What EV charger

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RKJM30
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Joined: Fri Dec 23, 2022 12:44 pm

Post by RKJM30 »

If it is of any help, the Hypervolt 2.0 does the scheduled charge error thing as described above for the early pod points (red light then cable unlock). I agree that it should be considered a bug in the protocol between the EVSE (charger) and the EV. In my case this manifested itself in a 1kW charge for the full economy 7 hours giving me just 7kWh of charge instead of 49kWh, leaving me without enough energy to get to work, and requiring an expensive visit to a 50kw DC public charger. It appears the slow charge happened because the locking pin was unable to engage when the Hypervolt scheduled charge started, so the EV decided it was unsafe to charge with any more power than 1kW in case the plug was removed during the charge which might have caused arcing. I think the plug was slightly moved by either wind or the cable being nudged, but it was not visibly noticeable that it was out of alignment.

I have an open ticket with Hypervolt, who are looking into the scheduled charging error on connecting scenario, but nothing back yet as the ticket was only opened on 23 Dec.

Overall the Hypervolt has worked well with the Born, and switching to the infotainment preferred schedules “Charge at preferred times”has worked around the cable unlocking issue, but all 4 infotainment schedules appear to need to be set to the preferred times, even if they are not activated, as mine started charging at 2200 instead of 0030. All 4 preferred schedules are now set to 0030-0730 and only the top one is turned on. This might have another problem though, the infotainment system says that charging will start shortly before the preferred schedule time! WHY?? If the schedule has been set, it is to take advantage of low cost energy.

VAG, Why would any user want the schedule to start early? A question I have yet to ask them.

So my work around is to set the start time to 10 minutes after the start of the cheap rate (i.e. 0040) in the hope that “shortly before” is not more than 10 minutes.

Has anyone else found better work arounds which ensure the cable remains locked from the moment it is inserted to the end of the scheduled charge?
Born V3-Tech L Heatpump
Hypervolt 2.0
Intelligent Octopus

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Daveion
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Post by Daveion »

Born Leccy wrote: Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:36 am 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.
The red light is normal on the ID3 and Born having had both. I don't see it as an error but would rather it didn't do it.
Born V2-Tech L collected June 22
BMW Z4 e89 sDrive30i Highline
BMW Z4 e85 3.0i SE
Deleted User 490

Post by Deleted User 490 »

Ok we’ll have to disagree!

It might happen in the ID.3 and Born (I’ve had both too) but it’s a bug. Based on my experience Pod Point support can fix it.

(can’t explain why the update they provided didn’t become standard though)
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Daveion
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Post by Daveion »

Born Leccy wrote: Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:48 pm Ok we’ll have to disagree!

It might happen in the ID.3 and Born (I’ve had both too) but it’s a bug. Based on my experience Pod Point support can fix it.

(can’t explain why the update they provided didn’t become standard though)
Maybe the older style Solo like mine can't accommodate the tweak. Does it communiate with the car at all? The car AC charger controls amperage?/charge rate. The Solo provides a power supply for 4 hours.
Born V2-Tech L collected June 22
BMW Z4 e89 sDrive30i Highline
BMW Z4 e85 3.0i SE
Deleted User 490

Post by Deleted User 490 »

My Solo isn’t the latest, got it in July ‘21, is there an older version?

It handshakes with the car rather than communicate I’d say. When I connect outside a scheduled period, the car momentarily shows a green light before the white light which goes out after a little while.

Before the fix I’m pretty sure the green light didn’t show, so I suspect that charge connection is what they did to prevent the error state/unlocking cable.

Other than that, yes it’s as you say, the car controls the charge rate, the charger supplies power, in my case from 21:30-01:30.

F84C2D28-4078-497C-8DFE-54DF203E5504.jpeg

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Daveion
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Post by Daveion »

Born Leccy wrote: Wed Dec 28, 2022 9:18 pm My Solo isn’t the latest, got it in July ‘21, is there an older version?

It handshakes with the car rather than communicate I’d say. When I connect outside a scheduled period, the car momentarily shows a green light before the white light which goes out after a little while.

Before the fix I’m pretty sure the green light didn’t show, so I suspect that charge connection is what they did to prevent the error state/unlocking cable.

