Sanity Check - Immediate NSW rural road trip

[SL666]

Hi All,
Pick up my M3LR Thursday - my plan is to immediately go to a supercharger, top it off, and head off on a 3 day 1200km road trip to rural NSW, essentially

D1 destination (that has supercharger)
D2 Side trip ~300km
D3 early start bust ass home
the ABRP etc basically says as long as i leave home with 95, I'll arrive with ~20% which makes me comfortable, then need to get up the next day, supercharge, daytrip, then supercharge again ready for the journey home.

May not have my USM - appears to be enroute (from Singapore?), can't guarantee it will be here.

Worst case theres a destination style charger at an information centre ~2 hours from home - since i'll likely stop there for a bite, should i stick a few watts in?

Am i mental for taking it immediately on a trip?

Anything i should think about further?

Cheers Ladies.

 

[spades]

I picked up my MY RWD last Thursday, and on Saturday drove to Wollongong then back Monday. In less than a week's ownership I managed to charge at a Supercharger, Tesla destination charger at Novotel Wollongong, NRMA and Evie chargers. Was a heck of a crash course on EV ownership as I've never owned an EV before. Was also forced to completely learn how to use autopilot + autosteer so that was cool.

Also drove in different conditions... Wollongong city streets, freeways, rural roads around Picton/Thirlmere (NSW Railway Museum for the kids), semi gravel roads, you name it. Already got a rock chip on my bumper . Almost got rear-ended in Picton too! At Sutton Forest I experienced a charger not working (only 1 of the 4), queued up to use an NRMA charger, charged in the rain in Wollongong, watched Netflix in the car with the kids while waiting to charge. Saw heaps of other EV's at these chargers. Of course Teslas, Polestars, BYD, MG, Kona and even a Taycan in the gong. This trip was a whirlwind of emotions and excitement for someone who's owned an EV for literally 2 days.

So my recommendation is... totally do it! I loved every bit of our trip. I'm sure you will too!

 

[spades]

Sorry I've been meaning to say...

Don't overplan it. I suggest going to a few chargers even if you think you'll make the trip without charging. Treat it as a learning experience. That's what I did. I could have made the Canberra to Wollongong leg without a stop but I needed the experience. Same with Evie in Sutton Forest on the way back.

You don't need to charge for a long time. In fact I only did 62% to 69% at the Evie one. You'll be more confident planning for future trips when you're more familiar with the logistics of EV charging. There's also no need to live in the edge with arriving with low SoC. Take it easy and learn during your first trip.

 

[MickyD]

Don’t be surprised if the leasing company hasn’t setup the Supercharger billing correctly…. I used one on Sunday as a test, got a charge, and as I drove off got a message in the car and on the App that supercharging was blocked due to no billing method being setup. I was able to clear it by paying manually (all of $14), but I‘ve sent a *sugar*-o-gram to the leasing company to get them to fix it ASAP….

 

[SL666]

Don’t be surprised if the leasing company hasn’t setup the Supercharger billing correctly…. I used one on Sunday as a test, got a charge, and as I drove off got a message in the car and on the App that supercharging was blocked due to no billing method being setup. I was able to clear it by paying manually (all of $14), but I‘ve sent a *sugar*-o-gram to the leasing company to get them to fix it ASAP….

Got your UMC & wall charger yet? - regardless, hope you are enjoying it.

I might just send a reminder tomorrow...

 

[MickyD]

UMC came with the car, wall charger and rubber mats are on the way. There’s a mysterious 3rd package in my AusPost tracking, which will either be a type2 cable, or possibly an additional UMC.

Loving it so far, only done ~250km since Thursday, but liking it a lot.

 

[Blue heaven]

Hi All,
Pick up my M3LR Thursday - my plan is to immediately go to a supercharger, top it off, and head off on a 3 day 1200km road trip to rural NSW, essentially

D1 destination (that has supercharger)
D2 Side trip ~300km
D3 early start bust ass home
the ABRP etc basically says as long as i leave home with 95, I'll arrive with ~20% which makes me comfortable, then need to get up the next day, supercharge, daytrip, then supercharge again ready for the journey home.

May not have my USM - appears to be enroute (from Singapore?), can't guarantee it will be here.

Worst case theres a destination style charger at an information centre ~2 hours from home - since i'll likely stop there for a bite, should i stick a few watts in?

Am i mental for taking it immediately on a trip?

Anything i should think about further?

Cheers Ladies.

Throw the ABRP app to one side and use a combination of Plugshare and research. Also stick to the ABCs, Always Browse Comments (on Plugshare), Always Bring Cables and Always Be Charging (never bypass a working charger in case the next one is not Usable).

