CapturePro customers please read this data, below.
I wanted to share some recent esoterica about the charging port locking modes of Model S, and describe a very rare but possible situation and how to work around it.
The summary is: if your charge port ever fails to unlock, make sure that the shore power level is reduced below ~5-7A. In nearly all situations you will never see this, but if you used a broken Tesla wand, or a broken (or blocked) J1772 disconnect button, this could happen -- your port would not unlock and you wouldn't be able to remove the charge wand and might be stuck.
My experience with this issue is more direct, as I make the CapturePro J1772 lock and a few time customers have seen this situation where they return to the car; charging is done but the charger continues to provide shore power and Miss Tessie continues to use it - and specifically in these situations they have attached the lock so tightly that the J1772 unlock button cannot be pressed (when used it sends the same explicit unlock signal as the Tesla equipment does). So, the owner then uses the console '
Charge Port' button, and it
doesn't unlock - The key here is the shore power level; if it's over 5-7A, the charge port button on the console won't unlock, presumably because it's unsafe to pull the cord with that much current or above. The 'soft' console button does not demand the internal systems to stop drawing shore power to allow the unlock, different from the Tesla unlock button where it does (I've tested this on 6.0x but don't have access to 5.X for more testing here). If they turn of the heater or AC, then the button does work.
If you play around with a full battery and an engaged charging wand, you can easily see this in action: enter the car, turn on the AC until the shore power level on the charging screen shows over 7A (may require the seat heaters or something else to achieve that level), then hit the charge port button on the Controls screen... it won't clunk (the sound of the solenoid opening the port locking pin). Reduce the current by turning off those items (still with charge port engaged) and try the button again -- voila! It clunks open... now, without removing the charger, turn the loads back on and watch the charge current creep up and up... then 'pop', it locks the charge port again! This is not identical to the explicit external stop command (from Tesla charging wand or the J1772 charging wand), which explicitly disconnects the charging connection and stops the charging
and shore power (at least temporarily).
For reference: the charging wand on Tesla-supplied chargers has an RF transmitter actuated by a button - this explicitly tells the car to: stop the load, if charging; open the charge door; then unlock the locking pin solenoid for either insertion or removal of charging wand. Even thought the hardware path is different, the Tesla wand accomplishes the same thing that the J1772 wand does when the STOP button is actuated.
So, for non-CapturePro-customers: if you ever are exposed to a broken J1772 or broken Tesla charging wand RF transmitter) you might need to reduce the shore power level (by directly disabling cooling or heating loads) to allow the internal 'Charge Port' button to unlock the port so you can remove the charger. CapturePro customers have a higher liklihood to see this, because aggressive tightening of the lock can impede actuation of the J1772 unlock button. It would be nice if Tesla had a special 'Force Open' console button that duplicates wand button operation, but they do not on current software.
New users manual with these changes are here: CapturePro Users Guide version 1.02
