Scheduled Charge unscheduled?

[Tigger]

On the last two occasions when I have attempted to do an overnight scheduled charge on my MG4 Trophy, the car has decided to jump the gun, and charge during the previous evening. Has anyone else experienced this?

My theory is that this is caused by my opening up the ismart app. I do this to check what the %charge is on the car, because I reckon that one hour's charge (at 7kw) gives me an extra 10%. I assume that opening up the app, and checking the charge level, somehow turns off 'Scheduled Charging', and the car starts charging immediately.

I this plausible?

 

[Deleted member 9692]

I haven‘t noticed opening the app to trigger the charging. I have noticed that if I set the schedule via the car it seems unreliable and will start charging before the schedule. I now use the app to set the schedule rather than the car interface.

 

[hequals4]

I haven't got my MG4 yet so I'm just guessing but, with some EV's, if your SoC is really low the car will automatically start charging as soon as you plug in even if you're on a scheduled delayed timer. Once it reaches a set level (like 20%) it will stop and set it back to the schedule. Not doing that is it?

 

[bear1]

I've really struggled with getting the car to delay charging. I thought I'd pinned it down to needing to alter and re-save the schedule each time. However, this didn't work last time.
I did find leaving the car unlocked, plug in the lead and then as the charger gets going lock the car worked on my last attempt.
Very frustrating.

 

[siteguru]

Do you have a "dumb" charge point? If not you could put the schedule into the charge point.

 

[PeteC]

My scheduled charging is also quite random. It occasionally behaves as it should and starts charging at 2am, but it's just as likely to start up at 7pm, or 10pm or 1am. I have tried setting the schedule in the car and not touching the app and I've tried setting the schedule in the app. It has gone wrong in both scenarios. I have noticed that sometimes (but, frustratingly, only sometimes) that when the charge starts early the app has reset itself to the default 10pm start time. Whenever it has started early, I've found that stopping the charge from the app and resetting the schedule with the app has made it follow the schedule properly. The problem with that is that I have to catch it if it starts charging early. I've taken to switching the feed to the charger off at the consumer unit until I go to bed so that I don't have to keep checking through the evening!
I wish I could schedule my charger rather than the car but it's out of wifi range so I can't do that. I'm wondering about fitting a time switch to my charger to turn it on a few minutes before 2am so that it minimises the time when the car can start prematurely.

 

[the briggie]

Do you mean that don't have a charger/charger app that lets you set up schedules/repeat schedule...what kind of charger do you have?

 

[Tigger]

I have noticed that sometimes (but, frustratingly, only sometimes) that when the charge starts early the app has reset itself to the default 10pm start time.

Precidsely that also happened to me on one occasion. However, when I looked again on the app before I went to bed, it had reset itself to the correct programmed time (midnight in my case). Curiouser and curiouser. Maybe this always happens, so you have a limited time window to spot the default case.

 

[Oberoy]

My scheduled charging is also quite random. It occasionally behaves as it should and starts charging at 2am, but it's just as likely to start up at 7pm, or 10pm or 1am. I have tried setting the schedule in the car and not touching the app and I've tried setting the schedule in the app. It has gone wrong in both scenarios. I have noticed that sometimes (but, frustratingly, only sometimes) that when the charge starts early the app has reset itself to the default 10pm start time. Whenever it has started early, I've found that stopping the charge from the app and resetting the schedule with the app has made it follow the schedule properly. The problem with that is that I have to catch it if it starts charging early. I've taken to switching the feed to the charger off at the consumer unit until I go to bed so that I don't have to keep checking through the evening!
I wish I could schedule my charger rather than the car but it's out of wifi range so I can't do that. I'm wondering about fitting a time switch to my charger to turn it on a few minutes before 2am so that it minimises the time when the car can start prematurely.

Have you tried a decent WiFi extender to get it connected?

 

[the briggie]

Be wary of powerline WiFi extenders....they can interfere with chargers

Some owners of UK electric vehicles, particularly the MG ZS EV, who struggle to get their cars charged at home are finding that the culprit can sometimes be traced back to the use of Powerline (HomePlug) adapters, which extend your home’s wired and / or WiFi network (LAN / WLAN) by harnessing the building’s existing power cables.

 

[Oberoy]

Be wary of powerline WiFi extenders....they can interfere with chargers

Some owners of UK electric vehicles, particularly the MG ZS EV, who struggle to get their cars charged at home are finding that the culprit can sometimes be traced back to the use of Powerline (HomePlug) adapters, which extend your home’s wired and / or WiFi network (LAN / WLAN) by harnessing the building’s existing power cables.

