Charger Port Lock

[svhoneymoon]

Just picked up my pure white/black e-Golf on Monday. First VW and first electric for me, though I have long been a Golf fan.

I've noticed the charger port doesn't unlock with the keyless unlocking on the car (I set it to unlock all doors). You have to open a door and hit the unlock bottom manually or use the remote.

This sort of defeats the convenience of the keyless unlock to me by introducing this extra step. Opening the passenger side door, then pressing the unlock button.. since I don't want to take the key out of my pocket. I haven't been able to find anything in the manual so far.

Anybody have any idea if this can be configured? Or if I'm just a clueless noob?

An additional thought - It would be convenient to completely disable it to make it easier to share chargers. At work there are multiple parking spots per charger and people will pay it forward by moving the charger to the next available car. I think it will still work that I can receive the charger, but nobody else but me will be able to unhook my car if it is fully charged.

Based on their knowledge so far I'm not expecting a good answer from the staff at the dealership.

Love the car so far. Will be used for a 46 mile round trip daily commute, but with the holidays I haven't experienced that yet.

Paul

 

[idris]

Mine works most of the time when I just unlock the passenger door keyless (by just touching the door handle). However, I have noticed that sometimes the charge port door is still locked until I lock and unlock the door again (I use the door handle for this as well).

I think it has to do with timing or opening the door.. I think if I open the door, maybe that's what makes the charge port door lock again. Not sure.. I guess I have to play around with it more to figure out what exactly the issue is.

 

[svhoneymoon]

Ok interesting. I'll have to play around with it and see if I can get that to happen. I think so far I've probably opened the door (to put something inside) and then gone to remove the charger.

Thanks!
Paul

 

[svento]

So far I've had luck just walking up to the passenger side door, unlocking (by putting hand inside the handle), and then pulling the plug out. I don't seem to have to open any doors or use the key fob.

I will second the need to disable locking the charger port. I also work at a company with 4 spots surrounding 1 charger. It is actually a company requirement to use the charger that you must allow someone to unplug your car once your charging is complete. I am not sure how I can allow this on the e-Golf without also leaving my car unlocked. So for now I just have to be careful to go pull the plug as soon as my charge is complete which isn't ideal!

 

[alexbolluca]

Hi,

My charge connector doesn't get locked while charging even though my car is locked.
So when I try to charge public places people remove my plug and it leaves my car uncharged and cause a lot of issues.

I have 2016 e-Gold SE Pacific Blue. Sales person demonstrated on white 2016 SE model so charger was getting locked.
I also remember at my first charge I think my cable was locked.
However It is not locking at all. I called customer center they couldn't resolve and asked me to take nearest dealerhship.

I went to Santa Monica Volkswagen and they said 2016 e-Golf SE doesn't have this feature ! So Ithey insisted on SE models won't lock the charging port.
I checked user manual it always says charger is getting locked and in order to be released car must be opened.
But why doesn't work on my car. It has been just 2 months. It seems to be there are issues and not knowledgable good technicians at services,

What do you suggest?

Alex

 

[miimura]

Make the dealer show you the same behavior on another new SE on the lot. If it doesn't do the same thing as your car, then pursue repair based on that evidence.

 

[JoulesThief]

Hi,

My charge connector doesn't get locked while charging even though my car is locked.
So when I try to charge public places people remove my plug and it leaves my car uncharged and cause a lot of issues.

I have 2016 e-Gold SE Pacific Blue. Sales person demonstrated on white 2016 SE model so charger was getting locked.
I also remember at my first charge I think my cable was locked.
However It is not locking at all. I called customer center they couldn't resolve and asked me to take nearest dealerhship.

I went to Santa Monica Volkswagen and they said 2016 e-Golf SE doesn't have this feature ! So Ithey insisted on SE models won't lock the charging port.
I checked user manual it always says charger is getting locked and in order to be released car must be opened.
But why doesn't work on my car. It has been just 2 months. It seems to be there are issues and not knowledgable good technicians at services,

What do you suggest?

