Thoughts on the Charge Station Pro...

[VTbuckeye]

Reducing the charge rate to 64 amps should not make a huge difference in total charge time 90 percent charge 117kwh will be about 8 hours versus about 6 hours (ignoring charging losses). And it will be even closer if the 80 amp charging gets paused periodically due to excessive heat. If the evse can not sustain 80amp then it should not be sold/marketed as an 80amp EVSE. If they said that it is a 64amp evse, fine, but saying that it is 80amp, when it can not consistently deliver in real world settings is false advertising.

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[sotek2345]

I don't think I can answer that question. Should it be safe? Yes. But will the Siemens software cause problems? That I can't tell. The unit is sealed, it's black except for the gray bezel (which will fall off before a year is up if it's outside), and direct sunlight is pretty effective at heating things up. To clarify, I don't think the electrical characteristics of the appliance will cause problems, but direct sunlight on a black plastic chamber with no ventilation holes may.

My opinion - and purely opinion at this point without any empirical evidence - is that the unit isn't constructed to last in four-seasons exterior installs. I'm sure it will work initially, and it's a sealed enclosure. It is built with even less sturdiness than those commercial chargers you find out in the wild that no longer have bezels, have plastic pieces all broken out of them, etc. I would definitely not trust it on a pole in the middle of a driveway - perhaps on the north side of a building under eaves or an overhang it'd last longer and operate cooler, although I'd imagine the plastic will be incredibly brittle in colder weather.

North side under an awning is where it will go, so no direct so or precipitation. Definitely exposed to the winter cold though.

 

[RainorshinePNW]

Reducing the charge rate to 64 amps should not make a huge difference in total charge time 90 percent charge 117kwh will be about 8 hours versus about 6 hours (ignoring charging losses). And it will be even closer if the 80 amp charging gets paused periodically due to excessive heat. If the evse can not sustain 80amp then it should not be sold/marketed as an 80amp EVSE. If they said that it is a 64amp evse, fine, but saying that it is 80amp, when it can not consistently deliver in real world settings is false advertising.

I have mine limited to 60 amps, and am still getting at least one error over the course of a 4-5 hour charge. I've not dropped much below 50% before charging back up to 90 the last week or two.

 

[FlasherZ]

North side under an awning is where it will go, so no direct so or precipitation. Definitely exposed to the winter cold though.

From an operational point of view, it'll probably be fine then. From a cosmetic point of view, I don't know how long it will last, and I'd be willing to bet that if your bezel fits anything like mine, you'll lose it within a year.

I'm considering using sealing self-tapping screws to hold the bezel in place, because mine just keeps popping off with the slightest bump (plugging the charge cable into the holder on front makes it pop off, no matter how I snap it on).

 

[FlasherZ]

Reducing the charge rate to 64 amps should not make a huge difference in total charge time 90 percent charge 117kwh will be about 8 hours versus about 6 hours (ignoring charging losses). And it will be even closer if the 80 amp charging gets paused periodically due to excessive heat. If the evse can not sustain 80amp then it should not be sold/marketed as an 80amp EVSE. If they said that it is a 64amp evse, fine, but saying that it is 80amp, when it can not consistently deliver in real world settings is false advertising.

That's what most people who were having early problems with Tesla's HPWC were discovering as well. 64 or 72 amps seemed to be more stable on the first-gen HPWC's compared to 80 and worked for most people.

 

[VTbuckeye]

I have mine limited to 60 amps, and am still getting at least one error over the course of a 4-5 hour charge. I've not dropped much below 50% before charging back up to 90 the last week or two.

If they gave me a fcsp delete option, I'd take them up on it and get a clipper creek 64amp evse. The price premium to go to 80amp is high. I already have 30amp EVSEs in the garage, but having a high powered one would be nice for the short turn around times and when all three plugins need charging at once and when the garaged cars don't want to be parked in by a charging car outside.

 

[FlasherZ]

If they gave me a fcsp delete option, I'd take them up on it and get a clipper creek 64amp evse. The price premium to go to 80amp is high. I already have 30amp EVSEs in the garage, but having a high powered one would be nice for the short turn around times and when all three plugins need charging at once and when the garaged cars don't want to be parked in by a charging car outside.

Given my observations and experience, I would do the same, except I'd probably just buy a dedicated Teslatap to keep mounted on a gen 2 HPWC. Many of the HPWC-to-J1772 conversion kits have gone off the market and Tesla no longer sells its J1772 version.

 

[VTbuckeye]

Given my observations and experience, I would do the same, except I'd probably just buy a dedicated Teslatap to keep mounted on a gen 2 HPWC. Many of the HPWC-to-J1772 conversion kits have gone off the market and Tesla no longer sells its J1772 version.

We have no teslas at this time. Our 30amp EVSEs were free from our electric company and we get a small discount to charge from 9pm to 1pm. I have a 2013 clipper creek 20amp evse that still works, but is slow to fill the 75kwh battery in the Volvo xc40 and will be even slower filling a 131kwh battery in the lightning. Rarely will I need to charge that much. Having the capacity is nice, even if you don't use it all the time. It is also more efficient to charge faster when battery conditioning (pumps/cooling/heating) and other bms computers/stuff are running for less time (do you want heaters/AC running to condition the battery for 3 hours or for 9 hours?).

