Scheduled charge with Zappi

[tsedge]

We've switched to Octopus Go and I've set a charge schedule on the car for 00:30 to 04:30, plugged into the Zappi, then left the car - but the car is charging straight away! We've got the Zappi on Fast charge mode.

How do I get it to charge using the scheduled times instead?

Any help gratefully appreciated, thanks.

 

[Alb]

Is the car or the Zappi looking after timing?

 

[tsedge]

I have tried with the car, but it just charged at full whack straight away, no schedules set on the Zappi.

I have tried with the car, but it just charged at full whack straight away, no schedules set on the Zappi.

There seem to be an awful lot of permutations I could use with the Zappi.

There's the scheduled charging option but it isn't clear which mode the Zappi should be in for this to work. Should I start the Zappi in STOP, Eco+, Eco or FAST mode for this to work?

I connected the charger with the car unlocked then locked the car once the lights had gone blue to show that it was communicating with the charger.

I have the Zappi set to require a pin, but not for charging, just to use the screen. I don't know if that would be relevant?

Bit lost at the moment as to what is best? Conflicting advice out there!

 

[nbenn]

It needs to be in Eco+

 

[tsedge]

It needs to be in Eco+

Ok, but in Eco+ it will only charge at a very slow rate, I was getting 1.5kW instead of 7kW in FAST mode.

Edit: Also, I thought that mode was for people with solar/battery, I just have grid, so not sure what the leaf slider thingy should be set to for it to work.

 

[Alb]

Not a Zappi expert as I have a Hypervolt but I'd definitely prefer having the charge point look after the timing.

 

[tsedge]

Not a Zappi expert as I have a Hypervolt but I'd definitely prefer having the charge point look after the timing.

Ok, I'll try figuring out that route. Thanks.

 

[nbenn]

Ok, but in Eco+ it will only charge at a very slow rate, I was getting 1.5kW instead of 7kW in FAST mode.

It ramps up over a few minutes. Did you give it much time? Mine is set like this and charges at about 6.5/7.

 

[tsedge]

It ramps up over a few minutes. Did you give it much time? Mine is set like this and charges at about 6.5/7.

Ok, I will try giving it longer then in that mode.

Seems a bit counter-intuitive on the Zappi, I don't know how you'd know you had to be in that mode to schedule charge from the car!

 

[nbenn]

Ok, I will try giving it longer then in that mode.

Seems a bit counter-intuitive on the Zappi, I don't know how you'd know you had to be in that mode to schedule charge from the car!

Ya it's only alright. I could burn your ear telling you about my hassle stopping the thing from charging outside the scheduled time and using my house battery!

 

[siteguru]

There's a fairly long thread here already that addresses this issue (and I think it found a solution).

 

[tsedge]

There's a fairly long thread here already that addresses this issue (and I think it found a solution).

I did find one but there were several conflicting options given.
Nevertheless I will persevere, figure out what works and report back.

Ok, early testing with a schedule in the car didn't work, either nothing happened or the car started charging immediately.

Now trying with a schedule on the Zappi and using Eco+ mode, the scheduled charging seems to be working properly (although there's the variable up to 10 mins delay thanks to the UK government). It seems important though that the car is happy first, so I am plugging in with the car unlocked and awake and then locking it.

Yet to determine if I need to start a charge with the Zappi briefly before the schedule will work - some people say so and I had done that manually before my schedule worked, so I will need to figure this out.

For the moment I have also disabled the security lock on my Zappi as I was getting the message "unlock Zappi to charge" on the app, which I didn't think I had set on but maybe I did.

Frankly the Zappi UI is about as counterintuitive as it could be, but I'll cycle through the options over the next few days and when I'm confident about how to make it work, I'll write up a brief guide.

 

[Big Al]

So, 10,000 MG4 miles done with Zappi. My method...

1. Don't set a schedule in the car!
2. Set a timed boost in the zappi app/main unit for your cheap rate. I just set from 1am - 8am
3. Make sure your zappi mode is set to ECO+, note after a firmware update it will default back to FAST
4. In the car/app set the charge to 80%. Note, if you have to reset the infotainment screen, charge rate will default back to 100%.

