[Steggs]

I've owned my E-tron 55 Sportback a week.
I had a home charger installed today that I got free with the car. (Not a smart one)

Having issues trying to schedule a charge to match the cheap EV charging rates I get.

The car recognises it "Home" but disregards the times set to charge. The manual says it should automatically adhere to these.
I've read about starting the timer mode to solve this, but the car/charger just seem to cycle the charging process. (Which can't be good for either the battery or the charger)

Has anyone got any new information on this as all I can find is old threads?

 

[GrahamS]

You need three things

1. A location defined with a preferred charge period and % target, which has to be long enough to accommodate the charge you want to deliver. If you're on Octopus Go for example that's only 4 hours so might be inadequate.

2. A timer defined and 'on' for each day you need. This is a 'ready by' time and optionally a 'climate control' toggle. If there's not enough time to have it reach the desired % at the desired time, it'll start straight away.

3. Every time you park the car and you want to charge, you have to enable the timed charging profile on the centre screen. Tap the icon and a red bar appears above. If you don't do that each time it won't work.

 

[Steggs]

Yeah this is what I had read in the previous threads, but some were really old.

But this sets my car off cycling the charger, it doesn't simply wait
It is starting & stopping the charger multiple times in a few minutes, which can't be good for either my charger or car.

Does this cycling happen when you do this?

 

[GrahamS]

No. Stop, tap the screen, plug in, lock. I've also got a dumb wallbox so all that happens is the car enables the EVSE then sits waiting till the charge needs to start.

What wallbox have you got?

Makes me wonder if something else wrong. Does it work on a public 7Kw?

 

[Steggs]

I've used one of the public 50kw chargers & the 3 pin as only had it a week.
But that wasn't set to schedule, just charge.

I've done as you said, as the car is in the garage.
Got in opened the MMI & selected the charge timer profile
But that's when it starts cycling, says the light on the charging port should flash green for scheduled timer.

But it cycles from the white initiating light to the green pulsing charging light.
Can hear the car clunking as it re-initiates each time.

The charger is from podpoint, hasn't got an app to try doing the scheduling though that instead

 

[GrahamS]

You could try the timed charging with the three pin. If that works then it's the Podpoint, so as it's new I'd get them back.

 

[Steggs]

I don't believe the 3 pin would work anyway, due to being so slow.
The scheduler is only meant to work if there's enough time to complete the charge in the set time.
You'd need like 10 hours to go up 10%.

I've spoken to the dealer, see if they know anything.

Would end up putting around £500 a year on my charging bill if it won't schedule, not good for a £80k car

 

[GrahamS]

Yes I meant that you could test it using the 13A when it was a viable option, eg adding say 10KWh overnight.

Another thought, have you tried using the charge port on the other side of the car?

 

[Steggs]

Cheers, yeah good ideas. Think I'm going to leave the troubleshooting for now.
Tried again this morning, get exactly the same response.
I'm pushing to get something from Audi, as the car is a week old, I'm not putting up with a major floor like this.

They can have the car back if they can't solve it.

 

[GrahamS]

Well, fair enough but at the moment you don't know whether it's the car or the charging point that's at fault.

 

[Steggs]

The charging points works fine when the scheduler isn't active.
You plug in, it initiates & starts charging.
So I don't see how the charger can cause a problem.

It's the car trying to work out the schedule that's clunking it in & out.
The logic isn't very clever, if you schedule a charge for cheap electricity rates, surely it doesn't specifically need to hit a target.
Yes it could terminate the charge at a desired target, but if you need it at a certain charge that is what the timer feature is for.

I'm new to all this, so no expert.

 

[GrahamS]

Well, that's true, the system is a bit simple minded. It's a sort of hierarchy - % Charge target beats timed charging window.