 

[FlasherZ]

Ok, observation number 3: given the failure to connect to FordPass, we are trying with a factory reset and re-initialization. I used their setup app to clear it back to factory settings... during the setup steps for the 2nd time, I must've entered the wrong wireless PSK because my wireless access points are now complaining about bad authentication.

However, there doesn't appear to be a failback mode if you screw up the password. I let it sit for over half an hour, and the original default SSID didn't pop up (like most other devices). So, it appears I'll have to pop the cover and push the factory reset button on the main board to recover it...

 

[Griddlez]

How idiotic would it be to drill a couple holes at the top of the unit to let it breathe inside (assuming it's in a dry area/weather proof area). Hmm.

 

[PiMatrix]

How idiotic would it be to drill a couple holes at the top of the unit to let it breathe inside (assuming it's in a dry area/weather proof area). Hmm.

Not too crazy . As long as you don't mind voiding your warranty which is always my first step when I take apart new purchases.

When I get my car to test that is my current plan, but first I'll put in a wireless thermistor inside the unit and plot the current as function of time to determine best location. My thinking is with some minimal holes located towards top and bottom (with mesh screen to prevent bugs) we can create a chimney effect cooling system which should be very effective due to the large delta T that exists. I don't think holes just at top will be sufficient, you need to get a circulation going.


The backup plan is a small fan wired into the 12V supply drawing air out of the enclosure. Would need to find the best location for this. No car to charge yet so will be a few months until I can test this.

My unit will be inside very dry garage so I'm not concerned on losing NEMA rating. Who knows, by then maybe a recall? Heard that Sunrun will not install chargers until a week after truck is delivered now. They said there is no supply from Ford which I find hard to believe. When I told them I had one ready they didn't know what to do. They were going to hire a local electrician that had never done a HIS or Ford charger. I'm done with them and cancelled.

 

[FlasherZ]

Update: it seems the full factory reset allowed me to go through setup again and this time it connected properly.

Observation: after the Charge Station Pro Setup app does its thing, it will prompt to open up the FordPass app so it can register your station with FordPass. You must wait 5 minutes before you can do this step! MOST IMPORTANTLY, if you click "next" too many times (after seeing "ChargePoint not found!") and get a message that you're locked out for 15 minutes, the charge station cannot connect to the web service that is required to tell Ford your FCSP is online - and it won't retry later... or if it does retry later, it will be well over a day later! For me, even a day later, it still told me ChargePoint not found! when I tried to connect it to FordPass. I think someone else said a few days later, he was able to connect it, but I wasn't willing to wait out a few days for the thing to work - that's horrible experience.

If you have entered the wrong Wi-Fi password and are now prevented from connecting to your FCSP using the setup app, you will need to perform a factory reset using the reset button in the FCSP. This procedure is not documented in the manual and I figured it out on my own. Remove the bezel and then cover of the FCSP (9 screws). In the upper left corner is a red button marked "factory reset"... you will need to push and hold that button until the LED's turn white (15-20 seconds for me). Then you will need to cycle the power to the FCSP (I tried waiting for 15 minutes without power-cycling, but the SSID never showed up) and wait 3-5 minutes for the SSID to show up on your phone. You can then use the Ford Charge Station Pro Setup app to set the device up again.

 

[sotek2345]

Update: it seems the full factory reset allowed me to go through setup again and this time it connected properly.

Observation: after the Charge Station Pro Setup app does its thing, it will prompt to open up the FordPass app so it can register your station with FordPass. You must wait 5 minutes before you can do this step! MOST IMPORTANTLY, if you click "next" too many times (after seeing "ChargePoint not found!") and get a message that you're locked out for 15 minutes, the charge station cannot connect to the web service that is required to tell Ford your FCSP is online - and it won't retry later... or if it does retry later, it will be well over a day later! For me, even a day later, it still told me ChargePoint not found! when I tried to connect it to FordPass. I think someone else said a few days later, he was able to connect it, but I wasn't willing to wait out a few days for the thing to work - that's horrible experience.

If you have entered the wrong Wi-Fi password and are now prevented from connecting to your FCSP using the setup app, you will need to perform a factory reset using the reset button in the FCSP. This procedure is not documented in the manual and I figured it out on my own. Remove the bezel and then cover of the FCSP (9 screws). In the upper left corner is a red button marked "factory reset"... you will need to push and hold that button until the LED's turn white (15-20 seconds for me). Then you will need to cycle the power to the FCSP (I tried waiting for 15 minutes without power-cycling, but the SSID never showed up) and wait 3-5 minutes for the SSID to show up on your phone. You can then use the Ford Charge Station Pro Setup app to set the device up again.

With all of these issues, you can still just not set it up and have it work like a dumb (non wifi enabled ) EVSE right?

 

[FlasherZ]

With all of these issues, you can still just not set it up and have it work like a dumb (non wifi enabled ) EVSE right?

Yes, although connecting it to your FordPass account gives you historical graphs of charging - how many kWh you've drawn per hour in a day, per day in a week, per week in a month, and per month in a year.

You can also set a lower charge current from the app (which is not a substitute for setting the switch in the unit properly!) in case you have a need to reduce the current for whatever reason.

Having the station connected to the network is a prerequisite for the upgrade that will correct the 80A problem, but I don't know if that comes from just having the station on the network or if it also must be connected to your FordPass account. Mine is currently running "2.112.64:0.0:0.0:0.0:0.0"

It's also where you'll find information if you connect it as part of backup power in the home integration system.

 

[LightningMcqueen]

How did you do the Factory reset?

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