Charge Timer Question

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HFTobeason

Member
Joined
Aug 30, 2010
Messages
14
Conditions:

Timer One
Start Time: 20:00
End Time: 10:00
Days: MTWTF

Timer Two
Start Time: 0:00
End Time: **:** (NOT set)
Days: SS

Charge assumption:

M - midnight->10:00 & 20:00->midnight
T - midnight->10:00 & 20:00->midnight
W - midnight->10:00 & 20:00->midnight
T - midnight->10:00 & 20:00->midnight
F - midnight->10:00 & 20:00->midnight
S - midnight->midnight
S - midnight->midnight

The EV Customer Support person I queried was unable to give me a satisfactory answer. She also indicated that, if the Leaf was plugged into a charger while within any of the timer ranges, charging would NOT start. This seems contrary to my actual experience, but then, I have very limited data.

Any advice/thoughts much appreciated.

[EDIT to fix Monday - thanks @garygid!)
 
Apologies up front if this is covered somewhere here. But have little time at the moment, and it's probably not been covered. My real first forray into timed charging (not counting a short experiment in the first week).

Came home last night at 10pm. Set Timer 1 in car to END TIME 7:00. Did NOT set a Start Time and left default of 100% charge. Assigned this timer to ALL days. Plugged in to L1. Charging started immediately.

A few minutes later: browser update; 25% charge; plugged in and charging; 18 hours estimated.

All that makes sense and is as expected. The reason for the 7am stop time is ... rates go up at that time.

This morning: 07:30am: Car is still charging :shock: (First light solid; 2nd blinking.)

Browser update says: 67% charge; plugged in and charging; 7 hours estimated.

Climbed into car; ACC mode (2x power-on button); pressed NAVI (blue icon button lower right); then Charge Timers; screen says: Next Timer: Timer 1: ON Wed. End Time 7:00;
Current time: Tues 7:36am

Manually unplugged car.

Why did the car not stop charging ? Is it because the timer was created on Monday night and it knew that it can't reach 100% by Tuesday 7am ? Other reasons ? Pilot error ?

(Ok ... sorry, but got to run ...)
 
The Timer as set above now works.

However, for the third time now I am getting something else unexpected. As reported (off-topic) here: http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=2886&p=65785#p65785

I am getting TWO notifications anytime I use the above timer setting, and it does not mater whether I do 100% or 80% (last night was 80%).

Could someone else confirm, please ?

Set *NO* Start Time, set End Time only. Plug in with enough hours to spare to ensure a charge completion by the End Time. How many notifications do you get ?

1st occurence: "Charge Complete" notify at 12:20am and 2:40am (100%)
2nf occurence: "Charge Complete" notify at 11:40pm and 1:11am (100%)
3rd occurence: "Charge Stopped" (not kidding!) notify at 3:44am and 5:00am (80%)
 
LEAFer said:
Why did the car not stop charging ? Is it because the timer was created on Monday night and it knew that it can't reach 100% by Tuesday 7am ? Other reasons ? Pilot error ?
I'm guessing that it decides to charge until full going past the timer if needed if there isn't enough time to get a full charge. Might be nice to have an option that says "stop charging at end time whether or not charge is done" for those who don't need a full charge but the rate is more important.
 
planet4ever said:
I'm confused. What does the end time mean (used together with a start time) if it doesn't mean stop charging at that time?
It means make sure you finish charging by then.
 
In all three cases my End Time was set to 07:00am (rates go up after 7am). Notice that the notifies came *WAY* before reaching the End Time. It's possible ( I just don't remember ) that I disabled the timed charging on the first two occurences with the button to the left of the steering wheel so as to start charging immediately, and that's why "Charging Complete" happened so much earlier in the process (closer to midnight). On the third example I let the timer do all the work after the car got plugged in, and instead of "Charging Complete 12 of 12 bars" I got two "Charging Stopped 10 of 12 bars" (80% charge).

mwalsh reports above about ALSO getting TWO notifications ... but WHY ? Not only is it redundant, it's confusing, and it implies that the LEAF is doing an additional charge cycle (unsure how long the second one lasts) and pushing the battery that's already at 100% (in the first two cases). And ... if this is the case ... why does this NOT happen during an UNTIMED charge ? ( At least I have never seen two notifications during normal 100% charging ... only one (as expected). )
 
I do timed charging with only the start time (used to be 11:00 PM - now 12:10 AM so that all the charging happens on the same day to get good readings from Blink).

I get one charge complete email.
 
I have completely given up on the internal Leaf timers - I now simply rely on the Blink timers, which, in the week or so I've had the Blink, seem to work as expected. Plus, the issue of the Leaf not starting a charge cycle if it's plugged in after an internal timer start is moot.
 
HFTobeason said:
I have completely given up on the internal Leaf timers - I now simply rely on the Blink timers, which, in the week or so I've had the Blink, seem to work as expected. Plus, the issue of the Leaf not starting a charge cycle if it's plugged in after an internal timer start is moot.
The only problem with Blink timers is that you can't charge to 80%.
 
Gonewild said:
The Blink will not stop at 80% if the car timer is set? Why I thought the car would stop the charging.
If you're using the "car timer" you can set it for 80%. Since the Blink doesn't know the SOC of the vehicle, you can't set the "Blink timer" to stop charging at 80%.

Since we can only charge the car up to about 94% of the total pack size, I'm not going to worry about 80% charging...
 
LEAFer said:
Imwalsh reports above about ALSO getting TWO notifications ... but WHY ? Not only is it redundant, it's confusing, and it implies that the LEAF is doing an additional charge cycle (unsure how long the second one lasts) and pushing the battery that's already at 100% (in the first two cases). And ... if this is the case ... why does this NOT happen during an UNTIMED charge ? ( At least I have never seen two notifications during normal 100% charging ... only one (as expected). )

I actually just caught my car taking it's second little bump this morning. Indeed the dash charging lights came on with two steady and the third one flashing. This after the car had already charged to 100% (three dash lights steady) just before 6am.
 
As I have said before, I have had absolutely no problem with my Blink EVSE, but I have not been using any timers.

Blink, for the moment, for those who use a timer, recommends using the timer in the Blink itself. However, that does you no good if you want to charge to 80 percent...

A few days ago I decided to try an experiment: I don't want or need a timer but I do want to try charging to 80 percent. So, I set a timer in the car to both start and end at 12:00AM and to charge to 80 percent. This seems to work beautifully as it will start charging immediately whenever I plug it in and always stops at 80 percent. And the Blink seems to be perfectly happy with this.

This may also work well for others with various EVSEs who only want the ability to charge to 80 percent but not mess with timers per se. YMMV of course!
 
mwalsh said:
I actually just caught my car taking it's second little bump this morning. Indeed the dash charging lights came on with two steady and the third one flashing. This after the car had already charged to 100% (three dash lights steady) just before 6am.

LOL! And I just notice that I'm getting a third notification that charging has ended when I turn the climate control off remotely when it's plugged in! :?
 
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