Eric_C_Boston
Well-Known Member
- First Name
- Eric
- Joined
- Apr 16, 2021
- Threads
- 51
- Messages
- 554
- Reaction score
- 740
- Location
- North Shore, MA, USA
- Vehicles
- 2021 Ford Mustang Mach-E RWD ER
- Occupation
- Retired Software Engineer
- Thread starter
- #1
I decided on a short trip to Mount Desert Island, Maine for my first MME road trip. I wanted to visit the Seal Cove Auto Museum that a friend raved about. The area is currently a DC Fast Charger desert. Maine plans to expand DC Fast Chargers to the north and east of Augusta over the next few years.
Trip planning was needed as the nearest DC Fast Charger was over 100 miles away from my destination! I consulted Plugshare to figure out some charging options on the island. The auto museum has two Tesla Destination Chargers, so I ordered a TeslaTap before I left. The Seawall Motel has both a ClipperCreek and two Tesla Destination Chargers. I was able to get the last room at the Motel. There are several Level 2 chargers scattered about the island.
I used A Better Route Planner to plan out the first leg to Bangor. I decided on a Fast DC charge stop at EA Walmart in Scarborough, Maine. MME support in ABRP is still alpha and very conservative. I played with the reference miles/kW and set it to 3.5 mi/kW, a few points below my current average. I wish ABRP had an option for setting the SOC desired when leaving the charging station. A workaround is to set a SOC at the destination that results in a 80% charge at the previous charger.
The leg from the North Shore, MA to Scarborough, ME was uneventful. I used the adaptive cruise control for a good chuck of the miles. The cruise control was set to the speed limit and I did not realize the setting changes as the car reads the speed limit signs. The car slowed down for construction zones as long as the official white rectangular sign was used. It ignored speed limit signs contained in another sign type, like a warning sign.
I had a problem finding the EA chargers at Scarborough. They were not in the middle of the parking lot as shown on PlugShare, but I found them at the west edge of the parking lot. I reported the correct location to PlugShare. The car indicated a charger fault when I stopped the charge from the charger at 80%. This seems to happen with EA's 350 kW chargers. I keep forgetting to press the button at the charge port to stop DC Fast charging.
The surprise at the end of the first day was still being conservative with the ABRP reference value. I got a perfect fit by using 4.1 miles/kW, although the ABRP table showed 58.8 kW total and 4.0 miles/kW. I calculated the car used 61.6kW and the Trip Odometer showed 3.9 miles/kW.
Day 2 was a visit to downtown Bangor and moving on to the island. The Pickering Square garage has up to two hours free parking and a Level 2 charger. My plan was to park there and top up the charge for an hour. The charger was in use, but I did not really need it with a 35% SOC. I spent about an hour in Bangor and headed down to the auto museum.
I arrived at the museum with 22% SOC and the TeslaTap worked great. The museum was great with some excellent examples of early electric and steam automobiles. They have several early Fords.
I was using Waze on this leg of the trip and saw the results of the spotty cellular phone service on the island. The road seemed to end beyond the auto museum, so planning a route to the motel was confusing. When it was obvious there was a road, I switched over to the Ford navigation. Later on I was able to update the map in Waze when I found a cellular signal. Of course my cellular carrier and AT&T shows full coverage on the Island.
I checked into the motel and drove to Bar Harbor for supper. A line of thunderstorms went through and I drove through heavy downpours. I tried the ClipperCreek and Tesla chargers at the end of the day, but they both did not work. I reported it to the front desk and they mentioned a brief one second power glitch earlier. They would call someone to look at it in the morning.
On day three I was able to start charging at the motel in the early morning for 3-1/2 hours and boost to 43% SOC. I had lunch in Southwest Harbor and made use of a free charger during lunch for about 1-1/2 hours. It boosted the SOC another 10 percent. I was glad I did as the ClipperCreek at the motel faulted again. I walked to a nearby restaurant for supper and the hotel reset the charger by the time I got back.
In looking at the ClipperCreek problem, both the Power Fault and Charging Fault lights were blinking. The plate on the side of the charger indicates this means "Internal EVSE fault, consult manual". I was successful charging when the car was turned on in accessory mode, which indicates the MME does something when the car is off that the charger does not like. The plate on the charger (that I did not read until later) indicates the charger resets from the fault after 15 minutes. I also suspect the Tesla Destination Chargers did not work because they do not have the "J-1772 Mode" mentioned in the TelsaTap documentation.
I charged to 100 percent overnight and drove back without charging en-route. I calculated I used 72.16 kW of Battery going from 100% to 18% SOC and the trip odometer showed 3.7 miles/kW. When I used ABRP, I had to set the reference to 3.7 miles/kW to match the SOC drop, and the table showed 68.9 kW and 3.9 miles/kW. I need to look at the ABRP documentation and settings to see if I can get better estimates. There are likely other values I need to adjust and I would not be surprised if the author of ABRP needs to adjust some internal values for the MME. I noticed a low value of 3.13 miles/kw is used for the reference value on the Extended Range RWD.
