Intermittent Scheduled Charging Issue -- Zappi + MG4

[peadarog]

Scheduled charging almost always works for me, but twice now, it has failed to start and I have absolutely no idea why. The settings are always the same, using the same schedule on the zappi with eco+ set to 100%.

I set plug in the car, make sure the yellow lock symbol is set to open on the MyEnergi app and that should be that. If it were failing every night, I could understand it. Does anybody else with a Zappi 2 and an MG4 experience this issue? Is there something I should check in the iSmart App? Currently, I have no schedule set in the iSmart App and the Target Battery Level is always at 100%.

Does anybody have any ideas? Is there some kind of log I could check to see if there are any errors?

Thanks.

 

[Ian Key]

Mine did that but switching the Zappi off at the fuse box then counting 10 before switching back on again rebooting the Zappi and it's behaved since.

 

[peadarog]

I may give that a go. Thanks for replying!

 

[Diggsy]

I always do the schedule in the MyEnergi app rather than iSMART. The latter can be flaky at best, useless at worst, whereas the former has never failed me once.

 

[peadarog]

I always do the schedule in the MyEnergi app rather than iSMART. The latter can be flaky at best, useless at worst, whereas the former has never failed me once.

Yeah, for me too, until now, but I'm not sure why

I did find this strange lock icon on the battery screen of the iSmart App. Does anybody know what it's for?

 

[Diggsy]

Yeah, for me too, until now, but I'm not sure why

I did find this strange lock icon on the battery screen of the iSmart App. Does anybody know what it's for?

Is that not the lock status of the charge port? As in whether or not the cable is locked in place.

 

[peadarog]

Is that not the lock status of the charge port? As in whether or not the cable is locked in place.

Honestly, I have no idea! I'm just looking for reasons why the car failed a few scheduled charges, but what you say would make sense.

 

[WonkoTheSaneUK]

Is that not the lock status of the charge port? As in whether or not the cable is locked in place.

It is. Also, tapping it will unlock the cable (after you enter your PIN).

 

[peadarog]

It is. Also, tapping it will unlock the cable (after you enter your PIN).

Thanks for the confirmation. I guess I can rule that one out as a cause of the problem. Confusingly, the MyEnergi App also has a "lock" symbol that needs to be open to permit charging.

 

[JDMB]

Thanks for the confirmation. I guess I can rule that one out as a cause of the problem. Confusingly, the MyEnergi App also has a "lock" symbol that needs to be open to permit charging.

That’s probably because it’s got a lock set on the actual unit like mine is. I have to put a passcode in whenever I charge mine.

 

[PristDean]

I know this is a Zappi thread, however I have experienced similar with my Hypervolt. Charger unlocked, schedule set and majority of times it works. However I have a battery and solar panels, with the battery at 100% and export at 2kw/h plus, the car sometimes starts charging, other times sits there with 'Charging Aborted' on the dash.
I then have to unplug my Hypervolt charger, reboot it, plug it back in and the car then picks up the solar charge.
Never had such an issue with the Hyundai 38 KW/H I had, that charged whenever an export of 1.4kw/h or over was seen.
This leads me to believe the MG inbuilt charger is not 'tuned' well enough and needs a constantly high KW/H shove to get the car charging. As a note the car emits a 'clunking' noise fairly often as if it's switching in and of charging states, but no status change with the car.

 

[JDMB]

I know this is a Zappi thread, however I have experienced similar with my Hypervolt. Charger unlocked, schedule set and majority of times it works. However I have a battery and solar panels, with the battery at 100% and export at 2kw/h plus, the car sometimes starts charging, other times sits there with 'Charging Aborted' on the dash.
I then have to unplug my Hypervolt charger, reboot it, plug it back in and the car then picks up the solar charge.
Never had such an issue with the Hyundai 38 KW/H I had, that charged whenever an export of 1.4kw/h or over was seen.
This leads me to believe the MG inbuilt charger is not 'tuned' well enough and needs a constantly high KW/H shove to get the car charging. As a note the car emits a 'clunking' noise fairly often as if it's switching in and of charging states, but no status change with the car.

Although according to Dr Chris at MyEnergi there’s a minimum standard for this so maybe not entirely an MG issue?

 

[PristDean]

Although according to Dr Chris at MyEnergi there’s a minimum standard for this so maybe not entirely an MG issue?

Yes, minimum charging charging current is 1.4 as a standard, but it's how it's been implemented within a car that comes into question. So how the car responds to seeing an input at 1.5 for example, it should immediately wake and initiate charging. This however is not what I am seeing with the MG, 2kwh can be exported but the car sits with 'charging aborted' until I disconnect for a few minutes and reconnect, it then initiates the charge as expected.
So it appears the car goes into sleep mode, but needs a shove to wake it or reset it before it starts charging.

 

[JDMB]

Yes, minimum charging charging current is 1.4 as a standard, but it's how it's been implemented within a car that comes into question. So how the car responds to seeing an input at 1.5 for example, it should immediately wake and initiate charging. This however is not what I am seeing with the MG, 2kwh can be exported but the car sits with 'charging aborted' until I disconnect for a few minutes and reconnect, it then initiates the charge as expected.
So it appears the car goes into sleep mode, but needs a shove to wake it or reset it before it starts charging.

Understood.

So I have to fiddle with mine a bit at the moment due to the a missing battery clamp that the Zappi and Harvi need for the battery to be recognised, plus the Tesla Gateway being run by Octopus and Tesla to automatically balance the grid for import and export, and with the Minimum Green Level of the Zappi when set to Eco++, but I’ve not seen anything like this yet, although watching the screen on the Zappi while this happens seems to invoke a bit of a merry dance between the two before charging starts. Lots of waiting and handshaking.

Has a Charging delayed message once to help balance the grid, and another issue whereby when I set the charge level to be 100% rather than 80, both the car and the Zappi stopped talking to each other,

 

[JDMB]

Just had remembered I saw something maybe like this today when I plugged the car in and it said surplus energy was available, went into starting mode for a brief period, started to charge once done and then not log after went back into waiting for surplus as the sun had gone behind a cloud and not enough was being produced.

It started again automatically a bit later on though when there was excess again.

 

[PristDean]

Your setup sounds interesting. Today iv'e nursing the car charging from solar, which is disappointing. With the weather as it is (sun playing hide & seek behind the clouds) it's a bit of dance. I'll test through again tomorrow.
Good luck with yours, hope you get that battery clamp.

 

[JDMB]

Your setup sounds interesting. Today iv'e nursing the car charging from solar, which is disappointing. With the weather as it is (sun playing hide & seek behind the clouds) it's a bit of dance. I'll test through again tomorrow.
Good luck with yours, hope you get that battery clamp.

Yep, this cloudy - sunny - cloudy is no fun, especially as the powerwall isn’t charging over night at the moment as it thinks it’ll be better for the grid to charge it during the day. A right pain.