Hypervolt and Cupra Born

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RKJM30
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Post by RKJM30 »

It seems from this forum, and other VAG car forums, that there is an incompatibility between the Hypervolt 2.0 EVSE (charger) and VAG EVs (in my case it is a Cupra Born). The issues manifests itself when the Hypervolt is set to scheduled charge and is connected to the car outside of the charging window, the specifics are as follows:

1 plug into car.

2 Flashing white light on car (plug locked to car).

3 after approx 30 seconds status light on car turns red indicating a charging fault and the plug is unlocked from the car.

4 when the charging window starts the car attempts to lock the plug into the car and start the charge. If it is successful at locking the plug into the car then all is ok and it will charge at 7kw. If the locking pin is unable to engage then it will charge in emergency mode at 1kw. (It doesn’t take much for the plug to be slightly dislodged and for the pin to be unable to engage).

It appears from this forum (and other VAG car forums) that this is an issue with the Hypervolt charger only (there are suggestions that it used to happen on PodPoint EVSEs but that PodPoint fixed it with a software mod).

I have an escalated ticket with hypervolt, but they have suggested that this might be a “Feature Request”. Could others who are experiencing this issue with Hypervolt scheduled charge advise hypervolt support about the charge error experienced when connecting to a VAG car.
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Daveion
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Post by Daveion »

RKJM30 wrote: Sat Feb 18, 2023 7:58 am It seems from this forum, and other VAG car forums, that there is an incompatibility between the Hypervolt 2.0 EVSE (charger) and VAG EVs (in my case it is a Cupra Born). The issues manifests itself when the Hypervolt is set to scheduled charge and is connected to the car outside of the charging window, the specifics are as follows:

1 plug into car.

2 Flashing white light on car (plug locked to car).

3 after approx 30 seconds status light on car turns red indicating a charging fault and the plug is unlocked from the car.

4 when the charging window starts the car attempts to lock the plug into the car and start the charge. If it is successful at locking the plug into the car then all is ok and it will charge at 7kw. If the locking pin is unable to engage then it will charge in emergency mode at 1kw. (It doesn’t take much for the plug to be slightly dislodged and for the pin to be unable to engage).

It appears from this forum (and other VAG car forums) that this is an issue with the Hypervolt charger only (there are suggestions that it used to happen on PodPoint EVSEs but that PodPoint fixed it with a software mod).

I have an escalated ticket with hypervolt, but they have suggested that this might be a “Feature Request”. Could others who are experiencing this issue with Hypervolt scheduled charge advise hypervolt support about the charge error experienced when connecting to a VAG car.
What you describe in 1-3 in my experience of both ID3 and Born is normal. This happens when you plug into the car port and the car senses there is no power present because you are outside of a scheduled charge. It is the car alerting you to the fact you will not charge. It also happens on public charges if you fail to charge for any reason.
I think 4 is maybe correct and once the red light is out you can pull the plug out because it is unlocked.
I see this though as something that applies to all home charges on a scheduled charge. My Pod Point Solo does exactly this. I have been getting random slow charges overnight of 3 kW or so but not considered what you have said. I have an outstanding ticket with them on that issue.
As a precaution though I will check the options on plug release following a charge and make sure there is no side tension on the cable that could perhaps prevent the plug sitting correctly in the port.
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Post by Deleted User 490 »

What you describe 1-3 was my experience with my ID3. Pod Point provided a software fix for my charger to prevent the car from throwing the red light and cable unlocking prior to a scheduled charge as that’s not ideal if your schedule is set for the early hours but you connect the car several hours earlier. Pod Point saw it that way, a future schedule shouldn’t cause an error and I definitely didn’t want my expensive cable sitting there unlocked for hours on end.

As with the ID3 after the fix, with the Born I connect the car and after the white light handshake and clicking sounds coming from Pod Point, it sits there with no lights with cable locked until the schedule charge begins, it then returns to that state after the charge has finished. The only issue I get is occasionally it begins a charge at half speed for no reason. Disconnecting and reconnecting or just stopping and re-starting the charge from the app is the workaround, but this isn’t much help if you don’t check the charge speed after a charge has started or if the charge is set for the early hours and next morning you find the charging window at half speed wasn’t long enough to reach the level you wanted! Pod Point say they are looking into that with VAG.
RKJM30
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Post by RKJM30 »

Thank you for confirming that this occurs with the PodPoint EVSE and that PodPoint created some form of work around in their software.