I heard from another EV owner that the lack of a droning ICE keeps you from getting tired while driving. I did notice that I was not as tired after the long drive. The trip was an interesting experience. I plan to cross the DC Fast Charger Desert of Maine on my next trip to Halifax, NS.
Trip planning was needed as the nearest DC Fast Charger was over 100 miles away from my destination! I consulted Plugshare to figure out some charging options on the island. The auto museum has two Tesla Destination Chargers, so I ordered a TeslaTap before I left. The Seawall Motel has both a ClipperCreek and two Tesla Destination Chargers. I was able to get the last room at the Motel. There are several Level 2 chargers scattered about the island.
I used A Better Route Planner to plan out the first leg to Bangor. I decided on a Fast DC charge stop at EA Walmart in Scarborough, Maine. MME support in ABRP is still alpha and very conservative. I played with the reference miles/kW and set it to 3.5 mi/kW, a few points below my current average. I wish ABRP had an option for setting the SOC desired when leaving the charging station. A workaround is to set a SOC at the destination that results in a 80% charge at the previous charger.
The leg from the North Shore, MA to Scarborough, ME was uneventful. I used the adaptive cruise control for a good chuck of the miles. The cruise control was set to the speed limit and I did not realize the setting changes as the car reads the speed limit signs. The car slowed down for construction zones as long as the official white rectangular sign was used. It ignored speed limit signs contained in another sign type, like a warning sign.
I had a problem finding the EA chargers at Scarborough. They were not in the middle of the parking lot as shown on PlugShare, but I found them at the west edge of the parking lot. I reported the correct location to PlugShare. The car indicated a charger fault when I stopped the charge from the charger at 80%. This seems to happen with EA's 350 kW chargers. I keep forgetting to press the button at the charge port to stop DC Fast charging.
The surprise at the end of the first day was still being conservative with the ABRP reference value. I got a perfect fit by using 4.1 miles/kW, although the ABRP table showed 58.8 kW total and 4.0 miles/kW. I calculated the car used 61.6kW and the Trip Odometer showed 3.9 miles/kW.
Day 2 was a visit to downtown Bangor and moving on to the island. The Pickering Square garage has up to two hours free parking and a Level 2 charger. My plan was to park there and top up the charge for an hour. The charger was in use, but I did not really need it with a 35% SOC. I spent about an hour in Bangor and headed down to the auto museum.
I arrived at the museum with 22% SOC and the TeslaTap worked great. The museum was great with some excellent examples of early electric and steam automobiles. They have several early Fords.
I was using Waze on this leg of the trip and saw the results of the spotty cellular phone service on the island. The road seemed to end beyond the auto museum, so planning a route to the motel was confusing. When it was obvious there was a road, I switched over to the Ford navigation. Later on I was able to update the map in Waze when I found a cellular signal. Of course my cellular carrier and AT&T shows full coverage on the Island.
I checked into the motel and drove to Bar Harbor for supper. A line of thunderstorms went through and I drove through heavy downpours. I tried the ClipperCreek and Tesla chargers at the end of the day, but they both did not work. I reported it to the front desk and they mentioned a brief one second power glitch earlier. They would call someone to look at it in the morning.
On day three I was able to start charging at the motel in the early morning for 3-1/2 hours and boost to 43% SOC. I had lunch in Southwest Harbor and made use of a free charger during lunch for about 1-1/2 hours. It boosted the SOC another 10 percent. I was glad I did as the ClipperCreek at the motel faulted again. I walked to a nearby restaurant for supper and the hotel reset the charger by the time I got back.
In looking at the ClipperCreek problem, both the Power Fault and Charging Fault lights were blinking. The plate on the side of the charger indicates this means "Internal EVSE fault, consult manual". I was successful charging when the car was turned on in accessory mode, which indicates the MME does something when the car is off that the charger does not like. The plate on the charger (that I did not read until later) indicates the charger resets from the fault after 15 minutes. I also suspect the Tesla Destination Chargers did not work because they do not have the "J-1772 Mode" mentioned in the TelsaTap documentation.
I charged to 100 percent overnight and drove back without charging en-route. I calculated I used 72.16 kW of Battery going from 100% to 18% SOC and the trip odometer showed 3.7 miles/kW. When I used ABRP, I had to set the reference to 3.7 miles/kW to match the SOC drop, and the table showed 68.9 kW and 3.9 miles/kW. I need to look at the ABRP documentation and settings to see if I can get better estimates. There are likely other values I need to adjust and I would not be surprised if the author of ABRP needs to adjust some internal values for the MME. I noticed a low value of 3.13 miles/kw is used for the reference value on the Extended Range RWD.
I heard from another EV owner that the lack of a droning ICE keeps you from getting tired while driving. I did notice that I was not as tired after the long drive. The trip was an interesting experience. I plan to cross the DC Fast Charger Desert of Maine on my next trip to Halifax, NS.
