Charging problem after FW 4.3? Or a faulty UMC?

[sp4rk]

tomas, I understand your logic. But why then would elecblue be unable to charge at his, then come to mine, be able to charge fine at my house and when he got home an hour later could not. (Unless of course the metadata in his cars database says 10pm or some such?) We all wait TM's briefing!

 

[FlasherZ]

Sometimes the simplest answer is right. I'll look forward to actual resolution info if TM shares with us. I'm betting on this. Easier to believe charge start time meta data corrupt on some cars when we KNOW that scheduled charging was the major change; simpler than hypothesis of dialed up current sensitivity.

I disagree, based on the symptoms noted. The charge ring turning red with "cycle wall power", and the fact that the car attempts to charge (reports voltage and starts to increase the # of amps) points to something in charge monitoring. But we will see, hopefully we see a resolution for these guys soon.

 

[tomas]

tomas, I understand your logic. But why then would elecblue be unable to charge at his, then come to mine, be able to charge fine at my house and when he got home an hour later could not. (Unless of course the metadata in his cars database says 10pm or some such?) We all wait TM's briefing!

It would fail in one place and succeed in another assuming scheduled charging is location dependent per GPS, which I thought was the case. Not even trying to use scheduled charging at "foreign" location, and therefore not failing. But, Flasher makes a good point in post below you about red ring being a strong clue for a current problem, so I'm going to stop guessing... you guys are much closer to the reality. If a circle of geeks is ever needed to intuitively think through a technical problem, this forum is astoundingly helpful!

 

[Alfafoxtrot1]

Ahaer, sorry if I misunderstood.
tomas, I generally agree that looking for the simpliest answers is a good approach, but you need to line up the data. For example, the inability to charge in these cases begins with the car reading the volts, showing zero amps, cycling down to zero volts, spooling up again, still showing zero amps,then going red. Yet, working fine on other outlets. Anyway, the TM engineers pushed out a revised 4.3 to one of the effected cars, and problem appears solved. I'm out of town now and can't verify the fix on my car.

 

[andrewket]

tomas, I understand your logic. But why then would elecblue be unable to charge at his, then come to mine, be able to charge fine at my house and when he got home an hour later could not. (Unless of course the metadata in his cars database says 10pm or some such?) We all wait TM's briefing!

Because scheduled charging uses GPS so that you can have different schedules based on location. I think my odd theory may end up correct. Blocking the GPS antenna while not at home and then trying to charge at home would be an interesting test.

 

[elecblue]

I hope the fix is rolled out soon.

Today I tried to charge my car with both my UMC and a friend's UMC, using his NEMA 14-50. He lives less than 1 mile away. No dice. Car will not charge. He was told that 4.3 has been halted, so he didn't get it.

At some point soon this needs to be resolved.

 

[sp4rk]

elecblue, I have no idea about any of this GPS scheduled charging in 4.3 but is it possible that you are able to charge downtown because the GPS antenna is being blocked? You mentioned to me that you were "several" stories underground? Fishin' for clues!
Forget this post ... rubbish. As in, why would you be able to charge up here, then? Don't buy into charging schedule theory.

 

[IlliniT]

So my car was charging fine on the new UMC the Chicago service gave me last night on the original 4.3 firmware. I updated the 4.3 revision this morning - now it's not charging again. In fact, I'm getting 3 error messages. Car requires service, charge plug not working, and connector requires attention (cycle wall power). I even asked for them to push me the old 4.3 version (they won't/can't). Maybe my old UMC will work but that doesn't make really make sense either. Strange. They're going to check the logs from this morning and get back to me in the afternoon.

Anyway, looks like I'm headed back to visit with the nice folks at the Service Center. Fortunately, I'm close by.

BTW, I never turned the scheduled charging on since I don't need it.

 

[Lloyd]

Has anyone checked the power at your home?? It sounds to me like this is not an issue with the car, but possibly an issue with frequency, voltage spikes, that may not be allowing you to charge properly. I had an issue like this with roadsters at my home that were not able to charge. After calling PGE they found that a co-generation plant nearby was putting spikes into the grid at certain times. Every time their generator was throwing spikes nobody was able to charge. Sounds like a similiar issue to me. To diagnose the problem PGE put a monitor on my meter for several days before they found the source. They forced the co-generation plant to shut down until they could clean up their generator.

This makes total sense as other areas of the country are not affected.

 

[FlasherZ]

Has anyone checked the power at your home?? It sounds to me like this is not an issue with the car, but possibly an issue with frequency, voltage spikes, that may not be allowing you to charge properly. I had an issue like this with roadsters at my home that were not able to charge. After calling PGE they found that a co-generation plant nearby was putting spikes into the grid at certain times. Every time their generator was throwing spikes nobody was able to charge. Sounds like a similiar issue to me. To diagnose the problem PGE put a monitor on my meter for several days before they found the source. They forced the co-generation plant to shut down until they could clean up their generator.

This makes total sense as other areas of the country are not affected.

Calling your power company and letting them know it can charge elsewhere but not at your home will usually have them come out and put their expensive power analyzer on your service. They may need to pull your meter to check it to validate that your home isn't causing it.

 

[ahaer]

BTW, I never turned the scheduled charging on since I don't need it.

But have you made sure that it is off? My theory is that the bug is that the setting after upgrading to 4.3 is random and not always off as you would expect...

