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Leaving plugged into 110V at airport garage?

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It's not only okay, but it borders on being the best for airports.
I've got an airport parking facility in Atlanta that I do the same in. I suspect that on that wall, you will see a bunch of Teslas and Leafs parked.

I'm in the Atlanta area also but use Preflight with my current ICE at ATL. I would be willing to switch if there is a preferred lot that supports EV better when my P3D arrives in a couple of weeks. I live 45+ miles from ATL so being able to at least charge at 110 while I'm away for 3 - 5 days at a time will be important
 
I'm in the Atlanta area also but use Preflight with my current ICE at ATL. I would be willing to switch if there is a preferred lot that supports EV better when my P3D arrives in a couple of weeks. I live 45+ miles from ATL so being able to at least charge at 110 while I'm away for 3 - 5 days at a time will be important

Peachy Parking. Indoor parking has 120V sockets (15 and 20A, but I never need the 20A). There's one wall full and probably over 50 EVs only can park there.
I'm 55 miles from the airport and usually charged back up the day after.
It used to be mandatory for my Leaf with 88 mile range. But the Tesla really doesn't need it, it's indoor, with only EV owners parking next to you and no additional charge over their indoor rate.
I definitely recommend going to it. A little more expensive than Preflight, but not just covered, Indoor. And coming from Cumming, it's at the Sylvan Road exit (before Airport) so it's quicker to get to and their indoor buses used to be in stall 1.
 
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How long are you gone for? I would set the charge at 50%, and let it drop until I was xx hours from returning, then charge up to the level you need. That’s better for overall battery longevity. In general the less time at a very high or low state of charge the better. Love the idea of parking over the cable if in a sketchy spot, but if there are other evs there you might ask if that’s been an issue and forgo the wear and tear on the umc.

short trip really and only 3 days but trying this as an experiment. I like the idea of parking over the cable too. Trying it not get too drawn into estimated miles and seems to be going up again. Just seeing if it’s a viable option to coming home with a full (90% or whatever level I deem full) charge when traveling.
 
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You could park with one tire on top of the charge cord. Might make it that much harder for someone to steal it. Don't think it would damage the cord at 120 volts power if only done occasionally.

Shoot, that's an awesome idea.
No, this is a really bad idea. The weight of the car would damage the cord. Probably not to the point of instantly making it unusable, but certainly would significantly speed up the degradation process.
 
No, this is a really bad idea. The weight of the car would damage the cord. Probably not to the point of instantly making it unusable, but certainly would significantly speed up the degradation process.

Took 3 posters to agree before 1 pointed out the obvious.

The car locks the cord to the charge port, so there is no advantage to parking on the cord. It is the outlet plug which is removable.
 
Tesla service manual (attached) instructs to disconnect the 12v battery when "Storing the vehicle for three weeks or more (unless it is plugged in)".

With no 12v power, no drain.

Screen Shot 2020-01-22 at 10.29.48 PM.png


The big disadvantage is that you will need to leave the front trunk open, and/or carry around a 12v power supply to operate the emergency release. Also, big warnings there about opening the doors with power off, but won't apply because you will lock the car first.

If it is only for the hood, it should not require much battery current to open, only required that it be 12v. Maybe can buy these 12v batteries on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/Energizer-A2...coding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=BRXC40FZR5JG1005NX34

Now, it should be possible, in theory, to build a product that will allow this to work conveniently (via its own power supply, or attaching a temporary switch that goes out the front hood.

https://www.tesla.com/sites/default/files/downloads/2017_Model_3_Emergency_Response_Guide_en.pdf

Screen Shot 2020-01-22 at 10.34.11 PM.png
 

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Tesla service manual (attached) instructs to disconnect the 12v battery when "Storing the vehicle for three weeks or more (unless it is plugged in)".

With no 12v power, no drain.

View attachment 503346

The big disadvantage is that you will need to leave the front trunk open, and/or carry around a 12v power supply to operate the emergency release. Also, big warnings there about opening the doors with power off, but won't apply because you will lock the car first.

If it is only for the hood, it should not require much battery current to open, only required that it be 12v. Maybe can buy these 12v batteries on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/Energizer-A2...coding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=BRXC40FZR5JG1005NX34

Now, it should be possible, in theory, to build a product that will allow this to work conveniently (via its own power supply, or attaching a temporary switch that goes out the front hood.

https://www.tesla.com/sites/default/files/downloads/2017_Model_3_Emergency_Response_Guide_en.pdf

View attachment 503347

Expanding on this, a hypothetical solution

Setup:
1) Install disconnect switch to 12v battery
https://www.amazon.com/Battery-Terminal-Disconnect-Switch-Vehicle/dp/B0788PY53V

2) Acquire a 12v battery or batteries in parallel with sufficient current to operate the funk release
https://www.amazon.com/Energizer-A23-Alkaline-Batteries-Pack/dp/B07SNSXPDN

3) Test leave/return sequence to be sure it works, especially battery current.


