Home Level 2 Charger Issues

murphy62

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I have pounded my head against the wall for a week now and am nearing my wit's end. I thought initially that because my electrician didn't ground the outlet to the conduit that my charger wouldn't work when I plugged into 240V. Part of the reason was that my ChargePoint Home Flex wasn't working either. I've literally looked at everything I can possibly think of down to the circuit breaker. I put a Square D Homelite dual-pole 50A breaker in to replace the Siemens one he put in my Square D panel, thinking that there may have been an incompatibility issue. Still no luck. I'm measuring 126V on each lead at the outlet. Does anyone have any ideas what could be happening? I can't live with L1 charging at home.
Is the ground (not neutral) actually connected to earth ground? I have three 240 volt EVSEs from different manufacturers and none of them will work if the ground is not connected.

Note: the charger is in the car. What everyone calls a "charger" is properly called an EVSE (Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment).

You must power the EVSE BEFORE it is connected to the car. If done in the other order there will be a random start delay of up to 30 minutes. This was done so that after a power failure every EVSE connected to the power company does not turn on at the same time when power is restored.
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Steve S.

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yes, later if you get a minute, please try the 20A setting, just select hardwired first. It does not matter if you are plugged into a 50A outlet. The 20A circuit breaker will just prevent MME from asking for more than 16A.

First report said No/Go, but it would be great to get another data point.
I'm another NE Illinois owner that can't charge at 240V with the ChargePoint Home Flex NEMA 6-50. I can charge at 120V with the Ford charge cord.

Changing the settings to 20A and then attempting to charge failed. Plugging in the 120V Ford charge cord then switching to the ChargePoint at 50A and 20A was also unsuccessful.

The electrician who installed the ChargePoint observed that the inside contact points were different than the Ford connector. He suggested that there might not be enough contact to initiate a charge with the ChargePoint. Given that ChargePoint does work for some, I don't think this is the case. As for ComEd, our oven and well are both 240V and haven't experienced any issues.

I'll keep the ChargePoint connected to the vehicle at 20A for now and hope for a OTA software fix.
 

IL_Vet

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I'm another NE Illinois owner that can't charge at 240V with the ChargePoint Home Flex NEMA 6-50. I can charge at 120V with the Ford charge cord.

Changing the settings to 20A and then attempting to charge failed. Plugging in the 120V Ford charge cord then switching to the ChargePoint at 50A and 20A was also unsuccessful.

The electrician who installed the ChargePoint observed that the inside contact points were different than the Ford connector. He suggested that there might not be enough contact to initiate a charge with the ChargePoint. Given that ChargePoint does work for some, I don't think this is the case. As for ComEd, our oven and well are both 240V and haven't experienced any issues.

I'll keep the ChargePoint connected to the vehicle at 20A for now and hope for a OTA software fix.
Hello.

Have you tried charging with the Ford Mobile Charger @ 240V via a 14-50 outlet?

Why did you choose a NEMA 6-50 instead of a NEMA 14-50 ChargePoint Home Flex?

Is your ChargePoint hardwired or plug-in?

Is it possible for you to plug the Ford Mobile Charger into a NEMA 14-50 outlet at your home and see if/how your Mach-E charges?

Use FMC 240V.jpg
 

JSW

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It is so perplexing that some folks can charge on the weekends (but not weekdays), while others can charge intermittently (but not consistently).

At least for me, this confirms there is no issue with the “installation” of the charging station.

Hope this gets solved for y’all sometime soon.
 

louibluey

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@Steve S. thank you for testing 20A. This problem is agonizing for us technical outside observers.

I hope that one of the EV websites, or a trade publication, maybe IEEE or SAE does some journalism on this problem. Ford, this is one that you should not hide, rather fess up and tell us what the issue turns out to be.

If I were there, I think I would look at the waveforms (with proper isolated probes!) on both an oscilloscope, and then in hardware or software, look for distortion and/or line signaling (scope FFT, spectrum analyzer, digital signal analyzer, etc., or an advanced power line analyzer).

If it some kind of power company signaling that is the problem a $200 to $400 industrial filter might do the job (50A to 60A line filters are expensive). Or, I would try to borrow one of those $4k Sola line conditioners, just to confirm that charging works with a line conditioner. If not, it could be the location/time of day/GPS problem.
 


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Is the ground (not neutral) actually connected to earth ground? I have three 240 volt EVSEs from different manufacturers and none of them will work if the ground is not connected.
Yes, that was one of the first things I checked.
 

louibluey

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Has anyone affected by the 240V charging problem tried - Turn off all of the other breakers in the home panel, except for the one 240V outlet for the MME, or hardwired wall charging station breaker? (Turn off all computers and any battery operated uninterruptible power supplies too (UPS)). Turn off anything else electronic in the home, Dish, DirecTV receiver (plug power off, not just turned off), iPads, laptops, maybe even cell phones for this test. Turn off any grid tied solar panels too (the PV AC breaker, I know the panel itself cannot be DC off :).

