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Hi Craig, which ones do you mean?
I used the CCS at Grantham about 3 weeks ago and it worked ok. It was a station with the original on-screen menu so had not been updated.
I recall a software update at Leicester forest East, M1 southbound which rendered the station useless.
 
There is lots of discussion about this on the Speakev website. Eccentricity seems to be blaming BMW, and they are suggesting owners should revert back to their dealer for an upgrade (when most cars have already been upgraded). Other posters are pointing out that Rapid CCS charging is working well in other countries for BMW 1 owners but not in the UK.
 
I think that you will find that they do not have live status reporting - yet. Zap Map Live seems to give the latest info. I know that EC has been rolling out an upgrade to their DBT chargers. There have been issues though post the upgrade. Difficult to complain when the energy provided is free but inconvenient from a journey planning point of view.
 
The CCS protocol utilizes several pins in the 'main' part of the connector for signaling and adding the DC fast charge only adds two pins to the connector, verses the CHADEMO system which has lots more, and uses what is closer to a low-voltage Ethernet control signal. That signal is an ac carrier imposed on a dc signal line in the range of 20MHz. If the plug does not make good contact with those signal lines, it could cause the system to fail to initialize. It seems the plug chosen for Europe has more of these issues than that selected for the USA and Canada. The J1772 plug has a mechanical button activated latch at the top of the plug, and the weight of the plug tends then to help ensure proper alignment and thus contact. It does not appear that the plug used in Europe has a similar mechanical latch which would allow the weight of the connector to have more impact on keeping everything lined up. As others have said, sometimes, all it takes is to relieve the pressure on the plug slightly for the unit to then communicate properly with the i3, and then, things can proceed correctly. As I understand it, there was a big controversy over what plug to select, and with different local rules, it was a tough sell...I'm not sure you guys got the best option, but it's a done deal for now. The Euro plug spec ended up with internal shutters to protect the high-voltage pins from inadvertent contact. The protocol and interlocks in the EVSE prevent there being any high voltage there at all until the plug is fully inserted, so it seems like a third layer of redundancy, whereas the USA J1772 spec has only two - you can't remove the connector until you press the release button, and that breaks the interlock signal which drops out the high voltage contactor. In the Euro plug, as soon as you pull the plug out, it closes shutters over the pins in addition to breaking the interlocks and thus causing the contactor to open.
 
Themass31 said:
I leave the 42 to head north and when I look on the Eco site they are all red until you get to Darlington.

I did try to use the Trowel services the one time but it was out of order, your options then are meadow hall (during opening hours) and Wetherby , which worked well last year.

I'm heading up to Middlesbrough on Saturday so will also try these stations.
 
Hengus said:
I think that you will find that they do not have live status reporting - yet. Zap Map Live seems to give the latest info. I know that EC has been rolling out an upgrade to their DBT chargers. There have been issues though post the upgrade. Difficult to complain when the energy provided is free but inconvenient from a journey planning point of view.

I am complaining as the roll out of CCS is slow, few and doesn't work. Many a time I have literally frozen to death at 1am, wasting 45 minutes to activate charging. I become quite annoyed when I see a Nissan leaf roll up, plug in and charge immediately without any issues.
I don't think BMW are pushing the CCS facility either which is disappointing.
 
My end location is Redcar to see the oldies and every time I look on there website it says everyone on that route is showing red until you hit Darlington but that's no good to me, luckily my wife doesn't get her's for another few weeks so hopefully they will be sorted by time we ever take the leap to traveling up there on electric.
 
Hengus said:
There is lots of discussion about this on the Speakev website. Eccentricity seems to be blaming BMW, and they are suggesting owners should revert back to their dealer for an upgrade (when most cars have already been upgraded). Other posters are pointing out that Rapid CCS charging is working well in other countries for BMW 1 owners but not in the UK.
This doesn't explain why the M1 and A1M chargers in one particular area of W Yorks seem to be permanently u/s. I've tweeted ElecHighway more than once to ask when various ones are due to be fixed without getting a reply.

Only recently Elechighway tweeted that Woodall was due for attention the next day but then it disappeared from the schedule and was still red on the map. I tried to use A1M Wetherby a few days after my car arrived in Oct and it was u/s and I believe it has been ever since. Tried to use Ferrybridge (which is a pretty strategic location accessible from both A1M and M62) a couple of weeks later when it was live on the map, it was u/s but hadn't been reported. It's still u/s.