 

[pressurized]

For the 'basic' timed charging option, while the manual doesn't say so, this must mean, 'Start charging as late as possible to be charged by a time' otherwise what's the point? If so then, when the car's parked up, plugged in and the charge is kicked off, the car must activate the charger briefly and get an estimate of the power available to work out how long charging to the target will take and so when to start. This is probably the root cause of the start/stop cycle thing going on but something's not going well in this case.

If the above is true, with the generous cheap rate window (EDF?) Steggs has, using a timer set to finish by 06:50 hrs should give the required result pretty much always.

With the 'advanced' option the intent seems to be to only charge between specified times when at a certain place.

Both options surely aim to make use of cheap overnight electricity. With the basic option, you will get to your target but may use some expensive electricity early in the cycle. With advanced, you may not get to the target but will not use any expensive electricity.

Even with the Octopus Go tarif I'm likely to go for, the basic option should be OK as the expensive rate cost isn't too hideous and I reckon I'll get around 50 miles in the cheap rate window.

It should not be the case, however, that the advanced option needs the basic option to be set up in order to work; the two options have mutually exclusive aims.

When I park I'd like to be able to decide how to charge like this:

• Buttons appear on the screen to activate any basic timers that are active.
• If at a recognised location, buttons for advanced timers also appear.
• Selecting one of the buttons chooses how the car charges when plugged in.
• Selecting no button means charge immediately when plugged in.

 

[pressurized]

Briefly... I've done a bit of experimenting. I got the car to do the cycling thing where it turns the charger on and off indefinitely. Shortly after this I got it to go properly into timed mode aiming to finish at 04:30 hrs. When I checked 15 min or so later it had gone back into the cycling mode.

 

[GrahamS]

Briefly... I've done a bit of experimenting. I got the car to do the cycling thing where it turns the charger on and off indefinitely. Shortly after this I got it to go properly into timed mode aiming to finish at 04:30 hrs. When I checked 15 min or so later it had gone back into the cycling mode.

How did you do that? that's the OP's problem so if you can force it to happen...?

 

[graberg]

I struggled with scheduling the charge timer issue for several weeks as well but finally I think I have it right as far as creating a schedule that only charges between certain times, in my case, between 10:00 pm and 5:00 am. I found the manual poorly written in this regard and our dealer set the charging schedule but didn't quite get it right either because it started charging immediately when first plugged in instead of waiting for the appropriate time.

The key to understanding the Audi scheduling system is understanding "Departure Time". When you are setting a charging schedule, the system is asking you "what time do you want the car to be ready to go?" That's "Departure Time". So if I want to leave at 6:00 in the morning, my charging needs to be done by that time. So you set the Departure Time first. Then you add the earliest time charging should begin which in my case is 10:00 pm.

If you're using the Audi app, you can see your schedule by clicking on the charging icon under Your myAudi connection services. When you click on that icon, you get 3 tabs at the top "Charging Timer and Charging locations. Click on Timer and you'll see the 5 charging options for Departure Time. In my case the first tab says 5:00 AM Daily and the tab is highlighted black. Then click Charging locations and you should see the Charging schedule you've created under "Preferred Charging time". Mine says 10:00PM - 5:00AM. If you click the arrow button then you get to your charging location screen which in my case is my home address. The final step is to De-activate the "Activate 25% minimum charge". It's this button that automatically starts a charge every time you plug a charger in, regardless of whether your timer schedule says to start at a later time.

Once I de-activated that setting and plugged the cable into the charge port, the car flashed white to connect and then started blinking green rapidly. Also, my Audi app then told me charging was waiting to start. To see how this really worked, at 10:00 that evening I checked my Audi app and charging had not started because my estimated charging time to reach 80% was only 2+ hours. The next morning I was up early and at about 4:45 am, my Audi app showed charging was active and at about 76% capacity. Promptly at 5:00 am, charging stopped and my Audi app showed that the charging was complete.

Sunday I plugged the car in the afternoon because weekends are different for rates and I didn't care if it started charging right away. To allow it to charge right away, I clicked off the schedule under the Timer setting and the car started charging as soon as I plugged it in.

