Delayed Charging mode.

[bkkanu]

I like the Active E menu for Delayed Charging. You set the timer when it should start the charging and plug the charger and that its. Now i3 does not allow you to do delayed charging unless you program the departure time as well as economy rate. I tried this once and it did not work. Has anyone found this to be an issue or resolution?
FYI: the portable charger or level 2 charger did not work with the car default setting as well. I had to change it to "max" setting. One would think the default setting should work as plug and play.

 

[Plug]

My delayed timer is inconsistent too and often the charging is starting too early. I have the 'Off-peak tariff' set for a 7 hour period overnight which is plenty of time to allow a full charge but it's regularly starting up to 90 mins early but not every time so I can't figure it out. It does the same for the 32A charger or the 10A 3-pin plug. I've taken to using the 10A charger with a timer-plug which is daft but it's the only way that I can ensure that I get a charge during the correct time.

This reminds me, I did send my dealer an email a few weeks ago asking about this but didn't get a reply so I think I'll contact him again.

 

[harttim1]

I have seen a somewhat similar behavior with my i3 REX....but only for a short period of time. I have delayed charging set for 12:05 am to 5:55 am and a planned departure of 6:30 am daily. This time frame corresponds to the off-peak charging time for my household electric plan in California. Tonight, I plugged the i3 in at 8:30 pm... there were "0" electric miles displaying and the car was running on the REX when I got home. The i3 immediately began to charge despite the delayed charging settings. The charging (at full 7.2 kW/h) continued until the iConnect App on my iPhone showed 8 miles of range or 10% charge and then it went to "Charging Paused" on the App. The vehicle will resume charging tonight sometime after 12:05 am. It would appear that the i3 wants to keep some level of minimum charge when power is available.

I have real-time monitoring software for my home electric meter and it also indicates that while the i3 could start charging at 12:05 am - the typical start time is around 2:00 am. The vehicle is drawing full power for sometime then there is a gradual step down for about an hour or so until the i3 is fully charged. My charging times are 3 1/2 hours or so when the battery is completely drained.

 

[acmik]

It would appear that the i3 wants to keep some level of minimum charge when power is available.
...
I have real-time monitoring software for my home electric meter and it also indicates that while the i3 could start charging at 12:05 am - the typical start time is around 2:00 am. The vehicle is drawing full power for sometime then there is a gradual step down for about an hour or so until the i3 is fully charged. My charging times are 3 1/2 hours or so when the battery is completely drained.

This is a great info, thanks for your input!

 

[dtuttle007]

Battery SOC management is a very interesting topic. I've measured my Volt's SOC with an advanced scan tool and found that the charge varies from about 20% to 85% SOC (a 65% SOC window). It's well known that GM was VERY conservative with the GEN1 Volt design. From all indications I've had zero battery degradation over 3.5 years and 40k miles with this conservatism. 85% SOC window sounds aggressive from the SAE papers I've read on Lithium batteries. The extremes of stress and impact to battery life seem to be at both extremes of SOC (near zero and near 100%).. but particularly at high SOC in hot temperatures. As a first guess, I would speculate that BMW keeps the battery below 90% SOC and above 5% and perhaps uses some temperature dependent algorithms. I wonder if winter charging gets skewed higher 10 to 95% and summer from 5 to 90%. It's interesting that with a REX that the control system would let the SOC fall enough to be concerned with over riding the lower bound SOC limit or delayed charging mode. Maybe they didn't want to have different software versions for the BEV vs REX... and the BEV has the priority of not stranding the driver and allowing the SOC to approach very low levels but as soon as possible the control software wants to get the SOC up to, say, 10%.
My first guess is that this is not some kind of error or software bug. I would bet it's intentionally designed that way.

 

[arlorose]

For the last three nights the car hasn't started charging on its own inside the low-cost time. I've had to fiddle with the remote app to get it to start charging.

Had been working flawlessly until now.

Pretty disappointing to have a software glitch like this after the A/C issues.

 

[ericblz]

I see this topic has been idle for a while, hoping to put out my issue for public comment...


I have a Clipper Creek level 2 charger which does not have a timer, since I assumed the off-peak hours charging would work fine. I regret that is having a timer on the charger would alleviate having to deal with the car's timing. It actually did work fine, until after I received the August software update.

