Scheduling with Teslafi, Ohme smart cable or car

[Trevor EV]

I collect my model 3 SR+ in March and plan to schedule charge times. I was planning on buying a Ohme smart cable to enable this, but the more I read about Teslafi the more it appeals to me.

My question is; If I use Teslafi do I leave my charge lead connected to the car at all times and Teslafi will control the power going to the car as this is what the Ohme smart cable can do. Tesla's own scheduling in car software I believe is a bit hit and miss. I hear that there's also "Stats" app that does similar

 

[Roy W.]

I collect my model 3 SR+ in March and plan to schedule charge times. I was planning on buying a Ohme smart cable to enable this, but the more I read about Teslafi the more it appeals to me.

My question is; If I use Teslafi do I leave my charge lead connected to the car at all times and Teslafi will control the power going to the car as this is what the Ohme smart cable can do. Tesla's own scheduling in car software I believe is a bit hit and miss. I hear that there's also "Stats" app that does similar

I don’t use TeslaFi so can’t advise on that.

The in-car scheduling isn’t really hit and miss. It’s quite reliable but it lacks a “Stop” timer. I use it and so far it’s never failed me. I schedule a “Start” time for 0030, which is when Octopus GO cheap rate starts, and I know that in the four-hour cheap window I can add about 40% charge to my Model 3 LR.

I leave my max charge at 90% unless I’m going on a long trip.

Most nights I don’t need the full four hours, because I’m rarely below 50% charge. If I am, I effectively adjust the “Stop” time by adjusting the max charge percentage. It’s no effort at all, because you can do it either in the car or on the app.

 

[Glan gluaisne]

Right now, there is a bug in the Tesla Model 3 software that stops it responding to any scheduled charge request that comes from the charge point, unless the car happens to be awake.

It will only respond to either:

A schedule set up in the car, which has one of two (mutually exclusive) options, either the charge start time can be set, with no control over charge stop time, or the charge finish time can be set, with no control over charge start time.

A schedule set up by an unofficial app that accesses the Tesla API and wakes the car up, send a charge start request, then sends a charge stop request to finish charging. The Tesla app does not give scheduled charging control.​

There are software problems with scheduled charging, using unofficial access to the Tesla API, that can often result in the charge rate reducing to 16 A shortly after a scheduled charge start. This can also happen when using the in-car scheduled charge start time, unless the car is plugged in before setting the scheduled charge on the screen.

Right now, Tesla Model 3 scheduled charging is pretty flaky and unreliable, IMHO. There are several cases reported here of people getting up in the middle of the night to reset their cars to restart charging at the proper rate. The Ohme cable I believe uses the Tesla API in the same way as Teslafi, so I doubt there is anything to choose between either of them in terms of how well, or not, they work. The problems all seem to be within the car software, I believe.

 

[AndyWrightUK]

I have the Ohme unit and it works very well (touch wood!). I've had no problems with the charge current deviating from 32A and it's never failed to charge on schedule. The App uses your Tesla login details so I assume it's using API to wake the car before it applies the power.

 

[MrBadger]

My question is; If I use Teslafi do I leave my charge lead connected to the car at all times and Teslafi will control the power going to the car as this is what the Ohme smart cable can do.

TeslaFi can only start/stop charging or set a % charge energy limit. You can set these up, along with other commands, to work to a schedule. TeslaFi can not control charge power going to the car (an omission in the TeslaApi). This can only be set by the car, either by setting it on the main screen, or from a value supplied by a charge point itself. The car can chose to ignore this and/or use power for other things, like pre conditioning, or trickle charging.

 

[AndyWrightUK]

In addition to what @VanillaAir_UK said, there's also the fact that TeslaFi can't control the power from the control unit, so as soon as you plug in the charging cable the car will begin to charge, regardless of what charging schedules you configure in TeslaFi.

 

[NorfolkMustard]

I control mine by the charge target %

65% from 1700 - 0000 (i.e. if I get home any time after 5pm and plug it in, it will only charge if SOC is < 65% at the time)
85% from 0000 - 0700

I found you only need to tell it to start, if you've previously told it to stop. i.e. if it completes charging of its own accord because it reached the 65%, then when you increase it to 88% it will continue the charge

 

[Trevor EV]

so the best way to scheduled my charging time would be either through the cars software or a smart wall charger / cable. How reliable is the cars own scheduling ?

 

[Roy W.]

How reliable is the cars own scheduling ?

I’ve had the car coming up to five months, and it has never failed me yet.

There is a software issue with the car at the moment which means sometimes it will only charge at 16A instead of 32A, but that happens however you control the charge. It will be fixed by a future software update.

 

[Trevor EV]

Right now, there is a bug in the Tesla Model 3 software that stops it responding to any scheduled charge request that comes from the charge point, unless the car happens to be awake.

It will only respond to either:

A schedule set up in the car, which has one of two (mutually exclusive) options, either the charge start time can be set, with no control over charge stop time, or the charge finish time can be set, with no control over charge start time.

