in2insight said:
Got an opportunity to try out delayed charging last night.
Set the departure time to 6:30am, off peak power on (12A-5A) and all other settings were set.
Plugged in the charger (Siemens). The car's delayed charging button went on, the charger showed it was on and ready.
This morning, no charge.
Any suggestions?
We've used the departure time feature to set up a delayed charge, and so far it has worked. To be honest, I'm not impressed with the usability of the app and the fact that the US e-Golf doesn't have the "Pro" version of the infotainment system which (to me is astonishing) is lacking the ability to set it up in the car without the app. Also, as of now, the online version of Car-Net (from a computer), is also lacking the function to set the time of charge. I digress...
Although we haven't had an issue yet setting up the charging, it is rather confusing, even for engineer/computer programmer, so I have no doubt that people might have some issues. A few things come to mind that might mess up the charging:
Did you wait for and see the green banner at the top of the app that confirms the car received the settings you changed? I've been impatient a few times and clicked on a text or just closed the app, and discovered later that the request never went through. I have also seen a red banner indicating that the request failed, prompting me to resend the request.
Perhaps double check the times of charging in the app, and check that the car has the right time. Our car came from the factory with the wrong time zone set (so it looked like the right time, but was 8 hours or so off, which might mess up how the car handles requests across time-zones, but I'm not sure if it even is an issue since I corrected the time zone right away).
Make sure the little plug icon is not greyed out in the app under the e-manager: Charging, or the Departure Time. Also, the Charging tab should show the upcoming departure time if it is set for the next morning (or in the next 24 hours, depending on when it's set for). For instance, mine shows that the car is plugged in a ready to charge (not charging now), and below that it shows the plug icon and the departure time for tomorrow morning at 7:00 am (I set that for everyday which is the end of the off-peak rate we have with PG&E, so that it would charge as much as possible at the cheapest times - I also have it set for "off-peak power" under the "Charging locations" tab).
Also make sure that the plug and outlet are all set with a solid connection, no fault lights and a solid circuit. I once plugged in the car, walked away, and later discovered I hadn't plugged it in to the car solidly, which gave a fault. I also make sure the locking mechanism is engaged after locking the car for the night, just to be sure it's in all the way.
Lastly, under the Charging Locations tab (under Departure time tab), you'll want to be sure that the current rating for the EVSE you're using is accurate. I haven't tested this, but I have a feeling that this setting has to do with calculating the amount of time the car thinks it needs, so if the setting is higher than your circuit can give, you may end up with the car thinking it can charge faster, and delay charging too long. And finally, you'll want to double check the Maximum charge level setting to be sure it's set for 100% (or whatever else you want it at).
Also, I'm not sure which Siemens model EVSE you have, but if there are user-selectable settings on that, make sure you have the right time. AM/PM, charge times, etc. As far as I know, Siemens only has a "plug-and-go" option without other functions, so this may be a moot point.
Hopefully it's a simple fix. Like I said earlier, I'm a little frustrated with the level of user-friendlienes the app has. And I hope the online version adds functionality soon. I'm not holding my breath for an infotainment update, so for now, we're stuck with the Car-Net app for this.
-Rachel