Model 3 scheduled/timed/smart charging

[Glan gluaisne]

Has anyone tried stopping the charge at the charge point and then restarting it a short time later, in order to kick-start the car into charging at the full rate?

For me, that's something fairly easy to do, as I already have a timed charge option on the charge point (that I can't normally use because of the other bug in Tesla's software that stops this working...).

The way I get around the bugs/non-compliance in Tesla's charge control system at the moment is to not use the charge point to control charging (because it just won't start to charge at all if the car is sleeping) and instead use the scheduled charge start option in the car set to start charging at 00:00, with the charge point set to "always on". As long as I never need more than about 65% charge this usually works OK, with the charge stopping around the 07:00 end of the off-peak period (we're on E7). However, this relies on the car charging at full rate all the time, if it reduces to 16 A, as it did soon after starting to charge last night, then the car will carry on charging way past the end of the cheap rate period, and leave me with a part-charged car (real nuisance when I'm on standby for a long trip at short notice).

If turning the charge point off and then on again works to kick-start the car into charging properly, then, as a real bodge of a work around, I could adjust the charge point "power available" period, so that it's always on between, say, late afternoon to maybe 00:15 when I'm most likely to plug the car in, then turn off for maybe 30 seconds at 00:15, and back on again (as a way to mitigate the half current problem), and then have the charge point power turn off again at 07:00, to mitigate the risk of charging running on into the peak rate period.

This is far from ideal, as it means having to set the car for a scheduled charge starting at 00:00, and also remembering to not plug it in until the charge point is already timed to be on, as when you set a scheduled charge time start the car needs to turn the charge point on immediately for a few minutes, rather than wait for the scheduled time, for reasons that aren't at all clear.

Just read through the list of updates in the software update from last night. I'd happily forego all of them if Tesla would just make charging work properly and be compliant with the standard and the statement in the owner's manual.

 

[G1201]

Has anyone tried stopping the charge at the charge point and then restarting it a short time later, in order to kick-start the car into charging at the full rate?

For me, that's something fairly easy to do, as I already have a timed charge option on the charge point (that I can't normally use because of the other bug in Tesla's software that stops this working...).

The way I get around the bugs/non-compliance in Tesla's charge control system at the moment is to not use the charge point to control charging (because it just won't start to charge at all if the car is sleeping) and instead use the scheduled charge start option in the car set to start charging at 00:00, with the charge point set to "always on". As long as I never need more than about 65% charge this usually works OK, with the charge stopping around the 07:00 end of the off-peak period (we're on E7). However, this relies on the car charging at full rate all the time, if it reduces to 16 A, as it did soon after starting to charge last night, then the car will carry on charging way past the end of the cheap rate period, and leave me with a part-charged car (real nuisance when I'm on standby for a long trip at short notice).

If turning the charge point off and then on again works to kick-start the car into charging properly, then, as a real bodge of a work around, I could adjust the charge point "power available" period, so that it's always on between, say, late afternoon to maybe 00:15 when I'm most likely to plug the car in, then turn off for maybe 30 seconds at 00:15, and back on again (as a way to mitigate the half current problem), and then have the charge point power turn off again at 07:00, to mitigate the risk of charging running on into the peak rate period.

This is far from ideal, as it means having to set the car for a scheduled charge starting at 00:00, and also remembering to not plug it in until the charge point is already timed to be on, as when you set a scheduled charge time start the car needs to turn the charge point on immediately for a few minutes, rather than wait for the scheduled time, for reasons that aren't at all clear.

Just read through the list of updates in the software update from last night. I'd happily forego all of them if Tesla would just make charging work properly and be compliant with the standard and the statement in the owner's manual.

Quick question related to the above.
In the image below is the car charging at 16A even though the above says 32A/32A?
Sorry for the poor image quality.

 

[Bernard_S]

It's actually charging at 32A.

 

[MrBadger]

Quick question related to the above.
In the image below is the car charging at 16A even though the above says 32A/32A?
Sorry for the poor image quality.

You look to be single phase, so your 8kW equates to 32A. So on that basis, the 32/32 is correct, just you 16A charge limit is not being adhered to.

So not sure what is causing that, unless the charge limit literally just changed. Charge limit is location aware. I found locations to be a bit odd at moment in app - it clearly does not know where I am (car is correct) by looking at choice of superchargers and destination chargers.

