Pod-Point Solo, Charges but no balance?

chromeskull

chromeskull

Established Member
Joined
Jul 27, 2020
Messages
121
Reaction score
78
Points
32
Age
39
Location
Sheffield
Driving
MG ZS EV
Hello everyone,
Last year with the Bad BMS i spotted my car would try to balance for a while before ending (More like giving up).
After the update this year I've noticed that the Pod Point would get me to 100% but would not do a full balance like the Rolec at work. Pod Point pointed at the car to be at fault. So today I put my car on charge and put 6.6kw in after 1.5hr. However at work the balance charge carries on for literally hours, which is supposed to happen (until my battery is properly balanced).

Tonight double checked by going out after the 1.5hr mark and found the podpoint in standby (connected not charging) and checked my dash by pressing the door handle button with the key left in the house. That brings the dashboard up and shows the current state of charge and estimated finish time. It displayed 100% but looking at the MG Badge it wasn't balancing (voltage was 439v after getting the key).

Is anyone else having this? I'm only getting a proper balance at work (charge for 2hours to fill then 5+ hours balancing).
 
I can equalise on my podpoint solo. It draws around 500w when equalising. It doesn’t happen that often as I guess it doesn’t need to with my HV pack. How do you know its not balancing on the podpoint?
 
I checked the MG badge and dash every 30mins to see if it's blinking state went into the steady state. It had not :(
 
Yes, fully off and the pod point was flashing green (standby).
It charged 6.7kwh total, which is correct for top up as I drove home from work 22 miles, and achieved 3.2m/kWh. However it still needs a lot of balancing.
I'm going to try for the same m/kWh to work today and check the charging state every 30mins.
 
Strange. I’ve had a few dealings with podpoint customer service - usually helpful but always suggest it’s the car at fault. They can complete a remote check of your charger - but I guess that you know this. There’s a new timed charge app in beta shortly which might at least make tracking easier. I don’t think that you need to discharge the battery below about 95% before charging to get equalisation but it might be worth trying a lower discharge before charging on your podpoint.
 
Lovemyev said:
Not the correct answer, but trying balancing with the “Granny” charger ?.
Then you can tell Pod Point that you have no problem balancing with two other charging methods, so what is going on with my wall box ?.
Click to expand...
I've already informed them the granny is fine, but they still blame the car lol.
Double checked the Rolec charger at work is 7kw the same as my Pod-Point at home.
So I'll pop out every 30mins to see when it kicks over to balancing. Unfortunately I failed (successfuly) to achieve the same m/kwh this morning as I had 3.2 last night but 3.9 this morning... I should have not bothered cruising at 60 lol.
By my reconning it should only take 48-50mins before switching to balancing.
 
chromeskull said:
Hello everyone,
Last year with the Bad BMS i spotted my car would try to balance for a while before ending (More like giving up).
After the update this year I've noticed that the Pod Point would get me to 100% but would not do a full balance like the Rolec at work. Pod Point pointed at the car to be at fault. So today I put my car on charge and put 6.6kw in after 1.5hr. However at work the balance charge carries on for literally hours, which is supposed to happen (until my battery is properly balanced).

Tonight double checked by going out after the 1.5hr mark and found the podpoint in standby (connected not charging) and checked my dash by pressing the door handle button with the key left in the house. That brings the dashboard up and shows the current state of charge and estimated finish time. It displayed 100% but looking at the MG Badge it wasn't balancing (voltage was 439v after getting the key).

Is anyone else having this? I'm only getting a proper balance at work (charge for 2hours to fill then 5+ hours balancing).
Click to expand...
have you tried the granny charger to balance to see if that helps..
 
micky said:
have you tried the granny charger to balance to see if that helps..
Click to expand...
I will plug the granny in tonight after the pod point finishes, that would then prove the podpoint doesn't balance to them. I'll take a video as proof.

If I unplug the podpoint, plug it back in with no charging commencing after a few seconds (for light to turn off) remove the podpoint cable and plug in the granny and observe if it begins balancing and check the amount of time its in the balance state.

Just to update, I went out to the car at 10:15 and the car has finished charging (100% on dash 0:00 time remaining) and it is currently balancing. It will be getting unplugged at lunch to go for dinner.
So its been 1hr 15mins charging and will also be a further 1hr 45mins on balance. which is still more than the pod point did last night.
 
I don't know regarding this, can others confirm?
If the car is 100% charged, then unplugged and plugged back in - will it do a balance charge?
I say this in case after using your pod point you then plug in the granny lead to see if it just does the balance.

I am purely speculating here but I wouldn't be surprised if the car was at 100% when it's subsequently plugged in that it doesn't do anything even if it needs a balance.
 
