MG4 Trophy + Ohme Home Pro + Intelligent Octopus

[ukslim]

(Not sure whether the fact it's an MG4 is relevant, but it asks you to plug the car in while it tests, so maybe...)

I bought an Ohme Home Pro charger from Octopus themselves, specifically so I could have Intelligent Octopus.

Then I got a standard Octopus account and am currently on the Flexible tariff. As I understand it you do that, then switch tariff in the app.

I went through the setup in the app, authorised Octopus to use my Ohme account. All seems to have worked, and the Ohme app says I'm with Intelligent Octopus and stuff is greyed out because of it -- to Octopus has obviously successfully used an Ohme API to tell it.

Next step is the charge test. Plug the cable into the car. Car isn't fully charged. Tap "continue". App says it's testing and it should take under a minute. I left it for about half an hour, and it never succeeded.

Now the Octopus app says I'm still on the Flexible tariff, but in "devices" knows I have an Ohme (but has no setup options or way to repeat the test)
And the Ohme app says my tariff is Intelligent Octopus, and has "avoid peak charging" disabled because of it.

I see others are using Intelligent. Did it work smoothly for you? Are there any things you have to do to nudge it?

Octopus haven't answered an email since I got the account, either , except an automated one (a week ago) saying "don't worry, we're busy, but we got your question and we'll get to you".

 

[DBedford]

Yes, a smart meter is still required.

 

[mg4mc]

You need a gen 2 smart meter for atllEV tariffs as they allow1/2hr metering.

Or a Gen1 Secure meter. I have a Gen1S and it works fine.

 

[ukslim]

Or a Gen1 Secure meter. I have a Gen1S and it works fine.

"Certain" SMETS1 smart meters.

Specifically those made by Secure.

 

[Robf]

You need a gen 2 smart meter for atllEV tariffs as they allow1/2hr metering.

Thats not true, Octopus can update a gen 1 to work with an over air update, although not all type 1s are suitable. Mine was.

 

[DBedford]

Yes, however, I think the thought process here was that if Octopus can talk directly to the charger and can control it (for Intelligent Octopus), does it still need the smart meter? It would for all the non car charging anyway.

 

[ukslim]

Since we're comparing notes here...

Last night I plugged in and the Ohme app notified me that it had scheduled 19:00-19:30 and 11:30-05:30. The first block, it charged. The second block, it didn't.

Ohme support checked the logs and told me it had tried to start the charge, and the MG4 Trophy had responded with "SuspendedEV", i.e. "I don't want your charge, thanks".

No schedules configured on the car, and it was set to an 80% limit (car was on mid 30s).

Anyone else experienced this? I found one similar thread in the MG5 forum.

I really hope it was a one-off. I really don't want to not trust the overnight schedule to work. And I really don't want to take it to MG for fixes :/

 

[Dan C]

I ran into the same problem, it was down to an error by me. I had created my Ohme account using my Google login. Wrong, you must create the account using a new username/password.

Then the sign-up process still failed in the Octopus app. But coincidentally the Octopus app updated itself, and after that the process worked first time.

So, if you have done the same as me, I would...

1. Delete your Ohme account using your third party login.
2. Create a new Ohme account using a username/password.
3. Uninstall the Octopus app (or delete the cache and storage which should reset it)
4. Try the sign-up/test charge process again.

+1 Agreed, I had to make another Ohme account and actually register with them rather than use my apple log on option.

 

[NoSkill]

Since we're comparing notes here...

Last night I plugged in and the Ohme app notified me that it had scheduled 19:00-19:30 and 11:30-05:30. The first block, it charged. The second block, it didn't.

Ohme support checked the logs and told me it had tried to start the charge, and the MG4 Trophy had responded with "SuspendedEV", i.e. "I don't want your charge, thanks".

No schedules configured on the car, and it was set to an 80% limit (car was on mid 30s).

Anyone else experienced this? I found one similar thread in the MG5 forum.

I really hope it was a one-off. I really don't want to not trust the overnight schedule to work. And I really don't want to take it to MG for fixes :/

Personally I've not had that issue, I've plugged in with ~35% and the App has given me a schedule with 4+ blocks and by the morning it's at 100% so presumably started/stopped as requested without issue...

Fingers crossed it's a one-off for you :/

 

[Shez879]

So far mine has been working well too. You are meant to set the car limit to 100% without any schedules in the car itself. All intelligent charging is done via the Ohme app. Check this group for more details / support: Ohme EVSE Integration with Intelligent Octopus Tariff Group | Facebook

 

[NoSkill]

So far mine has been working well too. You are meant to set the car limit to 100% without any schedules in the car itself. All intelligent charging is done via the Ohme app. Check this group for more details / support: Ohme EVSE Integration with Intelligent Octopus Tariff Group | Facebook

I've succesfully done mine with the 80% cap via the app as well btw, being a trophy it's more common than the full 100% charge...