 

[Glan gluaisne]

Quick question related to the above.
In the image below is the car charging at 16A even though the above says 32A/32A?
Sorry for the poor image quality.

You're fine, that screen shows that the charge rate matches the charge point maximum advertised rate of 32 A. The key parts of the screen are the line that starts "8 kW", as that's the charge power (roughly - it's actually 7.456 kW in this case). Further along that line the "32/32 A" section shows the actual charge current being taken by the car on board charger as the first two digits, followed by the maximum available current being advertised by the charge point as the value after the "/", which is also 32 A in this case.

 

[Glan gluaisne]

You look to be single phase, so your 8kW equates to 32A. So on that basis, the 32/32 is correct, just you 16A charge limit is not being adhered to.

So not sure what is causing that, unless the charge limit literally just changed. Charge limit is location aware. I found locations to be a bit odd at moment in app - it clearly does not know where I am (car is correct) by looking at choice of superchargers and destination chargers.

I've never, ever, been able to set that oddball "charge limit" to a value above 16 A. I have been wondering if the fact that this just cannot be set higher than 16 A is related to the charge current reduction that randomly happens shortly after a scheduled charge starts.

Have others been able to get that charge limit to go above 16 A, and if so, how have they managed it, please?

 

[MrBadger]

I've been able to set value above 16A at public charge points. I only have UMC at home. Its location aware so should change from location to location, but I think it might default to 16A as on my first ever public 7kW charger, I must have got around a 16A charge as when I looked at battery %, my added % didn't equate to any where near 32A (and TeslaFi failed to see the charge due it missing the wakeup) - when I later revisited that site, armed with the knowledge that I had a low previous charge, I was able to up the slider to 32A and got what I expected. That site is marginal on voltage though, so that may have been the reason.

TeslaFi unrecorded journey/charge

 

[NorfolkMustard]

I’d love to see what the Tesla api was reporting when your rate dropped in the night Jeremy. I’m hoping this is something the service I’m building can identify and fix by stop/start charge when it happens.

 

[Glan gluaisne]

I’d love to see what the Tesla api was reporting when your rate dropped in the night Jeremy. I’m hoping this is something the service I’m building can identify and fix by stop/start charge when it happens.

Me too!

I don't have TeslaFi, so wasn't able to see what actually happened, I can only guess from the charge energy that was used and the fact that the car was still charging at half the available current when I looked at the house energy monitor not long after I got up this morning. The car should have stopped charging before 07:00, as it needed ~ 64% charge to get back up to 90%, which should have taken ~6.5 hours (charge was set to start at 00:00).

When I checked just before 08:00 the car was only charged to 63%, so had only taken around 37% in about 8 hours, which seems to indicate that it was charging at close to 16 A for the whole time. It may well have kicked off at full current for a time, then dropped back to half current, as that seems to be what's been reported by others when this happens.

 

[G1201]

I've never, ever, been able to set that oddball "charge limit" to a value above 16 A. I have been wondering if the fact that this just cannot be set higher than 16 A is related to the charge current reduction that randomly happens shortly after a scheduled charge starts.

Have others been able to get that charge limit to go above 16 A, and if so, how have they managed it, please?

Thanks all for the responses, good to get it confirmed that it's charging at 32A.

I can manually change the figure to 32A but it doesn't change anything as it's obviously at the max charge.

 

[Cwmwd]

Have others been able to get that charge limit to go above 16 A, and if so, how have they managed it, please?

I think I was only able to up the charge limit from 10A (I was using the UMC for a while before getting the 32A charger fitted) while the car was actually charging, otherwise the on-screen control is locked to ≤16A.

 

[Fredneck]

That's strange. This is the sort of thing that will leave a bad taste in an owner's mouth. The various players need to iron out problems like this otherwise EV owners can be left with charging problems. That is the single biggest problem with adoption of EVs currently, concerns about refueling.

 

[Glan gluaisne]

I think I was only able to up the charge limit from 10A (I was using the UMC for a while before getting the 32A charger fitted) while the car was actually charging, otherwise the on-screen control is locked to ≤16A.

Spot on!

