Supercharger - College Station, TX - Texas Avenue South

[jwillis84]

Thursday November 17, 2022 Around midnight

Progress is a whole lot slower now.

But we have had some rains and the temperature has turned decidedly colder.

I was really worried they would miss the opportunity of the good weather, and they have.. now its just a long dreary descent into a harsh cold winter until the ice starts forming.

There may have been nothing they could do once the rains hit, that's pretty much the end of Construction season. I guess its only Tesla's second year in Texas and they had one of the most mild winters seen in years their first year.. boy are they in for an education.. quit pretending its California guys.

You make hay while the hay making is good.. then live with the weather the rest of the year.

Most likely they are having trouble with the electrician scheduling or permits.. that's pretty much the hold I could see for the last three weeks.. the number of Tesla's in town are exploding.. but I don't see much municipal movement on charging infrastructure.

I'll post a YouTube video of another walk-around since I can't seem to upload any more photos to the site.. sorry.. but that's all I got.

 

[jwillis84]

Ahh.. I think I understand the TMC forum a little bit better now.

First here's that walk around video YT link

The uploads of photos are I think connected with the Subscriptions which included Gallery space. There is a certain amount for no cost and more for different tiers of Subscription. I did not understand this.. I will have to give it some thought.

I also had some problems with my first attempt at a video, my iPhone didn't autorotate and it recorded in HEVC format in a 90 degree on its side portrait mode, which doesn't work well with QuickTime or most other video editors I have. It turns out HEVC is h.265 and its not a great default. iPhone has a Camera app setting to default to "Wide Compatibility" mode which puts it back into an easier to use MPEG-4/h.264 recording format which used to be the iPhone default around iOS 11. I made that change, but in order to fix the video I had.. I had to convert HEVC/h.265 into AVI format. By the time I converted it to AVI format and rotated the video to landscape.. and re-uploaded the video to YoutTube, I ran into another TMC problem, limited time to edit a posting.. hence this new post with the corrected video, and the dead link in the last post. - Whole lot of collateral learning from problems.

The good thing from lots of failures all at once on something that doesn't matter that much.. is in the learning, and not making the same mistakes in the future.

 

[scottyaggie]

These superchargers are mostly constructed by local contractors with materials from Tesla. I think they understand the situation. Tesla superchargers have been going up in Texas for at least five years. I bet it will be up and running before christmas.

 

[jwillis84]

By Christmas would be very cool.

I'll take any glimmer of hope.. what I worry about the most is the damaged Supercharger already on site delaying the roll out of the others. Since they are on site, I'm a little concerned there might be additional delays due to weather beyond their control. It only gets colder from here, even the ground gets hard.. although its 'great' they are back filling already.

I will rest a lot easier when I see signs the electricians are starting their work, because as much as they've accomplished so far, that is a lot of wiring.

 

[brkaus]

The frost level doesn’t go that far down in Texas. It won’t be an issue for whatever they use to do the digging.

 

[TulsaCoker]

LOL people in Central Texas worried about permafrost. We don't have/worry about that n Tulsa.

 

[pb2000]

permafrost

I think you'll find that not to be an concern until you get ~2000 miles further North.

 

[supertrekie]

Ahh.. I think I understand the TMC forum a little bit better now.

First here's that walk around video YT link

The uploads of photos are I think connected with the Subscriptions which included Gallery space. There is a certain amount for no cost and more for different tiers of Subscription. I did not understand this.. I will have to give it some thought.

I also had some problems with my first attempt at a video, my iPhone didn't autorotate and it recorded in HEVC format in a 90 degree on its side portrait mode, which doesn't work well with QuickTime or most other video editors I have. It turns out HEVC is h.265 and its not a great default. iPhone has a Camera app setting to default to "Wide Compatibility" mode which puts it back into an easier to use MPEG-4/h.264 recording format which used to be the iPhone default around iOS 11. I made that change, but in order to fix the video I had.. I had to convert HEVC/h.265 into AVI format. By the time I converted it to AVI format and rotated the video to landscape.. and re-uploaded the video to YoutTube, I ran into another TMC problem, limited time to edit a posting.. hence this new post with the corrected video, and the dead link in the last post. - Whole lot of collateral learning from problems.

The good thing from lots of failures all at once on something that doesn't matter that much.. is in the learning, and not making the same mistakes in the future.

I just wanted to say thank you very much for doing this, I've been watching with great interest for the last couple of weeks.

 

[Jmolloy3]

Definitely workers active on Weds 11/23/22. Looked like the trench was being cemented-in.

Ironically, I was driving my wife's Volt, because I had to drive from Austin -> College Station - > Madisonville -> Longview -> College Station - > back to Austin, and I was on a very tight time constraint. And I didn't want to deal with the jammed-up holiday superchargers (particularly at Lindale, which is out of the way and is V2). However, at the Madisonville SC, the gas pumps were completely packed, but the SC stalls were probably only 40% full. Doh!!! maybe shoulda drove the 3!!!

 

[QS01]

Any progress update for this week from anyone by chance? We have a trip coming up soon and would be fantastic to not have to stop in Giddings finally!

 

[Guacahummus]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1598664854612881408

 

[scottyaggie]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1598664854612881408

Nice!

 

[jwillis84]

Looks like based on the Tesla Spools, Tesla Electrical Elves came out and did all the hard wiring up to a Demarc on the other side of the Tesla cabinets.

