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eprosenx
Active Member
Is this a public charging station you were using?
It sounds like you disconnected it while under load and it caused an arc flash. Was the car still charging? This should not be allowed by the system so something is wrong.
On J1772 when you depress the button to unlock the handle it instantly is supposed to shut off current flow before you have a chance to pull out the connector. This is different than the Tesla solution which has the cable physically locked in place until current has been shut off.
Basically it sounds like maybe the button or signal wires are damaged and the car / EVSE did not get the memo to stop charging. Or something else is wrong...
I would check your J1772 Charger adapter carefully for damage. I would also report this to the station owner and on PlugShare if it is public. This could cause serious damage to expensive parts of people’s cars. We have seen loose connections at public stations melt folks charging ports before (or just the adapters in the case of Tesla’s).
I would also hit the stop charging button on the screen at this station if they have a malfunctioning power cut off.
I found something similar with the charging station at a library near me. It never got to the arc point because I recognized what was going on. I pressed the button on the J1772 handle and held it down. Usually (like with the stations at my work) that stops my car's charging within about one second. But with this one--one, two, three, four, ... and it just kept on charging. So I didn't pull the handle and went to my car's charging screen to tell it to stop charging first and then pulled that handle.
It happened to me once while I tried unpugging while it was still charging. I also got an error message on the screen. After that, I started pressing the "Stop Charging" button before trying to unplug. No need to tempt fate with this.
I think the J-1772 handle is broken.
eprosenx
Active Member
Yeah, that station really needs repaired or taken out of service. I would highly recommend contacting the property management.
AlanSubie4Life
Efficiency Obsessed Member
It's not clear the below applies to the OP's situation...but...
I think this is the Tesla that is to blame, but in any case I've found that it is quite easy to quickly disconnect the Chargepoints at my work fast enough to draw out a spark (usually followed by a locked adapter and a red Tesla T). It just takes a fraction of a section to push down the button and pull out the J-1772, and the proximity pilot command to stop charging (on the Tesla side I think) is just not fast enough. I think I can get it to fail pretty consistently on any Chargepoint if I try.
Pushing down the button adds a 330-ohm resistor to the circuit (via the opening of a shorting switch), which signals the vehicle to stop charging (does nothing on the EVSE side other than open that switch). The immediate cessation of current draw should be nearly instant, but in practice it does not seem to be. Note this is something only the Tesla side of things would know anything about, not the Chargepoint. Though it is certainly possible for the Chargepoint button to be broken such that the short across the 330-ohm resistor is always present, I haven't found that it is necessary for it to be broken, to have nice long orange arcs....nighttime offers the most spectacular viewing conditions. I would think it would be possible to generate some ozone which may be what the OP smelled.
(S3, R7 in the diagram...)
SAE J1772 - Wikipedia
My solution is as others have suggested - just push down that release button on the J-1772 without removing the J-1772 until you hear an audible cue (clicking of relays, whirring, etc.) indicating that it is safe to remove the plug. Just be careful to not drop the adapter on the ground (as it will be released at that point and may come out with the J-1772 if you apply any torque/friction to the interface).
To be clear, it's not clear to me that this is a massive safety issue (worst case you might get electrocuted for a brief instant), but best to avoid it, as high voltage arcs aren't the best!
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AlanSubie4Life
Efficiency Obsessed Member
Did it have that smell kind of like the motor of an old slot car/electric train/ and other brushed motors (older drills, etc.)? Kind of a sharp, clean, "electrical" smell? That would be most likely ozone from the arc/sparks. I guess if it's more a melting/burning smell I would inspect for damage on your adapter (and the EVSE if possible).
The sparks happened to me at a chargepoint charger in Las Vegas last month. Scared the crap out of me. The button was broken so it was stuck down, and when I went to charge it, I had to plug it in and push with some force to get it to charge. When I was done (still charging), I forgot about it and when I went to unplug, I saw tons of sparks fly out. Scared the crap out of me and I had to use the manual release to get my adapter out. Now I click stop charging on every machine before I unplug.
davewill
Active Member
Well, that would be unfortunate. It sure seems like simple L2 charging on the Model 3 is a bit messed up. First the weird incompatibilities with first gen wall connectors, then the Siemens VersiCharge problems and now this.
AlanSubie4Life
Efficiency Obsessed Member
Perhaps a little unfortunate, but no big deal. It's only necessary to hold that release button down for 0.5 to 1 second, and then remove the J-1772. Just something to be aware of, and perhaps Tesla will improve the response time of the vehicle at some point. There are clear audible cues so there is no real complexity. And of course it does not happen if the vehicle is finished charging.
To be clear, to make this happen reliably, you do have to try to make it happen - though in the right situation (particularly when there is a little tension on the L2 cable to help you out), it isn't that difficult to have it happen inadvertently.
AlanSubie4Life
Efficiency Obsessed Member
Just wanted to follow up with a little more info on this J-1772 pilot with Chargepoints. When the release latch on a Chargepoint is broken, it still appears to work (there's one at my workplace like this) - which I suppose is good since it does not disable the charging station. I suppose this means that when the latch goes away that the pilot signal is always present when the latch is broken (it fails closed, passing the pilot signal???)?
In any case, in this sort of situation, I always make sure to turn off charging from inside the car (or the app) prior to removing the J-1772. Because when the latch is broken, there is no way to lift the latch and signal the car that you're about to remove the cable, so arcing would be a certainty, if charging was not discontinued prior to pulling the J-1772.
davewill
Active Member
AlanSubie4Life
Efficiency Obsessed Member
Probably, thought about that last night, but I would have had to navigate through the menus (which are pretty poor on these stations), so I thought better of it.
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Arc flashes as you all are talking about here are not commonly serious injuries and a fairly low electrocution hazard. Though they can ignite clothing and cause superficial burns the electricity most likely will not pass all the way through the skin. That being said, as others have noted: stop the charging both places and give it a good hard second and a half between the button and releasing. That's what I do and that's my advice.
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