A schedule set up by an unofficial app that accesses the Tesla API and wakes the car up, send a charge start request, then sends a charge stop request to finish charging. The Tesla app does not give scheduled charging control.​

There are software problems with scheduled charging, using unofficial access to the Tesla API, that can often result in the charge rate reducing to 16 A shortly after a scheduled charge start. This can also happen when using the in-car scheduled charge start time, unless the car is plugged in before setting the scheduled charge on the screen.

Right now, Tesla Model 3 scheduled charging is pretty flaky and unreliable, IMHO. There are several cases reported here of people getting up in the middle of the night to reset their cars to restart charging at the proper rate. The Ohme cable I believe uses the Tesla API in the same way as Teslafi, so I doubt there is anything to choose between either of them in terms of how well, or not, they work. The problems all seem to be within the car software, I believe.

At the moment I have a dumb charger (Pod Point) from when I had my i3 3 years ago. With my M3 planned for a March delivery I am undecided on getting the Ohme cable to make my charger "smart" or forget that and rely on software be it the cars own or a 3rd party app?? I will also be going onto the Octopus Go tariff so my charging period will only be for 4 hours during the night

 

[Trevor EV]

I’ve had the car coming up to five months, and it has never failed me yet.

There is a software issue with the car at the moment which means sometimes it will only charge at 16A instead of 32A, but that happens however you control the charge. It will be fixed by a future software update.

If the charging rate is fixed on a update then that would sort things and should allow me to charge enough during the 4 hour night period with Octopus Go. I don't fancy getting up in the middle of the night to change the charge rate or worse checking to see if its charging at all

 

[Roy W.]

If the charging rate is fixed on a update then that would sort things and should allow me to charge enough during the 4 hour night period with Octopus Go. I don't fancy getting up in the middle of the night to change the charge rate or worse checking to see if its charging at all

I’ve never had a completely failed charge, just a few occasions where it has charged at 16A.

With the four hour Octopus GO window I can easily add 100+ miles of range to my Model 3.

Are you already with Octopus? If not I can send you a referral code that gets us each £50 credit.

 

[Adopado]

If the charging rate is fixed on a update then that would sort things and should allow me to charge enough during the 4 hour night period with Octopus Go. I don't fancy getting up in the middle of the night to change the charge rate or worse checking to see if its charging at all

This charging rate problem when using scheduled charging only appears to affect a few cars. It's unlikely you would be affected. The only charging interruptions I have ever had were specifically the fault of my "smart" charge point. A "dumb" charger would avoid that issue completely (well, short of a power cut!). I use Octopus Go and have rarely had to go beyond the 4hr cheap rate window.

 

[Glan gluaisne]

I'm reasonably sure I've pinned down one probable cause for the reduction in charge rate to 16 A. I've twice had this charge rate reduction happen, when the car has been scheduled to charge at the start of the E7 off-peak period, and both times were when I'd plugged the car in some time after having parked it.

Every time that I've plugged the car in as soon as I've got home, scheduled charging has started at the full rate, and stayed at the full rate.

I'm pretty much convinced that the problem of the car dropping back to 16 A is related to some sort of sleep state issue, but it's a very hard thing to prove.

 

[Roy W.]

I'm reasonably sure I've pinned down one probable cause for the reduction in charge rate to 16 A. I've twice had this charge rate reduction happen, when the car has been scheduled to charge at the start of the E7 off-peak period, and both times were when I'd plugged the car in some time after having parked it.

Every time that I've plugged the car in as soon as I've got home, scheduled charging has started at the full rate, and stayed at the full rate.

I'm pretty much convinced that the problem of the car dropping back to 16 A is related to some sort of sleep state issue, but it's a very hard thing to prove.

That’s interesting Jeremy.

I always plug in as soon as the car goes in the garage, but so far I’ve had 8, maybe 10 occasions where the car has charged at 16A. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to it...

 

[Glan gluaisne]

That’s interesting Jeremy.

I always plug in as soon as the car goes in the garage, but so far I’ve had 8, maybe 10 occasions where the car has charged at 16A. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to it...

Damn, there goes that theory out the window!

I really wish we could pin down exactly what set of conditions cause this. As a precaution, I always put my car on charge every time I come home, now, whether it needs it or not, just so that, if the charge rate drops back to 16 A, I won't end up with the car still charging through the following morning, at peak rate.

 

[Roy W.]

Damn, there goes that theory out the window!

I really wish we could pin down exactly what set of conditions cause this. As a precaution, I always put my car on charge every time I come home, now, whether it needs it or not, just so that, if the charge rate drops back to 16 A, I won't end up with the car still charging through the following morning, at peak rate.

I’ve never had a problem with the charge rate dropping to 16A once it has started at 32A.

On the odd occasion when I’ve got up in the night and I’ve checked the charge rate and it’s been 16A, if I stop the charge and restart with the app it almost always ramps up to 32A. Only on one occasion did it take three stop/starts to get up to 32A.