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JdeMO for the Roadster?

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This car has a CAC of 199ah.

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I finally got around to installing the the JdeMO kit on my Roadster 2.0.
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Charging at a Nissan dealer. Thanks Bob Rorhman

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Charging on the Illinois Tollway

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Looks Great, nice plates too

I am considering chademo but I have no space at the back of the car...

Does anyone has experience with an installation of a cable in the trunk only?

Can you still partially close the boot, right side only? Cable in the crack?

If not possible then just stay with the charging car for 45 minutes?


Anyone have experience with chademo charging in Europe? Which apps do you use to find the chademo stations? In Belgium, France and Germany for instance?

How do you pay for charging in these countries?

Thanks for the help!
 
I am considering chademo but I have no space at the back of the car...

Does anyone has experience with an installation of a cable in the trunk only?

Can you still partially close the boot, right side only? Cable in the crack?

If not possible then just stay with the charging car for 45 minutes?

If you have a Roadster, you have space in the back of the car. You are welcome to put the cable ANY place you want, but all the hardware needs to be installed under the boot / trunk.

I do not recommend putting the charging cable through an opening in the trunk lid and then trying to close one side. That will likely result in damage to trunk lid.

I'm not sure that I understand the last question. Yes, you can stay with the car while charging, but you don't have to.you will need a way to lock the doors, which can now be done with OVMS.


Anyone have experience with chademo charging in Europe? Which apps do you use to find the chademo stations? In Belgium, France and Germany for instance?

How do you pay for charging in these countries?

Thanks for the help!

I'd suggest asking this question on a Euro based EV forum.
 
Jdemo test Tesla Roadster Sport 2,5 - Road Trip Oslo- Nürburgring

-Some discoveries on the road-


Just after having gotten the Jdemo kit installed, I decided that a real life «unlimited range» test was in order. I set out to drive the car for a lap at Nürburgring, something quite unimaginable not long ago, without the Jdemo (-or a car trailer).

Distance Road Trip: 2.406 km.

Stopped 19 times at CHAdeMO charge spots. Charged DC 14 times at 13 different chargers.

Sum total energy kWh: 394, 95 (Total from AC: ca. 120 kWh, Total from DC: ca. 275 kWh)

Sum km.: 2406, 3

Sum h.: 33h.56m. (Operating time, car in gear)

Average consumption: 164, 1 Wh/km

Average speed: 70,913 km/t (Operating time, car in gear)

Estimated 19 hrs. in search for chargers, and DC-charging. Average speed incl. charging: ca. 45 km/t


-DC charging the Roadster:

The Jdemo unit makes the car read the incoming DC power as regenerative braking. As a safety feature added, the car must be in «P» and handbrake on for it to work. Because the car must be turned on for DC-charging, locking the doors is not possible. (Some OMVS solution to this yet?)


-Regeneration

What came as a surprise to me is how much regeneration is affected by the DC-charging when driving. It seems not to affect on shorter charge-sessions less than 20 min. However, on this trip I was charging 40-70 min. at a time, and when DC- charging for 40 min. or more the regeneration is completely gone when driving on. When gone like this it will not recover until about half the range is consumed. In reality, it meant driving with no regeneration half the time/distance of the total journey.

Moreover, the pattern of absent regeneration stuck with the car after next AC-charging cycle too. Still did not regain regeneration until there was only 150-180 km Ideal range left. When I got home, I found that it took three full charge cycles on AC for the car to normalize the regeneration when driving.

Anyway to address this?


-Power Limit makes DC charging impossible

The car will turn on PowerLimit (yellow text lights up in dash) not only when hot, but also at a low SoC. This happens when there is about 40 km remaining in Ideal Range, std. mode. In Range Mode, the PowerLimit will turn on ca. when it stops showing range, at 37-40 km Ideal Range, Range Mode. (At witch point you will be forced to AC-charge back up past the threshold before any DC-charge can start)

NB! There is a long delay. If you get PowerLimit in STD. Mode, and switch from STD. Mode to range mode, several minutes will pass before the light for PowerLimit comes off. The car/Jdemo will fault the charging as long as the PowerLimit light is present in dash. Wait until it has come off before starting DC-charger.


