MG4/Zappi scheduled charging problem

[AlfC]

Over the summer most of our charging has been using power from the solar panels and ECO or ECO+ on the Zappi. On occasions I have set the car to charge at FAST between 00.30 and 4.30 am on Octopus Go and this is where the problems arise. Last night I set the Zappi to ECO+ (so that it did not drain the domestic battery) and to BOOST between 00.30 and 04.30 this morning. When I got up the car had not charged at all and the Zappi said Charge delayed. I had to unplug the cable from the car, plug it in again, unlock the Zappi and set it to charge at FAST (using day-time rate electricity).
Anyone got a clue as to what might be wrong here?
Thanks
Alf

 

[johnb80]

Over the summer most of our charging has been using power from the solar panels and ECO or ECO+ on the Zappi. On occasions I have set the car to charge at FAST between 00.30 and 4.30 am on Octopus Go and this is where the problems arise. Last night I set the Zappi to ECO+ (so that it did not drain the domestic battery) and to BOOST between 00.30 and 04.30 this morning. When I got up the car had not charged at all and the Zappi said Charge delayed. I had to unplug the cable from the car, plug it in again, unlock the Zappi and set it to charge at FAST (using day-time rate electricity).
Anyone got a clue as to what might be wrong here?
Thanks
Alf

Have you got any schedule set in your car? I have seen this a couple of times with my BMW when for whatever reason the car stops the charge, ZAPPI then thinks the charge complete and goes into that mode (blue light). Once it's there the only way to start the charge again is to unplug the car. Was there any solar energy available when you plugged in? the ZAPPI may have stopped the charge when solar dropped off etc and caused the charging cycle to cease.

 

[Jomarkh]

I just leave my Zappi in Eco+ and change to schedule times depending on what I want added

 

[AlfC]

Have you got any schedule set in your car? I have seen this a couple of times with my BMW when for whatever reason the car stops the charge, ZAPPI then thinks the charge complete and goes into that mode (blue light). Once it's there the only way to start the charge again is to unplug the car. Was there any solar energy available when you plugged in? the ZAPPI may have stopped the charge when solar dropped off etc and caused the charging cycle to cease.

This time I had not set a schedule in the car. It was evening and the solar had dropped well below the 1.4kW threshold so at that point the Zappi was reading 'paused' as expected. (The light was red which I think means just that.) At some point in the night the Zappi went from Paused to Charge Delayed. In the past when I just left it at ECO+ overnight it still says Paused in the morning and then starts charging again when the solar gets up to 1.4kW or I switch to ECO to make up the deficit.

 

[johnb80]

This time I had not set a schedule in the car. It was evening and the solar had dropped well below the 1.4kW threshold so at that point the Zappi was reading 'paused' as expected. (The light was red which I think means just that.) At some point in the night the Zappi went from Paused to Charge Delayed. In the past when I just left it at ECO+ overnight it still says Paused in the morning and then starts charging again when the solar gets up to 1.4kW or I switch to ECO to make up the deficit.

How odd, mine has the message Waiting For Surplus when it's in ECO+ if theres insufficient surplus for it. When the scheduled time starts it then just fast charges to the end of the schedule or when the car says it's full. It gives me a blue light at the end. Every time Ive had a red light it's when charging has failed for some reason.

 

[AlfC]

Perhaps I need to set the car to charge for the same period as I set the Zappi to Boost. I don't really see why that should be necessary since it seems to go from Paused to Charging OK when in ECO+ depending on the state of the solar so why should it be a problem going from ECO+ Paused to Fast when Boost is set to start at 00.30 in the night?

 

[AlfC]

How odd, mine has the message Waiting For Surplus when it's in ECO+ if theres insufficient surplus for it. When the scheduled time starts it then just fast charges to the end of the schedule or when the car says it's full. It gives me a blue light at the end. Every time Ive had a red light it's when charging has failed for some reason.

Yes sorry Waiting for Surplus is the reading on the Zappi itself - the 'Paused' bit is on the Myenergi app. It definitely shows red though when set to ECO+ and whenever the solar drops below 1.4kW.
Can you recall why your charging has failed on occasions?

 

[Big Al]

Hi, I've had the MG4 and a Zappi since last october, also I have solar, So I never set any scheduled charging in the car, it's all done by the Zappi, which opens a charging window between 2am-9am. The Zappi has to be set to eco+ if you only want to charge in the cheap rate. I plug the car in in the evening when the solar output drops below 1.4KW. So the charging wont start until 2am.