 

[JonDarian]

UMC came with the car, wall charger and rubber mats are on the way. There’s a mysterious 3rd package in my AusPost tracking, which will either be a type2 cable, or possibly an additional UMC.

Loving it so far, only done ~250km since Thursday, but liking it a lot.

If you do get a second UMC and it has 10A/15A tails (instead of 8A/12A), can I swap my 8A/12A tails for yours?

 

[MickyD]

If you leave the UMC plugged in for a while after you’ve reached the charging limit, it will do a firmware update to enable 10A/15A.

 

[Sir Surfalot]

If you leave the UMC plugged in for a while after you’ve reached the charging limit, it will do a firmware update to enable 10A/15A.

If the tails themselves are labelled 8A/12A - earlier ones a couple of years ago were and there are reports that some people are getting them again now - then the UMC firmware update will NOT allow those tails to pass 10A/15A. The tails need to be the specific ones with 10A/15A labelled on them, then the (firmware-updated) UMC will allow that higher amperage when it sees them.

 

[SL666]

Throw the ABRP app to one side and use a combination of Plugshare and research. Also stick to the ABCs, Always Browse Comments (on Plugshare), Always Bring Cables and Always Be Charging (never bypass a working charger in case the next one is not Usable).

This speaks to my pessimism thanks

 

[MickyD]

If the tails themselves are labelled 8A/12A - earlier ones a couple of years ago were and there are reports that some people are getting them again now - then the UMC firmware update will NOT allow those tails to pass 10A/15A. The tails need to be the specific ones with 10A/15A labelled on them, then the (firmware-updated) UMC will allow that higher amperage when it sees them.

Aah, OK. I picked up my car last week (with included UMC) and it did what I described. Charged at 8A until it reached the limit, then did a firmware update enabling 10A.

 

[JonDarian]

Aah, OK. I picked up my car last week (with included UMC) and it did what I described. Charged at 8A until it reached the limit, then did a firmware update enabling 10A.

Hi MickyD,

That behaviour is what I had read about, and understood I would get when I bought a UMC.

It turns out that Tesla are currently shipping UMCs with either 8A/12A tails or 10A/15A tails, with the latter being mostly in the lots included with the car. That means that people who buy from the Tesla shop (like me) can expect to get 8A/12A tails that won't ever charge faster than those rates. It positively sucks to have less capability in the current UMC than the previous UMC, especially when paying $550 for it.

 

[SL666]

I wonder how they control that.. i just assumed that it was a 'dumb' kind of plug interface.. but maybe theres an rfid or something in the tail

 

[cafz]

I wonder how they control that.. i just assumed that it was a 'dumb' kind of plug interface.. but maybe theres an rfid or something in the tail

I think it's just a resistor in the tail, different values mean different tail rating.

 

[[Zombie]]

maybe theres an rfid or something in the tail

Yes there's a resistor in the tail that tells the UMC how many amps are available.
That way you can plug into any socket without having to worry about accidentally overloading it, the car knows if it's plugged into a 10A, 15A or (with third party tail) 32A socket.

With some third party solutions you need to remember to dial the amps down on the device or in the car.

 

[Murbs]

Yes there's a resistor in the tail that tells the UMC how many amps are available.
That way you can plug into any socket without having to worry about accidentally overloading it, the car knows if it's plugged into a 10A, 15A or (with third party tail) 32A socket.

With some third party solutions you need to remember to dial the amps down on the device or in the car.

It's a little bit more complicated than just a resistor.

The current UMC tails contain a MAX31826 chip which is a temperature sensor with 1Kb of lockable EEPROM.

 

[Murbs]

Here's a photo of one I extracted in 2019

 

[JonDarian]

Here's a photo of one I extracted in 2019

View attachment 932053

Thanks, Murbs. Do you have any idea why the current tails have been derated compared to the older tails?

 

[Murbs]

Thanks, Murbs. Do you have any idea why the current tails have been derated compared to the older tails?

Yes.
In the US, constant or long-term loads have to derated 20% compared to short term loads. So in the US, a 10A kettle would be fine, whereas a 10A car charger would have to be derated to 8A. This does not apply to Australia. Here, a 10A GPO is rated for 10A continuous.
Tesla has made an error and derated our 10A and 15A tails by 20% down to 8 and 12A respectively.
The frustrating thing is it seems Tesla is continuing to make this error.
If your tails are marked with 10 and 15A respectively, but only output 8 and 12A, just dial your desired battery percentage to a level that is lower than your battery's current percentage and plug in your UMC. Within a few minutes, your car should prompt your UMC to reprogram its tail to the correct current.
If your tails are marked 8 and 12A, you're stuck with what you've been given.