Xpower - queries from a potential new owner

[Jonknee]

Thanks JonnyG. Appreciated.

PeterXpower, but can you defrost it whilst plugged in but not drawing a charge? Have you tried that?

I understand the defrosting works when not plugged in. I understand it works whilst charging, but that is not what I’m asking. Thanks.

 

[Rolfe]

I think this may be less of a problem with the LR batteries, because you don't usually charge them to 100% so you can always initiate a charge then start the pre-heat. I suppose. But with the SR batteries there is the problem that they always charge to 100% and balance when left on an AC charger, and it's not good for them to stop them prematurely and prevent them from balancing.

 

[PeterXpower]

Thanks JonnyG. Appreciated.

PeterXpower, but can you defrost it whilst plugged in but not drawing a charge? Have you tried that?

I understand the defrosting works when not plugged in. I understand it works whilst charging, but that is not what I’m asking. Thanks.

When my car is fully charged this afternoon I'll have a play.

 

[JonnyG]

When my car is fully charged this afternoon I'll have a play.

Given the comment above from PeteC I'm now planning to charge to 80%, stop the charge and then test it.

Then charge to 100% full balanced charge, leave plugged in and test it again.

If it does'nt work I'll play around a bit while its still plugged in to see if anything simple gets it to work from a remote distance (eg remote unlock / lock from key).

I have had it working fine when unplugged so know it can work OK.

......Does preconditioning the battery and preheating the cabin work if the car is plugged in but not charging? I've seen this is a bug but wondered if it is fixed for the Xpower?........

OK Jonknee, good news !! - this is what I found this morning thanks to Pete C

It is a simple process and is probably the best way to charge and get remote heating (twice) without having to go near to or restart the car.

1. I went onto the Ismart app and set the charge limit to 80%
2. Charged the car up 80% from my 7kw home charge and charge finised at 80%.
3. I waited a minute to confirm the charge had definitely stopped (checked no lights in charging door also)
4. Started the remote heating from the app and it successfully started (cable was still plugged in but not charging)
5. Once the pre heat had finished, I started charging again by increasing the set % to 100% in the app.
6. Car started charging again and I left if for a few minutes before stopping again at around 81% charge. The photos relate to this stage and state of charge)
7. I waited a minute again to confirm charge had definitely stopped (checked lights in charging door also - see photo below)
8 With the cable still plugged in but not charging I started the remote heating from the app for a second time and again it successfully started (cable was still plugged in but not charging - see photos below).

So using that method you can preheat the car remotely from the app twice without having to disconnect the cable.

I would advise that you can only preheat twice - after that it comes up with an error (see last photo)

I can pre heat my Trophy when it's plugged in but not charging as long as it hasn't been charged to 100%. When I start the pre heating, the car also starts charging so it needs to be less than fully charged to let that happen. I have a dumb Podpoint charger that starts charging immediately it is plugged in unless I've set a schedule in the car. It might not work the same with some other chargers.

Many thanks for that PeteC - worked well for me and will allow easy remote pre-heating at the time I want. Hopefull it will also work with the pre heating battery option if ever needed.

 

[Jonknee]

Thanks JonnyG.

I still need to convince my wife and will have some explaining to do if the car doesn’t heat as promised.

So I assume that the car heats ok when plugged if the home charger gives power on demand but may not if the charger baulks the process? Say due to scheduling? And when not plugged in, the car happily heats using its own battery?

Thanks again for testing. The salary sacrifice scheme promises an installed charger to sweeten the deal but I’ve no idea how that will work or whether it will help or hinder my assumption above.

Cheers.

 

[JJ86]

Maybe I missed this part, what do you need to convince your wife of? The car as a whole or the preheat query?
Interesting read JonnyG.

 

[JonnyG]

Well mine is a 4 year old 7kw Chargemaster home wall charger (provided free by Renault) . It has a simple on / off swith with a key. It seems to stay switched on ready to charge again after the Ismart percentage of 80% or 90% is reached and charging stopped. The wall box shows a green light still in these conditions which means connected / charging / ready to charge. Pressing the preheat still seems to work remotely for ten minutes, and the charging also continues.

If I ever want to pre-heat the car (or battery, or both) in prepartion for a long journey I will set the charge to 90% well in advance and let it start charging overnight. In the morning hopefully I wlll have a 90% charged battery that has stopped charging. I'll then press the pre-heat and wait 10 minutes, then press it again and pre-heat for a further 10 minutes. Then I'll stop charging, unplug and set off on my journey.

 

[siteguru]

The consideration with "smart" wall boxes is that they turn off once they've received the Stop Charging signal from the car, and won't turn on again until they receive a Start Charging signal. And the MG4 (mine at least) has the issue that being plugged in but with no active charge current available means that remote preheating doesn't work.

 

[JonnyG]

So Dumber is better than Smarter in this instance

Have you tried this at 80% charged but charging stopped and still plugged in ?

Rather than just pressing preheating you could also first try increasing the required charging range to 100% (from 80%) and pressing start charge first. Then try the preheating ?

 

[PeterXpower]

The consideration with "smart" wall boxes is that they turn off once they've received the Stop Charging signal from the car, and won't turn on again until they receive a Start Charging signal. And the MG4 (mine at least) has the issue that being plugged in but with no active charge current available means that remote preheating doesn't work.

Maybe don't get a 'smart' wall box as an upgrade solution or switch off the so called 'smart' options.

 

[siteguru]

So Dumber is better than Smarter in this instance

Have you tried this at 80% charged but charging stopped and still plugged in ?