 

[Shez879]

I've succesfully done mine with the 80% cap via the app as well btw, being a trophy it's more common than the full 100% charge...

You mean via the Ohme app? Same for me. I just set the percentage I need to charge to get to 80% on the Ohme app and sure enough it stops charging within a couple of % over

 

[NoSkill]

You mean via the Ohme app? Same for me. I just set the percentage I need to charge to get to 80% on the Ohme app and sure enough it stops charging within a couple of % over

Sorry, no, I mean the iSmart app, I set that to 80% charge and Ohme is just to 'full charge'

 

[Shez879]

Sorry, no, I mean the iSmart app, I set that to 80% charge and Ohme is just to 'full charge'

Oh ok. On the Facebook support group they say to do the opposite to benefit from the intelligent scheduling (if I read the instructions correctly lol)

 

[NoSkill]

I'm not on facebook but it seems a little odd (and like I said it works for me), I can see the point in the time schedule being disabled in the car, but not sure about the 80% cap, and certainly can't be bothered to work out how much kWh I need

 

[mg4mc]

Yep, set the 80% limit in the car, then tell Ohme the percentage to add to get to 80%. I round it up to the nearest 5%.

The Ohme cannot yet read the SoC in the MG, so relying on the Ohme to control the shutdown may leave you over or under charged.

 

[strange powers]

I have a 1st gen smart meter, an Ohme Home Pro charger and I'm on Octopus Go. This is how I manage it with my MG4 Trophy:
I set the tariff in the Ohme app, 0030 to 0430
I set up a daily Charge Schedule in the Ohme app - add 35% by 0430
Set the car to 80%
Plug it in!

The car shuts off the charge when it hits the limit, so this way I don't need to worry and wake up every day with an 80% battery. I typically use 15-30% of the battery in a day, and I easily get that during the four hour charge window I've created. I alter the programme on the Ohme and up the limit on the car to 100% if I need a bigger charge.

 

[ok86]

So far mine has been working well too. You are meant to set the car limit to 100% without any schedules in the car itself. All intelligent charging is done via the Ohme app. Check this group for more details / support: Ohme EVSE Integration with Intelligent Octopus Tariff Group | Facebook

@Shez879 thanks this is exactly how I did it. I've made a video of my set up if anyone else is still struggling with this, I only got the car on Tuesday so i'm still learning.

 

[Shez879]

@Shez879 thanks this is exactly how I did it. I've made a video of my set up if anyone else is still struggling with this, I only got the car on Tuesday so i'm still learning.

Excellent video. Just a couple of points. Once you are fully onboarded (that can take a couple of days I think, which is why the car started charging the first time you plugged it - mine did the same so I stopped it and used the schedule that time), you can disable price cap and all the options on the charge preferences tab. In fact, it is recommended. This way Octopus / Ohme will also charge outside of the 23:30 - 5:30 time slot but you'll still pay off peak rate. I had one charge session where the schedule was outside of these hours and I was charged the correct off peak rate.

 

[ok86]

Excellent video. Just a couple of points. Once you are fully onboarded (that can take a couple of days I think, which is why the car started charging the first time you plugged it - mine did the same so I stopped it and used the schedule that time), you can disable price cap and all the options on the charge preferences tab. In fact, it is recommended. This way Octopus / Ohme will also charge outside of the 23:30 - 5:30 time slot but you'll still pay off peak rate. I had one charge session where the schedule was outside of these hours and I was charged the correct off peak rate.

Interesting. That makes sense the first time I plugged in after the test charge was complete it was still showing I was on the flexible octopus tariff in the Octopus app then I got an email the next morning and the app updated to show my new tariff as intelligent. I will give those settings a go and do a part 2 video thanks for the feedback.

 

[Koomi]

My Ohme has just been fitted today, and Octopus have confirmed I have switched to Intelligent, so time to play.

My initial thoughts, seem to go against the advice, which was have a single charge plan in the Ohme set to Add 80% before 7am, and the car set to stop at 80% as it's an LR.
That way it would charge over night, and stop at 80%

But thinking about it some more, the Intelligent side of things won't be working to their best of ability - as it is thinking that it needs to schedule 80% of charge in that time, when in reality it could be much lower, and therefore planned better.

So think I will set up 10 Schedules on the Ohme, adding 10%, 20%, 30% though to 100%... selecting whatever one will take me over 80%, and leave the car to cut off when it gets there.

I'll see how it goes, and may end up setting the car to be 100% so it doesn't get in the way of anything, but will see what happens when trying to go from 23% -> 80% tonight.