Lucid Combined Home Charging System Installation tips!

[ButMahElectrons]

Little update.
My utility in northern IL (ComEd) offers a nice rebate program to cover installation and purchase costs of EV chargers in the home.

HOWEVER, they will not reimburse the Lucid Charger because it is not "Energy Star" rated. (I'm super-speculating because the bright LEDs stay on all the time?)
They still at least covered the labor of installation.
There was also some hidden clauses of ComEd's rebate program where, when you DO qualify and want the rebate check, you have to switch your electrical service to "dynamic hourly pricing."
Which was a surprise.
SO FAR, it's actually cheaper per kw, at 2.5cents/kw during peak times, and 1.5cents/kw at non-peak (10pm - 5am ~ish) .
So I'm actually saving money vs the old 6.8cents/kw rate. But....it can always change. And I was not aware of that when pursuing the rebate.

 

[MGRMLN]

Log into the LCHCS' home page within 15 minutes of power-on, and navigate here:
View attachment 20687

I made it to here too using my son's PC laptop.
However, I cannot do anything further since it says everything times out.
This thing is a user experience disaster. It does not even find any of my networks! Do I literally have to type the name of my network in?
When I do that, I get no confirmation that it worked.
I'm on hold with customer care but it's been over 20 mins with that horrible hold music loop...

 

[coma24]

I had to type the name of my network in by hand. It IS case sensitive (be very careful) and only appears to work with 2.4G wifi, not 5G.

 

[DeaneG]

I made it to here too using my son's PC laptop.
However, I cannot do anything further since it says everything times out.
This thing is a user experience disaster. It does not even find any of my networks! Do I literally have to type the name of my network in?
When I do that, I get no confirmation that it worked.
I'm on hold with customer care but it's been over 20 mins with that horrible hold music loop...

The LCHCS sorely needs a tab in Lucid's phone app to take care of initial setup.

 

[MGRMLN]

The LCHCS sorely needs a tab in Lucid's phone app to take care of initial setup.

It totally does! It should get the network settings from the car!

 

[coma24]

At this point, I would almost recommend people not bother hooking up to the wifi and just monitor this forum for announcements of firmware updates that are worth getting. The current UI is so underwhelming, I could 100% live without it in its current form. As it happens, I am very comfortable with TCP/IP networking because of my work background, but short of that, it would've been a nightmare. Even as it was, it was no picnic until I eventually worked out that 5G networks aren't supported, and that the SSIDS are case sensitive.

 

[MGRMLN]

At this point, I would almost recommend people not bother hooking up to the wifi and just monitor this forum for announcements of firmware updates that are worth getting. The current UI is so underwhelming, I could 100% live without it in its current form. As it happens, I am very comfortable with TCP/IP networking because of my work background, but short of that, it would've been a nightmare. Even as it was, it was no picnic until I eventually worked out that 5G networks aren't supported, and that the SSIDS are case sensitive.

Yeah, I'm generally pretty good with figuring things out but it's the willful disregard for any user experience design considerations that I found the most galling given every other aspect of the car was fairly thoughtful.

 

[coma24]

It totally does! It should get the network settings from the car!

That's a tricky one...chicken and egg. How would a new charger, not tied to any accounts, and without any wifi networking info - be able to obtain that info?

They just need a better setup process....this has been solved before (Google Speaker, Chromecast, etc).

The fact that you have to type the SSID is a problem, I think I saw it list the available SSIDs just once. That's putting a lot on the end user, especially with the case sensitivity and the fact that 5G isn't apparently supported.

 

[MGRMLN]

That's a tricky one...chicken and egg. How would a new charger, not tied to any accounts, and without any wifi networking info - be able to obtain that info?

They just need a better setup process....this has been solved before (Google Speaker, Chromecast, etc).

The fact that you have to type the SSID is a problem, I think I saw it list the available SSIDs just once. That's putting a lot on the end user, especially with the case sensitivity and the fact that 5G isn't apparently supported.

I've never seen it list the available networks. That would have helped a lot!
The fact that it requires you to know the name and type the exact spelling, was the step that takes it past consumer friendly...

 

[DeaneG]

Little update.
My utility in northern IL (ComEd) offers a nice rebate program to cover installation and purchase costs of EV chargers in the home....
...SO FAR, it's actually cheaper per kw, at 2.5cents/kw during peak times, and 1.5cents/kw at non-peak (10pm - 5am ~ish) .

Your electricity rates are about 1/20th of what we pay in California! Why bother with a meter?

 

[ButMahElectrons]

Your electricity rates are about 1/20th of what we pay in California! Why bother with a meter?

