What EV charger

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TheBornIDentity
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Post by TheBornIDentity »

Stevo1903 wrote: Wed Nov 16, 2022 9:31 pm Thanks for the insight into the issues with the Ohme Pro charging at slower rates.
Is this still an issue or has a fix been put in place.
My Born should be arriving in 2-3 weeks and I really need to get a charger sorted.
I am wondering whether I take the gamble on the Ohme or i go with a safe bet like a Pod Point Solo 3. Most of my charging will be done during the night and I cannot afford to have any charging issues preventing me from travelling to work next day. My daily round trip commute is around 80 miles.

I have no solar or batteries and don’t intend to anytime soon.
I think I will probably end up moving to Octopus Go rather than Agile. I am a bulb customer and waiting to hear what is happening with the takeover, tarrifs etc

Thanks…
One way or another you’ll be able to use the Ohme fine as there are workarounds if you do have the problem. I don’t and your car will have later software. Over on the ID3 forum is seems people are having the issue with various chargers.

The two ways around it are use the profile mentioned before or schedule two charges. Say 00:00 - 00-01 then 00:02 - 04:30. The first one just wakes it up so it doesn’t reject the rate on the second charge.

Must admit I never thought of the second method when I had the problem, which is effectively pausing and resuming the charge which I did know worked. Pretty niffy solution by others that.

One of the main advantages of the Ohme is you can use it with Octopus intelligent which gives an extra 2 hours off-peak and currently is a bit cheaper than GO too.

Stevo1903
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Joined: Sun Nov 06, 2022 4:56 pm

Post by Stevo1903 »

Thanks to everyone for the advice regarding chargers and the issues that some people have with Ohme.

Just been informed by the dealer that my V2 58kw E-boost has arrived into UK port so hopefully will get it in a couple of weeks time!
72 plate | V2 | 58Kwh | Tech L pack | Vapour Grey
TheBornIDentity
Posts: 192
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Post by TheBornIDentity »

monkeyhanger wrote: Thu Nov 17, 2022 12:25 pm
daern wrote: Thu Nov 17, 2022 9:10 am
monkeyhanger wrote: Wed Nov 16, 2022 8:49 pm What are these "nasty things with the signalling"? I've just started using the aforementioned workaround after my Born started charging at 3.7A in the Octopus Go window about 7 weeks ago.
Been a few months since I last spoke to them, but my understanding is that they are forcing the car to stay awake for longer periods, as it's the transitions as the car is going in and out of sleep that cause the issue. I've poked Ohme for an update and will report back when I hear something.

My own is still behaving relatively well most of the time, so it's probably not worth blowing this out of proportion and, for those with the workaround in place, if it's working, I wouldn't lose too much sleep over it.

Screenshot 2022-11-17 091338.png
If it was 1 in 10 like you were experiencing, I would leave as is, but it was more like 4 times out of 5 for me, and only in the last 7 weeks - almost flawless for 12 months on the ID3s and 4 months onthe Borns prior to that. I'll not worry about the car suffering insomnia when plugged in for a charge.

"Nasty things with signalling" initially sounded a lot more ominous than your explanation. Ohme were quick to look into my issue, but ultimately I feel a bit fobbed off - 16 months of faultless performance then 7 weeks of 16A charging but nothing has changed with the car - very quick to blame the car and not even do or propose a proper workaround on what seems to be a known issue.
Would be interesting to know what they changed with the scheduling on the older model that caused the problem. Must be something to do with randomised start times.

It’s amazing they didn’t suggest the wake line to you themselves. Seems like they can’t remember their own solutions.
monkeyhanger
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Post by monkeyhanger »

TheBornIDentity wrote: Thu Nov 17, 2022 8:33 pm
monkeyhanger wrote: Thu Nov 17, 2022 12:25 pm
daern wrote: Thu Nov 17, 2022 9:10 am

Been a few months since I last spoke to them, but my understanding is that they are forcing the car to stay awake for longer periods, as it's the transitions as the car is going in and out of sleep that cause the issue. I've poked Ohme for an update and will report back when I hear something.

My own is still behaving relatively well most of the time, so it's probably not worth blowing this out of proportion and, for those with the workaround in place, if it's working, I wouldn't lose too much sleep over it.

Screenshot 2022-11-17 091338.png
If it was 1 in 10 like you were experiencing, I would leave as is, but it was more like 4 times out of 5 for me, and only in the last 7 weeks - almost flawless for 12 months on the ID3s and 4 months onthe Borns prior to that. I'll not worry about the car suffering insomnia when plugged in for a charge.