Schedules and modes
STOP - no charging at all, even if schedule set
FAST - starts charging as soon as you plug it in
ECO - only relevant with Solar, and will start to charge as soon as plugged in, holding a min charge of 1.4KW, by topping up from grid.
ECO+ Only relevant with solar, will start to charge if there's more than 1.4KW from panels, and will start charging at 7KW in the scheduled window. "Waiting for surplus" is what you should see when you plug in the evening

So through the winter we simply leave the zappi in ECO+, and plug it in the evening.
In summer I do a bit of charging through day using ECO, as I find ECO+ stressful on the car as everytime a cloud blocks the sun, charging stops, an the high voltage contacts keep opening and closing.

 

[AlfC]

Hi, I've had the MG4 and a Zappi since last october, also I have solar, So I never set any scheduled charging in the car, it's all done by the Zappi, which opens a charging window between 2am-9am. The Zappi has to be set to eco+ if you only want to charge in the cheap rate. I plug the car in in the evening when the solar output drops below 1.4KW. So the charging wont start until 2am.

Schedules and modes
STOP - no charging at all, even if schedule set
FAST - starts charging as soon as you plug it in
ECO - only relevant with Solar, and will start to charge as soon as plugged in, holding a min charge of 1.4KW, by topping up from grid.
ECO+ Only relevant with solar, will start to charge if there's more than 1.4KW from panels, and will start charging at 7KW in the scheduled window. "Waiting for surplus" is what you should see when you plug in the evening

So through the winter we simply leave the zappi in ECO+, and plug it in the evening.
In summer I do a bit of charging through day using ECO, as I find ECO+ stressful on the car as everytime a cloud blocks the sun, charging stops, an the high voltage contacts keep opening and closing.

That's exactly my understanding, and I also use ECO a lot when the sun is intermittent. My 'Charge Delayed' problem seems to happen despite my settings being exactly like yours (except my Boost timing was between 00.30 and 04.30 to catch the Octopus Go cheap rate).
Perhaps I will have to ask Myenergy why the Zappi might have gone to Charge Delayed rather than Boosting according to the schedule.

 

[Pat]

Have you updated the firmware on the Zappi itself? The same system here ... car, solar, storage, and had some 'weird goings on' fixed by upgrading the firmware on the Zappi. To be honest though I set the timing schedule nightly (I only need to do it one or two nights a week so no biggie) as I still get the MG App moving charging level back to 100% from 80%.

 

[AlfC]

Have you updated the firmware on the Zappi itself? The same system here ... car, solar, storage, and had some 'weird goings on' fixed by upgrading the firmware on the Zappi. To be honest though I set the timing schedule nightly (I only need to do it one or two nights a week so no biggie) as I still get the MG App moving charging level back to 100% from 80%.

Yes the Zappi firmware was updated recently. That's an idea though, I should go through the updating again to make sure nothing went wrong with it.
Do you set the charging schedule on the Zappi, the car, or both? I think the one thing I have not tried is to set the schedule on the car and just set the Zappi to FAST beforehand.

 

[Big Al]

If charging during the day on Eco, and then I decide to STOP the charge because the PV power is less than 1.4KW, so pulling from grid. When the sun comes back out and I move the Zappi back to ECO, I get CHARGE DELAYED. No charging will start from this point. The cable needs to be disconnected, wait a minute and reconnected. Not sure if this handshake problem is the Zappi or the MG

 

[AlfC]

If charging during the day on Eco, and then I decide to STOP the charge because the PV power is less than 1.4KW, so pulling from grid. When the sun comes back out and I move the Zappi back to ECO, I get CHARGE DELAYED. No charging will start from this point. The cable needs to be disconnected, wait a minute and reconnected. Not sure if this handshake problem is the Zappi or the MG

That's interesting. The main uncertainty I have is what causes the Charge Delayed to appear. When it does, as you say, nothing works until to disconnect and reconnect, etc.

 

[Pat]

I (always) ignore the car (apart from the 80% stuff) and manually set the Zappi schedule. (About to do it now in fact!)

I don't think I've ever tested using it in ECO (or ECO+) and had a schedule set up and have it continue charging (from solar) the next day. When I do work from home and the car is plugged in - I manually start the charge on the Zappi App.

