Duosida EVSE Fault Problems

[duanehaas]

I recently purchased a Duosida EVSE 16 amp charger for my 2017 Ford Fusion Energi. Once every 3-5 charges, I get a fault on my charger and it stops charging until I unplug it from the wall and plug it back in. I have rechecked the wiring setup for my outlet and everything has checked out fine according to my electrician. When I contacted the seller, they said faults are usually grounding issues. Anyone else had this problem? Or know how to remedy it? Tired of getting up in the morning with only 50% charge.

Edited April 7, 2018 at 07:45 PM by duanehaas

[murphy]

I recently purchased a Duosida EVSE 16 amp charger for my 2017 Ford Fusion Energi. Once ever 3-5 charges, I get a fault on my charger and it stops charging until I unplug it from the wall and plug it back in. I have rechecked the wiring setup for my outlet and everything has checked out fine according to my electrician. When I contacted the seller, they said faults are usually grounding issues. Anyone else had this problem? Or know how to remedy it? Tired of getting up in the morning with only 50% charge.

Since I'm not there to look at it I'll ask a bunch of questions.

 

Is the outlet that you are plugged into the only outlet on that circuit breaker?  It's mandatory.

Is it wired with 12 gauge or heavier wire?

Is the circuit breaker a double pole 20 amp breaker?

Is it less than 100 feet from the panel to the outlet?  More than 100 feet would benefit from 10 gauge wire.

Is the ground pin of the 6-20 outlet connected to building ground and not to neutral?

 

Do you have any appliances that could turn on at night and place a large load on the panel causing the voltage to sag for a bit?

Is the J1772 plug fully seated in the car's outlet?

 

Does your area suffer from extremely short power failures of a couple of seconds?

 

Do the directions for the EVSE give a list of what can cause the fault light to come on?

[duanehaas]

Since I'm not there to look at it I'll ask a bunch of questions.

 

Is the outlet that you are plugged into the only outlet on that circuit breaker?  It's mandatory.

Is it wired with 12 gauge or heavier wire?

Is the circuit breaker a double pole 20 amp breaker?

Is it less than 100 feet from the panel to the outlet?  More than 100 feet would benefit from 10 gauge wire.

Is the ground pin of the 6-20 outlet connected to building ground and not to neutral?

 

Do you have any appliances that could turn on at night and place a large load on the panel causing the voltage to sag for a bit?

Is the J1772 plug fully seated in the car's outlet?

 

Does your area suffer from extremely short power failures of a couple of seconds?

 

Do the directions for the EVSE give a list of what can cause the fault light to come on?

Yes - 50 amp breaker

Yes - 6 gauge wire

No - Double pole 50 amp breaker

Yes - It is just below my panel with about a 2 foot run of wire

It is a dryer plug (14-50) in case I ever upgrade to a Tesla or similar. It has a neutral and ground.

 

I can't think of anything that would automatically cause it. Times are all different for the issues. Some days it faults out during the day. Sometimes over night (I work 12 hour swing shift so it gets plugged in at different times)

 

No power outages (all underground utilities) recently. 

 

I found a picture today of what the lights mean (it wasn't on any of the paperwork I received). If it goes in again, I will see what it says.

 

[murphy]

Are you saying that you removed the 6-20 plug and installed a 14-50 plug?  If that is the case there should not be any connection to the center flat blade (neutral).  The 6-20 that comes installed on the unit has two hot wires and a building ground wire.  For future reference Tesla doesn't use the neutral either.

 

Putting smaller wires in a 14-50 can be a problem.  Were ferrules put on the wires to increase their size and provide more copper to clamp down on?

 

If you just had the red light, that means you have power but the car has not commanded the EVSE to connect power to the car or has requested a shutdown for some reason.

 

Are you using Value charging?  There have been a lot of reports of that not working properly.  I've never used Value charging because my electric rate is the same 24 hours per day.

[duanehaas]

Are you saying that you removed the 6-20 plug and installed a 14-50 plug?  If that is the case there should not be any connection to the center flat blade (neutral).  The 6-20 that comes installed on the unit has two hot wires and a building ground wire.  For future reference Tesla doesn't use the neutral either.

 

Putting smaller wires in a 14-50 can be a problem.  Were ferrules put on the wires to increase their size and provide more copper to clamp down on?

 

If you just had the red light, that means you have power but the car has not commanded the EVSE to connect power to the car or has requested a shutdown for some reason.

 

Are you using Value charging?  There have been a lot of reports of that not working properly.  I've never used Value charging because my electric rate is the same 24 hours per day.

 

No, the unit I purchased has a 3 foot extension adapter that converts the regular plug (I can't remember if it is L6-30 or L14-30) to a 14-50 plug. 

 

It is a direct run from the breaker box to the outlet. No ferrules were used. 