-Estimated range affected, energy calculation is not affected.

The estimated range is a 3-digit number. As the car «regenerates» on a DC-charge, the estimated range increases. It seems that when estimated range passes 999 km, it goes into a random calculation mode. It will show anything between 0-999 km at random, although it will tend to show 160 km most often, for some unknown reason. It will normalize itself after 60-80 km of driving.

The energy calculation showing the Wh/km ratio and the energy history in the trip-counter is not affected. This must be due to the connected timer for operating time; hence, it does not register energy- input/output when gear is engaged in Park.


-Reset of Jdemo:

At one charger, something happened. The charger read the battery SoC, but aborted on initialization and would not charge. This happened several times, even after a reboot of the DC charger (Efacec). I had contacted the support, and they told me this was a known issue at that location. I had to shut down the car/Jdemo to release the connector.

The interesting part is that the same thing happened at the next charger. And the next, and the next… I was of course worried at this point, and got a tip on the phone from Ravn (a fellow Jdemo-pioneer) to reset the Jdemo simply by disconnecting it from the CANbus, wait a minute and reconnect. I tried first without the reset on a new spot, it did not work. Tried the reset… And it worked. It has worked fine ever since. Nice to know if something similar should happen.

IMG_5398[4212].JPG
 
Jdemo test Tesla Roadster Sport 2,5 - Road Trip Oslo- Nürburgring

-Some discoveries on the road-


Just after having gotten the Jdemo kit installed, I decided that a real life «unlimited range» test was in order. I set out to drive the car for a lap at Nürburgring, something quite unimaginable not long ago, without the Jdemo (-or a car trailer).

Distance Road Trip: 2.406 km.

Stopped 19 times at CHAdeMO charge spots. Charged DC 14 times at 13 different chargers.

Sum total energy kWh: 394, 95 (Total from AC: ca. 120 kWh, Total from DC: ca. 275 kWh)

Sum km.: 2406, 3

Sum h.: 33h.56m. (Operating time, car in gear)

Average consumption: 164, 1 Wh/km

Average speed: 70,913 km/t (Operating time, car in gear)

Estimated 19 hrs. in search for chargers, and DC-charging. Average speed incl. charging: ca. 45 km/t


-DC charging the Roadster:

The Jdemo unit makes the car read the incoming DC power as regenerative braking. As a safety feature added, the car must be in «P» and handbrake on for it to work. Because the car must be turned on for DC-charging, locking the doors is not possible. (Some OMVS solution to this yet?)


-Regeneration

What came as a surprise to me is how much regeneration is affected by the DC-charging when driving. It seems not to affect on shorter charge-sessions less than 20 min. However, on this trip I was charging 40-70 min. at a time, and when DC- charging for 40 min. or more the regeneration is completely gone when driving on. When gone like this it will not recover until about half the range is consumed. In reality, it meant driving with no regeneration half the time/distance of the total journey.

Moreover, the pattern of absent regeneration stuck with the car after next AC-charging cycle too. Still did not regain regeneration until there was only 150-180 km Ideal range left. When I got home, I found that it took three full charge cycles on AC for the car to normalize the regeneration when driving.

Anyway to address this?


-Power Limit makes DC charging impossible

The car will turn on PowerLimit (yellow text lights up in dash) not only when hot, but also at a low SoC. This happens when there is about 40 km remaining in Ideal Range, std. mode. In Range Mode, the PowerLimit will turn on ca. when it stops showing range, at 37-40 km Ideal Range, Range Mode. (At witch point you will be forced to AC-charge back up past the threshold before any DC-charge can start)

NB! There is a long delay. If you get PowerLimit in STD. Mode, and switch from STD. Mode to range mode, several minutes will pass before the light for PowerLimit comes off. The car/Jdemo will fault the charging as long as the PowerLimit light is present in dash. Wait until it has come off before starting DC-charger.


-Estimated range affected, energy calculation is not affected.

