Supercharger - Kettleman City, CA - Bernard Dr. (LIVE, 56 V3 stalls)

[tivoboy]

Maintenance? Taken today.

They were doing some of this at the upper site early last month. I wonder if it was magic dock upgrades or some V4 pedestals put in

 

[Mrbrock]

Maintenance? Taken today.

Regular maintenance. V4 would be fenced off and jack hammering out the bases to put in v4 bases. Unfortunately those are the older style V3 only oval bases so not an easy swap.

 

[Dave EV]

They were doing some of this at the upper site early last month. I wonder if it was magic dock upgrades or some V4 pedestals put in

To me, I would have to guess they are doing magic dock upgrades. That's the only reason they'd have a table out with some power tools, so they can modify the posts to retrofit the magic dock.

Regular maintenance wouldn't not likely require a big team, most of the time for regular maintenance the Supercharger techs work solo unless they're training or provisioning a new site.

 

[Mrbrock]

They were doing some of this at the upper site early last month. I wonder if it was magic dock upgrades or some V4 pedestals put in

If they were doing this at the “upper site” (original with the lounge?) then magic docks would be visible by now and would have been widely reported here and on the Tesla map.

To me, I would have to guess they are doing magic dock upgrades. That's the only reason they'd have a table out with some power tools, so they can modify the posts to retrofit the magic dock.

Regular maintenance wouldn't not likely require a big team, most of the time for regular maintenance the Supercharger techs work solo unless they're training or provisioning a new site.

It’s been a week, same comment above holds true here. Magic docks weren’t installed.a week ago and have gone unnoticed since. Magic docks are a one or two day job.

 

[israndy]

I was just at the Vallejo site and the team was pulling the chargers apart and installing e-Meters, apparently the first step before the the Magic Docks can be installed. He also said that ALL the Superchargers were getting them. Not sure if all of them are getting Magic Docks.

 

[1100MCM]

I was just at the Vallejo site and the team was pulling the chargers apart and installing e-Meters, apparently the first step before the the Magic Docks can be installed. He also said that ALL the Superchargers were getting them. Not sure if all of them are getting Magic Docks.

what are e-meters?

 

[Mrbrock]

what are e-meters?

Maybe Elon is a believer

 

[israndy]

It's the same thing that you have on your house, it measures the amount of electricity going thru a circuit. When a Supercharger is powering a Tesla it relies on the Tesla's built in one. But when they open the network to NON-Teslas they need a way to measure this accurately. I guess they put them on ALL the 12,000-16,000 Superchargers they are opening to NACS adapted cars and then just do a few more Magic Docks until the adapters start shipping.

 

[Mrbrock]

It's the same thing that you have on your house, it measures the amount of electricity going thru a circuit. When a Supercharger is powering a Tesla it relies on the Tesla's built in one. But when they open the network to NON-Teslas they need a way to measure this accurately. I guess they put them on ALL the 12,000-16,000 Superchargers they are opening to NACS adapted cars and then just do a few more Magic Docks until the adapters start shipping.

Interesting, I was under the understanding that the ones in the car measured energy at the car but not energy going into the post and you were billed based on energy into the post and not what ends up in the car. This should also be measured at the cabinet level since that is what feed the posts. Interesting that they are installing at the posts but that would not account for losses between the cabinets and the posts. Surprising Tesla left it to the cars to measure everything.

 

[Johnny Vector]

Interesting, I was under the understanding that the ones in the car measured energy at the car but not energy going into the post and you were billed based on energy into the post and not what ends up in the car. This should also be measured at the cabinet level since that is what feed the posts. Interesting that they are installing at the posts but that would not account for losses between the cabinets and the posts. Surprising Tesla left it to the cars to measure everything.

Given that the cables are a known length and diameter, and (for v3) temperature, it's trivial to calculate the losses in the cable. But more to the point, even at 250 kW, assuming 380 V you need 650 A, which in 10 feet of 0AWG cable (I'm guessing, but that's probably about right) is a round trip voltage drop of less than 1.3 V. That's only an error of 0.3% (and the current is the same everywhere in the circuit), so the right answer is to measure the voltage wherever is most convenient and not worry about cable losses. I can't believe that gas pumps are required to be accurate to that level, for instance.

Okay, the pffft of all knowledge says the US (NIST) standard for gas pump accuracy is 0.3%, which is conveniently close to my rough estimates above.

 

[Mrbrock]

Given that the cables are a known length and diameter, and (for v3) temperature, it's trivial to calculate the losses in the cable. But more to the point, even at 250 kW, assuming 380 V you need 650 A, which in 10 feet of 0AWG cable (I'm guessing, but that's probably about right) is a round trip voltage drop of less than 1.3 V. That's only an error of 0.3% (and the current is the same everywhere in the circuit), so the right answer is to measure the voltage wherever is most convenient and not worry about cable losses. I can't believe that gas pumps are required to be accurate to that level, for instance.

