[stevepriority]

So I splurged and got the nice Autel 50 amp charger. It works perfect when I have it set to 20 or more amps, but if I want to lower it to something like 18 or 16 or 10 amps...it starts clicking on and off and i get messages on my phone saying that the car suspended the charging session. I have reproduced this error about 10 different times now. it'll never stay charging when the amp setting is low. Any ideas why this might be? Yes, I know, I can just keep it on 20 amps or more, but shouldn't it still work when on a lower setting?

 

[jmcbrew]

Interesting. I use a 40 amp Autel and often charge at 6 amps. Never had a problem at any level. My Bolt is 2017 that only charges at a max of 32 amps, so the onboard charger is obviously different from your 48 amp charger. Is your Autel firmware up to date?

I would recommend contacting Autel. They’re a good company.

 

[jmcbrew]

My mom stopped by earlier today in her EUV. I could have tested it on hers. When you say you have reproduced his, do you mean that it happens every time? I’ll try it with their car next time they visit and see what happens.

 

[stevepriority]

Yes, it'll be charging for a few hours just fine on 20 amps and if I lower the setting it'll stop within like 5-10 minutes. If I simply start a new charging session and it's set to 10 amps or whatever under 20, it'll go for a few minutes and then stop. Easy to test. Kick it to 20 or more and it's fine everytime. Under 20 and it'll stop within a few minutes, sometimes even in less than a minute.

 

[RPC]

My Autel 32A EVSE is set to 12A; it charges my 2017 Bolt just fine, though I do get a "Charging suspended by vehicle" notification every time the car finishes charging or performing a battery condition cycle. (I have all notifications turned off in the app - it doesn't seem to care!)

 

[jefro]

I would suspect evse but need oscope or swap test.

 

[ehidle]

I have a 50A Autel and I've never set the charge current below 48A. Why would you want to unless your electric circuit couldn't handle it?

 

[jmcbrew]

I have a 50A Autel and I've never set the charge current below 48A. Why would you want to unless your electric circuit couldn't handle it?

Mostly for that exact reason. Some homes cannot handle that kind of additional load on the panel. Some people like to lower the amperage to be gentler on the breaker, wiring, and receptacle. Some like to lower the amperage to be gentler on the local grid.

Let's say there are 10 houses powered by a transformer, and all of those houses have two EVs in the driveway. Each one, for the sake of argument, needs 20kW to recharge fully. If all 20 off those got plugged in at 6pm when all those people got home (you know, at exactly the same time), and they all have 48 amp EVSEs, that's 960 amp (230,400kW) being pulled through the transformer (in addition to the base load of all those houses). Alternatively, if each EVSE was pulling 16 amps (which would still charge everyone up by morning), that would be just 320 amps (76,800kW) being pulled through the transformer. Keep in mind that the poor transformer was installed before EVs were a thing, and they never anticipated that additional 230,400kW.

And finally, if you are generating your own power from solar or wind, you may want to turn down the current to stay within what you are producing at a given time, so that you're not pulling from the grid at all.

 

[jmcbrew]

I would suspect evse but need oscope or swap test.

What's your thought here... that his EVSE has something wrong with it, or that it is just not compatible with the new 48 amp onboard chargers that GM is using? As mentioned, I use mine all the way down to 6 amps all the time... but I have the older 32 amp OBC.

 

[jmcbrew]

To the OP, have you tried power cycling the EVSE? If you do, keep in mind that it takes about 45 seconds unplugged to fully discharge the caps. Don't just unplug and plug it in a few seconds later. According to Autel, 45 seconds is the minimum. I had one issue and it wasn't fixed until I unplugged for a minute and plugged back in.

 

[stevepriority]

To answer a few questions. I have solar and like to charge my car with what I'm bringing in. Not that I need to but just for fun. So that's why I changed the amp setting in the app a few times and then noticed this happening. This morning I charged it at 24 amps and it was fine for several hours. No issues.

I have powered off the breaker numerous times to reset it. Letf it off overnight too.

 

[BillG49]

To answer a few questions. I have solar and like to charge my car with what I'm bringing in.

I'm not suggesting that the OP ditch his Autel unit, but for the benefit of others who may want to charge their car(s) with surplus generation, I offer this solution:

Emporia Energy has an EVSE that has a setting to only charge with surplus solar generation. You will need to add their Vue energy monitor to get this functionality, but it has other uses too. The EVSE will dynamically change up and down continually to use your surplus, which is a great idea if you're not on true net metering. I have tried this and it works great. The setting is also easily overridden in the app for immediate full strength charging.

 

[jefro]

I'd test the dwell that sets offering amps.
Really best might be to use known working evse that has low charge.

 

[stevepriority]

The stock evse works fine at 120 and 240. At 120 it'll do 8 amps or 12 amps and it's fine. But I have not other way to test a low amp 240v evse other than my Autel.

 

[seanyfly]

I have a Autel Maxi Charger 40 Amp and have it turned downed to 15 amps with no issues. Its not hardwired but I have used it Full range from 15A to 40A.

 

[jefro]

Unless you see another Bolt owner then you are kinda stuck.