Alex

It most likely has to do with SE models, with and without DCFC feature and 7.2kwh charger on board option. If it fast charges, it locks, if it doesn't fast charge and has the 3.6kwh charger on board, it doesn't lock. Go down to the dealership to prove it yourself.

High voltage at 360 volts and 110 amps plus with the DC fast charger is why they lock the cable. The 3.6kwh charger package does not have the fast charger feature, hence, no need for it to lock, the contacts won't get buggered up and blackened like with high amperage and very high voltage.

 

[RonDawg]

High voltage at 360 volts and 110 amps plus with the DC fast charger is why they lock the cable. The 3.6kwh charger package does not have the fast charger feature, hence, no need for it to lock, the contacts won't get buggered up and blackened like with high amperage and very high voltage.

The charging interface has two smaller "pilot" wires (called a control wire and a proximity detection wire) in addition to the three large ones. The smaller wires are designed to disconnect before the larger ones when the charging handle is pulled out, thus signalling the EVSE to immediately cut the power. From Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAE_J1772 :

The power pins are of the first-make, last-break variety. If the plug is in the charging port of the vehicle and charging, and it is removed, the control pilot and proximity detection pin will break first causing the power relay in the charging station to open, cutting all current flow to the J1772 plug. This prevents any arcing on the power pins, prolonging their lifespan. The proximity detection pin is also connected to a switch that is triggered upon pressing the physical disconnect button when removing the connector from the vehicle. This causes the resistance to change on the proximity pin which commands the vehicle's onboard charger to stop drawing current immediately before the connector is pulled out.

 

[JoulesThief]

High voltage at 360 volts and 110 amps plus with the DC fast charger is why they lock the cable. The 3.6kwh charger package does not have the fast charger feature, hence, no need for it to lock, the contacts won't get buggered up and blackened like with high amperage and very high voltage.

The charging interface has two smaller "pilot" wires in addition to the three large ones. The smaller wires are designed to disconnect before the larger ones when the charging handle is pulled out, thus signalling the EVSE to immediately cut the power.

And VW did not follow that protocol for J-1772 in the 2015 SEL or LE, in US editions, did they? They ignored it, instead choosing to lock the handle and deactivate the charging lock on the handle latch, via the keyfob "unlock" button instead releasing the lock. Is that correct? So it seems several forms of redundancy were built in to make things fail safe.

So how do you explain the SE with the 3.6 kwh charger on board not having the locking feature, yet, someone claims a 2015 SE model did have the locking feature demonstrated?

 

[RonDawg]

High voltage at 360 volts and 110 amps plus with the DC fast charger is why they lock the cable. The 3.6kwh charger package does not have the fast charger feature, hence, no need for it to lock, the contacts won't get buggered up and blackened like with high amperage and very high voltage.

The charging interface has two smaller "pilot" wires in addition to the three large ones. The smaller wires are designed to disconnect before the larger ones when the charging handle is pulled out, thus signalling the EVSE to immediately cut the power.

And VW did not follow that protocol for J-1772 in the 2015 SEL or LE, in US editions, did they? They ignored it, instead choosing to lock the handle and deactivate the charging lock on the handle latch, via the keyfob "unlock" button instead releasing the lock. Is that correct?

In terms of the control wire and proximity wire they'd have to, otherwise the EVSE won't send any current. Those wires also control how much flow of electricity you got, as the car will signal to the EVSE to slow down the current flow as the battery gets near full.

As far as why the OP's car doesn't do it but other models will, I chalk that up to VW doing whatever the heck it wants for no apparent reason.

 

[forbin404]

edit
Wrong thread

 

[nsayer]

In terms of the control wire and proximity wire they'd have to, otherwise the EVSE won't send any current. Those wires also control how much flow of electricity you got, as the car will signal to the EVSE to slow down the current flow as the battery gets near full.

