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Why isn't my model 3 charging sometimes when scheduled charging is on?

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bradtem

Robocar consultant
Dec 18, 2018
1,189
1,283
Sunnyvale, CA
Had it for a couple of weeks, and have been encountering problems when I turn on scheduled charging to start charge at 11pm when off-peak power turns on. Problems as in, it doesn't start charging then though plugged in, or it stops charging sometime in the night (nowhere near the charge limit) and doesn't restart, saying that charging will begin at 11pm. A few times I have either checked on the car to find it not charging, or woken up to a not charged car. I am just charging level 1 until I get a circuit in, but it is plugged in via a solid 10/3 extension cord to a dedicated plug with its own breaker.

I don't believe the connection is bad, but if it were, would it cause this? Would the Tesla stop charging after a power interruption, and not restart when power was restored, waiting another day? That seems odd. There are no diagnostics I can find that say why it has stopped charging, is there a way to get them? If something unexpected happens, one would hope there would be logs.

For now I am turning scheduled charging off, and have to manually turn off charging when I plug in, manually turn on at 11am etc. I know I can use some paid apps like TeslaFi and I may do so because, like many of you, I find the charge scheduling to be rather poor -- no ability to say when to stop charging, no ability to tell it cheap power starts at 7pm on the weekends, not much of anything in fact!
 
Just taking a stab at it, but in the Model 3 manual on charging it says the following. Is this appropriate to your situation?:

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Charging section in Model 3 Manual, Step 8

8. Set a recurring charging schedule for the location. When you set a scheduled charging time, Model 3 displays the set time when you are parked at the scheduled location. If, at the scheduled time, Model 3 is not plugged in at the location, charging starts as soon as you plug it in, provided you plug it in within six hours of the scheduled time. If plugged in after six hours, charging does not start until the scheduled time on the next day. To override this setting, touch Start Charging or Stop Charging (see item 4)
 
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Just taking a stab at it, but in the Model 3 manual on charging it says the following. Is this appropriate to your situation?:

========================
Charging section in Model 3 Manual, Step 8

8. Set a recurring charging schedule for the location. When you set a scheduled charging time, Model 3 displays the set time when you are parked at the scheduled location. If, at the scheduled time, Model 3 is not plugged in at the location, charging starts as soon as you plug it in, provided you plug it in within six hours of the scheduled time. If plugged in after six hours, charging does not start until the scheduled time on the next day. To override this setting, touch Start Charging or Stop Charging (see item 4)

That could explain what happened this morning, when I awoke to find it had charged until only about 5-6am, which is roughly 6 hours after the start time. It does not explain why it was not charging at 11:50pm when I checked in on it. It seems to be acting like "I've done my charging for the day, so now I will wait for the start time again" but it is saying this less than 6 hours after the start time. Or possibly close to it, but that means it is deciding that as soon as it hits this 6am. The car is giving no sign of the power being bad or intermittent.
 
Tesla mobile connector -- as indicated I am charging at level 1. Whatever the cause, I am still surprised that the car is not showing any information on why charging stopped. Even if it's my fault or my wiring's fault or my charger's fault, I would expect the car to at least tell me that it stopped charging, and ideally why. Unless the reason is "Battery reached desired charge level" but f
 
Just taking a stab at it, but in the Model 3 manual on charging it says the following. Is this appropriate to your situation?:

========================
Charging section in Model 3 Manual, Step 8

8. Set a recurring charging schedule for the location. When you set a scheduled charging time, Model 3 displays the set time when you are parked at the scheduled location. If, at the scheduled time, Model 3 is not plugged in at the location, charging starts as soon as you plug it in, provided you plug it in within six hours of the scheduled time. If plugged in after six hours, charging does not start until the scheduled time on the next day. To override this setting, touch Start Charging or Stop Charging (see item 4)

That doesn't seem to matter. I'm running into this issue now, charge never started on my schedule, within 6 hours of the start time, and hitting "start charging" on the app does nothing.
 
I had some trouble at first.

Are you parking, then it says Scheduled, but you manually start charging, and then later manually turn it off?

I found a pattern that helps me get it to work.

Example 1:
I get home, get out and it says Scheduled on the screen. I would manually tell it to charge via the App. Then before bed I would turn it off (paranoid) and expect it to charge as scheduled. It doesn’t.

This may be within 6 hours window, but the way to get it to work is this...

Example 2:
I get home, get out and it says Scheduled on the screen. I leave it alone. At 3 AM, as planned, it automatically starts charging. I get the app notification. All is right in the world.
 
If you can set eyes on the car itself, does the UMC show green and or does the chargeport show blue icon? If app isn't initiating a charge, I would try to unplug UMC from both ends and replug and see if charging starts then (within 6 hours of schedule).
 
Is your off peak charging plug dead until 11pm? I have a time of day connection which only has power from 11pm-7am (4.4 cents/KWh). If I start my scheduled charging at 11pm sometimes it does not charge because the clock that controls the outlet does not always turn it on at exactly 11pm. So I have the car start charging at 11:30pm and have no issues with it starting the charge.
 
Looks to me like the pattern seems to be Sentry mode enabled. On the first day it charges, does not on subsequent days. I also noticed on TeslaFi the charge % in the Parked segment stays at 90% even though available mileage is down. Makes me wonder if there is a bug where when plugged in and sentry is on, after it reaches initial full charge, it is reporting back incorrectly and just doesn't think it needs to restart charging on the next interval. Seems like a bug. I'd bet a sleep cycle would probably cure it (which doesn't happen on Sentry).