Departure time is ignored and starts charging immediately

[sjegolfuser]

I have a 2016 eGolf that I've had it for two months. My charger is a Bosch level-2.
My departure time is set at 5:30 AM on weekdays and Off-Peak is set 11:00 PM - 6:30 AM.

Up to last week, I would have connect the car to the charger at 7:00 PM but it would not start charging until 11:00 PM.

Starting this Monday (first weekday of 2016), when I connect the cable at 7:00 PM, it starts charging immediately. It picks the right departure time, recognizes that departure time is 10.5 hours away, but nevertheless starts charging.

My configuration:
1- Departure time: 5:30 AM M-F
2- Off Peak: 11:00 PM - 6:30 AM
3- Minimum charge: 0%
4- Maximum charge: 100%
5- Charge level when I connect: 50%

I suspect it may be a software bug that got activated as the year changed from 2015 to 2016. Has anyone seen the issue?

BTW, the time zone is PST with DST (Daylight Saving) being unchecked.

My workaround: Stop charging through Car-Net; Set the alarm on my phone to 11:00 PM and start charging through Car-Net. (very undesirable)

Any thoughts?

 

[RichV]

I believe my 2016 is having the same issue. However, I have yet to successfully get it to charge on L2 without an "electrical system failure" and with a L1 charger it almost always needs to be charging to make any departure time.

Hopefully the dealer can get that sorted out so I can verify the correct operation of the delayed charging.

 

[vwsickness]

My 2015 eGolf SEL is having the same issue that you car describing. After trying different times and charge location profiles without success. I have turned the "Off-Peak" feature off in the charge location profile and really the only difference is that the charging doesn't kick off immediately at 11:00pm but sometime in the night where it finishes charging right at my set departure time (6:00am). At the end of the day it doesn't make a difference except I don't get the comfort of seeing the car charging when I walk by it after 11pm.

 

[jdmstuff]

I'm having the same exact problem. It used to require the car net app to start charging. This was very inconvenient as the app was buggy and I couldn't log into it sometimes. Now after the new year, it starts charging immediately, unfortunately my electricity company has just switched me over to a tiered plan so charging off peak makes a difference in my billing. I now have to log into the car net app to stop the charging after I plug in and cross my fingers that it actually stops.

I just checked my status to see if charging has started (off peak time) and when I logged in, I found out that the battery was fully charged!

On a side note, does anyone know what the two buttons by the charging jack are for? Pressing either one of them does nothing.

 

[JoulesThief]

I'm having the same exact problem. It used to require the car net app to start charging. This was very inconvenient as the app was buggy and I couldn't log into it sometimes. Now after the new year, it starts charging immediately, unfortunately my electricity company has just switched me over to a tiered plan so charging off peak makes a difference in my billing. I now have to log into the car net app to stop the charging after I plug in and cross my fingers that it actually stops.

I just checked my status to see if charging has started (off peak time) and when I logged in, I found out that the battery was fully charged!

On a side note, does anyone know what the two buttons by the charging jack are for? Pressing either one of them does nothing.

Perhaps read the owners manual for an explanation? It's a good read for all new owners of new cars.

 

[forbin404]

I'm having the same exact problem. It used to require the car net app to start charging. This was very inconvenient as the app was buggy and I couldn't log into it sometimes. Now after the new year, it starts charging immediately, unfortunately my electricity company has just switched me over to a tiered plan so charging off peak makes a difference in my billing. I now have to log into the car net app to stop the charging after I plug in and cross my fingers that it actually stops.

I just checked my status to see if charging has started (off peak time) and when I logged in, I found out that the battery was fully charged!

On a side note, does anyone know what the two buttons by the charging jack are for? Pressing either one of them does nothing.

Perhaps read the owners manual for an explanation? It's a good read for all new owners of new cars.

The owners manual? HAve you read it? It's a POS, it looks like someone just threw random pieces of info together.

It's really deficient on the electronics especially in regards to the charging system.

I can't even figure out how to set my timers at all and I was using the owners manual which said (Please look under Car-Net section) and that section didn't even talk about it.