The estimated range is a 3-digit number. As the car «regenerates» on a DC-charge, the estimated range increases. It seems that when estimated range passes 999 km, it goes into a random calculation mode. It will show anything between 0-999 km at random, although it will tend to show 160 km most often, for some unknown reason. It will normalize itself after 60-80 km of driving.

The energy calculation showing the Wh/km ratio and the energy history in the trip-counter is not affected. This must be due to the connected timer for operating time; hence, it does not register energy- input/output when gear is engaged in Park.


-Reset of Jdemo:

At one charger, something happened. The charger read the battery SoC, but aborted on initialization and would not charge. This happened several times, even after a reboot of the DC charger (Efacec). I had contacted the support, and they told me this was a known issue at that location. I had to shut down the car/Jdemo to release the connector.

The interesting part is that the same thing happened at the next charger. And the next, and the next… I was of course worried at this point, and got a tip on the phone from Ravn (a fellow Jdemo-pioneer) to reset the Jdemo simply by disconnecting it from the CANbus, wait a minute and reconnect. I tried first without the reset on a new spot, it did not work. Tried the reset… And it worked. It has worked fine ever since. Nice to know if something similar should happen.

View attachment 256353

You forgot the important detail.... How was the lap around the ring???
 
You forgot the important detail.... How was the lap around the ring???

It was great! The car really felt at home aroud the Nordschleife. I was a bit easy and respectful "on the attack", as it was my first real life experience with the track. Used about 100 km range on the 20,8 km lap. I let a Porsche GT3 pass me early on, only to show it my rearmounted Jdemo towards the end of the lap.;)

I was a bit surprised that they have no DC chargers in the area yet. About 80 km to go for a DC charge... There are a few 32a AC charge points in the area, but 7kW charging will restrict your number of laps to just a handful in a full day. I will be back with more time and experience on a later occation.

This time the major challege was the road trip. Knowing the route by EV, and knowing more about the Jdemo/car will defenetly make the next trip much quicker and easier.
 
The Jdemo unit makes the car read the incoming DC power as regenerative braking. As a safety feature added, the car must be in «P» and handbrake on for it to work. Because the car must be turned on for DC-charging, locking the doors is not possible. (Some OMVS solution to this yet?)

Usually, OVMS will not allow you to remotely lock the car if the car is on.

A while back, for Jdemo users, I added a feature (FEATURE_ROADSTERBITS_LOCKWHILEON) to bypass that restriction. Set feature #10 to 1 to enable this (with latest firmware).

Note that OVMS will also refuse to lock if the handbrake is not on (and FEATURE_ROADSTERBITS_LOCKWHILEON doesn't change that).
 
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A while back, for Jdemo users, I added a feature (FEATURE_ROADSTERBITS_LOCKWHILEON) to bypass that restriction. Set feature #10 to 1 to enable this (with latest firmware).

Thank you Mark! I tried this, but it still will not lock while on. I don´t know what "the latest firmware" means, but the app is telling me I run 2.6.5./TR/V2 on app 1.6.6. Not right? What is the solution?

Can be good to have AC cooling of the battery from OMVS to cool the battery extra under charging
The heat raise is 2C for 5 min of charging

It is nice to be able to boost the cooling at will. On a hot summer day I imagine it can be quite useful. In my initial post I forgot to mention heat, simply because it was never a problem. Even when charging DC continiously om full power for more than an houre the battery would never get hotter than 40 deg.C. Outside air temp was around 15 deg.C most of the time.
 
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D59CEFA6-ACD2-4BCC-BF45-3283B0F295A0.jpeg
Natalie (8.5 months pregnant) and Kyle (not pregnant) are making final packing preparations for the next 12 JdeMOs for the Tesla Roadster@ Quick Charge Power LLC, San Marcos, California USA

***********

I am happy to report that the 200th JdeMO was installed on a Toyota RAV4 EV in Canada this past week, and number 204 was installed on a Roadster in our shop in California.

We have shipped the last of the earliest JdeMOs sales (deposit holders) to a Roadster owner in Denmark, who had asked to be the last one of the deposit holders, and indeed, he was! We are now shipping new sales, with two going to Japan, one to Sweden, and two to the US (from the deposit list).

