I went out to my car this afternoon and my charger had quit charging before the standard charge was complete. I'm using the 240V charger that will charge to 40 amps. I had been charging at 32 amps when the problem occured. I started the charger again at 40 amps and after some time, it stopped again. The only thing that has kicked it off before was when I tried to run my electric dryer at the same time but that wasn't the case here. It did rain last night, probably when the charger was running but I have charged successfully in the rain before. Any suggestions?
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Charger Stops Charging
- Thread starter Pantera Dude
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- Roadster
ChadS
Last tank of gas: March 2009
Did it give you any sort of error?
In 3 years of charging my 2.0 Roadster (including a lot of unusual places, because I traveled a lot before there were charging networks) charging has only stopped for me because:
1. The breaker tripped (this can happen at any time; it shouldn't happen on dedicated circuits, but a lot of old campgrounds have poorly wired shared circuits so this can happen a lot)
2. I was trying to use an extension cord (this happened right away)
3. I was plugged in to a GFCI outlet (this happened right away)
In all three cases, there was a pretty decent error message in the car.
Actually I did have a a fourth reason, although maybe it's a special case of #3. I was using a new EVSE shortly after they came out and the EVSE tripped with a "GFCI" error because my car was leaking on the ground wire. Tesla gave me a new PEM. (The car had been released before the EVSE standard was finalized, so I don't blame Tesla for not testing it. Most Roadsters did work fine; I have only heard of two of us that had this tiny leak).
In 3 years of charging my 2.0 Roadster (including a lot of unusual places, because I traveled a lot before there were charging networks) charging has only stopped for me because:
1. The breaker tripped (this can happen at any time; it shouldn't happen on dedicated circuits, but a lot of old campgrounds have poorly wired shared circuits so this can happen a lot)
2. I was trying to use an extension cord (this happened right away)
3. I was plugged in to a GFCI outlet (this happened right away)
In all three cases, there was a pretty decent error message in the car.
Actually I did have a a fourth reason, although maybe it's a special case of #3. I was using a new EVSE shortly after they came out and the EVSE tripped with a "GFCI" error because my car was leaking on the ground wire. Tesla gave me a new PEM. (The car had been released before the EVSE standard was finalized, so I don't blame Tesla for not testing it. Most Roadsters did work fine; I have only heard of two of us that had this tiny leak).
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Here's a description
What is EVSE? Its all about
basically your charge cable or connection to power. Usually called 'charger' by most people but technically the charger is in the car.
Voltage spikes can do it. They have to go above 250v for a minimum number of milliseconds. There are other things that I have seen including a non-symmetrical AC sine wave, and dirty power which is a combination of spikes and inconsistent voltage patterns. A lot of solar inverters and generators produce poorly shaped sine waves that can be harmful to appliances and the Roadster will be sensitive to it. In all cases where it stops charging you should get an error message on the VDS. Many of these messages are vague and don't give you any clue as to why it stopped charging.
strider
Active Member
If it's due to too little power you can try lowering the charge current to 24A and see if it comes back. Depending on how much you drive that will be plenty for an overnight charge.
Jaff
Active Member
I have used this strategy with success when charging at the cottage...older wiring and in a rural area, I should have been able to charge at 32 amps off of the 40 amp circuit in the garage...after a short period of time, I noticed the car had stopped charging ...the error message was something like "line voltage error "...I dialed the charge back to 24 amps and the charge session completed without further incident.
I have since had a 50 amp circuit installed...I receive the same charging error when I charge at 40 amps, but the charge session completes fully when dialed back to 32 amps.
I have since had a 50 amp circuit installed...I receive the same charging error when I charge at 40 amps, but the charge session completes fully when dialed back to 32 amps.
Gary1M
Member
Hi Art, glad to have another Roadster in the So Cal area!
I had a similar problem a few weeks after I brought home my 1.5. After charging began it would stop a few minutes to a half hour later. The error message on the video screen said "Stopped Charging connect power cable" and the amber light on the 240 UMC would flash four times, pause, then flash four times... Turns out the problem was the UMC itself. Tesla replaced it under warranty and I haven't had the same problem since.
I had a similar problem a few weeks after I brought home my 1.5. After charging began it would stop a few minutes to a half hour later. The error message on the video screen said "Stopped Charging connect power cable" and the amber light on the 240 UMC would flash four times, pause, then flash four times... Turns out the problem was the UMC itself. Tesla replaced it under warranty and I haven't had the same problem since.
dj905
Member
I had a strange interaction between some Compact Fluorescent Lightbulbs (CFL) and charging with the UMC when I first got my roadster. It seems that some CFLs produce a lot of high frequency noise that is picked up on the pilot signal wire going into the PEM. As soon as the light went on, the car would throw a charging fault and stop charging. I replaced the lightbulb (located directly above the car) and the problem went away. At the time I reported it, and it was identified as a known issue. I don't know if it has been fixed in software.
...dj905
...dj905
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