TeslaFi.com

[WannabeOwner]

After required fixes my priorities are customer driven

Provided customers are not about to leave, after fixing anything (and if we have to fix ANYTHING that gets into Production there is blood on the carpet here ...) my priority is what will drive new sales. We have a number of features in our software which impress people at Demo but I doubt anyone uses ... for anything upgrading existing customers I only do that twice a year, constant release/bug fix is a huge interruption for DEV, and we prefer to have control over when that occurs.

I agree the scheduler is barely useful, personally I think the design is all wrong (it would be better to be able to associate tasks as a block and then set a start (or end) time for the block so e.g. I can create "Change limit to 100%, wait 5 minutes for the retries <sigh>, start charge,start climate shortly before I leave, reset charge back to 90%, turn off climate if I don't leave" rather than having to change the start time of every task separately, or worse: create them from scratch [as "one time tasks"], each time I want to "100% charge before departure"

But there is no way of knowing if the fact that scheduler improvements would be appreciated by you and I in anyway represents a priory for TeslaFi development or, indeed, if there would be any reasonable demand. The ID numbers on Schedule Tasks, which are NOT reused for one-off tasks, are still very low ... and I've got a couple of dozen tasks on mine alone, and lots of one-off which have now been deleted (before I decided that it was a really stupid idea to have to remake them each time, so better to reuse them, even though if I fail to disable them, manually, after use <sigh> I get e.g. a 100% charge again tomorrow too). All of which suggests to me that scheduler is "less popular than we would think".

 

[d21mike]

Provided customers are not about to leave, after fixing anything (and if we have to fix ANYTHING that gets into Production there is blood on the carpet here ...) my priority is what will drive new sales. We have a number of features in our software which impress people at Demo but I doubt anyone uses ... for anything upgrading existing customers I only do that twice a year, constant release/bug fix is a huge interruption for DEV, and we prefer to have control over when that occurs.

I agree the scheduler is barely useful, personally I think the design is all wrong (it would be better to be able to associate tasks as a block and then set a start (or end) time for the block so e.g. I can create "Change limit to 100%, wait 5 minutes for the retries <sigh>, start charge,start climate shortly before I leave, reset charge back to 90%, turn off climate if I don't leave" rather than having to change the start time of every task separately, or worse: create them from scratch [as "one time tasks"], each time I want to "100% charge before departure"

But there is no way of knowing if the fact that scheduler improvements would be appreciated by you and I in anyway represents a priory for TeslaFi development or, indeed, if there would be any reasonable demand. The ID numbers on Schedule Tasks, which are NOT reused for one-off tasks, are still very low ... and I've got a couple of dozen tasks on mine alone, and lots of one-off which have now been deleted (before I decided that it was a really stupid idea to have to remake them each time, so better to reuse them, even though if I fail to disable them, manually, after use <sigh> I get e.g. a 100% charge again tomorrow too). All of which suggests to me that scheduler is "less popular than we would think".

You could be right or maybe it is less usable then you think? In my reading of the TeslaFI suggestions related to Schedules it seems to relate to making sure the Car finishes charging about the time you want to leave which it will not do without doing some playing around. Like having the car calculate when to start to reach a certain charge level. Like normal everyday needs and the night before a trip where you want it to be at or close to 100% This is the ONLY Reason for my use of Schedules. So here is how I have to do it.

1. I have to know how long it takes in my garage to charge from say 80-90% and say from 90-100%.
2. I normally set my charging to start around 11pm and charge to say 70-80% daily.
3. Then set the final charge to start at a time to finish in the AM (like when I want to leave). Like start about 5am.

Assuming now failure this works okay. Does not fail that much now that I use the Wake Up entry. But sometimes still fails.