That's not quite how J1772 level 1/2 works.

The pilot duty cycle is like an "offer" from the EVSE to the vehicle indicating how much the vehicle may draw. The EVSE doesn't know or care how much current the car actually draws. The EVSE can't directly control that in any event - all it can do is turn the power on and off. A vehicle that overruns the pilot would very likely blow the circuit breaker behind the EVSE, but the EVSE is not expected to enforce the pilot's ampacity restriction.

The pilot signal is dynamic - the vehicle is allowed up to 5 seconds by the spec to reduce its current draw in response to a decrease in the ampacity indicated. The vehicle need not go up if the pilot increases (early Tesla firmware had this issue), and if the pilot is reduced to below a point where the vehicle can function, it's only recourse is to return to state B - in other words, to turn the power off (early BMWs would refuse to charge at 6A).

All that said, I did include an ammeter in the Hydra, and it does include functionality to cut off a car if it draws over what the pilot says. Even that's problematic, though, since you have to give a car 5 seconds grace after you revoke the pilot, which means an unresponsive car might still result in the breaker popping. Fortunately, every car I've seen so far responds quickly enough to pilot reductions and revocation to not be a problem, and most cars start their current draws quite gracefully (usually pausing for several seconds first).

 

[RonDawg]

So is it the car's on-board charger that slows its current draw as the battery gets near full, or does it signal the EVSE to slow down?

 

[miimura]

So is it the car's on-board charger that slows its current draw as the battery gets near full, or does it signal the EVSE to slow down?

It is up to the on-board charger to vary its own current draw as needed. This may be the needs of the battery, or an EVSE pilot signal that is reduced, as in the case Nick gave above. Like he said, the EVSE just tells the car how much they are allowed to take and if everything is OK they connect the power to the car. That's it.

 

[JoulesThief]

In terms of the control wire and proximity wire they'd have to, otherwise the EVSE won't send any current. Those wires also control how much flow of electricity you got, as the car will signal to the EVSE to slow down the current flow as the battery gets near full.

That's not quite how J1772 level 1/2 works.

The pilot duty cycle is like an "offer" from the EVSE to the vehicle indicating how much the vehicle may draw. The EVSE doesn't know or care how much current the car actually draws. The EVSE can't directly control that in any event - all it can do is turn the power on and off. A vehicle that overruns the pilot would very likely blow the circuit breaker behind the EVSE, but the EVSE is not expected to enforce the pilot's ampacity restriction.

The pilot signal is dynamic - the vehicle is allowed up to 5 seconds by the spec to reduce its current draw in response to a decrease in the ampacity indicated. The vehicle need not go up if the pilot increases (early Tesla firmware had this issue), and if the pilot is reduced to below a point where the vehicle can function, it's only recourse is to return to state B - in other words, to turn the power off (early BMWs would refuse to charge at 6A).

All that said, I did include an ammeter in the Hydra, and it does include functionality to cut off a car if it draws over what the pilot says. Even that's problematic, though, since you have to give a car 5 seconds grace after you revoke the pilot, which means an unresponsive car might still result in the breaker popping. Fortunately, every car I've seen so far responds quickly enough to pilot reductions and revocation to not be a problem, and most cars start their current draws quite gracefully (usually pausing for several seconds first).

Since my e-motorwerks Juice Box 40, and Juice Box 40 Pro are adjustable, with the 40, you just unscrew the lid, and there is a potentiometer you can adjust with a small screw driver, where a setting of 75% of full clockwise is 30 amps, and 100 % is 40 amps, the pot is adjusting the pilot signal sent to the on board charger, if the EVSE is set to less than a 30 amp take rate, say 15 amps for a 20 amp 240v dryer outlet that the EVSE might be hooked up to.

 

[nsayer]

So is it the car's on-board charger that slows its current draw as the battery gets near full, or does it signal the EVSE to slow down?

The charger is what does it.