This particular issue is only mentioned in relation to Hypervolt and PodPoint EVSEs on these forums. In the case of hypervolt, no solution, PodPoint a software work around which occasionally has the half rate charge issue.

Other forum members have stated that this was not an issue with other EV manufacturers (Mini was specifically mentioned) and there are no posts mentioning other EVSEs (chargers) such as Ohme, Indra, Tesla, Anderson, etc.

My conclusion, from this limited source, is that there is an incompatibility in the handshake between VAG MEB platform EVs and Hypervolt 2.0 EVSEs.

Does anyone else using anything other than a PodPoint or Hypervolt have the same result as items 1-3 in my original post? This would be helpful to know in support of my request for a fix from Hypervolt.
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Post by Deleted User 490 »

I should have said, none of this behaviour has ever happened on our Mini, no errors, unlocking or slow speeds with that.
smbmetal
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Post by smbmetal »

Nothing seems straight forward in the EV world. Keeps putting me off looking to step into an EV. Would be a nightmare for me if after an overnight charge I got in the car and it hadn’t charged.

Out of interest what happens if you set the charging schedule from the car rather from the Hypervolt? In other words leave the Hypervolt with no scheduling and let the car tell the charger when it wants to start and finish charging?

I don’t own a Born so don’t know if that’s possible? I would have chosen a Hypervolt charger as well, guess if I wanted a Born that takes Hypervolt off the list. Not impressed with their response to their support ticket either. Thought Hypervolt were all about customer support.
mangobay
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Post by mangobay »

In response to this question I can confirm it works fine:

“Out of interest what happens if you set the charging schedule from the car rather from the Hypervolt? In other words leave the Hypervolt with no scheduling and let the car tell the charger when it wants to start and finish charging”

I find it’s far better to try and leave the evse in dumb mode and let the car do the controlling. My hypervolt works flawlessly if I do that.

I appreciate this isn’t what everyone wants to do particularly if charging from solar maybe.
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Daveion
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Post by Daveion »

mangobay wrote: Sat Feb 18, 2023 11:06 am In response to this question I can confirm it works fine:

“Out of interest what happens if you set the charging schedule from the car rather from the Hypervolt? In other words leave the Hypervolt with no scheduling and let the car tell the charger when it wants to start and finish charging”

I find it’s far better to try and leave the evse in dumb mode and let the car do the controlling. My hypervolt works flawlessly if I do that.

I appreciate this isn’t what everyone wants to do particularly if charging from solar maybe.
I'm thinking about trying it but have been off in the past with the historical issues on my ID3 running 2.1 and 2.3. My other concern is it leaves my charger available in my drive when I'm not there.
Is it a risk? Realistically no. I'm surprised the charger app doesn't have a "switched off" option just in case though.
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RKJM30
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Post by RKJM30 »

In response to the question about using the vehicle’s scheduling rather than the Hypervolt, yes this does resolve the issues relating to the handshake resulting in the plug being unlocked If the charger is set to scheduled charge. Setting the Hypervolt to “Plug & Charge” effectively turns it into a dumb charger and energises the charging pins when the plug is attached to the car. This means that the car can check that power is available and it does not respond with any errors.

I tried using the car’s scheduling and set one of the the windows to 0030-0430 the others were set to the default but were switched off. The car started the charge at 2200, which was 2.5 hours before it should have, (using expensive electricity). This might have been because the car started charging at the start time of the switched off windows (which were left at the default start time of 2200.). This meant I could not trust the car’s scheduling system and now choose to use the Hypervolt schedule.
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Savage
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Post by Savage »

Just set all of the car scheduled charging times the same. I believe I read that somewhere as its what I have done.
I have a dumb charger, so it my only way anyhow.
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