 

[JoulesThief]

I'm having the same exact problem. It used to require the car net app to start charging. This was very inconvenient as the app was buggy and I couldn't log into it sometimes. Now after the new year, it starts charging immediately, unfortunately my electricity company has just switched me over to a tiered plan so charging off peak makes a difference in my billing. I now have to log into the car net app to stop the charging after I plug in and cross my fingers that it actually stops.

I just checked my status to see if charging has started (off peak time) and when I logged in, I found out that the battery was fully charged!

On a side note, does anyone know what the two buttons by the charging jack are for? Pressing either one of them does nothing.

Perhaps read the owners manual for an explanation? It's a good read for all new owners of new cars.

The owners manual? HAve you read it? It's a POS, it looks like someone just threw random pieces of info together.

It's really deficient on the electronics especially in regards to the charging system.

I can't even figure out how to set my timers at all and I was using the owners manual which said (Please look under Car-Net section) and that section didn't even talk about it.

Car-net is Verizon, blame Verizon for your woes, they provide the service, for 2015's.

Start here on your computer, not your smart phone, Log -in, then enter your PIN # on the next page. Fiddle around, browse all sections, and you should have your answer.

https://carnet.vw.com/

Figure out who put the package together for 2016's so you could have all those fancy features in dash with the OS on your infotainment center, and start digging in there. Or. better yet, go back to the dealership you bought your car from, and have the service department show you how it's done. Or call VW Customer Care, and get your answer. It's up to VW to service and support what they sell.

 

[Verkehr]

I can't even figure out how to set my timers at all and I was using the owners manual which said (Please look under Car-Net section) and that section didn't even talk about it.

Charge timing is called e-manager which is listed at the bottom of the MIB screen from any of the "car" menus.

 

[miimura]

On a side note, does anyone know what the two buttons by the charging jack are for? Pressing either one of them does nothing.

The upper button next to the charge port will start and stop charging. For example, if the car is currently charging, indicated by the light above that button slowly glowing up and down with a green color, you can push the upper button and it will stop charging and change the indicator to amber. Only then can you remove the charging cable handle.

The lower button next to the charge port indicates and selects the timer based charging mode. This is only available if you have a schedule set. If the lower button is back-lit that means that timer charging is enabled. If you plug in while in that mode it will tell the EVSE to connect the AC power and it will sample the utility voltage available. Based on the voltage and current information from the EVSE it will calculate a charge start time and then it will blink the indicator light with short green pulses for a short time before the car goes to sleep. If you want it to charge immediately when the indicator is flashing the short green pulse, push the upper button and it will start charging.

 

[jdmstuff]

On a side note, does anyone know what the two buttons by the charging jack are for? Pressing either one of them does nothing.

The upper button next to the charge port will start and stop charging. For example, if the car is currently charging, indicated by the light above that button slowly glowing up and down with a green color, you can push the upper button and it will stop charging and change the indicator to amber. Only then can you remove the charging cable handle.

The lower button next to the charge port indicates and selects the timer based charging mode. This is only available if you have a schedule set. If the lower button is back-lit that means that timer charging is enabled. If you plug in while in that mode it will tell the EVSE to connect the AC power and it will sample the utility voltage available. Based on the voltage and current information from the EVSE it will calculate a charge start time and then it will blink the indicator light with short green pulses for a short time before the car goes to sleep. If you want it to charge immediately when the indicator is flashing the short green pulse, push the upper button and it will start charging.

Thank you miimura for the explanation. I think there is something wrong with them as I've never had anything happen when pressing either of them as you have indicated.

I had the same thing happen again this evening when I got home. I plugged in the charger, and had to go into the app to stop charging. I checked an hour later and it shows that it started charging, 3 hours before I set my timer to start charging.

As for that "read the manual" reply. I'm glad I gave you the opportunity to increase your post count with your informative comment.

