Broken DC Flap Causes Bad Charging Day

[DerekS]

So where do you think the plastic obstruction come from? Do you see damage on the DC cover flap, or did it come off the Magic Dock somehow?

It’s a good question. I legitimately don’t know. I’ll try and get a look at it.

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[Tooney]

See other thread.

 

[Zcd1]

...EDIT: What I think happened here is I broke the DC flap while plugging in the Magic Dock, which put some plastic debris in the channel around the DC pins preventing a solid connection.

How could that happen??

 

[DerekS]

How could that happen??

It's a great question that I have no answer to!

This morning I got out there and examined the port some more...there's nothing visibly broken about the flap.

https://share.icloud.com/photos/084z-1j4C2XlqWI66iYNw5b5A

However, I shined the light in there and found that the "microswitch" I thought was in there was actually the broken bit of plastic! I was able to fish it out with a starbucks stopper and some sticky tape.

It's still very strange this happened. I've only used the DC charger (checking Chargey)...9 times before the Magic Dock attempt.

I still have no idea how this was broken; if the Magic Dock somehow caused it or just dumb luck. I do feel pretty confident that if I try again, charging at the Magic Dock will work fine.

 

[DerekS]

I've been retracing my steps on the day.

• The charge started successfully (fans spinning up and such)
• I opened the driver's door to watch the kW speed inside the vehicle
• The second I opened the door it failed
• Subsequent attempts to restart failed
• I noted the plastic in the channel and the damaged flap behavior, and decided due to low SoC I needed to execute plan B
• Plan B failed because the Blink chargers in Porsche's GPS were decommissioned.

Now that I've got the plastic out, it all makes sense. The plastic got jammed in from the dock insertion, leaving a very tenuous connection. As soon as I vibrated the car, the connection was broken and the charge halted.

Subsequent attempts to re-dock and charge just jostled the plastic around more causing even worse connections.

This is probably why it took me more than one try to get Electrocute America working too.

 

[daveo4EV]

so sorry this happened - I'm chalking this up to another dimension of CCS1 physical plug design fail - it's too complex and unweildy and suffers from multiple faults in design - at the end of the Day the MagicDock is constrained by CCS1's terrible physical design.

I have had my passenger side charging port replaced under warranty due to a broken DC-Pin Flap - it broke in normal use prior to MagicDock's existing.

CCS1's plug design is simply awful - this will continue to be a problem until we transition to a better physical plug design. Both CCS2 and NACS could not have had this problem - it's impossible due to simpler design with fewer moving parts.

 

[DerekS]

so sorry this happened - I'm chalking this up to another dimension of CCS1 physical plug design fail - it's too complex and unweildy and suffers from multiple faults in design - at the end of the Day the MagicDock is constrained by CCS1's terrible physical design.

It really is a terrible design and the sooner we're all on NACS the better.

Most of my pain experienced yesterday was panic-induced on my part.
I took Porsche's "word for it" on the backup charger without using PlugShare, for example.

And I panicked further assuming that my entire charging system was broken which led me to tow home for $500 instead of to a charger for $150.

In almost 40K of Taycan driving this was my first "stranding" and it was avoidable on multiple levels.

 

[cccmanhattan]

Sorry to hear that. For what it's worth, I stopped at a Tesla Magic Dock charger in upstate New York on my way back from the Grand Prix in Montreal and had no issues. Incidentally, I wasn't seeking it out, it was just the next closest option when the EVolve NY charger I tried to go to first didn't work. I don't recall the specifics, but I do have the onboard 150kw/400v charger so was able to get reasonable speeds. Don't think I was quite aiming for 80%, but got what I needed done in about 1/2 hr. Only awkward bit is I had to park diagonally accross two stalls to get close enough for the plug to reach. Thankfully it wasn't that busy, but I definitely got some eye rolls from the Tesla guys that were there.

 

[daveo4EV]

It really is a terrible design and the sooner we're all on NACS the better.

Most of my pain experienced yesterday was panic-induced on my part.
I took Porsche's "word for it" on the backup charger without using PlugShare, for example.

And I panicked further assuming that my entire charging system was broken which led me to tow home for $500 instead of to a charger for $150.

In almost 40K of Taycan driving this was my first "stranding" and it was avoidable on multiple levels.

might I suggest an update to the thread title

"CCS1 design fail via Magicdock Encounter"

ultimately this is _NOT_ specific to MagicDock - rather in this case MagicDock was simply the CCS1 vendor you happen to encounter this problem ;-) Tesla has a enough bad press and too much good press - but in the interest of accuracy - given my personal experience with CCS1 and your description - I believe this encounter could happen with any CCS1 charging cord…

 

[DerekS]

might I suggest an update to the thread title

"CCS1 design fail via Magicdock Encounter"

ultimately this is _NOT_ specific to MagicDock - rather in this case MagicDock was simply the CCS1 vendor you happen to encounter this problem ;-) Tesla has a enough bad press and too much good press - but in the interest of accuracy - given my personal experience with CCS1 and your description - I believe this encounter could happen with any CCS1 charging cord…

Agreed, no sense in scaring people away from the Magic Dock.

 

[Archimedes]

Caca pasa.

 

[Trogdors_Peasant]

Thanks for exploring things like this and reporting on the results. It's a great feedback loop for us all to avoid oddities caused by a small piece of plastic in the future.

 

[hifi239]

Thanks for all the details. A couple of quick observations.
- my Porsche dealer has a 24/7 Level2 active outside the gate that is kept secret - it gives up to 15kw.
- its ironic that the stupid annoying flap that's supposed to protect the DC port from debris can break and put debris into the port
- out in the wild it is a good idea to inspect the plug, and now we know to inspect the port also before plugging in
- In the Northeast at least, yes, checking Plugshare is mandatory. The chargers in the Porsche database are often just not available ever, and those that are, show good, but are often broken. Even the EA ones that Porsche's parent company owns don't always report correctly.

 

[DerekS]

This thread has an update and a happy ending:

https://www.taycanforum.com/forum/threads/magic-dock-success.17510/

 

[whitex]

However, I shined the light in there and found that the "microswitch" I thought was in there was actually the broken bit of plastic! I was able to fish it out with a starbucks stopper and some sticky tape.

CCS1 marketing plug: “Intended exclusively for the North American market, CCS1 is designed to be serviced with widely available tools, such as a Starbucks stopper. Beat that NACS!”

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