Supercharger - San Juan Capistrano, CA (7 V2 stalls)

[Lloyd]

Mocking-tone questions about the car and the charger, as in they were pretending to be interested. There's a street-style line of questioning I'm very familiar with from living in a city and dealing with these folks often, and this was that line of questioning, that's really about sussing out the person with the fancy car and seeing if they can get money, or confrontation, maybe even a fight, or at least something out of them.

It was a really bad vibe, they were there loitering around my car looking for trouble, and I didn't stick around.

You should have called the sheriff's dispatch. The number is (805) 781-4550. The local police department is 1 block away....
Atascadero Police Department
Address: 5505 El Camino Real
Phone: (805) 461-5051

San Juan Capistrano is 949-770-6011 for local police.

Perhaps Tesla should post these numbers on largish signs at the problem sites enabling quick reference for Tesla drivers.

 

[BlueTan85]

It would be great if there were some way to eject the charge cable from inside the car so you can drive away from potentially dangerous situations. If you're inside your car and charging, you're particularly vulnerable.

Well heck if you have that concern, what about the four door handles auto-presenting when you park, or when you walk up to the car, and there's a dicey situation going on right around the car.... I wish there were a preference that only the driver's door handle autopresents.....

 

[mgdurand]

You should have called the sheriff's dispatch. The number is (805) 781-4550. The local police department is 1 block away....
Atascadero Police Department
Address: 5505 El Camino Real
Phone: (805) 461-5051

San Juan Capistrano is 949-770-6011 for local police.

Perhaps Tesla should post these numbers on largish signs at the problem sites enabling quick reference for Tesla drivers.

Wow, culture. In Arizona I wear a .357 Sig on my belt at night and no one ever hassles me. But when I drive to CA I have to disassemble it and stow the pieces in different parts of the car in case the police there want to arrest me for having it around and accessible.

Maybe security cameras installed in the forthcoming solar canopies are an eventuality?

 

[BlueTan85]

Did my fourth visit to San Juan Capistrano SuperCharger today, and as I feared, there were problems. I've been there four times, and all four times had charging trouble.

This time, I got slot 1A; 1B was unused. Started charging, all was well. Got up past 300mi/hr, so it was looking good. Then another Model S pulls in to 1B, and I watched and the split second he plugged in his charger plug, my power started plummeting, as expected. It dropped to about 180mi/hr and then dropped steadily slower.

Then I noticed the other Tesla owner got out and unplugged and drove away. I glanced at my Charging screen and noticed 0 amps. Charging had topped! No error messages... the miles/hr charge rate was dropping to zero like a quickly deflating balloon.

I pressed "STOP CHARGING" and it stopped (though there was a weird sound from under the back seat). Then I pressed "START CHARGING" and it the voltage increased, but the amps stayed at zero. I got out, pulled out the plug, inserted it again, it started to charge for a minute or two then zero amps again.

So basically, totally flakey charger. I called Tesla and they didn't see any problems on their end, just suggested moving to another charger....

The battery was charged enough to get home so just bailed on SJC at that point.

 

[NoCO]

Wow, culture. In Arizona I wear a .357 Sig on my belt at night and no one ever hassles me. But when I drive to CA I have to disassemble it and stow the pieces in different parts of the car in case the police there want to arrest me for having it around and accessible.

Maybe security cameras installed in the forthcoming solar canopies are an eventuality?

Sorry for the off topic...but want to help prevent any trouble.

Check this site for California law on transport of a firearm. http://wiki.calgunsfoundation.org/Transporting

My understanding even if it is disassembled, they still would consider it a violation of law unless it is stored in a locked container.

 

[mgdurand]

Sorry for the off topic...but want to help prevent any trouble.

Check this site for California law on transport of a firearm. http://wiki.calgunsfoundation.org/Transporting

My understanding even if it is disassembled, they still would consider it a violation of law unless it is stored in a locked container.

Thanks- I was keeping a chunk of it in the "locked" frunk which seemed to fit the law from something else I had read, but it does pay to be as literal as possible. I'll just bring a locking case to swap out at the border which is probably more convenient anyway.

Back to sort-of on topic; I'm sure it's been conceived of but why not have Wifi and a webcam at the superchargers, for convenience, security (so you can have record of who just mugged you), and so you can see how many spaces are occupied at the moment. They could be placed on the upcoming solar canopies, or in the case of SjC as non-21st century intrusive as possible. Like a little statuette of a swallow with a cam lens in it's mouth (J).

 

[Cottonwood]

Back to sort-of on topic; I'm sure it's been conceived of but why not have Wifi and a webcam at the superchargers, for convenience, security (so you can have record of who just mugged you), and so you can see how many spaces are occupied at the moment. They could be placed on the upcoming solar canopies, or in the case of SjC as non-21st century intrusive as possible. Like a little statuette of a swallow with a cam lens in it's mouth (J).

To keep logistics simple, Supercharger sites are monitored with Cellular Data Modems. Those data rates are pretty weak.

It would be a nice benefit where service is available for Tesla to contract with the local Cable or DSL to keep a WiFi Hotspot going. Security could be pretty simple with rolling passwords available from the car.

Network cameras are pretty good and cheap these days. Here is one that is under $700, is outdoor ready, has 1080p resolution, can see 30 meters in the dark with it's IR LED's, can FTP on motion detection, record local events, etc, etc...
AXIS P1425-LE Network Camera | Axis Communications

 

[apacheguy]

This time, I got slot 1A; 1B was unused. Started charging, all was well. Got up past 300mi/hr, so it was looking good. Then another Model S pulls in to 1B, and I watched and the split second he plugged in his charger plug, my power started plummeting, as expected. It dropped to about 180mi/hr and then dropped steadily slower.

