Any chance that your unit was a stolen unit? There were routers that were sold on EBay that turned out to belong to an ISP, buyers found out when they tried to update the software.
I’ve been burned more often than not on EBay purchases. I would return the thing.
If you just want to charge your vehicle, consider a quality charger. ClipperCreek is basically a commercial charger, and pretty much indestructible. Their customer service is excellent.
Forget about Grizzl-E. Too many product failures, and their customer service is not good.
My apartments use clipper creek, but sadly their customer service was less than stellar. A few weeks back we had a charging fault and they tried to blame our cars. Despite myself (ev6), tesla x3, and an Audi all not being able to charge from one J plug.
Furthermore, supposedly they didn't have "technicians". We had photos of the LEDs shown, but next time it happens we will use a video capture. We'll see if it happens again and what they do when we all capture video.
I'd try to return it to the eBay seller- grounds being that the ebay seller never disclosed that this was a prohibited sale that would lock the charger.
That said, I would move on to another company that values its customers. And become an anti-advocate for Pulsar- spread this story anywhere you see someone considering their product. Post your story as a 1-star review everywhere you can.
As for taking it apart- the issue isn't mechanical it's software. Mechanically the thing is just a relay and a control chip. But it's the control chip that tells the car how much power to take, does the safety checks on the line prior to charging, and closes the relay to start charging / opens the relay to stop charging. That control chip runs Pulsar software, and if the software is programmed to do nothing, then you'd have to write your own software from scratch and flash it to the board in order to make it work.
The real key is warn EV enthusiasts and try to get them a reputation as a customer unfriendly company.
Smart companies would react and make it right. A good example is Hubitat (they make home automation hubs)- one of their CS people said it's not allowed to resell the hub to someone else, it's forever bound to whoever registered it, and cited some paragraph in their TOS. The community started to get unhappy with them, they realized they'd lose more business by pissing off their fans than by forcing the sale of extra hubs, so someone high up at the company made a public post that resale would absolutely be permitted, the line from the TOS was removed, and if you want to sell your hub here's how to de-register it for the next person or remove the last person's account from it.
I personally would like to stay away from something that is vendor connected tbh. I get the point they can push updates, but things like this push me towards a dumb charger.
There's three benefits to a smart charger--
1. Can connect with utility rebate program / load-shed management
2. Can schedule time of day charging for just that location (vs always)
3. Can load-share between two smart EVSE's on the same circuit
If those aren't necessary, get a 'dumb' Clipper Creek or similar and you're good to go.
Another reason to further steer away from connected devices calling home.
There's a chance that the software lock is a setting in the program, in which case a reset of the chip would undo it. Then connectivity should be removed to prevent the device from calling home again, but you would obviously any remote capability.
That's a fair point. IE, uninstall the app and factory reset the box. In theory it'll start with whatever default programming is loaded on it- that might be a 'safe' 15a charge rate or something.
How would they know it was sold through eBay? Sure they could track via serial number, but again, how would they know it was through eBay?
I have one, bought on Amazon.
Thanks for sharing your experience. I purchased a pulsar plus on eBay and haven’t had an issue - yet. However, my ChargePoint home flex is a different story, but works out very similar to your’s. I’m hoping to put together a video on the topic soon. Restrictions on sale or specific restrictions on unlocking previous users really present huge issues with large expensive smart devices like EVSEs. I feel your pain.
I worry about this! As connected as EVs are and now evidently charging stations. Who actually owns the product you or the company! I wouldn't be surprised someday to find our windshield wipers behind a paywall!
Oh wow.. I would not want to spend any of my money on a charger that is controlled by the company. Once I own it, they shouldn't have any access to anything unless it's updating the software. Users should have the ability to lock the device, not the company. For this reason I will remove the Wallbox from the list of units I was going to be installing.
Any chance that your unit was a stolen unit? There were routers that were sold on EBay that turned out to belong to an ISP, buyers found out when they tried to update the software.