To leave car:
1) Remove belongings
2) Open Frunk
3) Lock car
4) Twist disconnect switch in 12v battery
5) Close Frunk
6) Carry 12v battery with you on your trip

To return to car
1) Open tow eye
2) Hold release wires (see responders manual above)
3) Hold positive and negative connections to the battery (or batteries)
4) Twist disconnect switch on
5) Wait for startup
6) Open as normal with key or phone

Sounds like a lot of steps, but it sure is easier than coordinating with your garage that you have 120v available, and checking the status of your car on your trip.

Someone who does electronics could go a step further and place a remotely operated battery in the tow-eye cavity and provide a remote that will undo the latch.

If, by chance, the latch works with a 9v battery available at your average convenience store, even better.

Personally, I don't expect to leave my car at the airport, as parking fees cost more even than a taxi. For people who live far from the airport, or if the airport is in a rural area with cheap parking, I guess that makes sense.
 
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You could park with one tire on top of the charge cord. Might make it that much harder for someone to steal it. Don't think it would damage the cord at 120 volts power if only done occasionally.

I had a bunch of Connector protectors made just for this. I've taken down the site, but I'll sell them for $10. Send PM

IMAG0597.jpg IMAG0597.jpg
 

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41 degrees F, 5 degrees C, per the owner's manual
Threshold for what?

That's the threshold for when the car does not lock the charge port when the car is not charging. From the Tesla Model 3 Owner's Manual (emphasis added):

Model 3 owner's manual said:
To prevent unauthorized unplugging of the charge cable, the charge cable latch remains locked and Model 3 must be unlocked or able to recognize your authenticated phone before you can disconnect the charge cable. However, in cold ambient temperatures below 41° F (5° C), the charge port remains unlocked whenever the vehicle is not charging, even when Model 3 is locked.

In other words, in cold weather, there is a risk that somebody could walk off with the entire Mobile Connector if it's not secured in some other way. Note that "risk" does not mean "certainty," of course; I'd expect the odds of it being stolen in a long-term airport parking lot to be fairly low -- but not 0%. The probability would begin to approach 0% only when the temperature rises above 41° F, thanks to the car's locking mechanism. As @jlindy's original post notes "temps between 10-30 degrees F," the Tesla's charge port will likely be unlocked, not locked, for much of the stay in the garage. (As I read the owner's manual, the lock will engage when the car is charging, which will likely happen from time to time, and maybe for fairly long periods, if the car tries to keep its battery temperature above some level.)
 
Traveled again this week and I guess risked this again and plugged into 110v while at same airport garage. Three times now over last few days I’ve received a message that sentry mode has triggered an alarm state. The first time I called about 40 minutes later to the garage and they didn’t recall any alarms going off.

Does this notification mean the alarm is actually going off or just prepped and ready to go after an event like someone trying to open a door or a loud truck going by? (Which I thought i read in another post)

This is the first trip I’ve used and activated sentry mode as I just received the roadie device. I’ve never received notifications like this before and hoping just false positives but is this normal? Wouldn’t the alarm do the same thing without sentry mode on but just not record said event?
 
Traveled again this week and I guess risked this again and plugged into 110v while at same airport garage. Three times now over last few days I’ve received a message that sentry mode has triggered an alarm state. The first time I called about 40 minutes later to the garage and they didn’t recall any alarms going off.

There are three states for Sentry Mode: Standby (observing and, if it's set up with a USB drive and activated, recording, but nothing interesting happening); Alert (a potential threat detected nearby); and Alarm (the threat becomes very serious, like if a window is broken; the alarm then sounds and you receive a notification on your phone). If you've set it up to record clips to a USB drive, then ten minutes of video will be saved for both Alert and Alarm states. Tesla's manual says that the car "may" send 6 seconds of recording to Tesla when an Alarm is triggered, but the manual doesn't say how to retrieve that recording.

If you're seeing notification of Alarms, then that could mean that another car has collided with yours, that somebody has broken a window, etc. AFAIK, Alerts do not trigger notifications on your Tesla app. In my experience, Alerts are often triggered by people getting into or out of the car parked next to mine or even walking past my car; the activity is usually harmless. Some activities (like keying a car) might trigger an Alert but not an Alarm, though, despite being harmful. On the flip side, an Alarm might be real or it might be a false alarm, like an ICE vehicle backfiring near your car that the Sentry Mode code mistook for a window being broken. I recall seeing a YouTube video in which an inflatable beach ball, bounced off the car's window, triggered an Alarm but did no harm to the car. Criteria for what really constitutes a threat, much less actual damage to the car, are tricky to program, either conventionally or via a neural net, so there will be errors in the system.

In the end, you'll probably have to wait until you return to your car to learn what happened, and you may not know even then -- as the clips the car records have no sound, you wouldn't hear an ICE vehicle's backfire, for instance. You could try contacting Tesla to see if those 6-second clips mentioned in the manual can be retrieved, though.
 
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