I am partly doing this because of the time I need to charge to 100% because I am leaving on a trip. And my understanding it is okay to charge to 100% occasionally but to not let it set on a 100% charge for very long. So, if I plan to leave at 6am I might charge to 70% early in the evening and then maybe to 80-90% latter in the AM and then based on how long it takes to charge that last 10% I might start that one like at say 5am (not actually sure about the timing because I am testing). If the program could calculate these things based on the amount of charge and the end time then it could determine the start time. Also, I could reduce the start charging times if I was sure it would not fail to start which would be a problem if I really need the charge. So that is the reason for the multiple charge start times.

Anyway, it would be easier to accomplish by goal without to major programming of the system (I believe) if I could just combine some of the tasks into 1 item and also have it sorted in ascending order of start time.

I do think there is an Android App that does all of this but I use an iPhone. And honestly I prefer to keep the number of Apps that talk to my call with my credentials to a minimum. And I really like TeslaFI. Just wish it could do the Schedules just a little be better.

Again, not trying to make a big deal about this. I understand that Schedule may not be that important to many people. But I think it was easy to use and people understood the main reason to schedule charging (other then the 1 option in the car) they might just want to use it more.

 

[WannabeOwner]

I don't think Scheduling is very usable as it stands.

I charge to 90% (daily), so my "Charge to 100% when going on a trip" is based on time (from empirical evidence) to charge from 90% to 100% ... thus I don't have to consider charging from some other start point . Balancing the cells at 100% takes a variable amount of time though ... so on the infrequent occasions when I do charge to 100% I ought to do it for long enough to allow balancing to finish.

It works out to be about 90 minutes ... so I change the "Start time" of my schedule to 90 minutes before departure. First wake up, then some minutes later change to 100%, then some minutes later (in case that retried for 5 minutes) start charging .. then 15 minutes before departure turn on Climate, then 15 minutes after departure (i.e. failed to leave!!) turn off climate (otherwise it stays on forever ...)

I carefully created all the steps in order, and they got sequential IDs, so they stay in a group,. But then I added WAKE UP and that's at a different ID number ... so, really, what I need to do now is deleted everything and recreate them all so that they get sequential numbers <sigh>

When I am going on a 100%-charge trip I have to set the time on each step, individually, so that they happen in sequence and with suitable offsets both for departure time, and also in case a previous task fails (and retries for 5 minutes)

I have to remember to disable those steps so they don't happen again tomorrow (I could set them to be ONE TIME, but then the whole lot is deleted, and I would have to create the new trip form scratch, so I use Enable/Disable instead ... but its manual <sigh> Better, I think, would be to allow ONE TIME to leave the items behind but change them to Inactive.

So all those steps are in RED.

Then I have setting for Climate On in the morning before I leave for work (ONLY if parked at Home, and if week day), similarly climate on before leaving work

That's in GREEN

Then I have some ADMIN things (in BLUE)

I charge on off-peak (Midnight - 7AM) at home (but I have to remember to change that for daylight-saving-time - winter/summer - <sigh>)

So I have STOP CHARGING at 6:55, allowing 5 minutes for command-repeat if it fails <sigh> (so I don't overrun my 7AM ToU period). I have to, again, remember to override that if I want to be deliberately charging at peak-rate past 7AM (or schedule a charging restart after 7AM). So if I come home at, say, 1AM and need 8 hours charge I will only get 6 hours charge because ti will shut off at 7AM - my assumption is I would normally prefer to do the catchup charge "tomorrow night" (Overnight off-peak here is 50% of day rate; its not a lot of money ... but Hey!)

Then I have something to prevent repeating accidental charging to 100% and thus reset to 90% at 2AM (almost guaranteed I have got home, and plugged in, by then ... but also risk that the car was already plugged in at 75%+ because ti will have charged past 90% by 2AM <sigh>

And I have to remember to disable that if I deliberately want it to charge past 90% (although in fairness it is very unlikely that the car was already sufficiently charged at midnight, and set to 100%, such that it will have got past 90% by 2AM, and if I want a 100% charge I will be initiating that 90 minutes before departure, so assuming 5AM depart earliest that would start is 3:30AM, so I decided 2AM was "safe"

Then I have a plug in reminder 70% email at 9PM

and a charge limit reminder email if over 90% at 6PM

its all reasonably complex but I think the way Scheduling is built as individual, unrelated, discrete tasks in TeslaFi, and also because it waits a whole minute to decide that a command hasn't worked, and then retries it (for 5 minutes I believe) means that I have to schedule things 5 minutes apart, and I have to manually adjust the time of all of them if I want a different Start / End time.. That would be much easier IMHO if I could put multiple commands in a group, and just set either the Start / End time for the "job".