Interesting haven't heard of this previously thanks for the heads up @the briggie. My charger is connected direct to a mobile network, so no need for it to go near the WiFi.
I have a home mesh and use powerline to get ethernet to the room I use as an office, nothing to do with the charge point. No issue with my charge point from it though, can see it could though.

 

[siteguru]

The app for my Wallbox Pulsar Plus let's me interact without wherever I've got a data connection ... even over mobile data. I don't need to be on the same WiFi network to interact with it. (I don't need to be even in the same country).

 

[bear1]

Precidsely that also happened to me on one occasion. However, when I looked again on the app before I went to bed, it had reset itself to the correct programmed time (midnight in my case). Curiouser and curiouser. Maybe this always happens, so you have a limited time window to spot the default case.

I find that, when setting in the car at least, if you set the stop time, the start time will often reset to 10pm. So always with checking.

 

[Oberoy]

Be wary of powerline WiFi extenders....they can interfere with chargers

Some owners of UK electric vehicles, particularly the MG ZS EV, who struggle to get their cars charged at home are finding that the culprit can sometimes be traced back to the use of Powerline (HomePlug) adapters, which extend your home’s wired and / or WiFi network (LAN / WLAN) by harnessing the building’s existing power cables.

@the briggie Just thinking do you know more info on the problem it causes, I assume this isn't causing the problem people are having, i.e. if they already have powerline adapters. Also I assume that WiFi extenders that done use ethernet over power, would not cause the issues as they don't send signals along the home power wires.

 

[PeteC]

Do you mean that don't have a charger/charger app that lets you set up schedules/repeat schedule...what kind of charger do you have?

The charger is sited too far away to connect to our WiFi. It's a podpoint one fitted over 4 years ago.

 

[PeteC]

Have you tried a decent WiFi extender to get it connected?

I've had one in the past but it still didn't connect.

 

[the briggie]

It may well be that some chargers use WiFi rather than have their own network connections, which more modern ones do. The extender whilst providing WiFi can create radio interference.. The radio interference signals can cause the charger to stop communicating I believe.. I suspect this may be the case but I am no expert. It was pointed out to me before my installation so I changed to Mesh...but by the time I got the charger the spec had changed and it had its own, I assume esim, built in.

I've had one in the past but it still didn't connect.

I assume it has to be dumb then as it cannot communicate.

For info

Ohme wall charger & powerline adapter

www.speakev.com

 

[MG4onOrder]

On the last two occasions when I have attempted to do an overnight scheduled charge on my MG4 Trophy, the car has decided to jump the gun, and charge during the previous evening. Has anyone else experienced this?

My theory is that this is caused by my opening up the ismart app. I do this to check what the %charge is on the car, because I reckon that one hour's charge (at 7kw) gives me an extra 10%. I assume that opening up the app, and checking the charge level, somehow turns off 'Scheduled Charging', and the car starts charging immediately.

I this plausible?

It's not a BP Pulse/Chargemaster is it? We have one and lost its scheduled charging last weekend. Will only charge straight away on plugging in. BP said it's an issue their end that they're looking to fix and send an update. Not working yet.

 

[Tig170]

I have an ohme wall charger with cheap overnight charging (albeit very expensive daytime costs), the 1st time i tried it I had a complete fail (I tried to be too clever, and set the MG4 with scheduled charging, and tried a few settings on the ohme system). 2nd time i tried i just set the ohme charger to only charge (in mycase), when the cost is lower than 4.5p / KWhr, (and importantly didn't touch anything else) - for in the past almost 3 months, we just get home, plug the car in (importantly dont touch anything), and in the morning its fully charged (or almost as can only get in 35Kw each night (each month its costing just over £20 for around 600Kw of energy, where as the daytime energy mainly for the house is £72 for 180Kw of energy!!!)- we have the SR model (with LFP batteries?), when it arrived im pretty sure i could set the max charging to 80%, but something seems to have happened, as only 100% long range is available from the MG4), no major issue in this weather as the car was -10 deg C, this morning so "only" get just over a 100 miles / day / charge, which is perfectly fine for our daily local usage.

 

[Tigger]

we have the SR model (with LFP batteries?), when it arrived im pretty sure i could set the max charging to 80%, but something seems to have happened, as only 100% long range is available from the MG4

There's a slider under the battery image on the Target Battery Level page of the iSmart app. It goes up or down in 10% chunks. Mine is currently set at 70%.

I wish I could use your solution to the scheduled charging problem. My Pod Point app claims to schedule charging, but nothing happens. I've logged it with Pod Point - maybe they can sort it. So I am reduced to starting charging by powering on the Pod point when I go to bed, and paying expensive electricity till midnight!