 

[sjegolfuser]

I believe this is a software bug that corrupts the departure record. I did the following and it started to work:

1- Under e-Manager, under "Departure Time", I went to "Manage Charging Locations"
2- I turned OFF the "Off-Peak" time option
3- Saved the record
4- Hooked up the car to make sure it works and picks the right departure time
5- I disconnected the car
6- I went to "Manage Charging Locations"
7- I turned ON the "Off-Peak" time option
8- Saved the record
9- Hooked up the car and this time it honored off-peak time

This tells me it is a software bug that under certain condition the departure time record gets corrupted. If you save it few times, it eventually works.

The problem resurface whenever you make changes to "Departure time" through e-Manager.

 

[sjegolfuser]

My 2015 eGolf SEL is having the same issue that you car describing. After trying different times and charge location profiles without success. I have turned the "Off-Peak" feature off in the charge location profile and really the only difference is that the charging doesn't kick off immediately at 11:00pm but sometime in the night where it finishes charging right at my set departure time (6:00am). At the end of the day it doesn't make a difference except I don't get the comfort of seeing the car charging when I walk by it after 11pm.

Thanks for the pointer. This was great help. I just posted my findings.

 

[miimura]

I believe this is a software bug that corrupts the departure record. I did the following and it started to work:

1- Under e-Manager, under "Departure Time", I went to "Manage Charging Locations"
2- I turned OFF the "Off-Peak" time option
3- Saved the record
4- Hooked up the car to make sure it works and picks the right departure time
5- I disconnected the car
6- I went to "Manage Charging Locations"
7- I turned ON the "Off-Peak" time option
8- Saved the record
9- Hooked up the car and this time it honored off-peak time

This tells me it is a software bug that under certain condition the departure time record gets corrupted. If you save it few times, it eventually works.

The problem resurface whenever you make changes to "Departure time" through e-Manager.

I just ignore the Off-Peak time option. Honestly, I don't know why it's even in there. Last year, VW Customer Service said not to use it because it caused trouble with the timers on the 2015 cars.

They should design the system to have the car start at a given time or be done by a given time. Even better if they let the user choose. If the charging station cannot deliver enough power to allow the car to finish charging you have a problem in either case. If it goes by start time, it may still be charging when you want to use the car. If it goes by departure time, it may start early, before your electric rate goes down.

 

[andrewdski]

I just ignore the Off-Peak time option. Honestly, I don't know why it's even in there. Last year, VW Customer Service said not to use it because it caused trouble with the timers on the 2015 cars.

It is there because people want to ensure they charge only during off-peak times, obviously. If it causes trouble with the timers, they should fix their damn timers. Honestly, I'd rather I could just tell the car, charge only between these times, and forget about all this departure time nonsense. (Kind of the opposite of your position. I'd be happier with only off-peak, and no departure time.)

 

[miimura]

I just ignore the Off-Peak time option. Honestly, I don't know why it's even in there. Last year, VW Customer Service said not to use it because it caused trouble with the timers on the 2015 cars.

It is there because people want to ensure they charge only during off-peak times, obviously. If it causes trouble with the timers, they should fix their damn timers. Honestly, I'd rather I could just tell the car, charge only between these times, and forget about all this departure time nonsense. (Kind of the opposite of your position. I'd be happier with only off-peak, and no departure time.)

We can dream up all kinds of better ways VW _could_ have done things. All I really care about is that they have an easily understood system logic that is, well, logical. Given that they are focused on Departure Time, I don't see the use of a single Off-Peak window. My Off-Peak periods are different on weekdays and weekends. They don't explicitly allow for that either. You would have to create a separate charging locations with different Off-Peak schedules and tie them to weekday or weekend schedules as appropriate.

Three mutually exclusive timer rules:
1. Start at HH:MM
2. Ready for departure at HH:MM
3. Charge only during period between H1:M1 and H2:M2

Combining any of these just complicates the logic for no real benefit unless the user is dumb and sets conflicting values. The more you compound the logic, the harder it is for the user to understand.

 

[andrewdski]

My Off-Peak periods are different on weekdays and weekends. They don't explicitly allow for that either. You would have to create a separate charging locations with different Off-Peak schedules and tie them to weekday or weekend schedules as appropriate.

