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Why does the charge port light turn off after the car locks?
- Thread starter redline0316
- Start date
Since the charge speed depends on the primary car charge speed it is useful to know if the primary car has just started or is finishing soon. The only way to tell right now is to plug in the secondary car and watch painfully
to see if it can reach full speed. And at busy superchargers you don't get that much time to guess and check.
If I could press the button on the supercharger cord and it told me that the primary car is doing less than 30kw then I would pick that stall. If the primary car is doing 100kw, I would then know I would have to probably stay an extra 30+ minutes for that car to finish.
to see if it can reach full speed. And at busy superchargers you don't get that much time to guess and check.
If I could press the button on the supercharger cord and it told me that the primary car is doing less than 30kw then I would pick that stall. If the primary car is doing 100kw, I would then know I would have to probably stay an extra 30+ minutes for that car to finish.
strider
Active Member
I think the light should stay on. We have free L2 charging at work and the stations are arranged so they can reach multiple spots. So it's nice to know when other cars are done so you can unplug them and plug your car in. This is something Nissan got right IMO with the 3 lights so you know how far the car is in the charge process.
Seriously, who is leaving their car in a high crime area to charge overnight? And why do you think not having a flashing light will make it less of a target? Lots of cars have red LED's on the inside that flash when the car is locked/armed. That has never made sense to me as a reason. Once the car has been charged for awhile time the green light out but leave the lights on while charging.
Seriously, who is leaving their car in a high crime area to charge overnight? And why do you think not having a flashing light will make it less of a target? Lots of cars have red LED's on the inside that flash when the car is locked/armed. That has never made sense to me as a reason. Once the car has been charged for awhile time the green light out but leave the lights on while charging.
bonnie
I play a nice person on twitter.
If I'm on a roadtrip and charging my Roadster overnight, I'd prefer there not be a flashing light saying 'hey look over here in the dark!'. Some of the places I've found to plug in at night have been behind Super 8 motel or at the Rabobank in the next parking lot away from the hotel. Drawing extra attention to the car is not high on my list.
It doesn't have to be a high crime area for it to be a problem, as I learned a few years back while charging in Reno. Charging Lessons
It doesn't have to be a high crime area for it to be a problem, as I learned a few years back while charging in Reno. Charging Lessons
strider
Active Member
Ok but your scary example was at 10:00am and so had nothing to do w/ flashing lights and everything to do w/ expensive-looking car. My contention is that flashing lights don't attract ne'er do-wells, expensive cars do. You act like people are just wandering around in the dark like bugs being helplessly attracted to blinking lights. I just don't think that's the case. The car thieves I've known about work in pairs or more and drive around looking for cars to steal - able to cover a lot more ground that way. So anyone driving by will see your car in their headlights and if they want to mess with it they will, blinking lights or not.
Now I'm sure someone will find a news article about car thieves in blacked-out ninja costumes walking around on foot in the dark but as I said I just don't think it's common. Whereas every day at work there are folks w/ Model S's plugged in and I have no idea if they have 10 minutes or 3 hours of charging left to do. If it's less than an hour I'll park next to them and wait. If they have a ways to go I'll find a different charger as they're going to be there for awhile. So this is a feature I could use every day. In my opinion, every-day utility trumps the boogeyman.
No it makes sense at MANY workplaces that offer charging. EVERY OTHER EV PORT BLINKS WHILE CHARGING AND SHUTS OFF WHEN COMPLETE> cant tell you the number of times ive been unplugged as people thought absence of charging light means im done. At least offer the option, super easy to do
#stupiddesign
mknox
Well-Known Member
Yeah, that's what Tesla says but it seems odd since every other EV I know of has some sort of charging indicator on the dash or at the charge port that stays on the whole time.
You will hear the car "click" and charging will stop while the button is pressed, but you can't remove the handle as it will remain locked to the car. I have heard that certain unethical people will use this trick to prioritize their own charging speed since chargers are paired at Supercharger stations. Let's say you pull into the last available stall, 2A, and plug in. I've heard that if you press the button of the car in stall 2B it will interrupt charging and your car will then take over at full speed. The other car will then re-start at a lower speed. (Heard this a while back, so Tesla might have closed this loophole in more recent car or supercharger firmware).
This is exactly right. Many EV owners (non-Tesla) are used to cars that blink visibly while charging and go dark when done, indicating that the charge is complete. They use this as the go-ahead signal to unplug the car and plug their own car in. This is very common behavior in parking decks, etc., especially office buildings. This creates one more issue for Teslas when trying to share public chargers with other non-Tesla EVs.
My office building has 3 public charging stations, and the 50 or so EV owners that park daily in the building use a spreadsheet to coordinate charging schedules. Each charger has two parking spots, so you have one car charging and one car "on deck". As soon as a car stops charging, it is fair game to unplug them and move to the "on deck" car. In fact, it is part of the etiquette that if you happen to be in the parking deck and notice a car is done charging, you are supposed to move the charger over to the "on deck" car even if you don't own either of the two cars. This breaks down when a Tesla owner joins the group since there is no visible way to tell when the Tesla is done charging (and many people assume it is done when dark as that is how every other EV works).
