[dye46]

Car has been charging just find for a few years off of this outlet.

Now, starting to get this failure more often than not, especially when the car requests 12 amps.

Bottom red LEDs blinking steadily.

Top green LEDs blinking a sequence: 3 rightmost LEDS blink at the same time, followed by 2 blinks of the first rightmost LED. Brief pause, then repeats.

I have a youtube video of this, but cannot post as I have zero posts.

As an engineer, I see the green LEDs blinking to be trying to say something...and error code.

The code could be interpreted simply as 3 - 1 - 1.

A computer geek like me would say the LEDs are binary digits, represented as decimal 7 - 1 - 1.

Has anyone else seen anything like this, or have access to documentation that says what the green LED sequence means?

This last time I had to do multiple unplug/replug sequences to get charging again.

--Ken

PS yeah the bungee holding the charger up could use replacing, I know...

 

[Steverino]

http://gm-volt.com/forum/showthread.php?15259-Voltec-120v-and-240v-Hang-Tags Image #5.

That, or there is a little man inside sending an SOS...

 

[edk-austin]

Post the text of the youtube URL.
My 2014 blinks the red LED 3 times when (I think) it detects a low voltage condition.
There are many different EVSEs, each no doubt with their own blink codes.
GM just states blink when it detects an error.

The earlier units will blink red when the ground is missing.
The 2013/2014 will be steady red with missing ground.

 

[dye46]

Thanks. Here is the text after the youtube URL: watch?v=068PyRQvbt0

The sequence has to mean something, but what? None of the hang tags cover what I am seeing.

 

[dye46]

Thanks, the tags do not cover 3-1-1, dash-dot-dot or anything other than "blinking".

In Morse Code, dash-dot-dot is 'D'.

In 5 bit US teletype character set, 00111 00001 00001 is "MTT" (or "UEE" if you consider the rightmost bit most significant).

I posted the youtube ID in my reply to the next response....what is the little man trying to say?

 

[Steverino]

Never seen that. It's either a fault detected or it's desperately saying, "I'm totally f'd up!"

Try plugging in to another outlet. Also try charging the car at a free public station like a Kohl's store just to rule out the car.

You could try opening it up and looking inside, or ask the dealer to replace it.

 

[dye46]

I did test the ESVE on a neighbor's outlet, and everything was fine.

I posted this video/question to the Facebook Volt Owners list. 6 years ago, a Volt early-adopter somehow came across an Excel chart from Lear, the ESVE manufacturer. He thought it might be of use to me. Here is a PDF of the chart:

Lear-Charger-Error-Codes.pdf

The "3,1,1" error code on the chart decodes to "No protective earth connection or protective earth connection is greater than 2K Ohms".

My house was rewired in the '60s or '70s, with 2 wire armored ("BX") cable. The 2 wires are inside a flexible metal armor sheath, the sheath providing the earth/ground connection (this was up to code for the time, but no longer is). The outlet tester I used said everything was fine, but I started by noticing that the resistance readings from neutral to earth were very high at the outlet. I examined the house's system from the service entry to the distribution panel, all was hunky dory...right up to where the BX cable connected to the outside outlet box. The screw clamp on the box wasn't making a good connection to the cable. I fixed this and all was back to normal charging.

So...the ESVE *was* sending an error code, and the chart did exactly point to the specific error. Steverino, can we get the video and PDF chart uploaded to the site somewhere, probably in the charging/hangtags resources?