Timed charging for Octopus Go

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SteveH
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Post by SteveH »

Lets get this out of the way first: I know that timed charging is horribly broken.

However, I've been using it to charge between 00:00 - 06:30 pretty successfully since I had the 7.6KW charger installed. I'm planning on moving to Octopus Go shortly, so thought I'd get everything set up to use the 00:30 - 04:30 window, but have had no end of problems. Either it doesn't even charge at all or it charges at 1.3KW from about 03:00 and is still going when I get up.

Please can anyone who has this working share their setup?

Someone suggested setting 4 1 hour preferred times slots, which I did yesterday, but the car didn't charge at all overnight and was still sat at 67% when I got up this morning (the target is 80%).

Thanks.

robgarth
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Post by robgarth »

I use octopus go with the Ohme charger with no problems. Check you haven't accidentally selected "reduce AC charg. Current" in the car. There should be a setting in your charger app for this. The Ohme allows me to restrict charging to cheap times.
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Post by C Nile »

Use my pod point on cheap tariff on Octopus Go regular, just by setting the same time 00 30 till 04.30 every night , but using the schedule to set the day required. Has been fine for me since I got ID3 6 months back
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davidwalton
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Post by davidwalton »

I still haven't found the right balance here. Using the Ohme, historically, to control charging (I'm also on GO 00:30-4:30) worked perfectly, every time, but I encountered a hurdle with remotely heating the car prior to departure outside of the cheap hours*

So I switched to using the car to control charging so that it could charge between 00:30-04:30 and allow heating to be switched on outside of these hours. The heating part worked OK, but I'm getting some very random results with charging. In some cases, it is charging at a very reduced rate and never hits the target max charge (80%)
Checking my consumption between 00:03-04:30 shows random behavior when the car is in control.

*Given that the Ohme app has recently been updated and includes Preconditioning as a setting in a Charge Schedule, I've now switched back to the Ohme to control the charging. The Charging Restriction is set to 5p (GO's per kWh rate between 00:30-04:30) and the Charge Schedule is set to 80% by 9am, with Preconditioning enabled. So in theory, it'll charge to 80% (or whatever it can) by 04:30 and then allow me - using the WeConnect app - to switch on the heater before 09:00 and use the AC via the still-connected-charger to power the heater.

Test, test, test...
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SteveH
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Post by SteveH »

davidwalton wrote: Fri Feb 04, 2022 5:40 pm I still haven't found the right balance here. Using the Ohme, historically, to control charging (I'm also on GO 00:30-4:30) worked perfectly, every time, but I encountered a hurdle with remotely heating the car prior to departure outside of the cheap hours*
I have an Ohme here, but I was hoping to do everything through the car for this exact reason. (As an aside, does your Ohme charger (not the app) show a negative % charged if you leave the car plugged in but not charging?)
In some cases, it is charging at a very reduced rate and never hits the target max charge (80%)
Sounds the same as me then. The odd thing is that it was working ok(*) when I had it set to 00:00-06:30 and has only started breaking now I've changed the hours.

(*) With the window set to 00:00-06:30 I found that it only charged to 77% even though the target was set to 80%. The solution seemed to be to set a departure time, which seemed to make it hit 80% by the departure time.
Test, test, test...
Half the pain is having to wait until the next morning to find out what happens!
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Post by G43FAN »

SteveH wrote: Fri Feb 04, 2022 11:01 am Lets get this out of the way first: I know that timed charging is horribly broken.

I'm not sure what you are trying to achieve here other than confiming your first statement.

If you set to charge to 80% the car will go to 80% there's no hidden factors making it wait until later to do the last 2-3% it's just broken!

VW have acknowledged it's broken, lots of people have confimed it's broken, if you don't have a smart charger then unfortunately timed charging is hit and miss, it's not some setting nobody else has found, hence the fix in 3.0.
Last edited by G43FAN on Sat Feb 05, 2022 11:09 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Daveion
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Post by Daveion »

As per the thread title I have been charging faultlessly via the podpoint app between 0030 and 0430 on OctGO since the install of my Solo in November 21.
Even if the in-car charging option is fixed I cannot see a situation where I would ever need it but maybe Im missing something in the thread.
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davidwalton
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Post by davidwalton »

davidwalton wrote: Fri Feb 04, 2022 5:40 pm Test, test, test...
First test result = fail

Test:
The intention is to charge the car to 80% (or as much as possible) between 00:30-04:30 and then manually enable Air Conditioning at 08:30, to see if the Ohme allowed AC to pass to car to power the heater (outside of the 'cheap' hours)

Settings:
Car - set to 100% max charge, reduced AC charging. No location charge settings enabled
Ohme - set to 80% max charge, 5p Charging Restriction, 09:00 finish time, Preconditioning enabled

Result:
Car had charged to 87% - so the Ohme, set to 80% max, seems to have been overridden by the car which was set to 100% max.