Just been out and tried experimenting with this. I changed the maximum advertised current available from my charge point, set it to charge immediately, disabled scheduled charging and departure time in the car and, sure enough, the charge limit control at the lower left of the charging screen can then be set up to the maximum advertised charge current being advertised by the charge point.

I tried three different maximum available current settings, and, once the car had settled down to charge at each max available current, the car allowed the lower left maximum current control to be set to any figure between 6 A and the maximum available.

I've just reset this to 32 A, so it will be interesting to see if it stays at this setting, or reverts back to 16 A, as it has done in the past. Makes me wonder if this might be connected with the semi-random charge current reductions we see shortly after starting a timed off-peak rate charge.

Doesn't exactly inspire confidence, though!

 

[Cwmwd]

I've just reset this to 32 A, so it will be interesting to see if it stays at this setting, or reverts back to 16 A

On mine it goes back to 16A when I open the port and connect the charger, only goes up to 32A when I override the car and/or smart charger settings to start charging immediately. I'm guessing that 16A is the default 'the car picks till the charger advertises differently?

 

[Glan gluaisne]

On mine it goes back to 16A when I open the port and connect the charger, only goes up to 32A when I override the car and/or smart charger settings to start charging immediately. I'm guessing that 16A is the default 'the car picks till the charger advertises differently?

Just checked, mine does the same, reverts back to 16 A as you say.

I can't see a logical reason why it should do this, as 16 A is an unusual setting. Anyone charging from a UMC will most probably be charging at 10 A, and anyone charging from an installed charge point will most likely be charging at 30 A to 32 A.

Given that the problem that occurs with scheduled charging, where the charge current reduces to 16 A shortly after starting to charge, I can't help but wonder whether the the display reverting to 16 A is connected with that behaviour, in that it's indicative of the reduced current charging bug.

 

[ACarneiro]

16A is only unusual for single phase charging.
My sister has a M3 in Portugal and has three phase charging, in which case 16A is the maximum available rate.

I wonder if most of the US is on single or three phase. If 3 phase then this software quirks is just a reflection of a 3ph-centric development.

 

[Fredneck]

16A is only unusual for single phase charging.
My sister has a M3 in Portugal and has three phase charging, in which case 16A is the maximum available rate.

I wonder if most of the US is on single or three phase. If 3 phase then this software quirks is just a reflection of a 3ph-centric development.

No homes in the US are wired for 3 phase power. If they do on special request, a special connector would be used that Tesla does not supply an adapter for. So no three phase charging here in the US. Am I wrong about this? Does Tesla provide a 3 phase power adapter for US use?

 

[Glan gluaisne]

No homes in the US are wired for 3 phase power. If they do on special request, a special connector would be used that Tesla does not supply an adapter for. So no three phase charging here in the US. Am I wrong about this? Does Tesla provide a 3 phase power adapter for US use?

I don't know, but 3 phase is very common in houses across parts of Europe, although not so common here in the UK or Ireland.

The Tesla UMC can handle 3 phase charging OK, I believe, all it needs is the 3 phase adapter lead that's available from Tesla as an accessory. This allows charging at 11 kW, 16 A per phase at a nominal 230 VAC. Same goes for the TWC supplied here, I believe that's 3 phase capable, too.

 

[Fredneck]

I don't know, but 3 phase is very common in houses across parts of Europe, although not so common here in the UK or Ireland.

The Tesla UMC can handle 3 phase charging OK, I believe, all it needs is the 3 phase adapter lead that's available from Tesla as an accessory. This allows charging at 11 kW, 16 A per phase at a nominal 230 VAC. Same goes for the TWC supplied here, I believe that's 3 phase capable, too.

Yeah, but what plug is on the end? It may well have a UK plug or a more widely used EU plug, but I haven't seen one with a US plug. I don't even know what plug that would be off the top of my head.

I looked it up and it would be NEMA 11-20 or 11-30 (20 and 30 amps respectively).

Looked it up at Tesla and no such adapter. 120 and 240 single phase only.

 

[Glan gluaisne]

Yeah, but what plug is on the end? It may well have a UK plug or a more widely used EU plug, but I haven't seen one with a US plug. I don't even know what plug that would be off the top of my head.

Pretty sure it will be a 3 phase (red) Commando like this:415v 16 Amp 5 Pin MK Commando Plug - Red - IP44, a very common industrial connector used widely across Europe and the UK.