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Charging the Roadster

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Sure, I'm just saying if the Model S itself doesn't get to "feel the love" for the base model the Roadster seems even further removed. Remember it's not just available outlets that need to be provided but the amount of power delivery for fast charging support as well.
 
So, charge Roadster owners for the use of the HPC at SuperCharger locations to pay for the HPC installation. I'd pay to shorten the 6 hour wait recharging at an RV site, down to 3 hours at the SC site. I think the difference between the base version of the Model S and the Roadster, is the Roadster has the legs to get between most of the proposed sites, the base Model S does not. Let's assume that Tesla plans to erect some large central solar panel facility to offset power consumption at the SC stations (maybe the rooftop of the manufacturing facility). That might be more economical to maintain than separate installations. It would also be more easily expandable for including the Roadsters now and Gen III cars as they come on line. At least, that's how I'd like to see them handle it.
 
So, charge Roadster owners for the use of the HPC at SuperCharger locations to pay for the HPC installation. I'd pay to shorten the 6 hour wait recharging at an RV site, down to 3 hours at the SC site. I think the difference between the base version of the Model S and the Roadster, is the Roadster has the legs to get between most of the proposed sites, the base Model S does not. Let's assume that Tesla plans to erect some large central solar panel facility to offset power consumption at the SC stations (maybe the rooftop of the manufacturing facility). That might be more economical to maintain than separate installations. It would also be more easily expandable for including the Roadsters now and Gen III cars as they come on line. At least, that's how I'd like to see them handle it.

I don't think the power or the extra sockets are the main problem here. I think it's more a question of how much space a supercharger station will have for parking. If you get some roadsters and base Model S charging for several hours at a station, there will be no space for supercharging. Or you would need a much bigger station.
 
I suspect the Roadster battery upgrade offer may allow Supercharger compatibility too.
It would be very interesting if that happens.
Tesla knows how to do it!
Supercharger support would be awesome, but that would take a lot more engineering and manufacturing work than a battery pack upgrade.

A battery pack upgrade could be as simple as making a new pack identical to the old pack, same enclosure, cooling and electronics, just newer/better cells. There would probably also be a firmware update required, but perhaps nothing onerous.

Adding Supercharger support would require engineering and producing a whole new PEM, a gigantic undertaking for a tiny market.
 
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Supercharger support would be awesome, but that would take a lot more engineering and manufacturing work than a battery pack upgrade.

A battery pack upgrade could be as simple as making a new pack identical to the old pack, same enclosure, cooling and electronics, just newer/better cells. There would probably also be a firmware update required, but perhaps nothing onerous.

Adding Supercharger support would require engineering and producing a whole new PEM, a gigantic undertaking for a tiny market.

This is what I have heard too. I am wondering if they will have the supercharger connector and charge at a slower rate. Possible ? With a 350 -400 mile range even charging slower would still get them around the country until the Roadster3 comes out.
 
Supercharger support would be awesome, but that would take a lot more engineering and manufacturing work than a battery pack upgrade.

A battery pack upgrade could be as simple as making a new pack identical to the old pack, same enclosure, cooling and electronics, just newer/better cells. There would probably also be a firmware update required, but perhaps nothing onerous.

Adding Supercharger support would require engineering and producing a whole new PEM, a gigantic undertaking for a tiny market.

It's not necessarily a completely new PEM. What is needed is to change the charge port, add the interface electronics to the J1772 control lines, upgrade a processor somewhere, or add a new processor to talk Supercharger protocol (this could be taken from the CHAdeMO adapter), and provide the large gauge wires and relay for the direct DC connection to the battery. It's probably pretty tight for the wires and relay, but everything else is pretty small and off the shelf. I bet Tesla could figure out an upgrade kit to do this with the new battery, and the existing PEM.
 
Does anyone know if there will be any Roadster chargers at the new Tesla Store in Monterey, CA? (opening this weekend) I've heard rumors that the store manager is a Roadster owner and if there are Roadster chargers there, it will make Holy Week with the Roadster a LOT easier.......
 
Does anyone know if there will be any Roadster chargers at the new Tesla Store in Monterey, CA? (opening this weekend) I've heard rumors that the store manager is a Roadster owner and if there are Roadster chargers there, it will make Holy Week with the Roadster a LOT easier.......

I was just talking to someone at Tesla about that ... and no, there won't be, only the Supercharger at that location. But there are HPWCs at A Shade Above (right next door) and also over at the Hyatt Regency Monterey and a few other hotels. If you have an adapter for the HPWC, you can easily charge in Monterey.

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It's not necessarily a completely new PEM. What is needed is to change the charge port, add the interface electronics to the J1772 control lines, upgrade a processor somewhere, or add a new processor to talk Supercharger protocol (this could be taken from the CHAdeMO adapter), and provide the large gauge wires and relay for the direct DC connection to the battery. It's probably pretty tight for the wires and relay, but everything else is pretty small and off the shelf. I bet Tesla could figure out an upgrade kit to do this with the new battery, and the existing PEM.

