ElectricMotorcycleForum.com
Makes And Models => Zero Motorcycles Forum | 2013+ => Topic started by: heroto on May 31, 2020, 05:50:19 PM
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J1772 station at the Byrd Visitor Center on Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park Mile 51. Zero SR/F. Plugged in the charger and the charging dash came on but no current. Pushed the start button on the charger. Nothing. Charger has a keypad and a faded Liberty electric label. No cell service. Drove a few miles to get service. Called Liberty: this charger is not on their network. Listed in plug share as not on their network. Before the Covid park closing people were using it for cars. Trying to think what I did wrong. Key was not on “on”. I didn’t push and hold the start button for a long time, maybe that? O/w not sure.
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Could it be the charger and NOT you?
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There's not much to get wrong with J1772 / Type 1 charging. It tends to help to key the bike on before plugging in, and this charger seems intended to be plugged in before pressing "Start", but maybe you'd succeed by pressing "Start" first.
(Note for European / Type 2 users, plugging the charging station end of the cable before the vehicle end seems to make the negotiation work more reliably).
In general, some chargers are definitely implemented oddly (whether per vendor or by the specific way the electrician installed that station) and don't work for all types of vehicle.
A lot of cars just pull 3kW without working with the power demand getting negotiated properly.
J1772 signaling (proximity and control pilots) are described decently on wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAE_J1772#Signaling
It sounds like the SRF got the proximity signal but maybe there was confusion about the control signal, and the SRF conservatively decided to demand no power. I'd say to check the vehicle logs, but Zero doesn't enable that for SRF owners.
There can also be issues like the station's safety features deciding that the vehicle isn't grounded properly, which can be an issue but I wouldn't guess it as a cause.
That's all I can guess.
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You can also get this behavior if the J1772 pistol latch clip isn't fully engaged. I usually hear an audible click when it does, and then the bike actually asks for current. Otherwise it just blinks the charge light. Maybe you didn't quite get it plugged in all the way.
Or the station could be broken. That happens too.
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If there's a keypad on the charger, then somebody's collecting fee's for the electricity. Maybe there was a sign at one time that has since been knocked over and dragged off. Same thing happened at the local mall here. It was free for over a year and then keypads were installed by a rip off company called park mobile. Three weeks later six new free chargers were installed in another part of the parking lot.
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Park Mobile is what the city uses here and gosh, I have never gotten their app to work. Literally.
It's a $40 ticket if someone notices I haven't signed in, so I've only done it during emergencies.
-Crissa