They sort of Spooge Upwards out of the conduit pipe like a fountain.. and are covered in black plastic bags.

From there another set of cables seem to plunge back down a pipe and make their way around underground to the transformer; which that trench is all covered up and filled in too.

My "guess" is now the hard part comes into play, the local electrical contractors have to come out and make the official hookup at the demarc "fountain".

The weather is nice at the moment, but that could turn at any minute.. so I don't know if it will happen quickly or take a long time.

There is a lot of ongoing construction in the area South of town.. so I don't know if that will work against the schedule or in favor of it. But we have about 29 days till the end of the quarter.. not that thats a hard deadline or anything.

I posted a video since I've had so many problems with images and its more for people who would like to see what its like actually there in context.

 

[Twiglett]

Looks like based on the Tesla Spools, Tesla Electrical Elves came out and did all the hard wiring up to a Demarc on the other side of the Tesla cabinets.

They sort of Spooge Upwards out of the conduit pipe like a fountain.. and are covered in black plastic bags.

From there another set of cables seem to plunge back down a pipe and make their way around underground to the transformer; which that trench is all covered up and filled in too.

My "guess" is now the hard part comes into play, the local electrical contractors have to come out and make the official hookup at the demarc "fountain".

The weather is nice at the moment, but that could turn at any minute.. so I don't know if it will happen quickly or take a long time.

There is a lot of ongoing construction in the area South of town.. so I don't know if that will work against the schedule or in favor of it. But we have about 29 days till the end of the quarter.. not that thats a hard deadline or anything.

I posted a video since I've had so many problems with images and its more for people who would like to see what its like actually there in context.

rotated video alert

 

[brkaus]

Missing the transformer I think. That’s always an unknown delay depending on power company.

 

[jwillis84]

Tesla Supercharger page for this site has changed drastically.

It now says in "general terms" Coming soon in 2023

I'd guess that means the timeline is out of their hands now and up to local variables.

It could come online next week, or next year.. if its after Christmas.. I'd start thinking those conspiracy theories about keeping Tesla EV chargers out of the Brazos Valley might have some weight.

I've been using a Tesla CCS1 Adapter at the Brookshire Bros location with EV Connect with good success.

EV Connect is not better than Telsa, but at least its DC Fast Charge.

I've also used the same CCS1 Adapter at an EVgo site in Dallas, Tx next to a Cracker barrel.. that was "doable" but a lot more painful.. The EVgo app was a lot more complex and the Entire EVgo network seems skewed towards the CHADEMO standard.. so CCS1 is much harder to use on their network.

They do have a transformer hookup.. its at the end of the second Copper wire that plunges back down the second pipe and the underground trench in the Banks driveway. It leads right up to the transformers concrete pedestal. They've literally done 99.999% of the work for the electrical contractor.. its just one hook up to connect the Tesla cabinet to the existing local transformer.

 

[AndrewTX]

Tesla Supercharger page for this site has changed drastically.

It now says in "general terms" Coming soon in 2023

I'd guess that means the timeline is out of their hands now and up to local variables.

It could come online next week, or next year.. if its after Christmas.. I'd start thinking those conspiracy theories about keeping Tesla EV chargers out of the Brazos Valley might have some weight.

I've been using a Tesla CCS1 Adapter at the Brookshire Bros location with EV Connect with good success.

EV Connect is not better than Telsa, but at least its DC Fast Charge.

I've also used the same CCS1 Adapter at an EVgo site in Dallas, Tx next to a Cracker barrel.. that was "doable" but a lot more painful.. The EVgo app was a lot more complex and the Entire EVgo network seems skewed towards the CHADEMO standard.. so CCS1 is much harder to use on their network.

They do have a transformer hookup.. its at the end of the second Copper wire that plunges back down the second pipe and the underground trench in the Banks driveway. It leads right up to the transformers concrete pedestal. They've literally done 99.999% of the work for the electrical contractor.. its just one hook up to connect the Tesla cabinet to the existing local transformer.

Well, it's certainly happening so I'm not going to quibble over a few weeks. Certainly not, since I posted this on the front page of this thread almost exactly four years ago;

Supercharger - College Station, TX

Just a place holder. Looking forward to this one, but I’ve not seen any permits or activity. I don’t believe the “Coming in 2018”is going to hold true, but I hope I’m wrong!

teslamotorsclub.com

 

[𝚃 𝚁Ξ𝚅Φ𝚁]

Hello y’all, I’ve been following this thread for about 2 years now. I’ve been doing my own hands on with this supercharger location for about 2 months. Well, the fence is down now and I tried to charge. But of course it did not pull any power because the transformer is not installed yet. But I think it’ll be sooner than 2023.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1600185999262642176

 

[Jmolloy3]

The rate of progress is encouraging!

 

[jwillis84]

I think I'll make a quick trip out there tonight.

If the fence is down.. that could be a Big indicator of readiness.

The transformer they hook up to is around the corner and it looked like it was hooked up.

The lync pin was the Pedestal demarc on the other side of the Tesla Cabinets.. it was "exposed" as in "not safe for the Public to be around".

If they took the fence down that may mean they finished the work and sealed it up.. then it would be (I guess) back in the hands of Tesla to turn on the Cabinets. They have a brass padlock on the cabinet. Which means it could be a go at any time.

I was headed out there tonight anyway since the white stripe painters looked almost done.