 

[Axael]

I need some help.

I'm using TeslaFi for a while now, and I'm just about to calculate the real costs of charging my car at home because I'll be installing solar panels. Below is a screenshot of TeslaFi to explain what I don't understand (maybe because I'm not native english).

So, my point is to calculate how many kWh I "spent" charging my car at home since I first used TeslaFi.
The example below if for September.

First, what's exactly the "used" and "added" kWh which I circled in red?
Then, what's the number circled in blue, and why does it seem to be totally off considering the numbers below?

EDIT: Ok so I read that the "added" kWh were what is taken from the outlet and the "added" kWh is what is actually added to the car battery, considering losses on the chargeport / wiring, etc. Is that correct? Which leads me to another question: most of my charges at home are reported as ~35% efficient by TeslaFi. How could it be so bad? Also TeslaFi reports the charge to be done at max 84Amps, though my car charges at 28-30Amps at home.

Opera Instantané_2018-10-02_210809_teslafi.com

• Axael
• Oct 2, 2018

Thanks for your help

 

[hybridbear]

I need some help.

I'm using TeslaFi for a while now, and I'm just about to calculate the real costs of charging my car at home because I'll be installing solar panels. Below is a screenshot of TeslaFi to explain what I don't understand (maybe because I'm not native english).

So, my point is to calculate how many kWh I "spent" charging my car at home since I first used TeslaFi.
The example below if for September.

First, what's exactly the "used" and "added" kWh which I circled in red?
Then, what's the number circled in blue, and why does it seem to be totally off considering the numbers below?

EDIT: Ok so I read that the "added" kWh were what is taken from the outlet and the "added" kWh is what is actually added to the car battery, considering losses on the chargeport / wiring, etc. Is that correct? Which leads me to another question: most of my charges at home are reported as ~35% efficient by TeslaFi. How could it be so bad? Also TeslaFi reports the charge to be done at max 84Amps, though my car charges at 28-30Amps at home.

Opera Instantané_2018-10-02_210809_teslafi.com

• Axael
• Oct 2, 2018

Thanks for your help

Do you do a lot of climate control while plugged in? That could impact the difference between the red circled kWh added (to the battery pack) and kWh used (flowing through the onboard charger).

The blue circled kWh used is how many kWh you used to drive.

 

[Axael]

Do you do a lot of climate control while plugged in? That could impact the difference between the red circled kWh added (to the battery pack) and kWh used (flowing through the onboard charger).

Thanks for your answer. Nope, I don't use the climate control much (I never set it to "maintain temp" and I never start it remotely when charging in my garage) when not driving. :/

 

[brkaus]

@Axael not directly answering your question - here is my info for September

 

[hiroshiy]

I need some help.

I'm using TeslaFi for a while now, and I'm just about to calculate the real costs of charging my car at home because I'll be installing solar panels. Below is a screenshot of TeslaFi to explain what I don't understand (maybe because I'm not native english).

So, my point is to calculate how many kWh I "spent" charging my car at home since I first used TeslaFi.
The example below if for September.

First, what's exactly the "used" and "added" kWh which I circled in red?
Then, what's the number circled in blue, and why does it seem to be totally off considering the numbers below?

EDIT: Ok so I read that the "added" kWh were what is taken from the outlet and the "added" kWh is what is actually added to the car battery, considering losses on the chargeport / wiring, etc. Is that correct? Which leads me to another question: most of my charges at home are reported as ~35% efficient by TeslaFi. How could it be so bad? Also TeslaFi reports the charge to be done at max 84Amps, though my car charges at 28-30Amps at home.

