Martin's passionate writing style makes for an interesting read sprinkled with colorful with UK terms and slang (no doubt Martin has to put up with non-UK terms & slang from other English-speaking countries' posts). I hope Martin with correct my attempt at translating (& hopefully bringing a little clarity to us foreign blokes) ...
Vharge ... seems to be an i-pod charging term W/bound = west bound M25/M4 highway junction http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carriageway AA = AAA in the U.S. http://www.theaa.com/ ... ice Auto-club/tow-truck service BP = local petrol station brand http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~kemmer/Words04/usage/slang_cockney.html Adam and Eve = believe ... as in "would you Adam and Eve it?" Fast charging term in the UK = level-3 quick charging in the U.S. (although the media incorrectly uses quick and fast EVSE terms interchangeably. Fast charging in the U.S. is level-2) ... Looking at Ecotricity's FAQ wasn't that much help for Martin's charging problems: http://www.ecotricity.co.uk/for-the-road/frequently-asked-questions ... Attempting to retrace martin's EV trip route starting with the first charge stop: Nissan headquarters @maple cross The Rivers Office Park, Denham Way, Maple Cross, Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire WD3 9YS Reading services off the M4 highway http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reading_services http://motorwayservicesonline.co.uk/Reading Membury Services off the M4 highway http://motorwayservicesonline.co.uk/Membury Leigh Delamere services off the M4 highway http://motorwayservicesonline.co.uk/Leigh_Delamere Then plugging those stops into Google maps gives a route map: http://goo.gl/maps/uLE2A Martin's trip gives a 'Real iMiev/Ion' L3 charging experience. Compare it to the media's http://electric-vehicle-discussion-list.413529.n4.nabble.com/EVLN-Llewellyn-s-L3-EV-trip-from-London-to-Edinburgh-in-just-10-hrs-tp4667612.html EVLN: Llewellyn's L3 EV trip from London to Edinburgh in just 10 hrs {brucedp.150m.com} - On Fri, Jan 24, 2014, at 03:22 PM, Martin Winlow wrote: > So, I was on a trip W/bound on the M25/M4 today and had Chademo'ed 40 > miles after leaving home with a full charge to 80% at Nissans HQ at Maple > Cross, no issues. >Got to Reading Services and had to get round to the E/b > side as W/b Chademo was U/s, got the manager out to kindly open the > access barrier, connected as usual to ecotricity's Chademo and got a > ground fault error. Tried again, same thing. 5 miles remaining. What to > do? >Managed to get thru to ecotricity's help line who suggested going to > Nissan in Reading but the post code (correct) takes you to the wrong > place and twice round a busy dual carriageway before finding it (bear > right at the BP and it's next to Audi). They were helpful and let me > charge BUT despite it starting up ok, it kicked me out with a 'can > receiving error'. Tried the button to resume and it did but kept on > giving the same error after 10-30 seconds of charging. >Thinking I'm well > stuck now with no miles at all, I spoke to the management again who > said it was working fine for their Leaf, that morning. So tried ringing > Peugeot who could only offer the AA. >Went back to the charger and tried > again and it charged for about one minute and then gave same error. > Noticed that each time i did this the car was charging a percent or two. > By the time AA turned up (saying they thought it was a flat ICE battery > and therefore no help at all) I was at 50% having been at Nissan for an > hour. > > Then, after another few resets it continued without error. Believe this > is due to the much lower current being drawn by now (50A compared with > 120A when empty). So AA cleared off, I continued charging normally to 80% > and then again to 85%, then drove on to Membury Services. Charged > perfectly normally on the Chademo there. By now raining significantly. > > Off to Leigh Delamere services. Guess what, again after initially > starting to charge, the ecotricity chademo kicked me out again with a > ground fault error again. >By now it was raining quite hard. Ecotricity > help line not answering anymore. Gave up trying to get where I was > going, another 60 miles, and decided to divert to sister - 15 miles away > but only 10 miles range! > > Managed to get to other side of services (nightmare) and, would you Adam > and Eve it, Chademo works perfectly normally. Quick 10 mins fast > charging and off to sisters in time for dinner. > > So, convinced problem is not with car as surely it would either charge > normally or not at all (?) but equally convinced chargers should have a > canopy to keep rain out of 300+V, 120A connections and that they should > get fixed quicker! > > Not very impressed and realistically unlikely to trust ecotricity fast > charge network again for a long time. > > Anyone else had any similar experiences? - -- http://www.fastmail.fm - mmm... Fastmail... _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
