Charging Sleep Mode?

[AndyM]

Yes the home charger is in “plug & charge” mode as opposed to “app”. I don’t have access to another charger to test.

In the iSMART app I’m toggling on the scheduled charge, setting the time and tapping save. After entering security code I get a success message.


Logically I would assume that this now means the car won’t accept a charge outside of this time but that’s not happening.

The car time is set correctly.

I’m honestly getting quite fed up. This combined with the “oil leak” issue and the bizarrely fitted under tray that I can’t believe got through QC on so many cars means I am very close to just handing back.

 

[the briggie]

Do you know if the GPS signal is strong in your area. My current EV will revert to manual charging if it loses GPS signal (in a garage for example) and will revert to manual charge. No idea if that is the case with the MG4 or how to check it.

Alan

 

[AndyM]

Do you know if the GPS signal is strong in your area. My current EV will revert to manual charging if it loses GPS signal (in a garage for example) and will revert to manual charge. No idea if that is the case with the MG4 or how to check it.

Alan

The car is outside with a clear view of the sky. I have no idea if it has a strong GPS signal nor should I need to know imo. Very frustrating! Thanks for trying to help in any case.

 

[the briggie]

My EV settings allows you to untick GPS synch in system settings clock...sorry if this doesn't help. Maybe somebody else will come to the party with a solution. I am interested to know how you resolve it. Best of luck.

Alan

 

[AndyM]

You might be onto something there. I do remember enabling a gps time sync setting so maybe the clock is getting reset to midnight periodically and triggering the charge.

I’ve started again, disconnected everything and resaved the car schedule and then finally reconnected the car. The cable is locked in the car charge port now and isn’t trying to charge so we’ll see if it kicks in at 0:30. It doesn’t help that there seems to be built in delays all over the place so you can’t test cause and effect very easily.

If it doesn’t work I’ll have another look through the car settings and toggle the gps one.

 

[AndyM]

Nope, didn’t work. Just charged again starting at 22:05.

Also disabled gps time sync setting on car.

 

[the briggie]

Something definitely not right then. It's almost as if schedule doesn't exist or it thinks charging can start at 04:30 and finish at 00:30 or the app is sending spurious signals. Weird. Given the delays as you state there is no easy way to replicate it. Have you forced stopped the app, leave it stopped and relied on just the car setting if it can be done....straw clutching

 

[AndyM]

Might have made progress. The home charger has a “delay charging” setting that was set to 600 seconds (10 minutes does seem to be when it starts changing after connecting). I lowered that to 1 second (doesn’t accept 0 and I can’t see a way of disabling) and set it up again last night at about 11pm with a 90% target. By 23:30 it wasn’t charging so I went to bed.

This morning it’s at 90% so hopefully that means it started at 00:30. I can’t check though because the home charger doesn’t have a record of the charge. That could be a bug with charger if charge is requested from car in this mode. Will email charger manufacturer. I might be able to check from electricity supplier app (octopus) but that info doesn’t appear for at least 24 hours and I also think it’s reporting an hour out anyway.

So my current thinking is when the delay was set to 600 seconds, after I connect the cable no charge happens because of the car schedule and also the delay (but a handshake does occur). Then after the 600 second delay is up the home charger kicks in and the car thinks “oh they must really want a manual charge” or “this is a smart charger that has its own schedule” and it overrides the car schedule. By setting delay to 1 second maybe that delayed communication at 600 seconds isn’t happening and the car sits happily until its own schedule kicks in.

Without knowing how the handshakes and communication works between car and charger it’s hard to tell though.

 

[OJEastwood]

Might have made progress. The home charger has a “delay charging” setting that was set to 600 seconds (10 minutes does seem to be when it starts changing after connecting). I lowered that to 1 second (doesn’t accept 0 and I can’t see a way of disabling) and set it up again last night at about 11pm with a 90% target. By 23:30 it wasn’t charging so I went to bed.

This morning it’s at 90% so hopefully that means it started at 00:30. I can’t check though because the home charger doesn’t have a record of the charge. That could be a bug with charger if charge is requested from car in this mode. Will email charger manufacturer. I might be able to check from electricity supplier app (octopus) but that info doesn’t appear for at least 24 hours and I also think it’s reporting an hour out anyway.

So my current thinking is when the delay was set to 600 seconds, after I connect the cable no charge happens because of the car schedule and also the delay (but a handshake does occur). Then after the 600 second delay is up the home charger kicks in and the car thinks “oh they must really want a manual charge” or “this is a smart charger that has its own schedule” and it overrides the car schedule. By setting delay to 1 second maybe that delayed communication at 600 seconds isn’t happening and the car sits happily until its own schedule kicks in.

Without knowing how the handshakes and communication works between car and charger it’s hard to tell though.

That sounds promising! It is a real headache working out charging issues as there's so many variables as to what could be the cause of problems. Different set ups have their own little quirks and kinks to iron out but fingers crossed you've got it sorted now

 

[kin]

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?

Hi
I have the same Wallbox plus, charge my MG4 for the first time last night, scheduled to start 00:30 in car, for reasons unknown my phone was still preset at 22:00 start finished 06:00, so I also set my phone to start 00:30 and finished at “charging to target battery level”. And inputted my password and saved the setting.
Long story short, I woke up this morning around 6am, app indicated 78%, showing finishing time 6:20( not sure exact time?)
I opened the MG app at around 6:30, it has already charged to my set level 80% but it was still charging at 0.1kw, in fact it didn’t stop until around 07:42? before I got notification from my Wallbox charger that the charge was completed.
Then I noticed my phone app schedule has defaulted back to factory setting of start time 22:00 and finished time 06:00.
Did I somehow missed a step for setting this schedule charging up? And why 0.1kw, anyone else noticed that as well?