We are very very lucky here in IL to have so much active nuclear energy.
It's made it very very difficult to have solar make sense. Our payoff would be 12-15 years!

 

[zakster]

Can anyone please recommend a place to buy the 1/4 compression lugs. My electrician doesn't seem to carry it and homedepot/lowes don't have it.

I'm in the process of getting the Lucid charger installed with a 100 amp breaker. Everything is done except connecting the wires using the 1/4 compression lugs at this point.

I purchased these two before but the hole is too big on one and small on another

Commercial Electric Copper 1-Hole Straight Short Barrel Compression Lug for #8 Stranded Wire, Red G98001 - The Home Depot

Commercial Electric's Compression Lugs are used to create a secure and robust electrical connection between conductors using a compression mechanism. The distinctive feature of compression lugs is their

www.homedepot.com

Commercial Electric Copper 1-Hole Straight Short Barrel Compression Lug for #2 Stranded Wire, Brown G98013 - The Home Depot

Commercial Electric's Compression Lugs are used to create a secure and robust electrical connection between conductors using a compression mechanism. The distinctive feature of compression lugs is their

www.homedepot.com

 

[Pragmatic]

Not an electrician and check with building inspector.

McMaster-Carr

McMaster-Carr is the complete source for your plant with over 595,000 products. 98% of products ordered ship from stock and deliver same or next day.

www.mcmaster.com

 

[Pragmatic]

Or

McMaster-Carr

McMaster-Carr is the complete source for your plant with over 595,000 products. 98% of products ordered ship from stock and deliver same or next day.

www.mcmaster.com

 

[DeaneG]

Can anyone please recommend a place to buy the 1/4 compression lugs. My electrician doesn't seem to carry it and homedepot/lowes don't have it....

Note that crimping those large compression lugs properly requires an expensive hydraulic hand tool. If you electrician doesn't know where to get the lugs, he likely doesn't have the tool.

It may be possible to use something like this instead. NOTE: I'm not an electrician:

Commercial Electric 14 AWG to 2 AWG Dual Rated Mechanical Lug with 1 Conductor and 1 Hole Mount (2-Pack) G99002 - The Home Depot

Commercial Electric's Mechanical Lugs are used to create a secure and reliable electrical connection between electrical conductors, such as wires or cables. Mechanical lugs can be either bolted or crimped

www.homedepot.com

 

[zakster]

Not an electrician and check with building inspector.

McMaster-Carr

McMaster-Carr is the complete source for your plant with over 595,000 products. 98% of products ordered ship from stock and deliver same or next day.

www.mcmaster.com

Thank you. Never heard of this company before but they seem to have good reputation. Ordered from them, I'm local to LA shipping from their warehouse in Santa Fe springs was $8.33 next day delivery.

 

[borski]

Thank you. Never heard of this company before but they seem to have good reputation. Ordered from them, I'm local to LA shipping from their warehouse in Santa Fe springs was $8.33 next day delivery.

McMaster-Carr is spectacular.

But, as @DeaneG said, you may need to use chair lugs instead, If your electrician doesn't have the right tool for compression lugs. Chair lugs are totally fine; pass code and inspection and everything.

 

[zakster]

McMaster-Carr is spectacular.

But, as @DeaneG said, you may need to use chair lugs instead, If your electrician doesn't have the right tool for compression lugs. Chair lugs are totally fine; pass code and inspection and everything.

Thanks for the suggestion. Electrician does have the tool but lazy to special order these lugs as they don't carry in their trucks.

 

[deepakb]

Does anyone face the issue of the blinking orange on the LCHCS unit? It is more for network connection issue. I power cycle the charger and it comes back as solid white. But after one charge routine it switches back to blinking orange. I contacted CSR and sent them the logs. But they couldn't figure out the issue and asked for power restart. But it is annoying to do this after every charge cycle. The unit charges even when it is blinking orange. But looking at the blinking light is annoying . Any suggestions?

 

[borski]

Does anyone face the issue of the blinking orange on the LCHCS unit? It is more for network connection issue. I power cycle the charger and it comes back as solid white. But after one charge routine it switches back to blinking orange. I contacted CSR and sent them the logs. But they couldn't figure out the issue and asked for power restart. But it is annoying to do this after every charge cycle. The unit charges even when it is blinking orange. But looking at the blinking light is annoying . Any suggestions?

See pages 20-21 of https://store.lucidmotors.com/conte...arging_Station_Guide_v2022.37(US)_(fr-CA).pdf

You need to let it complete the software update if the light is dim, or if it's bright and flashing it's either "Battery temperature sensor fault, Dead Battery, Battery not connected" - ensure you don't have a AA battery connected inside the unit, as that's only for commercial applications.