Rather than just pressing preheating you could also first try increasing the required charging range to 100% (from 80%) and pressing start charge first. Then try the preheating ?

I have an SE SR (which prefers 100% so it can balance properly) so I would have to manually set the car to stop charging. As this issue is a very minor one for me (I'm retired now, so early starts are a thing of the past) I'm not minded to go to such effort.

 

[JonnyG]

Ah....Ok. as this an Xpower thread (with NMC battery) I think it is safe and prudent to stop regularly at 80% (and only do the full balance to 100% every month or so or when full range is required). So the method I outline above should be OK for us Xpower users (or Trophy users) if it works for them.

May be good if someone could test the same works on Smart chargers - (i.e. charge limit set at 80% and charge, then try increasing the required charging range to 100% (from 80%) and pressing "start charge" first. Then try the preheating ?

 

[PeteC]

Many thanks for that PeteC - worked well for me and will allow easy remote pre-heating at the time I want. Hopefull it will also work with the pre heating battery option if ever needed.

Glad it helped.

Well mine is a 4 year old 7kw Chargemaster home wall charger (provided free by Renault) . It has a simple on / off swith with a key. It seems to stay switched on ready to charge again after the Ismart percentage of 80% or 90% is reached and charging stopped. The wall box shows a green light still in these conditions which means connected / charging / ready to charge. Pressing the preheat still seems to work remotely for ten minutes, and the charging also continues.

If I ever want to pre-heat the car (or battery, or both) in prepartion for a long journey I will set the charge to 90% well in advance and let it start charging overnight. In the morning hopefully I wlll have a 90% charged battery that has stopped charging. I'll then press the pre-heat and wait 10 minutes, then press it again and pre-heat for a further 10 minutes. Then I'll stop charging, unplug and set off on my journey.

My 5 year old Podpoint behaves in a similar way. It's not connected to wifi as it's too far from my house so it's a dumb charger. I just press pre heat and, as long as I'm not at 100% SoC, it does the 10 minute preheat. I'm pretty sure the car starts charging as well, but will have to check sometime as I'm working from memory of last winter.

 

[JonnyG]

Glad it helped.

Yeah it did thanks. This forum is great for finding out useful stuff like this and also confirming which little gremlins are common to many (like the Ismart App update now being stuck on km with no way to select Imperial units anymore)

My 5 year old Podpoint behaves in a similar way. It's not connected to wifi as it's too far from my house so it's a dumb charger. I just press pre heat and, as long as I'm not at 100% SoC, it does the 10 minute preheat. I'm pretty sure the car starts charging as well, but will have to check sometime as I'm working from memory of last winter.

My car started charging again - as after the pre heat had finished I noticed it was charging again and had climbed to around 85%

 

[Jonknee]

Maybe I missed this part, what do you need to convince your wife of? The car as a whole or the preheat query?
Interesting read JonnyG.

Both. A functioning latter will help with former.
I’m not looking to get the car due to noble intentions. I have a perfectly good ICE car. The fact is the sacrifice scheme seems relatively good value and the performance of the car intoxicating. Little things, such as an EV’s ability to preheat, just help making the plunge for a new car a tiny bit more palatable. I’m using the fact the car has CarPlay as a justification too. Never had it before so practically, I’ve no idea whether I actually need it or more importantly, whether my wife needs it. But it is an advantage on paper over my current car.

Having said that, having a toasty car in the morning before leaving the house appeals to me too.

 

[Rolfe]

Skipping over the issue with the SR cars, which won't stop at 80% unless you physically force the stop, and if you do that they battery won't balance and it doesn't like that, there's another issue which probably affects all models of MG4.

The car seems to go to sleep and become unresponsive to the app after about 24 hours of not being used. (Not sure if that timing is consistent, there is another thread about it I think.) If the car won't respond to the app, you can't pre-heat it. This is OK if you use the car without fail every day, but what if you don't?

I tried a work-round this afternoon. The car was asleep as it hadn't been used since Thursday. I stood at the front door and unlocked it with the key fob, remotely. This worked. It woke up and started responding to the app. However, I have a horrible suspicion that the key fob won't be able to unlock it when it's in the garage, where it's likely to be on a cold and frosty morning.

So what do we do? Check it with the app every day to keep it awake, and then find the 12v battery is flat when we want to pre-heat it so we're screwed anyway? I dunno.

 

[siteguru]

Next time the car goes to sleep (in the garage), go the part of your house closest to the garage and try the fob. If the car doesn't wake up, stand looking towards where your car is (I'm sure you can work it out based on your knowledge of your property), put the fob at your temple and press the unlock button - see if that unlocks the car (and wakes it up).

It shouldn't work - but it does - key fob range is markedly increased if you hold it against your head. (Clarkson showed this donkies years ago on Top Gear).

 

[tsedge]

This explains why the head trick works:

Tech Myth: Holding the Car Remote to Your Head Increases Its Range

This entry comes to you courtesy of the fact that I’ve heard this maybe-myth told to me more than once in the past few weeks my friends and complete strangers alike. My car’s keyless entry remote, for lack of a better word, sucks. I practically have to be next to the car to get it to work. Alas...

www.apartmenttherapy.com

 

[siteguru]

I'd never heard of holding it to your chin - for me it's seemed to work the same holding it to my temple.

 

[tsedge]

I'd never heard of holding it to your chin - for me it's seemed to work the same holding it to my temple.

Side of head works too, you don't have to be that accurate.