You certainly aren't wrong about this. I didn't mind, because in practice, the additional weekend off-peak times are during the day, so it is easy enough for me to just turn the charge on manually if I need extra time on the weekend.

Three mutually exclusive timer rules:
1. Start at HH:MM
2. Ready for departure at HH:MM
3. Charge only during period between H1:M1 and H2:M2

Yes, this would be a great approach. It seems like they thought #2 would work for everyone, and then found that some people needed #3 because that's the way their rate plans work, so they added #3 and made a bad job of it. This would be much better than what they wound up with.

I think not making the two options mutually exclusive is what ran them into trouble. Understand, I'm not trying to redesign their system for them. If what they had worked I'd be fine with it. In fact, it doesn't work, and it doesn't work in a way that costs me money, which really bothers me!

Sorry if I was a bit short with you. I was frustrated, having just spent an hour or so experimenting to see if I could find anything that would make off-peak charging work properrly. Having the off-peak stuff work is just way more important to me than the departure time method they came up with.

 

[JoulesThief]

My Off-Peak periods are different on weekdays and weekends. They don't explicitly allow for that either. You would have to create a separate charging locations with different Off-Peak schedules and tie them to weekday or weekend schedules as appropriate.

You certainly aren't wrong about this. I didn't mind, because in practice, the additional weekend off-peak times are during the day, so it is easy enough for me to just turn the charge on manually if I need extra time on the weekend.

Three mutually exclusive timer rules:
1. Start at HH:MM
2. Ready for departure at HH:MM
3. Charge only during period between H1:M1 and H2:M2

Yes, this would be a great approach. It seems like they thought #2 would work for everyone, and then found that some people needed #3 because that's the way their rate plans work, so they added #3 and made a bad job of it. This would be much better than what they wound up with.

I think not making the two options mutually exclusive is what ran them into trouble. Understand, I'm not trying to redesign their system for them. If what they had worked I'd be fine with it. In fact, it doesn't work, and it doesn't work in a way that costs me money, which really bothers me!

Sorry if I was a bit short with you. I was frustrated, having just spent an hour or so experimenting to see if I could find anything that would make off-peak charging work properrly. Having the off-peak stuff work is just way more important to me than the departure time method they came up with.

They came up with the departure time method because everyone's car needs a different amount of time to charge, and the start times on the power grid need to be staggered, the electrical system doesn't take well to everyone starting charging at 11 pm, the first moment of off peak pricing on the grid. It woud overload the system if everyone starts pulling 30 or 40 amps at 11 pm, or 10 pm, or when ever it is that cars first start charging. By chosing when it turns off, a departure time, it staggers in the load of when cars start charging, makes it more manageable for the power companies. Your car sucks a lot of juice while recharging, it's a big hit for the power company when your car first starts charging, managing the electrical load. Magnify that by when more and more people start driving electrical cars, and you'll see it's important to manage both the infrastructure correctly, and the end user needs to be managed correctly too, that's you and me. Hence the choice for setting departure time is preferred.

 

[forbin404]

My Off-Peak periods are different on weekdays and weekends. They don't explicitly allow for that either. You would have to create a separate charging locations with different Off-Peak schedules and tie them to weekday or weekend schedules as appropriate.

You certainly aren't wrong about this. I didn't mind, because in practice, the additional weekend off-peak times are during the day, so it is easy enough for me to just turn the charge on manually if I need extra time on the weekend.

Three mutually exclusive timer rules:
1. Start at HH:MM
2. Ready for departure at HH:MM
3. Charge only during period between H1:M1 and H2:M2

Yes, this would be a great approach. It seems like they thought #2 would work for everyone, and then found that some people needed #3 because that's the way their rate plans work, so they added #3 and made a bad job of it. This would be much better than what they wound up with.


I think not making the two options mutually exclusive is what ran them into trouble. Understand, I'm not trying to redesign their system for them. If what they had worked I'd be fine with it. In fact, it doesn't work, and it doesn't work in a way that costs me money, which really bothers me!