If its off maybe turn it on and see if you can schedule something 2 minutes in the future???

- - - Updated - - -

That is if the problem is with non-scheduled charging maybe scheduled charging works?

Also another possible software explanation is that the setting may be displaying "off" in the dash but may be a value that is considered on by the actual charging software. Try turning scheduled on, then turn it off.

 

[elecblue]

Update to the group - TM pushed out the fixed 4.3 to me today, and everything works now. It must have to do with the tolerances in the software for whatever it checks in terms of the electricity. I appreciate all of the help that Chris from the Chicago service center provided.

A couple of notes: Tesla appreciates our input and feedback, including these forums. Essentially we help them diagnose the problem with our ideas and reports. This augments their efforts and leads to a quicker solution for us (customers).

IlliniT - I hope your issue gets resolved. Perhaps you have a cord issue - not sure what it would be about. I think a solution for you will happen soon (gut feel).

For the power spike theory, I don't think that is happening here - otherwise, why would we be able to charge no problem with 4.2?

Anyway there clearly was an issue with the original 4.3 and to some extent it has been fixed (not perfect yet - i.e., IlliniT).

 

[Lloyd]

From ice blue "For the power spike theory, I don't think that is happening here - otherwise, why would we be able to charge no problem with 4.2?"

Like you said the tolerances tightened with4.3 and for whatever reason TBD the power delivered to you no longer meets those tolerances.

 

[IlliniT]

Update to the group - TM pushed out the fixed 4.3 to me today, and everything works now. It must have to do with the tolerances in the software for whatever it checks in terms of the electricity. I appreciate all of the help that Chris from the Chicago service center provided.

A couple of notes: Tesla appreciates our input and feedback, including these forums. Essentially we help them diagnose the problem with our ideas and reports. This augments their efforts and leads to a quicker solution for us (customers).

IlliniT - I hope your issue gets resolved. Perhaps you have a cord issue - not sure what it would be about. I think a solution for you will happen soon (gut feel).

For the power spike theory, I don't think that is happening here - otherwise, why would we be able to charge no problem with 4.2?

Anyway there clearly was an issue with the original 4.3 and to some extent it has been fixed (not perfect yet - i.e., IlliniT).

Thanks Elecblue. Turns out that when they swapped the UMC, they didn't swap out the adapter. After checking the logs from the morning, they determined that the adapter was likely faulty. They've swapped it out and it charged fine this afternoon. However, when I got back home tonight, I got the cycle wall power message again. I reset the LED part of the connector and it seems to be charging again. Fingers definitely crossed. Interesting thread in any case.

 

[FlasherZ]

For the power spike theory, I don't think that is happening here - otherwise, why would we be able to charge no problem with 4.2?

I have a UPS that simply refused to run off line power when my standby generator was running. After a firmware upgrade, it no longer remained on battery whenever the generator was supplying power.

That can happen in reverse, too.

 

[pilotSteve]

Related, but different: I've had my HPWC for about two weeks and notice it first charges with 40A maximum (e.g. 8/40 etc) until reaching close to 40A; then I hear a click of a relay in HPWC and the maximum changes to 80A. No problems just interesting to watch the current step up to 80A in stages.

Tonight I plugged in and noticed the maximum was 16A. Hmm waited about 15 seconds and no step up (plus I never saw a 16A limit before, only 40A). On a hunch I pushed harder on the connector and felt it engage a bit more. Sure enough there was relay click, followed by 40A and a few seconds later 80A maximum.

Moral of the story: it is worth know what "normal" operation is for a given charger setup and spending a few seconds watching that you are operating "normally". If not, check it out so as to not be disappointed the next morning.

 

[Alfafoxtrot1]

Big thanks to Chris at the Chicago Service Center and the TM engineers. The revised 4.3 was waiting for me when I returned from travelling (Chris had emailed me to let me know this was happening). I've now downloaded it and charging at 40amps at home.

 

[webguy]

Having a similar problem tonight trying to charge from my 14-50. Was working fine for over a week, but now shows the same error as others, "unable to charge, please unplug and try again".

Oddly, it is able to charge from my standard 110. I also tried stepping the voltage down and trying again on the 14-50, to no avail.

 

[andrewket]

Having a similar problem tonight trying to charge from my 14-50. Was working fine for over a week, but now shows the same error as others, "unable to charge, please unplug and try again".

Oddly, it is able to charge from my standard 110. I also tried stepping the voltage down and trying again on the 14-50, to no avail.

I think you meant stepping down the current/amperage?

 

[mknox]

I've been having a series of UMC problems (See this thread). Yesterday, I was giving a demo to a friend of mine and found that the charge port would no longer open with the button on the UMC handle, but it would open from the touchscreen. No errors on the UMC, and we even tried power cycling it. If I closed the charge port on the car, after about 30 seconds I'd hear a clunk and it would pop open again on its own! When I plugged the UMC in, I could not get the car to charge (this is the problem I was describing in the above thread), but yesterday I found if I plugged in, then used the fob to lock the car, the port would lock, turn blue, then green and start to charge! I think I left my friend a little dubious about the car's capabilities.

After my friend left, I tried re-booting the center screen (seems to be a fix-all for many problems, but I had never seen it mentioned with respect to charging woes). Well, after that my UMC button again started working to open the port, and the car would charge normally. I am on firmware 4.4, so for those with charging problems, a re-boot may be worth a try.