I'll have a bash over the next few days (typically I'm in the office tomorrow and Thursday!)

 

[AlfC]

I (always) ignore the car (apart from the 80% stuff) and manually set the Zappi schedule. (About to do it now in fact!)

I don't think I've ever tested using it in ECO (or ECO+) and had a schedule set up and have it continue charging (from solar) the next day. When I do work from home and the car is plugged in - I manually start the charge on the Zappi App.

I'll have a bash over the next few days (typically I'm in the office tomorrow and Thursday!)

Thanks, will be interested to hear the outcome. In the meantime I will try to ask Myenergi about the Charge Delayed issue and what might cause it.

 

[Diggsy]

Charge delayed means the Zappi is offering a charge to the car but the car isn’t accepting it. That’s usually caused by a timer set in the car. Be sure to remove any and all previously set charge timers (schedules) in the car and only set them from the Zappi.

“When a message of 'Charge Delayed' shows on the screen, this usually means that the zappi is trying to deliver a charge to the EV but the EV is unwilling to accept it at that time. This can be down to a few things;

• You have charge timers set in the EV and these are preventing the charge happening right now
• Some EVs need to have the central locking activated before they will start to charge (MG)

What do I do?

• Make sure you DISABLE any timers you have set in the EV and activate the central locking before plugging the zappi into your EV”

 

[johnb80]

Perhaps I need to set the car to charge for the same period as I set the Zappi to Boost. I don't really see why that should be necessary since it seems to go from Paused to Charging OK when in ECO+ depending on the state of the solar so why should it be a problem going from ECO+ Paused to Fast when Boost is set to start at 00.30 in the night?

Just as luck would have it I was awake at 04:00 this morning and my ZAPPI was displaying a red light and charge delayed message, I've never seen it do that before. I looked on Home Assistant that monitors whats going on and found my car had charged from 23:30 to 23:50, 02:00 to 03:30 and is now in a final slot of 04:30 to 06:00. These are scheduled slots downloaded to my car from Octopus Intelligent. So in my case, the red light and charge delayed was initiated from the car not the ZAPPI

 

[AlfC]

Charge delayed means the Zappi is offering a charge to the car but the car isn’t accepting it. That’s usually caused by a timer set in the car. Be sure to remove any and all previously set charge timers (schedules) in the car and only set them from the Zappi.

“When a message of 'Charge Delayed' shows on the screen, this usually means that the zappi is trying to deliver a charge to the EV but the EV is unwilling to accept it at that time. This can be down to a few things;

• You have charge timers set in the EV and these are preventing the charge happening right now
• Some EVs need to have the central locking activated before they will start to charge (MG)

What do I do?

• Make sure you DISABLE any timers you have set in the EV and activate the central locking before plugging the zappi into your EV”

Thanks, that gives me a good lead I think: the car did not have any scheduled charging set but I have often left the car unlocked until setting everything up and then locking it last. So maybe that is where I have gone wrong. It's slightly counter intuitive because you have to unlock the car before you can open the charging flap so the sequence I have used is: unlock the car, open the flap, plug the car in, set the zappi, lock the car. I won't be able to try locking it first until next week now since my wife is away in the car til then.

Just as luck would have it I was awake at 04:00 this morning and my ZAPPI was displaying a red light and charge delayed message, I've never seen it do that before. I looked on Home Assistant that monitors whats going on and found my car had charged from 23:30 to 23:50, 02:00 to 03:30 and is now in a final slot of 04:30 to 06:00. These are scheduled slots downloaded to my car from Octopus Intelligent. So in my case, the red light and charge delayed was initiated from the car not the ZAPPI

Does that mean you were charging a car that is Intelligent Octopus compliant, or have Octopus now included the Zappi?

 

[johnb80]

Does that mean you were charging a car that is Intelligent Octopus compliant, or have Octopus now included the Zappi?

My i3 is OI compliant, MyEnergi are about to start Beta testing ZAPPI and OI I'm told.

 

[aitch]

Make sure you clear any timers in the car as sometimes this conflicts with the Zapp. Just set charging as a schedule in the Zappi only. I have had Charging delayed message several times and all but one time it has been down to me not doing something right. On the one occasion it wasn’t me but no accountable reason, unplugged and plugged back in resolved whatever the issue was.