Lectron & Overnight Charging

[keg6000]

Got our first Tesla (Model 3) a few days ago and installed a Lectron V-Box 48 amp wall unit. I've tested/used the charger and it works. But the car failed to charge during the overnight scheduled charging period. Does anyone know why?

 

[jjrandorin]

Start with checking to make sure you have no other app interacting with your car. If you are not using any other app other than the tesla app, try using the tesla app to schedule charging and not anything that may be available on the wall connector.

 

[srs5694]

Got our first Tesla (Model 3) a few days ago and installed a Lectron V-Box 48 amp wall unit. I've tested/used the charger and it works. But the car failed to charge during the overnight scheduled charging period. Does anyone know why?

Was the scheduling done by the car or by the EVSE? In the past, Teslas (at least, my Model 3, and I've seen similar reports from other owners) would not wake up from a sleep state when the EVSE switched from an inactive to an active state, so the car wouldn't charge when an EVSE-scheduled charge time arrived unless the car happened to wake up at about that time for some other reason. A few months ago, I noticed that my 2019 Model 3 was working with EVSE-scheduled charges, though, so Tesla seems to have fixed that; however....

My Model 3 is currently on 2022.20.17, but I know it was working a few months ago on a somewhat earlier release, too. This is an FSD beta branch. It's conceivable this is important, but I wouldn't expect Tesla would be putting charging/sleep fixes in the FSD beta branch but not the mainstream branch. That said, it's also possible that the charge port hardware is a factor; my 2019 Model 3 has an earlier version than what Tesla is currently shipping. It's been years since I tried EVSE-scheduled charging, so I don't know when it started working; it could have been quite a long time ago. My EVSE is a Clipper Creek HCS-40 with a JuiceNet board installed (a rare option on this hardware at the time I bought it). It's entirely possible that the way my EVSE comes online is different from the way yours does, so that could be a factor, too.

If you're using the car's charging scheduler, then I can think of fewer reasons why it wouldn't work. I've done it this way myself, too, and I never had a problem with it, so long as the EVSE was not set to use a schedule. If the EVSE was on, then a one-off problem might be explained by an improperly-inserted charge plug; or maybe the time setting was wrong (an AM/PM mixup, for instance).

 

[keg6000]

Start with checking to make sure you have no other app interacting with your car. If you are not using any other app other than the tesla app, try using the tesla app to schedule charging and not anything that may be available on the wall connector.

There is no other app interacting with the car that we know about -- we only have the Tesla app installed on our phones.

 

[keg6000]

Was the scheduling done by the car or by the EVSE? In the past, Teslas (at least, my Model 3, and I've seen similar reports from other owners) would not wake up from a sleep state when the EVSE switched from an inactive to an active state, so the car wouldn't charge when an EVSE-scheduled charge time arrived unless the car happened to wake up at about that time for some other reason. A few months ago, I noticed that my 2019 Model 3 was working with EVSE-scheduled charges, though, so Tesla seems to have fixed that; however....

My Model 3 is currently on 2022.20.17, but I know it was working a few months ago on a somewhat earlier release, too. This is an FSD beta branch. It's conceivable this is important, but I wouldn't expect Tesla would be putting charging/sleep fixes in the FSD beta branch but not the mainstream branch. That said, it's also possible that the charge port hardware is a factor; my 2019 Model 3 has an earlier version than what Tesla is currently shipping. It's been years since I tried EVSE-scheduled charging, so I don't know when it started working; it could have been quite a long time ago. My EVSE is a Clipper Creek HCS-40 with a JuiceNet board installed (a rare option on this hardware at the time I bought it). It's entirely possible that the way my EVSE comes online is different from the way yours does, so that could be a factor, too.

If you're using the car's charging scheduler, then I can think of fewer reasons why it wouldn't work. I've done it this way myself, too, and I never had a problem with it, so long as the EVSE was not set to use a schedule. If the EVSE was on, then a one-off problem might be explained by an improperly-inserted charge plug; or maybe the time setting was wrong (an AM/PM mixup, for instance).

The scheduling was set up via the Tesla app, but maybe its possible the wall charging unit went to sleep? The setting is correct (AM/PM). This charging unit does not even have the option to set up a scheduled charge. I've been searching everywhere for an answer but can't seem to pin it down. I'm hoping maybe the charge plug got loose or something as you suggest.

 

[srs5694]

The scheduling was set up via the Tesla app, but maybe its possible the wall charging unit went to sleep? The setting is correct (AM/PM). This charging unit does not even have the option to set up a scheduled charge. I've been searching everywhere for an answer but can't seem to pin it down. I'm hoping maybe the charge plug got loose or something as you suggest.

If the EVSE can't schedule the charge, then it's time to start experimenting to see what's going wrong. Start by doing an immediate charge, with no scheduling. Try unplugging and re-plugging a few times. Unless I'm missing something on the Lectron Web site, the V-Box EVSE is a J1772 unit, so you presumably used Tesla's (or a third party's?) J1772-to-Tesla adapter. Thus, you may want to try unplugging and re-plugging it a few times, too. If you encounter inconsistency/failures, then you may be able to pin it down in some way -- say, to an iffy J1772-to-adapter connection or the adapter-to-Tesla connection. (These are both normally pretty foolproof, although an incomplete insertion could cause problems.) If the problem is on the J1772-to-adapter connection, then try your adapter on a public J1772 (Level 2) EVSE; if the problem persists there, then you've got a bum adapter, but if not, it could be the J1772 plug on your EVSE is defective. Testing with a non-Tesla EV, if you have a friend with such a car, might be informative. Similarly, if the adapter-to-Tesla connection seems iffy, the adapter could be defective, but testing with another Tesla (or another adapter) might be informative.

If charging always works with the timer not involved, then try setting the timer to start charging, say, two minutes in the future; then stop charging after it's begun and repeat. If a short delay works, then try again with a longer delay (an hour or so), which should enable the car to go to sleep; it's conceivable that the car isn't waking itself up for some reason. (I've never heard of this problem, but who knows -- you may have encountered a brand-spanking-new bug, or have some car-specific problem.)

With any luck, you'll be able to isolate the problem fairly quickly.