Charging Sleep Mode?

[AndyM]

I'm having a bit of an issue working out scheduled charging with my Project EV charger.

If I schedule the Project EV for a short time in the future (say 10 mins) everything works as I expect but it's not kicking in overnight for some reason. I'm doing everything the same except the car is left plugged in not charging for a lot longer. Last night I plugged in at about 4pm and it was scheduled to charge at 00:30 but it didn't charge. I'm wondering if there may be some sort of sleep mode on the car whereby if it's plugged in and doesn't start charging after a certain amount of time then it stops communicating with the charger?

I could try the other way around and set the Project EV to "plug & charge" and schedule on the car but I really wanted to do it on the Project EV side as it makes more sense that way imo as the tariff is attached to the house not the car.

 

[Hugh]

Make sure there’s nothing set on the car itself regarding charging.

 

[the briggie]

Agreed as check car charging/schedule as first step. The charge schedule should also have a % setting within the schedule that overrides any manual % set. At least it does in most new ev's.

As you state it may be worth making the charger dumb for a test and using the car schedule.

Alan

 

[BugEyed]

The charge schedule should also have a % setting within the schedule that overrides any manual % set. At least it does in most new ev's.

It doesn't for the MG4 (or any MG) as there's no public access provided to the API for the data. Maybe SAIC will do so one day....

 

[Alb]

I ran into this issue with my MG5 and the threshold seemed to be 12 hours.

 

[the briggie]

It doesn't for the MG4 (or any MG) as there's no public access provided to the API for the data. Maybe SAIC will do so one day....

To be clear does that mean you can't set it in the car as the car application itself does not allow % to be set in the schedule?

Alan

 

[AndyM]

I ran into this issue with my MG5 and the threshold seemed to be 12 hours.

Interesting. thanks, so I may be on to something by the sounds of it. I think last night it was just over 8 hours. I'll try again tonight plugging it in just before bed which will mean it'll cut the idle time to about 3-4 hours and if it works I'll slowly increase until it doesn't. Slightly annoying but if it's 8 hours I think I can live with it.

 

[AndyM]

Well it didn't work last night even with < 3 hours to the start time

I'll give it another go tonight after also setting a charge duration.

 

[the briggie]

Have you tried the charger dumb yet with a car schedule? Just to rule out the car potentially ...and for a few extra p trying it during the day

Alan

 

[AndyM]

I have had no issues getting it to charge on schedule during the day, sometimes even multiple times in a row but for some reason it doesn't like coming on at 00:30. This is my first EV and charger so I can't say whether it's the car or the charger but I suspect it's the charger. I did think it might be that the schedule was for the next day but even toggling the option for every day on the charger has no affect. I don't think it's anything to do with the handshake either because I can consistently get it to work toggling charge on manually in the charger app.

I'll do some more trial and error to try and narrow down the problem further but it sounds like I may need to put the charger in dumb mode and use the car scheduler. I haven't used that at all yet so that's next on my list.

Is anybody else using the MG4 and Project EV charger without issue?

 

[AdamMGEV]

I have had no issues getting it to charge on schedule during the day, sometimes even multiple times in a row but for some reason it doesn't like coming on at 00:30. This is my first EV and charger so I can't say whether it's the car or the charger but I suspect it's the charger. I did think it might be that the schedule was for the next day but even toggling the option for every day on the charger has no affect. I don't think it's anything to do with the handshake either because I can consistently get it to work toggling charge on manually in the charger app.

I'll do some more trial and error to try and narrow down the problem further but it sounds like I may need to put the charger in dumb mode and use the car scheduler. I haven't used that at all yet so that's next on my list.

Is anybody else using the MG4 and Project EV charger without issue?

Mine works fine on my wallbox plus however it doesnt if I schedule the charge when the car is plugged in. I have to schedule the charge.... then plug it in. Then I just leave it forever. So I probably set it a year ago and not touched it since... but if I manually charge it during the day... I would need to schedule the charge again without car plugged in. Maybe try that?

 

[BugEyed]

Is anybody else using the MG4 and Project EV charger without issue?

My MG4 is connected to a ProjectEV via an Ohme lead for the Intelligent Octopus integration and works faultlessly. Previous cars didn't work well with the ProjectEV timers which seemed to take 36 hours to set and not be reliable, and I have to admit to giving up and using the car's timer.

 

[AndyM]

So I gave up on the Project EV and put it in plug & charge mode. Scheduled the car to charge to 80% from 00:30 - 4:30 this morning and it worked correctly. Woke up to 80%, brilliant! That's not the end of the story though.

I left the car plugged in and the car scheduled charge settings at 00:30 - 4:00 but I increased the charge target to 100% as I'm planning a longer trip tomorrow and thought I would top it up over night. At some point today however it has been topped up to 100% outside of the scheduled charge window on the car. This is super frustrating! I just want to be able to set the charge level and have it charge off-peak. How can something seemingly so simple have been made so complicated?

 

[the briggie]

Andy did you set the charge level to 100% within the car schedule and is the schedule set for 7 days a week (everyday) or daily in the car?

Alan

 

[AndyM]

Andy did you set the charge level to 100% within the car schedule and is the schedule set for 7 days a week (everyday) or daily in the car?

Alan

I set the charge level to 100% in the charge management screen of the app. There isn't an option in the car app to specify which day the schedule runs it's either toggled on or off.

I think I might have worked out what happened though to cause it to top up to 100% this afternoon. The end time was actually set to "charging to target battery level" not 4:00. So it topped up to 80% over night but then when I increased it to 100% today I assumed it would only do that after the next 00:30 crossover. Obviously not

 

[Profpalindrome]

The charge scheduling set-up system is not great to be honest. I have come from an eGolf and although that system took me a while to work out, it was very robust and never really let me down. In this menu (on the eGolf) was also where you could schedule the cabin pre-heating which doesn't appear to exist at all on the MG4 which does feel a bit like a backward step....maybe they could change this with a software update as it is lovely for about 3 months a year.

 

[the briggie]

Agreed. My current EV has that feature also. However we have still to understand if the MG4 has an issue with a charging schedule stopping the preheat coming from the charger outwith the schedule window when still plugged in! Awaiting some answers to that one!

Otherwise it will use the battery and reduce range.

Alan

 

[AndyM]

Scheduled charging isn't working for me still. I plugged the car in today at 5pm and doubled checked the scheduled charging was set to start at 00:30 and end at 4:30. Scheduled charge was also definitely enabled. The car display was showing "charge cable connected not charging". I left the car and came inside and after 5 minutes it still wasn't charging. I've just checked now 7:30pm and the car is at 75% after charging at peak rate.

 

[AndyM]

Tapped finish charging and 5 minutes later it’s charging again.

 

[the briggie]

Andy, I assume you have your home charger in "dumb" mode and the schedule is still not playing ball? Do you have any alternative chargers to try it on (Tesco podpoint for example) just to rule out external factors and nail it down to the car?

Not got mine yet but looking at the car setting it looks a straight forward start and stop time then save function to enable the schedule to become active. Don't have any i-smart app info to read up on so flying blind on that side.

Alan