Could they? Sure, probably. But I'm pretty happy that they've circled back and are offering anything. I don't want to look a gift horse in the mouth. :) ('Gift' being relative, we don't know pricing yet...)
 
Resurrecting this thread with a question to the group:
From what I have read small/frequent charges are better than large/less often ones, and that the Roadster’s battery is designed to be plugged in when not in use.… So: My commute to work is about 15 miles round-trip. During an average workday, I go into work, stay there 4-8 hours, then return home. Several hours later I then return to work for an hour and come home. Total daily driving is about 30 miles. My charging choices are:
1) charge overnight at home and leave roadster unplugged during the day at work
2) charge the roadster while I am at work during the day, and leave it unplugged overnight while at home
3) charge the roadster at work and overnight at home
Any thoughts as to which would be best for battery longevity?
Thanks
 
Resurrecting this thread with a question to the group:
From what I have read small/frequent charges are better than large/less often ones, and that the Roadster’s battery is designed to be plugged in when not in use.… So: My commute to work is about 15 miles round-trip. During an average workday, I go into work, stay there 4-8 hours, then return home. Several hours later I then return to work for an hour and come home. Total daily driving is about 30 miles. My charging choices are:
1) charge overnight at home and leave roadster unplugged during the day at work
2) charge the roadster while I am at work during the day, and leave it unplugged overnight while at home
3) charge the roadster at work and overnight at home
Any thoughts as to which would be best for battery longevity?
Thanks

Any of those works... To rebalance, at least once a month, we drive the car down below 40-60 miles on Ideal, and then charge it back up... (STANDARD mode)
 
Resurrecting this thread with a question to the group:
From what I have read small/frequent charges are better than large/less often ones, and that the Roadster’s battery is designed to be plugged in when not in use.… So: My commute to work is about 15 miles round-trip. During an average workday, I go into work, stay there 4-8 hours, then return home. Several hours later I then return to work for an hour and come home. Total daily driving is about 30 miles. My charging choices are:
1) charge overnight at home and leave roadster unplugged during the day at work
2) charge the roadster while I am at work during the day, and leave it unplugged overnight while at home
3) charge the roadster at work and overnight at home
Any thoughts as to which would be best for battery longevity?
Thanks
I agree with @AEdennis about any of those being fine. I think battery degradation is more related to how far down you take it (and leave it) and/or range charging and not immediately driving it. Nothing to worry about for not charging it during the day if it's just easier to not do it. Charging at night is my general preference with ~30 miles round trip to work.

Also, medium charge rate I think is better than going to 70A...I started with 16A for overnight, but recently added a new 60A breaker run and am now setting charge rate to 32A. I think I read on here somewhere that 24-32A is the sweetspot, but lower rates don't hurt it, but may not help the battery either.

Lots of data points from folks about always using 110V/12A setting, but I think is far more about usage than that extreme low charge rate.

And, although others disagree, I saw on my logs that long duration, meaning weeks, unplugged, hurt my SOC. Once on the storage/transport from CA to the dealer in Dallas over a few months, then again when it was in the shop for 6 weeks, lost about 1-2% SOC each time.
 
To @AEdennis I believe the battery will be balanced automatically when charging at the Standard level, so no need to do a deep discharge on such a frequent basis. I think that will probably do more harm than good, actually, though probably not significantly, but agree that your CAC numbers will probably be more accurate. I guess I'm less concerned about the numbers than the actual battery health.

To @Steve in SLO I agree that any of the choices are probably fine. What I did was take a slightly larger view than just the charging, but also considered the environmental side of things (as in, what the environment was doing to the car). My location is very hot during the summer months, and my commute home is uphill some 1,000 ft. at freeway speeds. So besides "being cheap" (charging was free at work), I chose to charge there in the afternoon because the car will actively cool the battery if it's plugged in and charging. A fully charged battery is also better able to handle the heat of freeway driving, and starting with a cooler battery meant that the air conditioning system was less likely to stop cooling me in order to tend with the battery.

Then when I got home I sometimes did a short (30-45 minute) Range charge, which is a hack to force the car to cool the battery, stopping it well before it got beyond the normal Standard charge level. That got the battery down to below 30C, which allowed the car to turn off the coolant pump and go to sleep; otherwise the car would stay awake running the pump all night. Repeat the next day. If you have an OVMS module, you can command this mode from the app. If I expected to be using the car a lot over the weekend I'd just do a Standard charge on Friday night. On the not-so-toasty days, I'd just let the car sit unplugged and sleeping for the night, charging again the next day at work. My commute was about 50 miles round-trip, so if all the chargers were full I could skip a day and not be in trouble for range. There was one guy at work who drove his 1st generation Nissan Leaf more than 50% of charge to go one way. We made sure he got access to a charger.

I used to charge the car from the dryer outlet at 24 amps. After adding a proper 14-50 outlet for the car, I opted to continuing to charge at that rate instead of the allowed 40 amps, just to be nicer to all components involved. That's still plenty of current for an overnight refill, and I can bump it up to the full 40 amps rate if I need it for some reason.
 
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This arrived today! Took a while to install but well worth it!