 

I purchased 6/3 (2 hots, neutral, and ground) wire to install a 14-50R on my wall. It is against code to install the 14-50 without the neutral even if Tesla doesn't use it in their charging system.

 

I have all 4 lights on the unit come on when there is a fault. I just can't remember if any of them are blinking or not. 

 

I have never used the value charging as mine is that same as yours (same rate all the time).

[Timewellspent]

How long is the cord?  Do you have it wound up tight or loose from the EVSE to your car?  If all four lights are on and the unit is overheating making sure the cord is unwound might help if that is the issue.

[Russael]

I'm guessing the unit doesn't auto-reset.  I have (a now old) Leviton 16a EVSE that if it encounters a fault, it'll set a random timer (I believe between 1 and 5 minutes) and will try to resume on its own.  I've seen it fault as soon as I plug it in... I'll hear two clicks of the charging relay as it goes on and immediately back off... and after a bit of time, will kick back on and stay there.

[murphy]

I'm guessing the unit doesn't auto-reset.  I have (a now old) Leviton 16a EVSE that if it encounters a fault, it'll set a random timer (I believe between 1 and 5 minutes) and will try to resume on its own.  I've seen it fault as soon as I plug it in... I'll hear two clicks of the charging relay as it goes on and immediately back off... and after a bit of time, will kick back on and stay there.

Are you connecting the J1772 to the car before you plug the EVSE into the wall?  That will invoke the power failure timer which can wait up to 30 minutes.  That timer is to prevent all of the EVSEs in the area from trying to start at the same time when power is restored.  Plug the EVSE into wall power first and wait for the power on self test to complete before connecting to the car.  There are pictures on the side of the Leviton 16 amp EVSE that show the light patterns for the power on sequence.

[duanehaas]

I'm guessing the unit doesn't auto-reset.  I have (a now old) Leviton 16a EVSE that if it encounters a fault, it'll set a random timer (I believe between 1 and 5 minutes) and will try to resume on its own.  I've seen it fault as soon as I plug it in... I'll hear two clicks of the charging relay as it goes on and immediately back off... and after a bit of time, will kick back on and stay there.

 

No, when I come down in the mornings or afternoons it still shows the fault and I have to unplug from the wall and then plug it back in to reset the fault. 

 

How long is the cord?  Do you have it wound up tight or loose from the EVSE to your car?  If all four lights are on and the unit is overheating making sure the cord is unwound might help if that is the issue.

Cord is a total of 27-28'. I think 25' for the normal charger and then a 2-3' extension for the 14-50 plug. 

 

The cord is ran behind my work bench where I have it hanging on a nail. I roll up the cord when not charging and hang it on a little hanger off the front of my bench. When charging it is fully stretched out. 

Edited April 7, 2018 at 07:20 PM by duanehaas

[Russael]

Are you connecting the J1772 to the car before you plug the EVSE into the wall?  That will invoke the power failure timer which can wait up to 30 minutes.  That timer is to prevent all of the EVSEs in the area from trying to start at the same time when power is restored.  Plug the EVSE into wall power first and wait for the power on self test to complete before connecting to the car.  There are pictures on the side of the Leviton 16 amp EVSE that show the light patterns for the power on sequence.

 

No, the EVSE is always plugged in, and yes, I'm aware of the random interval timer which also invokes after a power failure.  That is not the case here.  It's plug in, click, click, fault light illuminates for a bit, and then auto-resets, and then begins charging.

[openair]

I have the same issue my EVI branded Dousida charger.  I discovered that, in my case anyway, it is actually related to the charger software not properly handling the pausing and resuming of charging related to value charging setup within the vehicle.  I have disabled value charging, now manually plug it in when value charging would have started and have not had another instance of finding it not charged the next morning.  EVI offered to exchange mine, at my shipping expense, but since you're also having this issue I'm glad i didn't bother.

Edited April 15, 2018 at 12:47 PM by openair

[duanehaas]

I have the same issue my EVI branded Dousida charger.  I discovered that, in my case anyway, it is actually related to the charger software not properly handling the pausing and resuming of charging related to value charging setup within the vehicle.  I have disabled value charging, now manually plug it in when value charging would have started and have not had another instance of finding it not charged the next morning.  EVI offered to exchange mine, at my shipping expense, but since you're also having this issue I'm glad i didn't bother.

Thank you for the update! 

 

I have actually had 4-5 days of fault free charging on mine. I turned off the preconditioning function, as well as cleaned up the ground wire to ground rod outside my meter base. A satellite installer had tapped into it with some half rigged wiring that might have been causing a bad connection. We'll see if it keeps working correctly!

[Frugal]

I've been running into this same issue, I have two of these chargers and only the one plugged into the 14-50 has the issue. it is very intermittent and annoying. would not recommend these chargers to anyone in the future