I have discounted electricity 12 AM-5 AM. I set the car up with these hours as low cost charging. I also set a 5 AM departure time, but without preconditioning. The car's logic dictates that it have a full charge at departure, so it is possible it would start before low-cost charging if needed.

On a typical day I would come home and plug in the car around 5 PM. The charging indicator on the station clicks and turns on for a few seconds, then off. iRemote shows charging paused. If I am below 10% on the battery, the charging does run for a little while and then pauses which is normal.

Sometime between 9 and 11 PM I get an alert on iRemote saying charging error. I go out to the car and either the charging plug light around the receptacle on the car is off or flashing red. I also notice my car doors are locked. This may be a coincidence but I noticed it several times as perhaps related.

I then unplug the car and plug it back in. Sometimes this puts it back in pause mode as should be normal, sometimes it does nothing until I open the car door and close it again. Or do that and then unplug and plug again. Often then it starts whirring as if it is conditioning the battery and the charging light stays lit on the charger. I believe it does that for a while and then goes back to pause mode for some reason, even though it is well above 10% already.

I assume this is a deep software issue but if others are getting the same style of problem at least we can join forces. I've no idea how the dealer would debug this aside from keeping the car several days.

 

[Plug]

Hi ericblz,

That's interesting as it's very similar to what I'm experiencing too.

When I first reported this earlier in the year my dealer took my car in for 6 days but they couldn't replicate the problem. They also replaced my BMWi wallbox but the problem persists so they ran out of ideas and have been relying on advice from Germany. A few weeks ago I was forwarded a copy of an internal BMWi email discussing this problem (which I probably shouldn't post here) but I can say that they have had a lot of owners report this issue and they seem to be giving it high priority. They admitted they were struggling to isolate the fault but the email went into quite a lot of detail about what they are doing about it and it gave me good confidence that a fix will be forthcoming at some point so I'm happy enough to wait seeing as it's not stopping me using the car.

 

[ericblz]

Thank you, great info.

What's strange is that I did not experience the issue until the August software was installed...keep us posted if you get a fix.

 

[jadnashuanh]

One thing that may not be obvious unless you've dug into it, is that the i3's user visible SOC is not the 'real' SOC of the batteries...it is the normally usable range and BMW has a buffer built in at both the top and the bottom of the range. Someone said the upper buffer is there so there's room for regen if you leave with a full battery. SO, it's possible if your trip started on the top of a hill, you could get more power into the battery than it had when the EVSE and the car said it was full. Don't know if that's the full truth, but it at least sounds plausible. The bottom end buffer is for several reasons...batteries don't like to be discharged flat, and if there isn't at least some charge there, the logic to run the recharging cycle has to go through a different path to get some back before it can fully function and begin to use the full EVSE output. I don't remember the exact numbers, but it appears there's about a 5% buffer at each end of the SOC that is usable under normal conditions.

 

[Neil]

I'm seeing delayed charging faults too. It had worked fine for the last week or so, but tonight I looked at the phone app and saw a notification- charging interrupted. Which is weird since the car wasn't charging. It was plugged in though.

These are the events typical when I see a charging fault:
7:45: Get home around, shut off the car, verify set for low cost charging- 10:15PM - 10 AM, departure time set for 8:15. Plugged in charger, locked vehicle.
9:15: Noticed app notification- charging interrupted, red flashing icon. Go out to garage, unlock car, see red flashing ring. Unplugged charger. Check charging menu again, plugged in charger, car started charging immediately way before low cost charging start time. Unplugged.
10:15: Plugged in charger again, started charging immediately, left it charging.
10:30: Still charging.

When this works in what seems to be a reasonable way, the car doesn't start charging until 1 or 2 in the morning. I did get charging faults before the software update but it seems the frequency has increased after. In fact I got them 2 days in a row, the night of the update and the next night a couple of weeks ago. I let the car sit for a few days when out of town and when I came back it charged normally that night. Go figure.

This bizarre and unpredictable behavior makes it more difficult to deal with and feel with much confidence that the car will be charged and ready in the morning. Not good. :x Kind of an expensive headache in the making right now.

