Home charger stopped working!

[Woodbutcher]

Hi PH'ers,
I'm looking for some help with our home charger that has stopped working.
I think Frimley and Ruggedscotty might have the knowledge I need, but happy to get help from anyone else 'in the know'.

Have a non-tethered Rolec charger at our house. The charger is about 8 yrs old and was fitted free by the same guy who fitted our PV system a year or two earlier. There was some sort of grant available at the time, he installed in the garage and the charger was never used.

Fast forward about 8 yrs. We bought the missus a Mini Electric last year, the charger was in the wrong place so I bought 5 mtrs of ev ultra and relocated the charger to the front wall of the garage and it has worked OK since about October 2020. There is a flashing blue neon on the front to let you see it is functioning and on stand by.

Wife charged her car yesterday no problem. When she unplugged the cable, the blue neon light stopped flashing.
Tried plugging the car back in and nothing!

I've checked the live terminals. Power is getting into the unit. It is 'live' on the input and output from BCO breaker. I've tried the test function and resetting the BCO. The breaker 'holds'. There is power from the BCO to the input of the Rolec EV32A 3P contactor but no power on the output side.

Should there be power on the output side or will this only become live when the car is plugged in and there is a 'load'?
The contactors appear to be about £15.00 - could it be this?

I welcome any constructive (polite) suggestions.
Thanks in advance.

[Cabbage Patch]

The Speak EV forum might be a better place to ask. I know there’s been lots of discussion about burnt out RCBO's on there, which is apparently a common fault on older Rolec units. I guess you’d have noticed this though if you had the cover off.

[Woodbutcher]

Thankyou.

That might be a good idea. Strangely, its now working again, light flashing normally, etc. To my ignorant perspective, that eliminates defective wiring, burnt out RCBO (there were no scorch marks on it).

Frankly, I'm a bit at a loss.
I recognise that these Rolec units get mixed reviews. Some have them for years without any problems, others have nothing but trouble with them.

I'm tempted to contact Rolec direct. It must be worth a phone call.
Cheers

[Chris-S]

You should see the blue light if the unit has power, and the internal breaker is OK. That light is fed from the comms module in the charger that talks to the car and controls the contractor in the charger. Most likely is early signs of failure of the RCBO in the Rolec I’d think. The fact it came good after some fiddling kind of supports that.

[Woodbutcher]

Thanks ChrisS,
Very strange. It 'came good' after fiddling but not until the next day.

I intend to speak with Rolec when I get the chance to see if they have any ideas.

In truth, the unit does not seem that complicated and only two separate major components. The contactor (about £15) and the RCBO (I haven't priced yet), and both of these look like they can be changed in a couple of minutes.

Thanks again.

[anonymous-user]

You'll normally hear the main contactor closing with a click or thunk. Basically that contactor is normally open, you plug in the car, the car and the charger do a bit of a handshake over the control pilot line, and the car basically says to the charger "ok, i'm ready give me power" at which point the charger shuts the contactor. This handshake takes a couple of seconds. So check the charger has power from the mains, plug car in and listen carefully, and you should hear that clunk. If you don't then either the contactor has failed or the handshake has failed.

We call these AC chargers er, chargers, but really they are just switches, the actual rectification and charging control is done by the On Board Charger (OBC), and the charger as most people call it is actually just know as "Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment" (EVSE) and really all it does is to connect power in a safe way from your domestic wiring to the cars charging port (and tell the car what the maximum amount of current it is allowed to pull is)

[Woodbutcher]

Thankyou Max torque,

Well its gone off again - no flashing blue neon. The instructions suggest that the neon should change to flashing red or static red to indicate a fault, but the neon is not illuminated at all.

I spoke with Rolec's technical helpline today. Explained what was happening and the lady suggested I get an electrician to call her during working hours, and she will talk him through a fault finding procedure with a multi meter to check the various readings. She did suggest that the fault sounded like the Mode Free controller. They are available for about £70.00.

This is, as you say, the component that 'shakes hands' with the car.

Many thanks for your input.

[superpp]

this is where Rolec's are good, all internals are standard replaceable items.
most chargers are destined for land fill when something goes.

[Woodbutcher]

That's an interesting point. Rolec chargers do seem to come in for a bit of criticism, but perhaps they're not as bad as people make out.

Ours has started working again. Not been touched, but blue neon is flashing 'ready' status. Very strange!

[ruggedscotty]

There isnt much to add thats been said here already.

The supply to your house could be an issue as sometimes this can cause the charger to think there is a fault. Im sure they will be able to rtest this and sort it out for you.

[ruggedscotty]

https://www.speakev.com/threads/problem-with-rolec...

[Woodbutcher]

Thanks for the link, very interesting.
It's working OK at the moment and will have to keep an eye on it, but clearly there is something not quite right.

Many thanks