On 9/6/13 4:42 AM, Bruce EVangel Parmenter wrote:
[ref
http://electric-vehicle-discussion-list.413529.n4.nabble.com/EVLN-Nissan-Expanding-Global-EV-Lineup-To-Five-Models-tp4665026p4665033.html
... future Nissan electric cars will use inductive charging systems
which allow the cars to be charged wirelessly.
The real proposition is in the city - where you dare not leave anything that the
punks down the street can steal.<
]
And people thought I was over cautious. Actually it is wise for drivers
to be careful to not give an opportunity for someone to disable their
plugin from charging. The last thing a driver needs is to come back and
find their L1 EVSE has been stolen, or their cord swiped, or to come
into an EV spot to find the EVSE has been attacked by vandals.
In my early-early days of pushing the envelope, before there was such a
huge amount of public EVSE to tap into, I would find outlets, & the
older-generation EVSE damaged. I would have to plan to have enough range
left in my pack when I arrived at a known charging site to still make it
to the alternate site if I found it damaged.
How often did this happen? Often enough to be a driver hardship: show up
and the EVSE is down because of malicious human behavior. A long time
ago, there were two AVCON EVSE installed behind a Walmart in the
northern Sacramento area. The site was so convenient, that I planed to
use it again on the following 320+ mile trip from Silicon Valley to
Sacramento and back. But on the following trip, I found the AVCON EVSE
had been attacked (it looked like kids took a metal bat to it). One of
the couplers was busted wide open, and the other was damaged. I was able
to trick the later into giving me a charge, but I avoided that site in
the future as no one was fixing these EVSE (those were pre- Fed Gov.
funding of public EVSE).
Here is a pic of a TAL 2000 with a broken spi handle:
http://www.recargo.com/system/site_photos/1491/big/userUpload.jpg
http://www.evchargernews.com/photos/93023_2b.jpg
The design of the TAL has the paddle out front where any big van or
truck can come into the space and purposely bash into it.
Here is a J1772 coupler that has been busted up:
http://www.plugincars.com/why-baltimores-vandalized-charging-stations-have-taken-too-long-fix-127614.html
http://www.plugincars.com/sites/default/files/WaterStChargePoint02%20copy.jpg
Recently after the BBC TopGear fiasco of them purposely try to
deceivingly show the Tesla did not have the range, another TG episode
mentioned:
http://electric-vehicle-discussion-list.413529.n4.nabble.com/EVLN-BBC-s-TG-Won-t-10-year-old-boys-just-go-around-unplugging-EVs-td4364660.html
“I was wondering,” May mused, “when, in the future when we’re all
driving electric cars, as they all tell us we will, the cities are full
of these charging points, won’t 10-year-old boys just go around
unplugging cars, because that’s what we would have done when I was 10.”
I have had this happen to me. Which had me learn to make it a habit to
go back and check on my charge every half hour to ensure my cord(s) were
still in place and my S10 Blazer EV still charging. This repeated effort
seemed a bit nuts to everyone else, but its what you had to do when you
really-really need a charge when out in the middle of nowhere.
So, its a fact that humans do bad things, and so bad things are going to
happen to our beloved public EVSE. But is the inductive EVSE really
'that' vandal proof?
The original newswire in the thread (above) as about Nissan's inductive
efforts, see:
http://www.nissan-global.com/EN/TECHNOLOGY/OVERVIEW/wcs.html
http://www.nissan-global.com/EN/TECHNOLOGY/OVERVIEW/charging.html
http://www.nissan-global.com/JP/TECHNOLOGY/FILES/2010/07/f4c4d5aceaf480.jpg
http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/alternative-fuel/electric/2014-infiniti-ev-to-debut-wireless-inductive-charging-system
http://www.popularmechanics.com/cm/popularmechanics/images/wp/Inductive-Charging-1111-mdn.jpg
And the poster referenced to:
http://qualcommhalo.com/index.php/technology.html?id=36#technology
http://qualcommhalo.com/images/articles/technology-architecture-1.png
There is also the following to know about:
http://inhabitat.com/evatran-now-accepting-pre-orders-for-plugless-power-wireless-ev-charging-system/
http://assets.inhabitat.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2011/12/plugless-power-4-537x365.jpg
The whole idea of having an EVSE that does not need a human to connect
it (other than to drive the vehicle into the space correctly, and that
make be automatically taken care of in the future with
robotic-self-driving plugins) seems more vandal-proof.
OK it all seems straight forward, but what if a local yayhoo takes a
ran-over-flattened can
http://image.shutterstock.com/display_pic_with_logo/1325/1325,1206898877,3/stock-photo-flattened-and-cubed-metal-and-aluminum-cans-awaiting-transport-to-the-recycling-plant-image-can-be-10928440.jpg
and sticks it to the top surface with their chewing gum?
The metal would disrupt, stop, or slow the magnetic transfer of power to
the plugin, right?
How much of a difference would there be if the can were aluminum or
steel/bi-metal?
Would the entire surface have to be covered to have an impact?
Looking at the Nissan inductive unit on the ground (above URLs), wiring
that is feeding the unit is exposed. Vandals could easily damage those.
To be a good selling point, inductive EVSE should to be designed to
deter vandals.
Anyone have any views on this?
{brucedp.150m.com}
...
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=yayhoo
Hi Bruce,
Excellent comments as always.
The standards for the inductive charging take into account metal objects
both prior to charging and during. So yes, it is possible for some
Vandal (isn't that a northern German??? ;) ) to stop the power flow.
On the other hand, almost all modern cars have the ability to send a
message to your phone indicating that the charge stopped early, or the
charging is done. So no need to run out every half hour to check. :)
Cheers!
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