Opera Instantané_2018-10-02_210809_teslafi.com

• Axael
• Oct 2, 2018

Thanks for your help

In your screenshot it looks like you have home charging efficiency of 84%, not 35%. Where does the 35% number come from? Can you provide more information?

 

[brkaus]

@Axael Thinking about your usage report some more... perhaps you need to be looking at a single charge session more closely. If there is a big gap between used / added, then perhaps you should try to find a metered outlet and you could get an external comparison.

 

[Axael]

Thanks for your answers all.

I charged my car tonight at home, taking note of the kWh on my main electricity meter before and after the charge session.

My electricity meter increased by 40kWh, however TeslaFi reports a "used" value of 100kWh and an "added" value of 35.94kWh (this one being correct, I guess). So, unless I'm really not looking at things correctly, the "used" value reported by TeslaFi seems incorrect and so is the "efficiency" value.

See screenshot below.

At least I'm not consuming as much as I thought when looking at TeslaFi. The downside is... I can't figure out how much I'm paying to charge my car at home :/

 

[rfmurphy81]

Thanks for your answers all.

I charged my car tonight at home, taking note of the kWh on my main electricity meter before and after the charge session.

My electricity meter increased by 40kWh, however TeslaFi reports a "used" value of 100kWh and an "added" value of 35.94kWh (this one being correct, I guess). So, unless I'm really not looking at things correctly, the "used" value reported by TeslaFi seems incorrect and so is the "efficiency" value.

See screenshot below.

At least I'm not consuming as much as I thought when looking at TeslaFi. The downside is... I can't figure out how much I'm paying to charge my car at home :/

I'd recommend opening a support ticket to see if James can investigate. In most cases, my 240v charge sessions are around 80-95% efficiency so it's possible there is something very unique about your situation making this an edge case. Good luck!

 

[Zaxxon]

You should report this as a bug in TeslaFi. 35% efficiency on a 240V EVSE can't be correct (or would be a wide outlier if it is). Should be much higher, and your sanity check via your meter confirms that it is much higher in actuality.

 

[Zaxxon]

I'd recommend opening a support ticket to see if James can investigate. It's possible your situation may be an edge case. Good luck!

Beat me by one minute!

 

[rfmurphy81]

Beat me by one minute!

And I revised my post slightly so you caught my original thoughts. Eep!

 

[WannabeOwner]

Is your "Amperage" at home really 84A? Mine is 32A and 90% efficient, but when I have charged at 10A efficiency has shown 75%

P.S. Maybe its 3-Phase and the Cacls are not allowing for that?

 

[Axael]

@WannabeOwner indeed, the amperage on the Wall Connector is set to 32A, but the car usually displays 28 to 30A when charging. The 84 is clearly wrong as well.

And yes, it's a 3-phase installation.

 

[Zaxxon]

@WannabeOwner indeed, the amperage on the Wall Connector is set to 32A, but the car usually displays 28 to 30A when charging. The 84 is clearly wrong as well.

And yes, it's a 3-phase installation.

I think you found your bug. Dividing 30 by 84 is left as an exercise for the reader. TeslaFi should be reporting 32A, not 84A.

 

[Axael]

I think you found your bug. Dividing 30 by 84 is left as an exercise for the reader. TeslaFi should be reporting 32A, not 84A.

Looks like it indeed. The charging session details is reporting the Amps value correctly (28) but the summary displays 84 and I guess that value is used to calculate the used kWh. Any idea what's the calculation for this, btw?

 

[Zaxxon]

I'm not sure how he estimates that.

 

[WannabeOwner]

Looks like it indeed. The charging session details is reporting the Amps value correctly (28) but the summary displays 84 and I guess that value is used to calculate the used kWh.

Suggest reporting that as a bug at General / TeslaFi