"Nasty things with signalling" initially sounded a lot more ominous than your explanation. Ohme were quick to look into my issue, but ultimately I feel a bit fobbed off - 16 months of faultless performance then 7 weeks of 16A charging but nothing has changed with the car - very quick to blame the car and not even do or propose a proper workaround on what seems to be a known issue.
Would be interesting to know what they changed with the scheduling on the older model that caused the problem. Must be something to do with randomised start times.

It’s amazing they didn’t suggest the wake line to you themselves. Seems like they can’t remember their own solutions.
I had suggested to them that my issues coincided with the introduction of randomised start times to protect the grid from mass switchover. They said not. I advised them last Sun that I would keep them informed over the next 2 weeks. Got an email yesterday to say they were closing my ticket as resolved. Useless.
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Boris7
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Post by Boris7 »

My chargers being fitted in January along with Solar and batteries, we’ve gone for the Zappi 22kw as we have 3 phase (I think you can still get 3 phase installed f.o.c.) I’m expecting to run in single phase mode using excess solar most of the time.

No idea when the cars coming as since ordering I’ve heard nothing, but I did tell them I didn’t want it till March, mainly because we’ve got loads of building work going on and my current cars already been damaged.
Deleted User 490

Post by Deleted User 490 »

We have Pod Point Solo. In the early ID3 days we had issues with it throwing a red light error and unlocking the cable when it was connected to the car but the charger’s schedule hadn’t started yet. Not ideal as it left our untethered cable free to take! Pod point worked with me testing a software update and it fixed that problem. After that, occasionally the ID3 would start a scheduled charge at 4kw and the Born occasionally does the same. Stopping and starting the charge via the app restarts at 7kw, but it would be a pain if I didn’t notice as I only have a 4hr cheap rate window. Maybe later Pod Point solos (I notice they have changed the look of them) wouldn’t do this, but I would want to be sure.
daern
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Post by daern »

monkeyhanger wrote: Fri Nov 18, 2022 1:26 pm I had suggested to them that my issues coincided with the introduction of randomised start times to protect the grid from mass switchover. They said not. I advised them last Sun that I would keep them informed over the next 2 weeks.
I can only speak for my own setup, but I don't see any sort of randomised start times for my own Ohme Pro configuration. I've asked it to start at 2am (when Bulb's cheap 4 hours begin), and it always starts at exactly 2am within a few seconds. Maybe this will change in the future (and I'd have no objections), but it would need a degree of smart integration to ensure that I still get all of my cheap 4 hours - after all, I'm paying for this through more expensive tariffs for the remaining 20 hours of the day! Currently, this isn't something Bulb can offer, but as it looks like we're all moving to Octopus in the near future, it'll be interesting to see what new offers become available.
monkeyhanger wrote: Fri Nov 18, 2022 1:26 pm Got an email yesterday to say they were closing my ticket as resolved. Useless.
Yeah, they do that. I've persuaded them to keep mine open until the slow charging problem is finally resolved (well, hacked around) in their firmware, but even then they try to close the ticket every time I exchange emails with them. I'll share here if I hear anything new, but as it's still failing as of this week, I think it's safe to say that it's not fixed yet.
Stevo1903
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Post by Stevo1903 »

I ended up settling for a pod point solo 3. I got a great deal from a local installer which was considerably cheaper than others quoted.
I don’t have solar and have no plans to.

So far so good with it. I have just been using the Pod Point app to schedule charging between 2-6 (bulbs cheap Ev rate)
When I plug into the car I have seen a red light show up which eventually goes away. I was a bit concerned to start with but car has been charged up in morning.

Only thing I can’t seem to work out is to get it to 80%. I have it set to 80% in the car but sometimes it has gone well above that.
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Daveion
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Post by Daveion »

The red light is normal on a scheduled charge that has not yet started. Its the car just flagging up you have plugged in but there isn't any power. It goes off after a short time.
I can't recall mine ever going over. I make sure the car and App show the same charge-to level.
I also have the Solo but the earlier round one.
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Deleted User 490

Post by Deleted User 490 »

I’m not sure the car throwing a red light and unlocking the cable is normal prior to a scheduled charge, it’s an error. Pod Point dont seem to think so either as they provided an update so that after the initial handshake at connecting the car there is no red light and the cable remains locked. If you check the user documentation there is no Indication a red light error and unlocking cables when a charge is scheduled is normal. Our other EV doesn’t throw an error either, never has, it handshakes and then sits there with no lights and cable locked until the scheduled charge starts.
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