[Ken Roach]

Twice in the past week, I've had my 2014 Smart ED fail to start charging.

It's happened on two different Clipper Creek 40A chargers. I start at betwee 30 and 50 % SOC, and the EVSE contactor and "Charging" lamp come on.

But the vehicle stays in "Ready to Charge" mode. The plug icon and the progress bar appear, but not the "-> X Hours" predictor.

If I simply go out to the car and switch it on again, it goes into charging mode and shows the hour predictor.

Has anyone else observed this ? I've put about 4000 miles on this vehicle since I purchased it used last fall, charging it almost exclusively at these specific EVSEs, and the problem has only shown up in the past few days. Nothing unusual about the weather; in fact it's warmed up to about 50F average.

Now that I know it's an issue I go check my charging status after about an hour, but it sure was startling to head out from the office in the evening to find I was still at 30% SOC.

 

[Yinzer]

Is the charging plug pushed fully in and is the latch thumb-button on the charging plug fully up? The charge plug latch tends to stick on the charge receptacle rubber boot and not engage on a lot of EDs.

Otherwise, it is probably a problem with the EVSE (the "charger").

 

[Ken Roach]

Thanks for the input !

The LEAF vehicles that use the same EVSEs haven't had trouble, and today I intentionally didn't touch the plug connection, though it's possible that opening the door jostled it enough to make a difference.

I'll keep investigating, and being extra certain that the J1772 plug is well seated. Maybe time to hit it with a cotton swab and alcohol, then dab of dielectric grease.

No sense trying to convince myself it's a firmware bug when it could be a loose plug.

 

[Ken Roach]

After a week of careful plugging-in and monitoring of the charging status before walking away, the problem has not re-occurred. I'm going to chalk that up to a plug security or plug corrosion problem.

 

[Foolios]

Did you use a dab of dielectric grease?

 

[Ken Roach]

I should have updated ! It was a literal bug, not a firmware bug.

A closer inspection found that a bluebottle fly had gotten smashed into one of the pilot pin sockets (the smaller ones), which I think interfered with the vehicle -> EVSE signal. I cleaned the pins and sockets with rubbing alcohol and cotton swabs, added a bit of dielectric grease, and happily commenced with trouble-free charging.

Last week I took the Smart ED to an electric car show in town, and the sold it to a co-worker who wanted a second car. I took delivery of my much-anticipated midlife crisis car yesterday; a metallic blue Tesla Model 3.

I love the Tesla's performance, but will miss the very low impact the Smart had on parking, worries, and wallet.

 

[Foolios]

Thanks for the update. Time to add some dielectric grease to mine.