Changed car to 80% max charge, left Ohme settings as-is, will test again tomorrow morning.
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G43FAN

Post by G43FAN »

davidwalton wrote: Sat Feb 05, 2022 11:11 am
davidwalton wrote: Fri Feb 04, 2022 5:40 pm Test, test, test...
First test result = fail

Test:
The intention is to charge the car to 80% (or as much as possible) between 00:30-04:30 and then manually enable Air Conditioning at 08:30, to see if the Ohme allowed AC to pass to car to power the heater (outside of the 'cheap' hours)

Settings:
Car - set to 100% max charge, reduced AC charging. No location charge settings enabled
Ohme - set to 80% max charge, 5p Charging Restriction, 09:00 finish time, Preconditioning enabled

Result:
Car had charged to 87% - so the Ohme, set to 80% max, seems to have been overridden by the car which was set to 100% max.

Changed car to 80% max charge, left Ohme settings as-is, will test again tomorrow morning.

Your using Ohme sheduler and In car? You're not going to get any sensible result.

The OHME cannot see the SoC of your car so setting it to 80% isn't an option. The OHME will assume you want 80% of the total capacity of the battery (46.4%) If the car stopped at 87% did it have a start charge of 41% ish?
Whatever you do.. the In car Mar Max settng overrules all else. If you set the car to 100% and there is power available it will charge to 100%


WIth regards to the OP I thought initially they had a dumb charger, but if they are using an OHME then really no need to use in car settings other than max charge %

On my Zappi I have a 'Boost' window every night from 00:30 +4 hours , I have also experimented with another Boost window for around my leaving time. The car will not accept charge at this point as it is at max SoC, but I thought it may pull power once the cabin heating started. Still experimenting but it's not been very convincingly successful. After the successful charge to 80% (as limited in car) the car seems to refuse to start another session unless I manually force it.
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davidwalton
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Post by davidwalton »

G43FAN wrote: Sat Feb 05, 2022 11:24 am
davidwalton wrote: Sat Feb 05, 2022 11:11 am ...
Changed car to 80% max charge, left Ohme settings as-is, will test again tomorrow morning.

Your using Ohme sheduler and In car? You're not going to get any sensible result.
...
You're right. I'm not :(

Next test is a rewind to the configuration that did work, but with a lengthened Ohme finish time (09:00 instead of 04:30) and Ohme Preconditioning enabled.

Settings:
Car - set to 80% max charge, no location charge settings enabled
Ohme - set to 100% added range, 5p Charging Restriction enabled, 09:00 finish time, Preconditioning enabled

Theory:
With charger plugged into car the previous evening, the Ohme will start charging when the Octopus Go 5p-per-kWh rate kicks in (00:30) and continues to charge until (a) the car reaches 80% charge (b) the time reaches 04:30 - this bit is straightforward. But then...
With charger still connected, at 08:30 a manual, remote Air Conditioning start is sent to the car to warm the cabin, which will use the plugged in AC as the power source for the heater - so range is not decreased from 80%

Result:
I'll let you know...🤞
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G43FAN

Post by G43FAN »

davidwalton wrote: Sun Feb 06, 2022 11:11 am
G43FAN wrote: Sat Feb 05, 2022 11:24 am
davidwalton wrote: Sat Feb 05, 2022 11:11 am ...
Changed car to 80% max charge, left Ohme settings as-is, will test again tomorrow morning.

Your using Ohme sheduler and In car? You're not going to get any sensible result.
...
You're right. I'm not :(

Next test is a rewind to the configuration that did work, but with a lengthened Ohme finish time (09:00 instead of 04:30) and Ohme Preconditioning enabled.