My upcoming trip to Europe is primarily to address Roadster issues. The very first production kit was shipped to a German Roadster owner, however he has had issues with his unit. His car was left in Barcelona. I will go there next week and replace however many parts are required to make it work again. Unfortunately, I have no idea what might be the problem, so hopefully, I am prepared for anything. This will be my first “in the field” warranty repair on any Roadster. It might be the first failure EVER of a JdeMO unit, after over 200 production units (or, there may be a simple installation error).

My trip will spend 4 nights in London, 5-8 November 2017, at the Marriott Park Lane near Hyde Park, If anybody wishes to meet up for drinks and EV talk, I’ll be available. I will have a Vodafone UK mobile number during my trip. I will leave for Barcelona from London on 9 November.

I also plan to visit Oslo, Norway, where we have a very high concentration of JdeMO owner’s driving the 2012-2014 Toyota RAV4 EV (with Tesla drivetrain), and of course, one Roadster owner. I will likely be in Oslo around 15-16 November.

I received two emails this morning, both complaining about the following issues, presented in the order they were presented to me today.

The issues are presented in the order given, but edited to make them more clear.

1. NO METHOD TO LOCK CAR WHILE CHARGING - There is an OVMS update to allow you to remotely lock the Roadster from your phone. There may be other clever ways to do that, also, and we may develop a method to lock and unlock the door from the truck / boot (which can be locked and unlocked with the key). You would need to carry two identical Tesla keys; one for the boot, and one for the “ignition”.

2. BATTERY and PEM PROBLEMS - Battery and PEM problems seem to be “normal” for the Roadster. We just delivered a Roadster to its owner that was in the Tesla shop for 6 months, awaiting a battery repair. Im not sure what, if any, this has to do with JdeMO, but obviously, if there is a problem with a component, charging at 125 amps DC won’t make that problem go away. Sadly, there’s not much I (or anybody else) can do about many of these issues, but we are considering doing proactive / preventative repairs on Roadsters at our shop in San Marcos, California USA. Again, this is not related directly to JdeMO, as it’s vehicle and Tesla design issues.

3. LIMITED OR NO RECUPERATION / REGENERATION - The recuperation/ regeneration is limited for about the first 60km after a charge, and may be limited even further with multiple successive charge events. Unfortunately. I’m not aware of a method to fix that. Perhaps this issue would go away if the vehicle were turned off when charged? That would require a major redesign of our product, and I’m not sure that it would help.

***************

It is now two years of work on this project. I can tell you that it is not a profitable venture (unlike the JdeMO for the RAV4 EV, with about 180 delivered and over $500,000 in sales). So, while we are boxing up these 12 units in the picture above, at this point, I’m not sure we will produce any more. We have depleted all the unique bits that make up this project, and if I were to make more, it would be with improvements from all the things we have learned to date.

To make improvements takes time and money, which is not wise to spend on an unprofitable venture with a total of about 35 sales worldwide in two years.

I’m telling you this to suggest that if you want a JdeMO for your Roadster, it might be best to buy one before we run out. We may not continue to build these in the future. Of course, this will have no impact on JdeMO for the RAV4, or future JdeMO projects for the Mercedes B-Class, as well as other cars.

I hope to see some of you on my travels.

Tony
 
1. NO METHOD TO LOCK CAR WHILE CHARGING - There is an OVMS update to allow you to remotely lock the Roadster from your phone. There may be other clever ways to do that, also, and we may develop a method to lock and unlock the door from the truck / boot (which can be locked and unlocked with the key). You would need to carry two identical Tesla keys; one for the boot, and one for the “ignition”.

I've been thinking about this. The OVMS solution works, but is a bit kludgy (having to use an App to lock it). I've been wondering what a JdeMO charge looks like on the CAN bus. Presumably the vehicle is stationary (speed=0), on (key in ignition, and on), and what looks like a lot of regen going into the battery? Can we pickup those events, and automatically lock the car? Unlock would either be via the App or spare key.
 
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