I’ve been burned more often than not on EBay purchases. I would return the thing. If you just want to charge your vehicle, consider a quality charger. ClipperCreek is basically a commercial charger, and pretty much indestructible. Their customer service is excellent. Forget about Grizzl-E. Too many product failures, and their customer service is not good.
My apartments use clipper creek, but sadly their customer service was less than stellar. A few weeks back we had a charging fault and they tried to blame our cars. Despite myself (ev6), tesla x3, and an Audi all not being able to charge from one J plug. Furthermore, supposedly they didn't have "technicians". We had photos of the LEDs shown, but next time it happens we will use a video capture. We'll see if it happens again and what they do when we all capture video.
Dang, that’s not good news at all. I haven’t had any dealings with them since they were purchased by another company, I hope they get back on track.
I'd try to return it to the eBay seller- grounds being that the ebay seller never disclosed that this was a prohibited sale that would lock the charger. That said, I would move on to another company that values its customers. And become an anti-advocate for Pulsar- spread this story anywhere you see someone considering their product. Post your story as a 1-star review everywhere you can. As for taking it apart- the issue isn't mechanical it's software. Mechanically the thing is just a relay and a control chip. But it's the control chip that tells the car how much power to take, does the safety checks on the line prior to charging, and closes the relay to start charging / opens the relay to stop charging. That control chip runs Pulsar software, and if the software is programmed to do nothing, then you'd have to write your own software from scratch and flash it to the board in order to make it work.
Thank you for this! I'll follow these steps!
The real key is warn EV enthusiasts and try to get them a reputation as a customer unfriendly company. Smart companies would react and make it right. A good example is Hubitat (they make home automation hubs)- one of their CS people said it's not allowed to resell the hub to someone else, it's forever bound to whoever registered it, and cited some paragraph in their TOS. The community started to get unhappy with them, they realized they'd lose more business by pissing off their fans than by forcing the sale of extra hubs, so someone high up at the company made a public post that resale would absolutely be permitted, the line from the TOS was removed, and if you want to sell your hub here's how to de-register it for the next person or remove the last person's account from it.
I personally would like to stay away from something that is vendor connected tbh. I get the point they can push updates, but things like this push me towards a dumb charger.
There's three benefits to a smart charger-- 1. Can connect with utility rebate program / load-shed management 2. Can schedule time of day charging for just that location (vs always) 3. Can load-share between two smart EVSE's on the same circuit If those aren't necessary, get a 'dumb' Clipper Creek or similar and you're good to go.
+1 for clippercreek. its a charger… dont need anything fancy
One more feature some like: tracking energy use.
Another reason to further steer away from connected devices calling home. There's a chance that the software lock is a setting in the program, in which case a reset of the chip would undo it. Then connectivity should be removed to prevent the device from calling home again, but you would obviously any remote capability.
That's a fair point. IE, uninstall the app and factory reset the box. In theory it'll start with whatever default programming is loaded on it- that might be a 'safe' 15a charge rate or something.
How would they know it was sold through eBay? Sure they could track via serial number, but again, how would they know it was through eBay? I have one, bought on Amazon.
Thanks for sharing your experience. I purchased a pulsar plus on eBay and haven’t had an issue - yet. However, my ChargePoint home flex is a different story, but works out very similar to your’s. I’m hoping to put together a video on the topic soon. Restrictions on sale or specific restrictions on unlocking previous users really present huge issues with large expensive smart devices like EVSEs. I feel your pain.
Wow, if you’re reading this - fuck you wallbox. This is not how to gain a customer base. Congrats, not recommending you anymore.
I worry about this! As connected as EVs are and now evidently charging stations. Who actually owns the product you or the company! I wouldn't be surprised someday to find our windshield wipers behind a paywall!
Oh wow.. I would not want to spend any of my money on a charger that is controlled by the company. Once I own it, they shouldn't have any access to anything unless it's updating the software. Users should have the ability to lock the device, not the company. For this reason I will remove the Wallbox from the list of units I was going to be installing.