Other than that, yes it’s as you say, the car controls the charge rate, the charger supplies power, in my case from 21:30-01:30.
Yes, same as mine. Installed Nov 21.
The only way I can think a hand shake can be made is via the power cable. A suitable voltage at very limited amperage like 5ma so the car knows there is potential but not enough power to initiate charging. Thoughts over 😊. I can live with the white light flashing followed by the solid red.
Born V2-Tech L collected June 22
BMW Z4 e89 sDrive30i Highline
BMW Z4 e85 3.0i SE
daern
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Joined: Wed Jul 20, 2022 1:31 pm

Post by daern »

A proper glitch from the Ohme Pro last night (other than the well-documented half-speed charging overnight). I plugged the car in around 5pm as normal, and the app chucked up an error about "charger offline" which I'd never seen before. Later in the evening I noticed that the charger had ignored the normal time constraints that limit it to charging between 2am and 6am and had just charged the car as soon as it was connected. Fortunately, it was already at over 70% and the car cut off at 80% as normal, so it didn't suck a whole load of Pricey Juice down, but had it been at 20%, I'd have probably been far more grumpy about it. Seems a bit of a poor behaviour to just fall back to dumb charger mode without explaining what this really means to the user.

Plugged it in today and it's back to normal, reporting "charging delayed until 2am" on the charger screen, so guess it was a blip. New automation written that detects at-home charging outside of "normal" cheap hours, and alerts on it so at least I'll be aware if it happens again in the future. Ho hum.
TheBornIDentity
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Post by TheBornIDentity »

daern wrote: Thu Dec 29, 2022 4:44 pm A proper glitch from the Ohme Pro last night (other than the well-documented half-speed charging overnight). I plugged the car in around 5pm as normal, and the app chucked up an error about "charger offline" which I'd never seen before. Later in the evening I noticed that the charger had ignored the normal time constraints that limit it to charging between 2am and 6am and had just charged the car as soon as it was connected. Fortunately, it was already at over 70% and the car cut off at 80% as normal, so it didn't suck a whole load of Pricey Juice down, but had it been at 20%, I'd have probably been far more grumpy about it. Seems a bit of a poor behaviour to just fall back to dumb charger mode without explaining what this really means to the user.

Plugged it in today and it's back to normal, reporting "charging delayed until 2am" on the charger screen, so guess it was a blip. New automation written that detects at-home charging outside of "normal" cheap hours, and alerts on it so at least I'll be aware if it happens again in the future. Ho hum.
Mine did that a couple of weeks ago. I noticed it started charging straight away but thought Octopus told it to as I’m on intelligent rather than go. When I looked on the app it wasn’t due to start until 1am so I rebooted it and that sorted it out.
Born2Ride
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Post by Born2Ride »

Thought I'd add my experience. I have two 'chargers', first is completely dumb unit a Rolec wallpod, when they were government subsidised. This just plugs in and supplies 7kW, no drama car manages schedule. Can't believe how much these things now cost, particularly when you open the cover and see quite how little is inside.

My second is inside the garage and is a SolarEdge EV Inverter. This is a single phase solar inverter connected to 10 solar panels but with the added benefit of a 'charger' built in to the unit. This has some smarts and is controlled through the SolarEdge app. I have it set to only charge when excess solar power is available, this means when 1.5kW or more is being exported, the supply to the Born is turned on and it charges with free sunshine. If I want it to charge regardless of surplus energy, there is a button I can press on the inverter so it starts immediately, or you can do it in the app. You can also stop the charge from the app as well as via the Born app of course. This unit only pushes about 4kW or ~15mph. I think it's meant to do 7kW but possibly wasn't set up correctly when installed. I'm not too bothered, slower charging helps the battery and overnight would do 160ish miles anyway. I suspect if you're going solar this is cheaper than a separate EV charge point.

Why 'charger' in quotes? These things only supply AC power to the vehicle, the charger itself is in the car in case anyone is interested.
Deleted User 490

Post by Deleted User 490 »

Good point about the ‘charger’ being in the car not our Wall boxes of various types. What would be a correct electrical description of those? Power Supply?
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