iSmart AC

[siteguru]

Not being able to preheat the cabin whilst actually charging is unusual - but almost everyone has the issue of not being able to preheat whilst plugged in but not charging.

 

[Ayoull]

Not being able to preheat the cabin whilst actually charging is unusual - but almost everyone has the issue of not being able to preheat whilst plugged in but not charging.

Mine works like a charm with Pod Point.

 

[Deleted member 9692]

Mine works like a charm with Pod Point.

You can pre heat while plugged in and NOT charging?

 

[Ayoull]

You can pre heat while plugged in and NOT charging?

Yep



People commented about the indicators flashing prior but this seems to be what iSmart does when you send any command to the car.

 

[Deleted member 10041]

Mine works like a charm with Pod Point.

Did you not post a video showing that, or am I thinking of someone else?



Edit, beat me too it

 

[Ayoull]

Did you not post a video showing that, r am I thinking of someone else?

I did and have shared it again above

 

[Lovemyev]

Question ?.
If you have a delayed charge set up, to only charge on "Off Peak" rates ( like myself ) and the following morning the car has finished charging, but is still plugged in.
If I request the car to preheat via the App, it does so absolutely fine.
But it does not restart the wall box in order to prevent energy being pulled to heat the car, directly from the HV battery.
I guess this because the car is ONLY been instructed to charge in these chosen 'Off Peak" times, the one's I have set in the head unit / App.
Turning OFF the delayed charge function will be required to allow this to happen.

 

[Boilerboy]

I have the same issue whilst the charge cable is plugged in and the charge level set (e.g. 80%) is achieved.

I found that if i changed the target charge level from say 80% to 90%. The AC can then be activated. Once the 10 minutes is up i just change the charge level back to 80%.

Try it, it might work for you

 

[Deleted member 9692]

Yep



People commented about the indicators flashing prior but this seems to be what iSmart does when you send any command to the car.

I wonder how this is possible for you then? You’re the only person I’ve seen so far that can do this. Really bugs me that it’s not working for me and MG can give me no idea of when or if it will be fixed.

 

[Ayoull]

I wonder how this is possible for you then? You’re the only person I’ve seen so far that can do this. Really bugs me that it’s not working for me and MG can give me no idea of when or if it will be fixed.

I know that the pod point charger doesn't go to sleep once it's finished charging it sits at a mode called "Plugged in not charging" which is kind of like standby so maintains the handshake with the car is how it got explained to me by podpoint

 

[tsedge]

I know that the pod point charger doesn't go to sleep once it's finished charging it sits at a mode called "Plugged in not charging" which is kind of like standby so maintains the handshake with the car is how it got explained to me by podpoint

Might be worth trying to initiate a further charge then trying the AC on in case this wakes up a non Podpoint charger.

I will experiment with my Zappi and see if I can get it to work. Clearly the car can do it.

 

[Lovemyev]

A couple of things come to mind here.
1) If you still have a delayed charge scheduled set up at night, then the wall box is not going to start charging when you select preheat the cabin in the morning ?.
As you have already prevented this from happening in the menu's.
You would likely need to turn that function OFF.
2) Also, What if you had the SOC level set to 80%.
It hits that percentage and then stops the car charging.
The wall box is not going to commence charging until that upper level drops well below 80%.
As @Boilerboy suggests, you may need to increase the SOC level and then see what happens.
Or even readjust BOTH settings ?.

 

[siteguru]

In my case the Wallbox goes to the Waiting state once the car says charge is complete. (As it's an SE SR then I always charge to 100%). Waiting means that it is waiting for the car to request a charge - as it is at 100% already then it won't, but the car also won't let preheat happen as it is plugged in not charging ... Catch 22.

 

[Lovemyev]

In my case the Wallbox goes to the Waiting state once the car says charge is complete. (As it's an SE SR then I always charge to 100%). Waiting means that it is waiting for the car to request a charge - as it is at 100% already then it won't, but the car also won't let preheat happen as it is plugged in not charging ... Catch 22.

I totally see your point !.
I am looking at it this way ( in my case ) at least.
The rather large battery on the ZS EV LR has more enough capacity ( when charged to 80% ) to suit my usage pattern just fine.
It has been charged overnight using our current cheap rate deal of 4.5p/kwh rate for five hours.
The preheat facility is brilliant and intend to use it regardless of where the power is coming from to supply it, to be honest !.
If I do pull the juice from the wall box in the morning, then it is costing me 40p/kwh so why bother.
I used the preheat facility three times this morning, conducting back and too school runs etc.
It instantly reduces the range by about 10 miles from the GOM of course.
Am I bothered, no not at all !.
I can afford to lose that amount of range in exchange for the benefits of getting into a frost free toasty car !.
The seats in the Trophy can be cold in the winter time, so preheating the cabin really help with this problem.
It's a shame they disabled the heated seat function from the App or I would used that as well.

 

[Diggsy]

I wonder is what Ayoull said about the status his Pod Point goes to is the issue the Zappi is having regarding not allowing preheat without charging? Found this on their site, seems they removed the ability for the Zappi to be ‘ready’ in versions after v1…

8. Isn’t there an extra pre-conditioning mode in zappi v1?​

In Zappi 1 an extra pre-conditioning feature was added however the added complexity has caused some confusion so we did not include it in zappi v2
The zappi v1 pre-conditioning feature has 3 modes: OFF / NORMAL / FULL POWER
– OFF – EV cannot draw power after “Charge complete”
– NORMAL – EV cannot draw power after “Charge complete” when in ECO+ mode, unless there is enough surplus generation power.
– FULL POWER – EV can always draw power after “Charge complete”
To make sure that your EV uses mains power for preconditioning and you have a zappi v1 then…

• set preconditioning mode to FULL POWER and
• set a Timed Boost to coincide with the preconditioning time.

 

[tsedge]

Ok, left the car charging overnight on scheduled Zappi Octopus Go hours and it charged at the right time and finished at 80% as desired.

This morning, without unplugging I cannot get the AC to pre heat the cabin, getting the Error 40 code.

I have tried switching the Zappi to stop mode, unlocking and locking the car, makes no difference, will not do it.

 

[the briggie]

I believe the issue is as follows:

When you request preheat the car has a decision to make. Use HV battery or if there is a ready/active charge available use that. The car checks the status of the CP/PP signal from the charge station into the car to enable that decision. The MG4 is seeing no ready/active status but just plugged in and instead of reverting to HV battery is erroring.

Is the car set set to 80%? If so you could you override it and start a zappi charge to check if that works? I know its a workaround but until MG sort this sw bug

 

[tsedge]

I believe the issue is as follows:

When you request preheat the car has a decision to make. Use HV battery or if there is a ready/active charge available use that. The car checks the status of the CP signal from the charge station into the car to enable that decision. The MG4 is seeing no ready/active status and instead of reverting to HV battery is erroring.

Is the car set set to 80%? If so you could you override it and start a zappi charge to check if that works? I know its a workaround but until MG sort this sw bug

Yes, thank you I will try this tomorrow morning, changing to 90% starting a fast charge and see if it works.

 

[Eber]

I thought it was a known issue that the MG4 can not be preheated when plugged in at all? It doesn't work with mine either and it's established as a fault in the German Facebook group. Dealers are aware, but MG doesn't offer a solution yet.

 

[ArTee]

I have the same issue, ie. I cannot activate AC while it's plugged it, no matter what I try. It works just fine when it's disconnected, is that meant to be a feature or is it a bug? I'd like to precondition the temperature and start with 100% in the morning, not have to use energy to cool/heat it after unplugging and stealing some of the range... MG4 Trophy LR for reference.