PS I noticed it was only accepting 6.6kw not 7kw as MG stated, my Tesla was charging at 8kw.

 

[AndyM]

Hi
I have the same Wallbox plus, charge my MG4 for the first time last night, scheduled to start 00:30 in car, for reasons unknown my phone was still preset at 22:00 start finished 06:00, so I also set my phone to start 00:30 and finished at “charging to target battery level”. And inputted my password and saved the setting.
Long story short, I woke up this morning around 6am, app indicated 78%, showing finishing time 6:20( not sure exact time?)
I opened the MG app at around 6:30, it has already charged to my set level 80% but it was still charging at 0.1kw, in fact it didn’t stop until around 07:42? before I got notification from my Wallbox charger that the charge was completed.
Then I noticed my phone app schedule has defaulted back to factory setting of start time 22:00 and finished time 06:00.
Did I somehow missed a step for setting this schedule charging up? And why 0.1kw, anyone else noticed that as well?

PS I noticed it was only accepting 6.6kw not 7kw as MG stated, my Tesla was charging at 8kw.

6.6 is what mine charges at too. On the 22:00 and 06:00 thing I’ve noticed the app sometimes doesn’t show charge status until you refresh and before refresh the times show the default. On the car I expect they’re still actually set to the times you put in.

 

[the briggie]

I thought the inverter was only 6.6kw input so that would be correct. This is down to confused published specification in my view. Some say 6.6, some say 7, some say 7.4 some say 11....

The industry standard seems to be 6.6 and 11kw.ac inverters

The signalling on the pp and cp links set the charging parameters.

Basically PP says all plugged in and ok.

CP signalling determines actual charge rate, and with the car controls stop, start % levels etc.

If your charger is overriding the schedule with a manual charge then it is not truly dumb in my opinion. The car schedule should control the CP signal wire but perhaps it is a software design issue. This could tie in with issues on preheat request errors on other threads where it is not overriding the schedule. So perhaps the software is not the world's finest at the moment?

Charging​

Charge Port	Type 2
Port Location	Left Side - Rear
Charge Power	6.6 kW AC
Charge Time (0->185 mi)	9h15m

Alan

 

[tsedge]

I thought the inverter was only 6.6kw input so that would be correct. This is down to confused published specification in my view. Some say 6.6, some say 7, some say 7.4 some say 11....

The industry standard seems to be 6.6 and 11kw.ac inverters

The signalling on the pp and cp links set the charging parameters.

Basically PP says all plugged in and ok.

CP signalling determines actual charge rate, and with the car controls stop, start % levels etc.

If your charger is overriding the schedule with a manual charge then it is not truly dumb in my opinion. The car schedule should control the CP signal wire but perhaps it is a software design issue. This could tie in with issues on preheat request errors on other threads where it is not overriding the schedule. So perhaps the software is not the world's finest at the moment?

Alan

Over 6.6/7kW requires 3 phase AC charger and 3 phase type 2 cable, which home chargers don’t have, even if the car supports it. Some people are getting 11kW from public AC chargers (with the right cable) but it is not clear if 11kW chargers are supposed to be fitted to UK cars or not. Manual says yes, dealers were told no, some early cars definitely can, could be wrong charger fitted at factory.

6.6kW is what you typically get from a 7kW charger, allowing for losses. Not sure why Tesla does more, probably they are pushing the limits further.

 

[john andersen]

Hi
I have the same Wallbox plus, charge my MG4 for the first time last night, scheduled to start 00:30 in car, for reasons unknown my phone was still preset at 22:00 start finished 06:00, so I also set my phone to start 00:30 and finished at “charging to target battery level”. And inputted my password and saved the setting.
Long story short, I woke up this morning around 6am, app indicated 78%, showing finishing time 6:20( not sure exact time?)
I opened the MG app at around 6:30, it has already charged to my set level 80% but it was still charging at 0.1kw, in fact it didn’t stop until around 07:42? before I got notification from my Wallbox charger that the charge was completed.
Then I noticed my phone app schedule has defaulted back to factory setting of start time 22:00 and finished time 06:00.
Did I somehow missed a step for setting this schedule charging up? And why 0.1kw, anyone else noticed that as well?

PS I noticed it was only accepting 6.6kw not 7kw as MG stated, my Tesla was charging at 8kw.

The period of low charging could be the bms balancing the battery.

 

[AndyM]

Update. Did everything the same as last night and it’s still wanting to charge now after a short delay outside of the set schedule.

 

[the briggie]

Do you have a granny charger to try it on? Eliminating the home fast charger charger would be a useful diagnostic check in my view.

 

[kin]

The period of low charging could be the bms balancing the battery.

Is it possible to balance the batteries at 80% charge? I always thought it has to be fully charged at 100%.

 

[john andersen]

Is it possible to balance the batteries at 80% charge? I always thought it has to be fully charged at 100%.

Depends on the bms, quick google and tesla is said to balance any charge that is over 90% the zoe needs 100% for a balance, it will sit at 99% for between half an hour to 2 hours doing a gentle charge, hence why i would think the mg4 is balancing the battery during the same behavior.

 

[kin]

Depends on the bms, quick google and tesla is said to balance any charge that is over 90% the zoe needs 100% for a balance, it will sit at 99% for between half an hour to 2 hours doing a gentle charge, hence why i would think the mg4 is balancing the battery during the same behavior.

I’ll see if it still does it on my next charge, but the car is brand new and only did 40 miles ?
Mind you, my Tesla app does not show KW in decimal place, it probably did it without me noticing?

 

[AndyM]

I’ve gone back to using the home charger scheduling which worked twice this week overnight. I thought I was winning but today woke up to 100% charge and the charge target on 100%. The charge target was definitely not updated by me to 100%