Don't get me wrong I wholeheartedly agree with the point that they are free but the additional frustration for me is that this area seems to have fallen off the radar and also I'm an Ecotricity customer for electric, gas and FIT and joined them partly because of their commitment to the electric highway.
 
BoMW said:
Themass31 said:
I leave the 42 to head north and when I look on the Eco site they are all red until you get to Darlington.

I did try to use the Trowel services the one time but it was out of order, your options then are meadow hall (during opening hours) and Wetherby , which worked well last year.

I'm heading up to Middlesbrough on Saturday so will also try these stations.
Meadowhall has been u/s both times I've tried to use it - a paper 'out of use' sign taped on so not an i3 issue.
 
RJSATLBA said:
BoMW said:
Themass31 said:
I leave the 42 to head north and when I look on the Eco site they are all red until you get to Darlington.

I did try to use the Trowel services the one time but it was out of order, your options then are meadow hall (during opening hours) and Wetherby , which worked well last year.

I'm heading up to Middlesbrough on Saturday so will also try these stations.
Meadowhall has been u/s both times I've tried to use it - a paper 'out of use' sign taped on so not an i3 issue.

Npower is working on fixing the fault with their Meadowhall CCS rapid Charger.
They've put an alert on zapmap about this.
 
I wonder if it is a poor design, flaky input power, or something else that is causing these things to not work right. In the USA, BMW has promoted a 24Kw unit verses the 50Kw that the i3 can use to maximum advantage, partly because they are less expensive (more people may decide to install them), and less expensive requirements for the power input. There are some 50Kw units installed, but none around where I live, so I'm somewhat jealous, even if yours don't currently work, at least they are making an effort! While we use a different plug, the signaling protocol is identical, so, functionally, the only difference on this is the plug - everything else in the car is the same (at least in this circuit).
 
jadnashuanh said:
I wonder if it is a poor design, flaky input power, or something else that is causing these things to not work right. In the USA, BMW has promoted a 24Kw unit verses the 50Kw that the i3 can use to maximum advantage, partly because they are less expensive (more people may decide to install them), and less expensive requirements for the power input. There are some 50Kw units installed, but none around where I live, so I'm somewhat jealous, even if yours don't currently work, at least they are making an effort! While we use a different plug, the signaling protocol is identical, so, functionally, the only difference on this is the plug - everything else in the car is the same (at least in this circuit).

Unfortunately BMW is not promoting that charger, The only thing they are promoting, is ChargeNow.
 
Today has been a prime example of ecotricity' failures. I travelled to Liverpool hoping to charge up at Knutsford CCS but no, card reading error. I then headed for IKEA Warrington CCS but no, cut out after 15 seconds. On my return, Knutsford CCS south bound
Was completely switche'd off so no chance of a charge but most annoying is that I informed Ecotricity on the 19th JAN that these stations were out of order and yet nothing has been done. The ikea Warrington has not worked since I first tried it in September 2014!
 
Free to join and free to use. Makes you wonder why they take so long to fix them. ;)

It actually becuase is not a simple turn up press some buttons on the menu and swap out a circuit board. They need the manufacturer to design new parts, build and test them and then they can schedule an upgrade programme.

The latest fix rollout just got cancelled as it had varying levels of success in the first few units they updated. No point spending time & money upgrading if it still doesnt work.

Just glad i bought a REX as since I ordered my commute changed from 150 miles down on a Monday same back on a Friday to now doing 110 to 120 miles a day round trip depending on which route I take. I'd do the louger route if Corley North CCS was working on the M6, but it's been down for weeks. So best bet is the 7 minutes slower but 9 miles shorter A5.
 
Out of my 16000 miles I think that 80% is by using Rex. Clearly not the objective when purchasing a £42000 i3.

Another waste of time experience today while driving up to Middlesbrough.
Ecotricity CCS station at Ferrybridge services still out of order but the truth is that it has never been "in" order. Ever since the fanfare installation the CCS has never worked. I continued driving up to Wetherby and again CCS out of order. I last reported this in December and yet nothing has been done. For a change I plugged in to the AC for 35 minutes. Connection was swift and I managed to bank 19 miles but the station on screen menu displayed 0.0Kw .

Tomorrow I'm heading off to London and will be checking into Leicester Forest, Newport Pagnell and London Gateway, all on the M1. I shan't be holding my breath.
 
let us know how it goes on Sunday. I need London Gateway on Monday.
Have you tried selecting Chademo at the first opportunity, followed by CCS, and repeating that sequence until CCS works?

Apparently @dbtcev has mucked things up. Worth a tweet if you still get nothing.
 
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