Banned India copy-paste signature spammer keselein said:
Subject: USA Charging station Network Experience: ChargePoint Network
by keselein » 12 Jan 2020 02:47
Today I was out riding my bike in Pleasant Hill, CA looking for an outlet to steal a bit of power from while I ate some lunch. Instead I found a ChargePoint system in the city hall parking lot. It said for Electric vehicles only so I figured I would give it a try. The system is pretty cool. I had to call the number on the box and they did a remote Unlock, inside is just a standard 120v plug setup for 15 amps. The guys said there are a couple stations in the area that give 240v 30a. Since there are quite a few in my area I went ahead and signed up and they will send me a RFID card to automatically unlock. I will be able to look online and see how much power I used while charging. A lot of these stations are free but they can set them up as pay system. Pretty cool.
ChargePoint allows the owner of stations to set the rate for the electricity.
At our local community center in Santa Cruz (the pool) they have the rate set to $0/kw... so... if you just tap something like a PayPal card (with no account associated) it will unlock the charger. IIRC this charged me a buck (a hold) and I never looked to see if the hold cleared or not -
But the point is, you are then metered at a rate of $0/kw
So - it is effectively free
... At the University (UCSC Marine Center) they charge something like $0.25/kw - that is nothing to charge a bike.
You can download an App from ChargePoint that will show you where all of the chargers are that are on their network. This includes non-ChargePoint hardware. I do not know if the app reports the rate at given chargers, but it varies greatly.
Onboard Charging for an Ebike is mission critical if you want to actually get anywhere. If you are willing to do some work, it is quite easy to get 1KW+ charge rates for 2lbs of box in your backpack (I have many threads on using high end AC-DC pull-down equipment). Usually you just need some really aggressive fan cooling and you have to keep them dry.
I support Lambda Equipment because the power density is insane, they are isolated, they are modular. Meanwell is a good value, low cost option - but they are larger, heavier, etc. If you want anything waterproof it is going to be like a third the power. Potting is heavy.
... Make sure you have a CA or other monitoring device. The best thing you can do for yourself is lower your current limit off the line when the bike is most inefficient. "Cruising" an ebike can get your wh/Mile from like ... 50 or 80, down to 20... tho for me, I prefer the ability to quickly accelerate to avoid danger.
Good luck on your adventures and be very aggressive about interacting with traffic. People will run you over.
-methods
but still cool. I also received my RFID card in the mail and that really works great to do unlocks, no more calling. So far all the units in my area are free so I really can't go wrong. I've even seen a couple electric cars in the area now since I've been going to the stations. Now that I am all signed up I can also get my historical usage information when I use their stations. 