 

[Plug]

Hi Neil,

Could you tell us what charging unit you're using please?

I've had dozens of similar charging errors in the 6 months that I've owned my car. They were happening about a couple of times a week but on Monday I took my car in for a software update and since then.... charging errors have occurred every single night, lol. I also now have the wallbox clonking on/off every few seconds during pre-heating which is a new thing and obviously shouldn't be happening.

Got to admit that I'm starting to lose patience. The next plan of action is to have some charging hardware changed on my car so it's going back in on Wednesday for that (parts currently on order from Germany). I'm not too confident that this will fix it though because both times I've had the dealer's i3 on loan I've encountered the same charging issues so I don't feel that the problem is with a component in my car (maybe it's software or wallbox?).

One thing I'd recommend (if you're not doing already) is keep a good log of your errors and keep your dealer informed. I know from an internal BMWi email that I've seen that they've compiled a spreadsheet tracking all information they've been given on this error so ask your dealer to forward it on. I take a screenie of the notification (here's last night's) and have also submitted videos and charging/battery data.

I did notice that since the software update that the car is now registering a fault (which it never did previously). It now pings a noise and flashes up an orange message on the dash saying "Unable to charge" so maybe they are logging error data within the car now as well.

It seems to me that the car goes into a 'deep sleep' mode and if this is somehow interrupted before the delayed charging is due to start then there's a high chance that this error occurs and you get the notification/red flashing. I've even triggered it myself by changing the charging times in the app, as soon as I sent it to the car (and woke it up) I got the notification error straight back and I had to go out to the garage to sort it out.

 

[Buskraut]

I'm seeing delayed charging faults too. It had worked fine for the last week or so, but tonight I looked at the phone app and saw a notification- charging interrupted. Which is weird since the car wasn't charging. It was plugged in though.

These are the events typical when I see a charging fault:
7:45: Get home around, shut off the car, verify set for low cost charging- 10:15PM - 10 AM, departure time set for 8:15. Plugged in charger, locked vehicle.
9:15: Noticed app notification- charging interrupted, red flashing icon. Go out to garage, unlock car, see red flashing ring. Unplugged charger. Check charging menu again, plugged in charger, car started charging immediately way before low cost charging start time. Unplugged.
10:15: Plugged in charger again, started charging immediately, left it charging.
10:30: Still charging.

When this works in what seems to be a reasonable way, the car doesn't start charging until 1 or 2 in the morning. I did get charging faults before the software update but it seems the frequency has increased after. In fact I got them 2 days in a row, the night of the update and the next night a couple of weeks ago. I let the car sit for a few days when out of town and when I came back it charged normally that night. Go figure.

This bizarre and unpredictable behavior makes it more difficult to deal with and feel with much confidence that the car will be charged and ready in the morning. Not good. :x Kind of an expensive headache in the making right now.

Neil, I'm seeing the exact same thing, and it seems to have gotten worse over the past week or so, although its totally unpredictable and works fine some evenings. In fact when I read your message I just returned from the garage after my SECOND interrupted charge message (even though it was just waiting to charge off-peak). Since it is now after 11pm (my low-cost charging time), it has now started charging immediately.

FWIW I have a Clipper Creek level 2 charger.

I agree it has gotten worse after my SW update to fix the AC.

 

[ericblz]

I've noticed the car screen says Drivetrain: Stop Carefully in red on the steering display when the error occurs.

I keep searching for a pattern on the charging errors. Mine seem to happen more often when the charge is below 40% remaining, but nothing definitive.

 

[Neil]

I'm seeing delayed charging faults too. It had worked fine for the last week or so, but tonight I looked at the phone app and saw a notification- charging interrupted. Which is weird since the car wasn't charging. It was plugged in though.

These are the events typical when I see a charging fault:
7:45: Get home around, shut off the car, verify set for low cost charging- 10:15PM - 10 AM, departure time set for 8:15. Plugged in charger, locked vehicle.
9:15: Noticed app notification- charging interrupted, red flashing icon. Go out to garage, unlock car, see red flashing ring. Unplugged charger. Check charging menu again, plugged in charger, car started charging immediately way before low cost charging start time. Unplugged.
10:15: Plugged in charger again, started charging immediately, left it charging.
10:30: Still charging.

