App to pre-program charging times?

[Andy_TPA]

Hi everyone,
new to the Model S and new to the forums, but I'll get to the point: Sometimes I have to do long trips for work and I need the full range, sadly at weird hours too sometimes. Now of course I could set the charge limit to 100% the day before, charge up to 100%, have the car sit at 100% until I'm ready to go.

Since as far as I have read keeping a high SOC over long periods of time is bad, so ideally I'd start charging 7 hours before my trip if the car needs 7 hours to reach 100%. Living in an old farmhouse compounds this problem as I can't install a wall connector just yet and am using the UMC to charge at the moment.

So the thing I'm looking for is an app that allows me to program a command to be send at a certain time.
e.g.: "Set charging limit to 100% at 3:30pm, today"

Nearly all settings and apps that I've seen so far imply a steady work/driving schedule which is completely useless for me.

 

[Stach]

TeslaTasks is working great for me! It's based in the cloud and very simple to manipulate (a Google Calendar just for your Tesla).

 

[jmaddr]

Maybe I’m missing something, but isn’t this the exact feature Tesla introduces a few months ago? Set you departure time and desired charge level and it will be ready for you at your departure time. My experience with it is it finished up an hour or two before I’m ready so o think it simply builds in some fudge time.

https://www.tesla.com/sites/default/files/model_s_owners_manual_north_america_en_us.pdf

“Scheduled Departure: For any location, such as Home, you can simply plug in Model S and select a time for when you want your vehicle to be ready to drive. Once your specified time is set, Model S prepares itself by determining the best time to start charging to optimize energy costs, battery longevity, and ensure charging is complete in time for your drive. Your vehicle also pre-conditions the cabin to a comfortable temperature and wamrs the battery. To set up a scheduled departure time, go to Charging > Scheduled Departure > Schedule and follow the onscreen instructions to customize your schedule.

EDIT. I just saw this and didn’t know this.... maybe this is what you are referring to and might explain why mine finishes a few hours beforehand sometime. I do t know why it would choose 6 am as the time. Wouldn’t it be different for different electrical companies?

Note: Your vehicle aims to finish charging before 6am (end of off-peak hours). If given sufficient time to charge, charging may stop at 6am, even if your scheduled departure is later. If the vehicle does not have enough time to complete charging before 6am, it will continue to charge until it reaches the target battery percentage.

Nice. Learn something new even when you think you know the answer....

 

[Andy_TPA]

Note: Your vehicle aims to finish charging before 6am (end of off-peak hours). If given sufficient time to charge, charging may stop at 6am, even if your scheduled departure is later. If the vehicle does not have enough time to complete charging before 6am, it will continue to charge until it reaches the target battery percentage.

That's precisely the "problem", as sometimes I have really early trips yet other times I'm leaving at 5:00 PM, so in practice there's no benefit in terms of keeping SOC low. I might as well just set the charge limit to 100 the day before. Also I'd like to just schedule these things ad-hoc for an individual day instead of setting a charge on a weekday basis like the "Scheduled Departure" function wants me to do it.

On top of that you're absolutely right, the 6 AM cutoff doesn't make a lot of sense: some people get super-off-peak rates at 2 am, other people have solar panels that obviously only operate after sunrise.

I just wish all these things could be customized to everybodies different needs.

@Stach I'll check out the calender option.

Kinda hoped for a sleek app though.

In the meantime I've tried the "Stats" app as well as the "Tesla Remote" apps from the appstore, and both apps DO NOT offer this functionality.
Stats comes close with it's "smart battery prep" feature that allows you to raise the charge limit at a specific time BUT also forces you to lower the charge limit back down 2 hours later.

Trying to outsmart the app by setting the first limit to 100% and the second limit to 99% does not work either, as the app will immediately set your charge limit to the second number.

 

[Hbrink]

Dashboard for Tesla does this (and a lot more)