I just re-read another thread by @machefan (See post #246) where a different problem turned to be an ethernet over power line pair of adapters that was causing a different MME problem.

Just thinking one more thing to rule out is any other possible source of interference or signaling in the home being received and "decoded" by MME.
 
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@kWhpony

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Today is the 4 week mark since I reported my home charging issue shared by others here in IL as well as a handful of other owners elsewhere. Two weeks ago I received direct feedback from Ford they were actively working the issue to determine the best approach to remediate the issue. Also read from a post in the last 2 weeks that a regional Ford technician visited a homeowners site to assess their residential power delivery.

Earlier this morning I contacted my local service department to reach back out to his escalation path for an update. Just over an hour later, received a call back from my service contact that an OTA is planned to remediate the issue. I'm adding a reminder to my calendar to request another update in early May if an OTA has not yet been released.
 

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After the OTA update I can charge sometimes from our 240v now. I don't see any logic to it. I have charged during the week during peak and on the weekends. The last couple of days it hasn't charged at all from the 240v. Seems like the fordpass and OTA update did something but for sure not a true fix.
 

Steve S.

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Has anyone affected by the 240V charging problem tried - Turn off all of the other breakers in the home panel, except for the one 240V outlet for the MME, or hardwired wall charging station breaker?

REPLY (For some reason I can't reply with white background)

Turned off all breakers except the 240V/50A charging outlet. No luck.

However I purchased a NEMA 6-50 to NEMA 14-50 adaptor and can now charge at 240V with the Ford Mobile EVSE. I tried switching back and forth between the Ford Mobile and the ChargePoint set at 50A, 40A, and 20A without success.

I had an on-line chat with Ford Customer Service yesterday and someone is suppose to call back.

Next step will be to contact ChargePoint and ask if they have any suggestions.
 
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jparduhn70

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I decided to just plug the ChargePoint Flex into the car last night and see what happened after reading many posts about the intermittent nature of 240V charging. I was sitting in the car cleaning it up, when about 10:20pm CT, I hear the louvers start to open, and voila, it starts to charge. This was the first time it ever worked here in Aurora since I brought her home on 2/10. I'm hoping that there is a permanent fix for this soon, but just seeing it work for a change brightened up my day and I wanted to share the news.

Ford Mustang Mach-E Home Level 2 Charger Issues 1618750162555
 

Steve S.

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I talked live with Ray C. with ChargePoint Support yesterday who said they were unaware of any MME issues. After doing a factory reset on his end with no results, he advised returning it and trying another unit. I'm going to do that but hold off ordering another until others report permanent resolutions to this issue. If I can live with the Ford Mobile charging at 240VAC/16A, I might not bother to order another 50A EVSE.
 

ScarlettMachE

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I was having problems charging my MME @ home ever since I took delivery which was 3 weeks back. I have a charge point home flex hardwired to a 60A circuit. I did test the charger with a friend who had a tesla and he had no problem charging. But when i plug it in, there are a series of switching noises at the EVSE and the charge light stays a solid blue and then after sometime it changes to white. When i plug in the regular 120V connector from ford, it is able to trickle charge. I did contact Charge point and they sent a replacement connector which still did not work in charging my MME. Now I think this could be an issue with the software at this point but am at my wits end for now. Will be reaching out to the dealer on Monday as well and email ford as well.
 

louibluey

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I was having problems charging my MME @ home ever since I took delivery which was 3 weeks back. I have a charge point home flex hardwired to a 60A circuit. I did test the charger with a friend who had a tesla and he had no problem charging. But when i plug it in, there are a series of switching noises at the EVSE and the charge light stays a solid blue and then after sometime it changes to white. When i plug in the regular 120V connector from ford, it is able to trickle charge. I did contact Charge point and they sent a replacement connector which still did not work in charging my MME. Now I think this could be an issue with the software at this point but am at my wits end for now. Will be reaching out to the dealer on Monday as well and email ford as well.
Definitely complain and get your dealer to make another contact with MME engineering to log another affected MME. However, it looks like from previous posts, they are working on an update.

At this point, my guess is that there is something wrong with the way Ford measures the 240 VAC and/or some powerline signaling on the lines (especially Illinois, possibly elsewhere) is part of the problem. It could be that the signaling fouls up the MME voltage measurement making it look out of spec, or the signaling may somehow being decoded as a fault. Hopefully, it is just a matter of correcting the way they measure the 240V line, and not that they designed the charger in the car without enough operating range for variation across the U.S.

There is still a small possibility of the location/GPS/home location thing. Or, some other mystery. Hey Ford! Tell us what is was when you finally fix it!
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