Octopus Intelligient & Location

[colin123]

PS. I have also changed from EO MIN PR0 2 (EO are a shambles of a company!!!) to a OHME HOME PRO. So far so good without the BMW update!? Only problem I now have is get Octopu sto charge me off-peak rates when it decides to charge outside the 23:30 - 05:30 window!!!

 

[Clanduncan]

Well, I can confirm at least that BMW are no longer sending out zero charge schedules, i.e. erasing anything you've set back to charge immediately instead. I can now use the car schedule instead of the wall charger scheduling at last. It's great to have a warm car, and a battery warmed up and ready to travel again!

 

[Gonville]

I believe this happened a few weeks ago? Is in another thread here somewhere. They seem to have flushed all message queues of the accounts and stopped the remote API access by Octopus. There was a long update. It’s Octopus using our credential via an API which wasn’t intended for third party access. BMW closed the gate. Octopus pay Ford for a commercial API to access Ford vehicles in the same way. If you have logged in using Alexa skill (for heating the car and remote access) that interface requires an additional non robot pictorial challenge now. So tightening up.

Text:-

“
Octopus API access



Thank you for getting in touch and sharing your experience with us. I completely understand how frustrating it must be to see your BMW i3 not detected by the Octopus app, especially when you were expecting it to create a charging plan.

At present, BMW has temporarily suspended app integration as they update their systems to enhance security protocols. This impacts how we connect with their services and has led to some temporary changes:

BMW Vehicles: Currently, onboarding through the app is unavailable. However, you can still register your BMW via our website. Once registered, you can schedule charging during the off-peak times offered by Intelligent Octopus (IOG).

Mini Vehicles: Onboarding through the app is currently suspended, and website registration is not supported at this time.

Additionally, the usual 7-day onboarding timer for IOG has been suspended for BMW vehicles while we work with BMW to resolve these issues.

We expect a resolution soon, with BMW releasing a software upgrade from 9th December at their service centres and a remote software update becoming available in Q1 2025. We appreciate your patience as we collaborate with BMW to restore full functionality as quickly as possible.”

 

[i3m3fan]

Just joining this chat. I like the checklist above from Octopus. I have used it successfully for at least a few years and the major problem seems to be with messages not reaching the car.

I think the car always starts charging when you plug it in and only pauses when the Octopus schedule is set by the issuing of the random future time interval ( as our dear old i3 has no ‘stop’ charging command). So that bit of their advice seems to admit to a problem. I thought it always charged and then stopped after a short time when the schedule was set. No schedule no stopping - which seems to be most people’s issue.

In the last few months there has been a myriad of folks with issues which all seem to be blamed on BMW. As far as I can see if the car doesn’t receive an SMS message ‘or’ (big ‘or”) the car isn’t at home because the permission to see location (GDPR) is periodically turned off (GPS needs cycling in car) and requires re-confirmation. This means (as above point 3) it doesn’t know where the car is - so won’t issue a schedule.

Also if the BMWid password has changed the octopus server can no longer access the BMW server using the stored credentials. (Good way to stop it though).

Another also - if the BMW myBMW app hasn’t been updated (mine is tagged for auto update but didn’t) the server doesn’t appear to recognise requests from the back version app.

Just a few thoughts from experience.

@alohart Have you Heard of any delayed charging/ off peak timed charging anomalies in the US (only relying on myBMW app and no third party charging)??

 

[alohart]

@alohart Have you Heard of any delayed charging/ off peak timed charging anomalies in the US (only relying on myBMW app and no third party charging)??

I haven't. I have been surprised that only U.K. i3 owners were having problems, but I think that Octopus was probably part of the problem. A local organization has been pitching automated off-peak charging, but I don't have an Internet-connected charging station that could be controlled over the Internet and the i3 does not support a remote command that would stop charging before a full charge which I would want to do, so I'll continue to charge manually during off-peak hours.

 

[Gonville]

I haven't. I have been surprised that only U.K. i3 owners were having problems, but I think that Octopus was probably part of the problem. A local organization has been pitching automated off-peak charging, but I don't have an Internet-connected charging station that could be controlled over the Internet and the i3 does not support a remote command that would stop charging before a full charge which I would want to do, so I'll continue to charge manually during off-peak hours.

This is exactly what octopus have been doing. To achieve a ‘stop’ they send a random future time slot request so the car pauses. The random times have sent members nuts. Then when they have a slot Octopus just sends a new time period and the car starts again. This is why it doesn’t need an internet connected charge station.

 

[alohart]

This is exactly what octopus have been doing. To achieve a ‘stop’ they send a random future time slot request so the car pauses. The random times have sent members nuts. Then when they have a slot Octopus just sends a new time period and the car starts again. This is why it doesn’t need an internet connected charge station.

That seems like a clever workaround to the lack of a native "stop charging" command. However, it seems to have caused problems.

Does this mean that an i3 owner could stop an on-going charging session by setting a future charging time slot from the My BMW app?

 

[AUTOMAN]

It is interesting to read these posts My home charger is a Juice Box and is 5 years old extremely difficult to set up initially and controlled via the internet by the manufacturer. This system worked well for a year or so ,but then started to become problematic. So I used the vehicles time of charge set up which again was working ok
Then that started to apparently malfunction with the charging time becoming very random.
At some point I signed up with Octopus as they were pushing off peak . Things were a bit chaotic initially with the vehicles charging time becoming very random . I contacted Octopus to find that they were using the vehicles system to time the charge. This seems to be the case even now . I have given up even looking at the charging times times on the vehicle Simply plug in and octopus produces a charging plan it is seldom totally accurate but is fully charged by my departure time. Most of my problems is suspect were due to Octopus getting their systems sorted out .