Snow Drift
[Off-Road Assist] Activated
My idea is to make the TESLA letters on the SC station change color.
Available = RED (weird to be a GO type of signal, but that's the normal color for the company)
Broken = OFF/WHITE
Charging = Flashing or another color
Available = RED (weird to be a GO type of signal, but that's the normal color for the company)
Broken = OFF/WHITE
Charging = Flashing or another color
mknox
Well-Known Member
Indeed. When I installed EVSE at my workplace, I put 1 charger for every 2 spots so that it would be easy to swing the cable over to the second car when the first was done.
In my experience, most (possibly not all) L2 stations have some sort of light or indicator to tell if the connected vehicle is actually charging or not. This is not as obvious as something on the car itself, but should give a clue.
super great except when you are charging at work or a non SC spot then Tesla becomes the outlier that doesnt conform to charging norms (ie ALL OTHER EV's HAVE LIT CHARGE PORT WHEN CHARGING) #WTFTESLA
Snow Drift
[Off-Road Assist] Activated
Don't public chargers either have a screen that tells you what it is doing or have a time limit and then turn off?
brucet999
Active Member
I think the idea was that other people, not the driver, could know whether finished charging or not.
Snow Drift
[Off-Road Assist] Activated
Considering you would never unplug (or touch) someone else's car, this is a moot point. You just have to wait until they leave.
Plus isnt the plug locked when inserted?
If you want to tell at a SC to determine the fastest pair, then something on the SC would suffice to show you when they are done.
Plus isnt the plug locked when inserted?
If you want to tell at a SC to determine the fastest pair, then something on the SC would suffice to show you when they are done.
It is actually very common and totally acceptable to unplug someone else's car that has finished charging, especially in environments where people generally know each other (like a parking lot or parking deck at an office building). It is considered bad etiquette to lock the EVSE to your car in those sort of places (not to be confused with truly public charging stations like chargepoint or blink located in say a grocery store parking lot or something like that).
For a Tesla, only the J1772 adapter itself locks onto the car. The EVSE can be disconnected at any time simply by unplugging it from the adapter.
dhcp
Member
The light stays off because if it was on and indicating charging status, you would know exactly who has over-parked at the SC and might curse their car.
When I first used a SC I thought maybe it lit-up (the big charger itself) when you were complete so you would know from afar that your car was ready. Because of this I was super conscious about making sure I got back to the car as soon as it was done as it seemed a bit shaming if you left your car there after it was complete.
Unfortunately, no such public shaming exists.
When I first used a SC I thought maybe it lit-up (the big charger itself) when you were complete so you would know from afar that your car was ready. Because of this I was super conscious about making sure I got back to the car as soon as it was done as it seemed a bit shaming if you left your car there after it was complete.
Unfortunately, no such public shaming exists.
I also leave a note on the windshield or rear hatch depending on the orientation of the car while charging just in case someone runs into an emergency and need to charge quickly to get to their destination. I use a Google Voice number that is forwarded to my mobile phone number for that purpose. Kind of keeps things more anonymous and has the ability to block certain incoming numbers just in case someone starts to bug you.
I also move the car (even if I'm eating, and leave my jacket or phone with waiter/waitress just in case they fear I will "dine n dash") and walk back to finish my meal. This is just me, and not saying that others should do this, too. All of this supercharger etiquette should hit lots of pain points for TSLA and that is when corporations make decisions and change things--pain points! Not because we whine and belittle others for their lack of consideration. I wish it was different.
Snow Drift
[Off-Road Assist] Activated
I get it for work place charger or communal charger where you know the other users, but what if you just started charging, and someone unplugs you and now you're stranded. That would be like removing the nozzle at a gas station. Since you can't tell when someone is done, and you don't know how far they need to go, how can you unplug them? You wouldn't want them to do it to you.
I can seem my wife getting into arguments with people about this. It's bad enough if someone takes our finished laundry out if we don't get to it fast enough. AHHHHH!
Not talking SC Here. Work plugs are usually designed to allow one plug to serve two spots and the unwritten rule is if car is not charging it's ok to unplug and charge yours. Conversely if I leave then I plug the car in that's waiting.
Every ev except for tesla indicates charging active with a lighted port (ford even gives a 4 position light that shows level).
Yes, tesla chargers lock but not to the adaptor so you can simply unplug at the adaptor and leave the adaptor locked in the port (hopefully this is safe)
Our chargers (GE) don't have screens and most don't that aren't commercial pay units so you can't tell progress from that.
Not sure how a flashing light attracts a thief or nare do wells, my BMW had a flashing light on the mirror and nothing happened there.
Tesla should at least offer the option to have port light flash during charging, maybe with flash pause to indicate how long til full
We have 36 Level 2 chargers where I work. They is a large light on the top of each charger which indicates if the car is currently charging, plugged in but not currently charging or is finished charging. We can also "check-in" to the charger and indicate how much charge we need and when we plan on leaving the charger. I also place a sign on my dash which has my work extension as well as my expected departure time.
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