Okay, the pffft of all knowledge says the US (NIST) standard for gas pump accuracy is 0.3%, which is conveniently close to my rough estimates above.

Have you compared what you are charged for vs what the screen says you used? I know losses are less for DCFC but it is fairly significant for L2. I can check my teslafi vs billing statements and see if they agree. Not doubting, just asking.

 

[Johnny Vector]

Have you compared what you are charged for vs what the screen says you used? I know losses are less for DCFC but it is fairly significant for L2. I can check my teslafi vs billing statements and see if they agree. Not doubting, just asking.

Not quite sure what you're asking, but there are two differences here, which are important to keep separate:

1. The difference between power measured at the pedestal and power into the car (which is what I calculated above to be a fraction of a percent)
2. The difference between power into the car and power into the battery

The second one can be quite significant, especially for L2, because there's a few hundred watts consumed by the computer, and if the car is heating itself it can use up all the incoming power. The first time I tried to warm the car from inside my hotel room it took half an hour before any charge started going into the battery, because it was about -5 °C. and the power was all going into heating the battery and cabin for that long.

Obviously the charging equipment doesn't care how you use the power, it just needs to accurately determine how much it gave you so you get charged properly for your charging (good job, English language! That'll never confuse anyone!) And my contention is it doesn't much matter which end of the cable you measure that.

Is that what you were asking?

 

[Mrbrock]

Not quite sure what you're asking, but there are two differences here, which are important to keep separate:

1. The difference between power measured at the pedestal and power into the car (which is what I calculated above to be a fraction of a percent)
2. The difference between power into the car and power into the battery

The second one can be quite significant, especially for L2, because there's a few hundred watts consumed by the computer, and if the car is heating itself it can use up all the incoming power. The first time I tried to warm the car from inside my hotel room it took half an hour before any charge started going into the battery, because it was about -5 °C. and the power was all going into heating the battery and cabin for that long.

Obviously the charging equipment doesn't care how you use the power, it just needs to accurately determine how much it gave you so you get charged properly for your charging (good job, English language! That'll never confuse anyone!) And my contention is it doesn't much matter which end of the cable you measure that.

Is that what you were asking?

I was asking if you knew that for 45kwhreported on the screen for your charging session, if that much went into the battery or if the screen number was what went into the battery and you were billed for more kwh.

 

[Mrbrock]

Not quite sure what you're asking, but there are two differences here, which are important to keep separate:

1. The difference between power measured at the pedestal and power into the car (which is what I calculated above to be a fraction of a percent)
2. The difference between power into the car and power into the battery

The second one can be quite significant, especially for L2, because there's a few hundred watts consumed by the computer, and if the car is heating itself it can use up all the incoming power. The first time I tried to warm the car from inside my hotel room it took half an hour before any charge started going into the battery, because it was about -5 °C. and the power was all going into heating the battery and cabin for that long.

Obviously the charging equipment doesn't care how you use the power, it just needs to accurately determine how much it gave you so you get charged properly for your charging (good job, English language! That'll never confuse anyone!) And my contention is it doesn't much matter which end of the cable you measure that.

Is that what you were asking?

CCS DCFC

Superchaging

I was billed for 19kwh. Wondering if they always round down or if this is why they are installing these meters now.

 

[Lakesbutta]

 

[Fiver]

Still amazed there isn't a solar canopy on this.

/edit Also humorous that the Google Street View of the OG Kettleman site is so old it shows the area pre-supercharger.

 

[tivoboy]

Still amazed there isn't a solar canopy on this.

/edit Also humorous that the Google Street View of the OG Kettleman site is so old it shows the area pre-supercharger.

Or bathrooms.

 

[israndy]

Or bushes we could pee behind

 

[maximizese]

Or bushes we could pee behind

Apparently I may have been doing it wrong for years; I've been peeing in front of the bushes

Joke aside, I won't be surprised to see a solar canopy pop up in the next 24 months. I'm wondering what percentage of folks charging who don't walk over to the eateries? It's such an ideal place to stop to hit a higher %SOC since there many places to walk to and eat, and so many charging stalls. Last time I was there during a downpour so I dropped my wife off at the entrance of In-N-Out, parked the car at the Supercharger site (I was the only one there at the time), and walked back to In-N-Out with an umbrella (about a minute walk). Went from 2%-70% in about 35 minutes.

 

[Watts_Up]

Apparently I may have been doing it wrong for years; I've been peeing in front of the bushes

I agree when doing #1, but not for #2 ...