Settings:
Car - set to 80% max charge, no location charge settings enabled
Ohme - set to 100% added range, 5p Charging Restriction enabled, 09:00 finish time, Preconditioning enabled

Theory:
With charger plugged into car the previous evening, the Ohme will start charging when the Octopus Go 5p-per-kWh rate kicks in (00:30) and continues to charge until (a) the car reaches 80% charge (b) the time reaches 04:30 - this bit is straightforward. But then...
With charger still connected, at 08:30 a manual, remote Air Conditioning start is sent to the car to warm the cabin, which will use the plugged in AC as the power source for the heater - so range is not decreased from 80%

Result:
I'll let you know...🤞
This is similar to what I have tried with the Zappi.. you should be able to get from arounf 30% to 80% in the 4 hour window and then the car will stop any further charge so you shouldn't be paying extra outside of the window until later in the morning when you manually start the warming. When i tried it the car didn't pull anything from the wall and I haven't tried again since..
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davidwalton
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Post by davidwalton »

Second test result = success (automated) :D

After a bit of research, the Ohme charger likes full control. When configured correctly, it can charge the car when the electricity price-per-kWh is below a set price cap and also allows power to the car from 30 minutes before a set Finish Time if Preconditioning is enabled, ignoring the set price cap.
The remaining consideration is the car. Tesla, Kia & Hyundai cars can have a manual, remote start (from within the Ohme app), but VW not yet. So I tried an automated configuration first, using the car Departure Times setting in the WeConnectID app to act as the 'Heating on' trigger.

Test:
Charge the car to 80% (or as much as possible) between 00:30-04:30 and then automatically enable Air Conditioning at 08:00, to see if the Ohme allows AC to pass to car to power the heater (outside of the 'cheap' hours) for 30 minutes prior to the set Departure Time of 08:30

Settings:
Car (via WeConnectID app) - set to 80% max charge, 'Air Conditioning' set to 24.5 degrees. 'Departure Times' set to 08:30 on weekdays (repeat)
Ohme app (must be version 1.22.0 or later) - 'Optimize for Battery Life' enabled, 'Charging Restriction' set to 5p. Charge Schedule set to add 100% charge, 08:30 finish time on weekdays and Preconditioning enabled

Result:
The car charges to 80% - or as much as possible by 04:30 - during the cheap timeslots and the car starts heating at 08:00 resulting in a toasty interior by 08:30 👍

Next test - disabling the set car Departure Times and sending a manual heating request at 08:00 from the WeConnectID app to the car, to see if the Ohme picks up the request and activates the heating - manually, rather than automatically.
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SteveH
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Post by SteveH »

To add to this, I've had successes on all 3 nights I've plugged in with this setup:

Target: 80%
Preferred times: 00:30-01:30, 01:30-02:30, 02:30-03:30, 03:30-04:30
Departure time: 07:00 (no aircon).

The departure time seems to make all the difference and my charging to 80% has been done completely within the 00:30-04:30 window each night.
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Utumno
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Post by Utumno »

You have Macgyvered the hell out of that. Congratulations 😂
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Post by Steveim »

Hi Steve,
Thank you for the post of the solution.
I have been battling to get it to charge in the preferred time since I got my car on the 23rd of December 2021. I have spent hours on the phone to VW help lines and they seem to know nothing of this issue and it takes me ages to explain it to them. The help line could not help me and so I took it to a VW dealer and they had my car for 2 days and could not figure it out and said that they’ll contact VW and get a solution. That was 4 weeks ago and I have still not heard anything from the VW dealer. I’ll try the solution that is working for you in the meantime and will let you know when I have gotten VW to fix this issue.
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Utumno
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Post by Utumno »

Steveim wrote: Sat Mar 05, 2022 11:49 am Hi Steve,
Thank you for the post of the solution.
I have been battling to get it to charge in the preferred time since I got my car on the 23rd of December 2021. I have spent hours on the phone to VW help lines and they seem to know nothing of this issue and it takes me ages to explain it to them. The help line could not help me and so I took it to a VW dealer and they had my car for 2 days and could not figure it out and said that they’ll contact VW and get a solution. That was 4 weeks ago and I have still not heard anything from the VW dealer. I’ll try the solution that is working for you in the meantime and will let you know when I have gotten VW to fix this issue.

VW can't fix this until vehicle software 3.x releases, which will be - optimistically - several months away.
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Post by Steveim »

Oh I thought as much, thank you for letting me know Utumno. I’ll tell the useless VW Dealer I’m dealing with as they haven’t got a clue. 😡 🤦‍♂️
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