Also creating a Zappi timed boost window as long as possible (inside cheap rate) allows the battery to balance if you select 100% charge.

last one... if you have a power cut the Zappi will reboot into FAST mode and start charging as soon as power comes back on. So if you have a power outage before your cheap rate, you'll need to put the mode back to ECO+ to stop the charge

 

[ippy1]

We've switched to Octopus Go and I've set a charge schedule on the car for 00:30 to 04:30, plugged into the Zappi, then left the car - but the car is charging straight away! We've got the Zappi on Fast charge mode.

How do I get it to charge using the scheduled times instead?

Any help gratefully appreciated, thanks.

You need to set it to eco or eco+. Incidentally, if you have a zappi, it probably has eSense enabled so you don't even have to schedule the charge. with eSense it will automatically detect when the economy tariff comes on, and charge automatically.
Just plug it in at any time of the day on eco+ and it does it all for you.

Just look for eSence in the Zappi manual, it explains it all there.

 

[tsedge]

So, 10,000 MG4 miles done with Zappi. My method...

1. Don't set a schedule in the car!
2. Set a timed boost in the zappi app/main unit for your cheap rate. I just set from 1am - 8am
3. Make sure your zappi mode is set to ECO+, note after a firmware update it will default back to FAST
4. In the car/app set the charge to 80%. Note, if you have to reset the infotainment screen, charge rate will default back to 100%.

Also creating a Zappi timed boost window as long as possible (inside cheap rate) allows the battery to balance if you select 100% charge.

last one... if you have a power cut the Zappi will reboot into FAST mode and start charging as soon as power comes back on. So if you have a power outage before your cheap rate, you'll need to put the mode back to ECO+ to stop the charge

Thanks, this is basically what I did last night and it worked.

Don't have to worry about power cuts here, we are on nuke-power and not had a cut in last 7 years of living here.

You need to set it to eco or eco+. Incidentally, if you have a zappi, it probably has eSense enabled so you don't even have to schedule the charge. with eSense it will automatically detect when the economy tariff comes on, and charge automatically.
Just plug it in at any time of the day on eco+ and it does it all for you.

Just look for eSence in the Zappi manual, it explains it all there.

I will check it out, thank you.

You need to set it to eco or eco+. Incidentally, if you have a zappi, it probably has eSense enabled so you don't even have to schedule the charge. with eSense it will automatically detect when the economy tariff comes on, and charge automatically.
Just plug it in at any time of the day on eco+ and it does it all for you.

Just look for eSence in the Zappi manual, it explains it all there.

I had a look at eSense but this seems to require an electrical connection to the Zappi to signal when the low rates are in place. Economy 7 meters can do that but I don't have one. There are people who have created their own projects to trigger the signal off a variable Octopus tariff to switch the Zappi over. Though I have electrical expertise, I don't think that's something I'm going to bother with for now since on Go the hours are predictable and Octopus are due to support Zappis on Octopus Intelligent later this year, which will enable it to switch on/off at the right prices.

 

[FormerOctavia]

Ok, I will try giving it longer then in that mode.

Seems a bit counter-intuitive on the Zappi, I don't know how you'd know you had to be in that mode to schedule charge from the car!

You can do it easily enough through the app. If you're getting a low charge rate, it's a bit of a long shot, but you can throttle the charge rate on a Zappi, might be worth checking the Supply Grid Limit on the charger itself. I did that when I was awaiting my home fuse to be replaced, so by throttling the charge rate, I wasn't going to blow my house fuse

 

[Fads54]

We've switched to Octopus Go and I've set a charge schedule on the car for 00:30 to 04:30, plugged into the Zappi, then left the car - but the car is charging straight away! We've got the Zappi on Fast charge mode.

How do I get it to charge using the scheduled times instead?

Any help gratefully appreciated, thanks.

Hi
I have a Zappi and I’m on Octopus Go. I use the MG i smart app to schedule charging from 00.30 to 04.30 overnight. This has been working perfectly. When I’ve plugged in the car dashboard shows charging in green but the word scheduled as well.

 

[bigal]

I started off with this scheduled charging issue
I called zappi support who are excellent

Their main point was only use zapping or the car to control he scheduled charge - don’t program both or the car gets confused