RCBO Tripping

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Daveion
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Post by Daveion »

I have had my Pod Point Solo for around a year now and occasionally it fails to charge because the RCBO trips randomly in the charge cycle. Last night it was at 53% from a 46% SoC. Sometimes it may trip at 78%!!!
It is happening more frequently in recent weeks, maybe 1 in 4 charges fail. I have logged a call with Pod Point Support but wondered if anyone here has any advice as to what could cause this.
Charging more frequently now as it gets much colder so it's becoming an issue.
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Rerb
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Post by Rerb »

Hi
How old is your podpoint, the circuit board can fail, then due to the demand of will probably get worse through time.
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Daveion
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Post by Daveion »

Just a year. It's still under warranty.
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Rerb
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Post by Rerb »

Ah you should be fine, they'll send somone out.
I would try & call as it takes them a while to respond to a fault report
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Daveion
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Post by Daveion »

Just an update on a post I started at the end of last year.
Pod Point came out and checked the RCBO out a couple of weeks ago and said all was fine.
It tripped at 24 milliamps I believe is what the Electrician said?
As no faults showed up he changed the circuit board in the wall unit which was great.
The RCBO has not tripped since đź‘Ť but on the 2 most recent charges it will only charge at 3kW or so and not reach 80% in the overnight reduced tariff charge. If I charge immediately during the day it charges at 7kW.
So is this a fault or the various SMART devices limiting the charge, network limitations?
It wasn't that cold last night and it's been fine even down to -6C since.
Anything to worry about
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Post by Deleted User 490 »

Interesting. I reported that occasionally a scheduled charge will start at half normal rate (incidentally, how are able to see the kw, I only see mph in the app).

My workaround has been to check the rate and if it is slow, I stop it and start it again and it will then be at full rate. Not easy if you scheduled charge is in the early hours.

Anyway, Pod Point are looking into it and I have agreed to be a tester if needed.

“We have determined that this is being caused by a compatibility issue between the charger’s software and your vehicle’s software. This is actively being investigated by both Pod Point and the VW Group, and we are working together to get this resolved as quickly as possible.”
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Daveion
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Post by Daveion »

Born Leccy wrote: ↑Sat Jan 28, 2023 11:32 pm Interesting. I reported that occasionally a scheduled charge will start at half normal rate (incidentally, how are able to see the kw, I only see mph in the app).

My workaround has been to check the rate and if it is slow, I stop it and start it again and it will then be at full rate. Not easy if you scheduled charge is in the early hours.

Anyway, Pod Point are looking into it and I have agreed to be a tester if needed.

“We have determined that this is being caused by a compatibility issue between the charger’s software and your vehicle’s software. This is actively being investigated by both Pod Point and the VW Group, and we are working together to get this resolved as quickly as possible.”
Thanks Born Leccy
Nothing is reported in kW. My app actually shows charge rate in km/hour. Best I have seen is 50km/hour which is 31mph and that assumes 7.2kW charge rate. On the nights I reported a low charge rate the app was showing 20km/hr and in my case almost 7 hours to reach 80%.
So doing the same math on 20km/hour I get about 3kW/ hour. Not an exact science but easier to see the relationship to a battery SoC that is in kW.
I only added 10% last night so not sure I will know what rate it charged at when I unplug.
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daern
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Post by daern »

Daveion wrote: ↑Sat Jan 28, 2023 10:23 am The RCBO has not tripped since 👍 but on the 2 most recent charges it will only charge at 3kW or so and not reach 80% in the overnight reduced tariff charge. If I charge immediately during the day it charges at 7kW.
So is this a fault or the various SMART devices limiting the charge, network limitations?
It could be to do with overall feed limitations - my charger has a small current clamp that is used to ensure that the incoming feed can't be over-utilised if I was charging while doing a lot of other energy-intensive operations at the same time. Not so much on the network limitations - I'm not so sure this is a thing right now.

Personally, however, I'd be more tempted to think that you've hit the known bug that shows up with both the ID.3 and Cupra with certain chargers on a reasonably random basis that causes the car to slow charge after it's been connected to the charger, with the charger set for a delayed start (i.e. for cheap rate overnight charging). It's affected several makes of chargers (including my own Ohme Pro) and the symptoms are exactly as you describe - 3kW charging for no obvious reason. If you cared to try, manually stopping and restarting the charging session "fixes" the problem and should restore full speed charging. Obviously, this involves being awake when it happens, but it's a good test to be sure that this is what's going on. If this turns out to be the case, then it's a quite separate problem to your tripping breaker.

The charger manufacturers should be well aware of it affecting the ID.3 (which has obviously been around longer), and will hopefully have a fix or workaround for you. Ohme, for example, have a fudged car profile which works around the issue and are promising a proper fix in the future. In my own case, I've got some automation that detects the low charge rate and automatically restarts the charge session when it happens.
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Daveion
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Post by Daveion »

daern wrote: ↑Sun Jan 29, 2023 6:51 pm
Daveion wrote: ↑Sat Jan 28, 2023 10:23 am The RCBO has not tripped since 👍 but on the 2 most recent charges it will only charge at 3kW or so and not reach 80% in the overnight reduced tariff charge. If I charge immediately during the day it charges at 7kW.
So is this a fault or the various SMART devices limiting the charge, network limitations?
It could be to do with overall feed limitations - my charger has a small current clamp that is used to ensure that the incoming feed can't be over-utilised if I was charging while doing a lot of other energy-intensive operations at the same time. Not so much on the network limitations - I'm not so sure this is a thing right now.

Personally, however, I'd be more tempted to think that you've hit the known bug that shows up with both the ID.3 and Cupra with certain chargers on a reasonably random basis that causes the car to slow charge after it's been connected to the charger, with the charger set for a delayed start (i.e. for cheap rate overnight charging). It's affected several makes of chargers (including my own Ohme Pro) and the symptoms are exactly as you describe - 3kW charging for no obvious reason. If you cared to try, manually stopping and restarting the charging session "fixes" the problem and should restore full speed charging. Obviously, this involves being awake when it happens, but it's a good test to be sure that this is what's going on. If this turns out to be the case, then it's a quite separate problem to your tripping breaker.

The charger manufacturers should be well aware of it affecting the ID.3 (which has obviously been around longer), and will hopefully have a fix or workaround for you. Ohme, for example, have a fudged car profile which works around the issue and are promising a proper fix in the future. In my own case, I've got some automation that detects the low charge rate and automatically restarts the charge session when it happens.
Thanks Daern
What's difficult to believe at this point is that it can happen randomly. As said, since the PCB replacement it charged several times without tripping the RCBO or slow charging then 2 charges on the trot were slow. I have a couple of days of higher mileage from Monday and will see how it performs with the overnight charge.
Are you sure the Network doesn't yet talk to the Pod Point and restrict power?
I know If I just charge immediately during the day its fine but 41p/kW.
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daern
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Post by daern »

Daveion wrote: ↑Sun Jan 29, 2023 7:14 pm What's difficult to believe at this point is that it can happen randomly.
That's exactly what it does. For me, it happens about once every 2 weeks or so (I've left an alert running so I can see when it happens) but there really is very little pattern to it. Of course, you problem may be different and related to your tripping breaker, but the symptoms sound like they fit the MEB charger bug.

e.g. last time for my car was 24th Jan but it's been fine since then:
The car was slow charging at 3841.9W and is now charging at 7486.4W.
This happened at: 2023-01-24 02:03:25.124985+00:00
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