In general, a supplier of electrical power has control only over the voltage it produces. The consumer of electrical power has control over the current it draws (indirectly, though. Actually, it has direct control over the resistance it offers, which influences the amount of current it draws: E=IR).

Battery chargers, however, are sort of both rolled into one. A lithium-ion battery charger operates in two distinct "phases." In the first phase, it supplies a constant current (actually, it's a maximum current - if insufficient power is available, it will simply supply the voltage that consumes the maximum available power), regulating the voltage to insure the current remains constant. As the batteries charge, their own voltage will increase, which uncorrected would result in the current reducing, except that the battery charger raises its output voltage to compensate.

The battery charger can alter the output voltage because internally it is just a switching power supply that converts the incoming AC power into variable-voltage DC.

Once the charger's output voltage reaches a set level, the charger switches over to constant-voltage mode. The voltage will remain at the setpoint and the amount of current will reduce. This is sometimes referred to as the "balancing" phase.

Once the current is reduced below a final threshold, the process is deemed complete. A J1772 compliant vehicle at this point would switch off the EVSE.

HVDC EVSEs, however, are not just power switches like L1/L2 EVSEs are - they are also battery chargers. The DC pins are connected (via a contactor in the vehicle) directly to the battery pack(s). Voltage and current sensors in the vehicle communicate with the power supply in the EVSE to manage the supplied voltage as suitable for the vehicle.

 

[vetaldj]

Did anybody who perform latest recall noticed that after car is fully charged port is unlocked?

I did mine on Saturday and each time since I fully charged I (and not only me) can take charger out? Looks like this was added to software.

Can anybody confirm that?

Thanks!

My car is 2015 SEL and I sure had port lock prior to that.

 

[RonDawg]

Did anybody who perform latest recall noticed that after car is fully charged port is unlocked?

I did mine on Saturday and each time since I fully charged I (and not only me) can take charger out? Looks like this was added to software.

Can anybody confirm that?

Thanks!

My car is 2015 SEL and I sure had port lock prior to that.

I had my recall done last Saturday. I tried it just now and at first it didn't want to release it, but with a firm tug it did finally release. Either it's been fixed, or I broke the lock.

 

[JoulesThief]

Did anybody who perform latest recall noticed that after car is fully charged port is unlocked?

I did mine on Saturday and each time since I fully charged I (and not only me) can take charger out? Looks like this was added to software.

Can anybody confirm that?

Thanks!

My car is 2015 SEL and I sure had port lock prior to that.

I had my recall done last Saturday. I tried it just now and at first it didn't want to release it, but with a firm tug it did finally release. Either it's been fixed, or I broke the lock.

If you push the J-1772 handle button on top, while still not fully charged, does it release after a second or two, or stay locked? My question is if the J-1772 handle lock button is initiating the unlock, or if it only unlocks on the car, initiated by the car, once it is only fully charged.

 

[RonDawg]

Did anybody who perform latest recall noticed that after car is fully charged port is unlocked?

I did mine on Saturday and each time since I fully charged I (and not only me) can take charger out? Looks like this was added to software.

Can anybody confirm that?

Thanks!

My car is 2015 SEL and I sure had port lock prior to that.

I had my recall done last Saturday. I tried it just now and at first it didn't want to release it, but with a firm tug it did finally release. Either it's been fixed, or I broke the lock.

If you push the J-1772 handle button on top, while still not fully charged, does it release after a second or two, or stay locked? My question is if the J-1772 handle lock button is initiating the unlock, or if it only unlocks on the car, initiated by the car, once it is only fully charged.

I just tried it. Battery was around 90% SOC. I waited until the indicator light at the port turned green, then waited a few seconds longer. I pressed the button for a couple of more seconds but I didn't hear any clicking sounds, but I was still able to pull the handle out.

One thing I did notice was the the port indicator light took longer than before to change from amber to green. Not sure if it's because it was already at 90% SOC.