When this works in what seems to be a reasonable way, the car doesn't start charging until 1 or 2 in the morning. I did get charging faults before the software update but it seems the frequency has increased after. In fact I got them 2 days in a row, the night of the update and the next night a couple of weeks ago. I let the car sit for a few days when out of town and when I came back it charged normally that night. Go figure.

This bizarre and unpredictable behavior makes it more difficult to deal with and feel with much confidence that the car will be charged and ready in the morning. Not good. :x Kind of an expensive headache in the making right now.

Neil, I'm seeing the exact same thing, and it seems to have gotten worse over the past week or so, although its totally unpredictable and works fine some evenings. In fact when I read your message I just returned from the garage after my SECOND interrupted charge message (even though it was just waiting to charge off-peak). Since it is now after 11pm (my low-cost charging time), it has now started charging immediately.

FWIW I have a Clipper Creek level 2 charger.

I agree it has gotten worse after my SW update to fix the AC.

That's interesting, I'm using a Clipper Creek level 2 unit as well, the HCS-40. I would however think it pretty unlikely that this is a problem with the EVSE as they are pretty simple devices and there is not enough information posted here to rule this out. Maybe others who have other charge units and are having similar charging issues can chime in here and let us know which model charge unit they are using.

 

[ericblz]

I am also using a Clipper Creek HCS 40.

Does yours kick on when you open the car door or trunk and it is plugged in? I see some serious bizarre behavior.


Wish I'd known about this problem, I would have purchased a different charger with a timer in it and not counted on the car.

 

[jadnashuanh]

The EVSE only closes the contactor to apply power when the car asks for it. Unless the EVSE has some other internal logic (the Clipper Creek units don't) to only respond at certain times, it will do that any time the car requests it. All of the EVSE units do have some logic to verify that the connection is proper, and will shut down if it detects a ground fault, but I would be surprised if the car was exhibiting that.

 

[Buskraut]

OK, seriously strange behavior this evening... got another "charging error" message on my phone, and found the typical red flashing light around the i3 charge port. However this time when I unplugged and replugged, the HCS-40 'power fault' and 'charging fault' lights started flashing red, and the faults wouldn't clear even when not plugged into the i3. I had to flip the breaker on/off to clear the faults. I then replugged in the i3 and it seems to be charging now.

On a separate note, the clipper creek will also routinely will click on/off when opening a door (but not usually the trunk)...

 

[Neil]

I am also using a Clipper Creek HCS 40.

Does yours kick on when you open the car door or trunk and it is plugged in? I see some serious bizarre behavior.


Wish I'd known about this problem, I would have purchased a different charger with a timer in it and not counted on the car.

I can't say I've noticed it kicking on when I open the car door but I'll keep my eyes open for that.

I was thinking about this low cost charging concept and I really don't understand why this should be so hard for BMW to accomplish.

I've never had an issue with immediate charging before or after the software update. (Has anyone had problems with this charging mode?) I plug it in, verify the blinking blue LED around the charge port and go away. I can do this during the day when it's 100 degrees outside or at night when the car is in my garage. The car is charged when I come back and I can monitor the charging on the mobile phone app. To me, the low cost charging could just wait for the time you set and go into Immediate charging mode. Once that's done, the car could wait for your departure time -15 minutes and start preconditioning if that's enabled. I'm sure I don't know all the details about this and would certainly like to be enlightened but it seems this simple method which could be called delayed charging would suit my needs.

As mentioned if my EVSE had a start time available, I'd just leave the car in immediate charging mode anyway, plug it in and the EVSE would not supply power until the set time.

BMW- Why is this so difficult to get working????

 

[Neil]

Just a followup on this topic. Tonight I had another charging fault, similar to the one I posted from a few days ago. Didn't mess with it. Just waited for my low cost charging time and set it to immediate charging mode. Charging now for about an hour...

Yes, when I unlocked the car I saw the charger kick on for a second. Don't know why it does this but is not a great concern for me at this time.

Also I thought I'd post some charging profiles I've collected from my monitored charging circuit but haven't quite figured out how to do that yet. I have a record of a pre-software update low cost charging profile as well as post-software update.