Actually, this is not expected or normal behavior. The second car to plug into the same charging cabinet is only supposed to get the remaining capacity. They should not steal any capacity from you, as your post seems to indicate.

 

[NoCO]

I had a similar experience at Hawthorne, I was charging OK, then another car pulled next to me and he plugged in, within a minute I heard the thunk of the plug disengaging and my charging stopped, while I was getting out the guy next to me pulls out and left.

 

[C.r. Moorehead]

I personally recommend changing your charge settings to reflect KW hrs instead of Mi/hr KWhr is INSTANT and not averaged out during the charge. You can get instant specifics and monitor things MUCH better. You can see if you are getting your 120-130kw on a single charger in seconds - assuming your battery is low enough to get it.

 

[Cottonwood]

I personally recommend changing your charge settings to reflect KW hrs instead of Mi/hr KWhr is INSTANT and not averaged out during the charge. You can get instant specifics and monitor things MUCH better. You can see if you are getting your 120-130kw on a single charger in seconds - assuming your battery is low enough to get it.

I agree, and if you want MPH from kW, divide kW, by 0.3 kW-hr/mi. 0.3 kW-hr/mi is Tesla's standard conversion from kW to MPH; 90kW is 300mph, 120kW is 400mph, etc...

 

[TTT]

If you weren't already aware, please note that there is a lot of construction going on on the freeway around SJC. I just made a trip up to OC from SAN and found the Ortega highway bridge closed due to construction so you can't take that exit for SC access. You need to take Junipero Serra exit or San Juan Creek road exit.

 

[SteveS0353]

If you weren't already aware, please note that there is a lot of construction going on on the freeway around SJC. I just made a trip up to OC from SAN and found the Ortega highway bridge closed due to construction so you can't take that exit for SC access. You need to take Junipero Serra exit or San Juan Creek road exit.

Going north on I5 from San Diego, you can take the Camino Capistrano exit, one exit south of the Ortega Highway (74) and avoid that mess. I did it yesterday...

 

[markb1]

Going north on I5 from San Diego, you can take the Camino Capistrano exit, one exit south of the Ortega Highway (74) and avoid that mess. I did it yesterday...

I would take Camino Capistrano when traveling south, too.

 

[gaswalla]

I would take Camino Capistrano when traveling south, too.

yes! this is much better than exiting one exit north of Ortega (which is what everyone else is doing, and it's a one lane crawl)

 

[wnb]

I've heard of this theory that modules are switched in groups of three, but have not seen any hard evidence to prove that theory.

<snip>

I have the proof. You can't tell what capacity the charger has allocated to your port unless you can watch the data being exchanged by the car and the charger. What's "available" is not what's displayed on the 19" charge page. Tbleakne is correct about the charger allocating power in blocks of 3 10KW charger modules. Most of my data comes from this installation (SJC), but I'm starting to look at logs taken from elsewhere. The "fairness algorithm" seems to be that the first user of a shared charger get as much power as his SOC will permit. Initially (temperature permitting) he/she gets 120KW if SOC is low and the second user waits. The first user won't stay at 120KW for long (perhaps 5-10 minutes) before being reduced to 90KW, and this is when the second user begins seeing 30KW. When the first user's SOC gets high enough that he/she no longer needs more than 60KW, the second user gets the additional modules and begins seeing up to 60KW. And so it goes. PM me if you'd like some numeric details.

 

[gaswalla]

Yesterday - Sunday afternoon was pretty much Tesla Motorsclub gathering at the SJC Superchargers: 6 cars waiting to charge at 4pm.
Charger 1A is broken. Two chargers had cars parked in a spot for over 1.5 hour. Owners came to pick up car (new car, just picked up from Fremont, had 263 miles when I peeked inside the dash). Another guy was from Carlsbad (25 miles away) and was just picking up free electricity - he charged to 225 miles (I guess that's his value of his personal time: saved a couple of dollars and spent an hour at the SC).
Then comes a car full of older folks who have never used a supercharger: funny scene watching them attempt to disconnect cars to plug theirs in, but they soon learned the proper etiquette.
Rumors about more superchargers across the street at an empty parking lot from Union Bank. Also rumors about Carlsbad service center and SC.
Lots of good people hanging out, lots of folks oblivious (or entitled?) to the fact that it's uncool to keep one's car in a SC spot for 90-120 minutes.
It does sound like some folks do a max charge at SJC b/c they are traveling to San Diego, and are concerned about not being able to charge in SD (folks: look on plugshare or go to the service center). I guess a SC in downtown SD +/- Carlsbad will help.

 

[liuping]

Another guy was from Carlsbad (25 miles away) and was just picking up free electricity - he charged to 225 miles (I guess that's his value of his personal time: saved a couple of dollars and spent an hour at the SC).

Are your sure he was not heading north to Tejon Ranch SpC?

Carlsbad for SJC round trip is 64 miles, or about 85 Rated Miles, and about an hour of driving time (assuming no traffic).

That means he got at most 140 miles of "usable" charge for over 2 hours for time spent. That seems crazy.

 

[gaswalla]

yep.. he told me: "going home, since I'm passing by, thought I'd fill up.." (was going back home after trip to LA).. That's totally cool except when 6 folks are waiting.

(

Are your sure he was not heading north to Tejon Ranch SpC?

Carlsbad for SJC round trip is 64 miles, or about 85 Rated Miles, and about an hour of driving time (assuming no traffic).

That means he got at most 140 miles of "usable" charge for over 2 hours for time spent. That seems crazy.

 

[liuping]

yep.. he told me: "going home, since I'm passing by, thought I'd fill up.." (was going back home after trip to LA).. That's totally cool except when 6 folks are waiting.

Oh Man, that is totally not cool when people are waiting...