A good point. I think it was suggested that the battery should be down to 97% or below before charging in order to trigger equalisation after a charge. I’m not sure if anyone has actually unplugging and recharging straight away to see what happens.
 
I have tried this, mine is sat on my drive doing nothing but plugged in, when the equalisation has finished and light turned off, I have unplugged the granny and replugged it in it appears to go straight to equalisation again and light is solid again for a couple of hours. Done this several times.
 
When I've charged mine on my Pod Point at home in the past it went from charging at 7kWh down to around 3kWh for a while then down to 0.3 kWh when balancing.
Today it went from 7kWh to nothing (badge off) for about 10 minutes then back up to 3kWh for 10 minutes (badge flashing) now it's dropped to 0.3kWh (badge lit) still equalising.
This is the first time I've seen this 10 minute gap between 7kWh and the 3kWh stage.
Nothing has changed with the car so I'm wondering if this is down to one of the Pod Point updates that gets sent to the charger over WiFi.
@chromeskull have you left the car connected after it stopped (badge off) to see if comes back again ?
 
Kithmo said:
When I've charged mine on my Pod Point at home in the past it went from charging at 7kWh down to around 3kWh for a while then down to 0.3 kWh when balancing.
Today it went from 7kWh to nothing (badge off) for about 10 minutes then back up to 3kWh for 10 minutes (badge flashing) now it's dropped to 0.3kWh (badge lit) still equalising.
This is the first time I've seen this 10 minute gap between 7kWh and the 3kWh stage.
Nothing has changed with the car so I'm wondering if this is down to one of the Pod Point updates that gets sent to the charger over WiFi.
@chromeskull have you left the car connected after it stopped (badge off) to see if comes back again ?
Click to expand...
Sounds like you are onto something there.
On a good day, my car will pull 7.0 kw’s from the dumb Rolec wall box up to about 97 - 98% SOC then the car will reduce the demand from the wall box down to 3.6kw’s until it reaches 100% SOC.
The MG logo will be pulsing slowly until it hits 100% SOC.
At 100% the car will reduce the demand down again from the wall box.
It is still displaying the green charging light on the box though.
The car scales the demand right back to around 500 - 300 Watts at the 100% mark.
This is displayed when the MG logo is now at a steady glow and NOT a pulse.
It is now balancing the pack.
When the balance process is complete, the car will send a signal to the wall box and it will return it to the “Ready State” and blue light will be shown.
That is how is should correctly react I believe.
If the wall box at work and your “Granny” unit at home performs in this manor, then you have to question the behaviour of the Pod Point wall box ???.
You could try taking the car to a public 7.0kw post at a SOC of around 95% and then charge from there.
They see how it deals with that situation.
Trial and error / process of elimination.
 
Cocijo said:
A good point. I think it was suggested that the battery should be down to 97% or below before charging in order to trigger equalisation after a charge. I’m not sure if anyone has actually unplugging and recharging straight away to see what happens.
Click to expand...
I can confirm that it does with works dumb rolec that if i disconnect the car at 100% (incomplete balance) pop up the hill and back, when i reconnect it still displays 100% the MG badge flashes once, and then straight to steady on, it's still balancing even now 3hours later.

I popped up the hill to the chippy for the office... I'm too lazy to walk up the hill and fetch a couple bag fulls of chippy orders, perfect reason to use an electric car lol.
 
Unfortunately I'll have to try again today or tomorrow.
Plugged in at home at 19:48, car alarm went off at 21:06, due to my leaving my obd adapter connected. Went to bathroom and my phone connected to the adaptor...
Went out at 21:06 to find the podpoint on Red and the car had stopped charging... Maybe that's something else for people to test. Wouldn't want to end up with a failed charge due to a false alarm.

Unplugged and plugged it back in and then checked on it at 00:04 it has finished charging again. This time pod point flashing green, mg badge off. Opened the car and the dash said 97% charged... I waited 5 minutes, and it did switch over to balancing but I wasn't going to wait for a result so gave up and plugged it into granny anyway. Since the test was tainted from the false alarm.
 
chromeskull said:
Plugged in at home at 19:48, car alarm went off at 21:06, due to my leaving my obd adapter connected.
Click to expand...
Just a note of caution :-
Keep a eye on your 12 volt battery condition if I was you.
If your alarm was triggered for no reason, it MAY indicate that your 12 volt battery has a low state of charge.
Just saying !.
 
Support us by becoming a Premium Member

Latest MG EVs video

MG3 Hybrid+ & Cyberster Configurator News + hot topics from the MG EVs forums
Published
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Back
Top Bottom