While writing this post, I've noticed in the app that the "Activate 25% minimum charge" setting is on again. I intend to charge tonight when I get home so I've disabled that setting and when I plug the cable in tonight, my timer setting will kick in to start between 10:00 pm and 5:00 am. Apologies for the long winded post but this issue was very confusing to understand.

 

[LSB777]

I had issues with this (UK e-tron 50 Technik) when trying to change then desired level of charge in car it just bounced back to 50, regardless of what I chose. The home geofencing never worked either. Timed charging now works, I'm on Octopus Agile so if fairly cheap overnight, I plug in maybe 9pm and tell car want to depart say 5:30am (when cheap rates finish). Just work backwards how many hours at roughly 10% per hour for 7kW charger. Its fiddly but works as long as you remember to flick to timed mode on app when plugged in.

 

[TM79]

I struggled with scheduling the charge timer issue for several weeks as well but finally I think I have it right as far as creating a schedule that only charges between certain times, in my case, between 10:00 pm and 5:00 am. I found the manual poorly written in this regard and our dealer set the charging schedule but didn't quite get it right either because it started charging immediately when first plugged in instead of waiting for the appropriate time.

The key to understanding the Audi scheduling system is understanding "Departure Time". When you are setting a charging schedule, the system is asking you "what time do you want the car to be ready to go?" That's "Departure Time". So if I want to leave at 6:00 in the morning, my charging needs to be done by that time. So you set the Departure Time first. Then you add the earliest time charging should begin which in my case is 10:00 pm.

If you're using the Audi app, you can see your schedule by clicking on the charging icon under Your myAudi connection services. When you click on that icon, you get 3 tabs at the top "Charging Timer and Charging locations. Click on Timer and you'll see the 5 charging options for Departure Time. In my case the first tab says 5:00 AM Daily and the tab is highlighted black. Then click Charging locations and you should see the Charging schedule you've created under "Preferred Charging time". Mine says 10:00PM - 5:00AM. If you click the arrow button then you get to your charging location screen which in my case is my home address. The final step is to De-activate the "Activate 25% minimum charge". It's this button that automatically starts a charge every time you plug a charger in, regardless of whether your timer schedule says to start at a later time.

Once I de-activated that setting and plugged the cable into the charge port, the car flashed white to connect and then started blinking green rapidly. Also, my Audi app then told me charging was waiting to start. To see how this really worked, at 10:00 that evening I checked my Audi app and charging had not started because my estimated charging time to reach 80% was only 2+ hours. The next morning I was up early and at about 4:45 am, my Audi app showed charging was active and at about 76% capacity. Promptly at 5:00 am, charging stopped and my Audi app showed that the charging was complete.

Sunday I plugged the car in the afternoon because weekends are different for rates and I didn't care if it started charging right away. To allow it to charge right away, I clicked off the schedule under the Timer setting and the car started charging as soon as I plugged it in.

While writing this post, I've noticed in the app that the "Activate 25% minimum charge" setting is on again. I intend to charge tonight when I get home so I've disabled that setting and when I plug the cable in tonight, my timer setting will kick in to start between 10:00 pm and 5:00 am. Apologies for the long winded post but this issue was very confusing to understand.

Hi, what charger are you using?
I have the same issue as Steggs even though the process of setting this up is the same method as you mentioned.
I believe the issue we have is the compatibility of the pod point charger with Audi, constant power cycling. I’ve just tried the timed charging method with the 3 pin plug and supplied charging lead and it works fine. Blinking green light with no power cycling. I’ve not had chance to test the preferred charging time yet.
This isn’t great when Audi also paid to have the pod point charger installed.

 

[graberg]

I'm using the Audi supplied charger - 3 pins I think (not the small one that plugs into 110V).

 

[TM79]

I'm using the Audi supplied charger - 3 pins I think (not the small one that plugs into 110V).

Thanks, that’s the same system I can get it to to work, and it definitely looks like the Not so smart charger that was installed.