Sorry if I was a bit short with you. I was frustrated, having just spent an hour or so experimenting to see if I could find anything that would make off-peak charging work properrly. Having the off-peak stuff work is just way more important to me than the departure time method they came up with.

They came up with the departure time method because everyone's car needs a different amount of time to charge, and the start times on the power grid need to be staggered, the electrical system doesn't take well to everyone starting charging at 11 pm, the first moment of off peak pricing on the grid. It woud overload the system if everyone starts pulling 30 or 40 amps at 11 pm, or 10 pm, or when ever it is that cars first start charging. By chosing when it turns off, a departure time, it staggers in the load of when cars start charging, makes it more manageable for the power companies. Your car sucks a lot of juice while recharging, it's a big hit for the power company when your car first starts charging, managing the electrical load. Magnify that by when more and more people start driving electrical cars, and you'll see it's important to manage both the infrastructure correctly, and the end user needs to be managed correctly too, that's you and me. Hence the choice for setting departure time is preferred.

I tried the timer charging last night and no go.
Pulled in at 7pm
Set the off peak to 7:30pm - 8am
Made sure the departure to 12:00pm

Plugged in set timer and walked away
Checked at 8pm, still not charging.
Man VW has the worst software.

And I see why VW can't use a panel delayed timer, it 'electrically' disconnects the plug if it doesn't see it working normally and most timers simulate that.

And still real confused on 'Departure time'. What does this have to do with 'charging time'? Who cares when you are departing? Just unplug and GO.

 

[miimura]

I tried the timer charging last night and no go.
Pulled in at 7pm
Set the off peak to 7:30pm - 8am
Made sure the departure to 12:00pm

Plugged in set timer and walked away
Checked at 8pm, still not charging.
Man VW has the worst software.

And I see why VW can't use a panel delayed timer, it 'electrically' disconnects the plug if it doesn't see it working normally and most timers simulate that.

And still real confused on 'Departure time'. What does this have to do with 'charging time'? Who cares when you are departing? Just unplug and GO.

Let's do some math to illustrate how the system is supposed to work. I don't have enough data from you, but I will set some assumptions.

Assume:
EVSE is 240V 30A and the car has 7.2kW charger.
Battery level is 50%
Maximum Charge is 100%
12:00 departure time means Midnight.

How it works:
You plug in the car at 7:00pm and the car sees 240VAC and 30A pilot signal. It calculates that it needs 22kWh*50%/(240*30*85%)=1.8 hours to charge.
from Midnight, subtract 1.8 hours, so the car sets the timer to start at 10:12pm.

So, if my assumptions about your situation are correct, it should not have been charging at 8:00pm, it should have charged from 10:12pm to Midnight.

 

[forbin404]

I tried the timer charging last night and no go.
Pulled in at 7pm
Set the off peak to 7:30pm - 8am
Made sure the departure to 12:00pm

Plugged in set timer and walked away
Checked at 8pm, still not charging.
Man VW has the worst software.

And I see why VW can't use a panel delayed timer, it 'electrically' disconnects the plug if it doesn't see it working normally and most timers simulate that.

And still real confused on 'Departure time'. What does this have to do with 'charging time'? Who cares when you are departing? Just unplug and GO.

Let's do some math to illustrate how the system is supposed to work. I don't have enough data from you, but I will set some assumptions.

Assume:
EVSE is 240V 30A and the car has 7.2kW charger.
Battery level is 50%
Maximum Charge is 100%
12:00 departure time means Midnight.

How it works:
You plug in the car at 7:00pm and the car sees 240VAC and 30A pilot signal. It calculates that it needs 22kWh*50%/(240*30*85%)=1.8 hours to charge.
from Midnight, subtract 1.8 hours, so the car sets the timer to start at 10:12pm.

So, if my assumptions about your situation are correct, it should not have been charging at 8:00pm, it should have charged from 10:12pm to Midnight.

Wow INTERESTING!
Ok so what I will do then is set it to 6am departure time and check it in the morning, if it didn't charge, no big deal as I can go 2 days without a charge.

I'll try that.
And I have a 2016 SE so it's 3.5w charge And was set to 12pm not am as far as I know.