to date and the adaptor is kind of heavy. Will update once I have my car in hand.....Approx. Dec 22nd...