Retention of charging period times

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Mick787

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 11, 2018
Messages
56
Here in the UK, since having a Rolec 7.2kw home charge unit installed, we seem to be having an issue with the car retaining the time period we want it to charge. During the Economy 7 rate. Checking the time period on her mobile phone app, for some reason the times had changed from what had previously been set. Has anyone else experienced this? Is there a software issue? Would things re-set now we have changed from the domestic cable that comes with the car?
 
As a refresher to my original post, yes, this is still happening. For some reason the car is deciding when it will take charge, irrespective of the charge time period we have set on it after being plugged into a charging unit which will easily charge it to full well within the time periods we have chosen. Any ideas please?
 
The low-cost charging algorithm hasn't been explained well by BMW and has been buggy in several i3 system software versions. It sounds like the lack of retention of the low-cost time period is likely due to software bugs. It might be worth trying to get your BMW dealer to update your i3's system software if the dealer would do that at no cost. I gave up on our i3's low-cost charging feature and instead use the settable start and end charging time feature of our charging station.
 
This feature works fairly reliably on my 2014 BEV. What I have found is:

1. You must set a departure time
2. If the time to charge to near 100% (not sure what the actual target SoC is) exceeds the time available in the Low Cost Charging period, the charge cycle begins immediately ignoring the Low Cost Charging restrictions.
 
Mick787 said:
Here in the UK, since having a Rolec 7.2kw home charge unit installed, we seem to be having an issue with the car retaining the time period we want it to charge. During the Economy 7 rate. Checking the time period on her mobile phone app, for some reason the times had changed from what had previously been set. Has anyone else experienced this? Is there a software issue? Would things re-set now we have changed from the domestic cable that comes with the car?


Perhaps you can explain in more detail.
What do you mean by - ' Checking the time period on her mobile phone app, for some reason the times had changed from what had previously been set. '

BMW can change the setting from the server, to optimize the electric grid , if in case you are part of any such program. Are you ?
They are doing this in US , for the people who enroll in these programs.
 
My wife is using the BMW i-drive app' on her mobile phone. Yes, she sets a time she wants to leave and use the car in that app'. The departure time and the off peak times she sets are always the same. When I say 'sets' it is because the last time it was set has changed!
The off peak time tariff seems to be changing on its own accord to whatever it sees fit and when she arrives home and plugs in it will start outside of those times, i.e. straight away. The home charge unit is 7.2kw and should deliver a charge easily in the off peak period. The car is hardly ever below 50% charged when it is plugged in, so it should only take a couple of hours to get to full because we have set the charge rate in the car to 'max'.
 
In USA, this program , to optimize charge time period, is called BMW charge forward program.
They change the time from their system
If you car is new , then you should know , if you are participating in it.
 
EVMan said:
In USA, this program , to optimize charge time period, is called BMW charge forward program.
They change the time from their system
According to the BMW Charge Forward Website, this program is available only in the San Francisco Bay Area for PG&E customers. Maybe there's a similar program in the U.K. where the OP lives. However, I doubt that the OP would be unaware that he is a participant.

It sounds to me like the OP is referring to problems with the buggy low-cost charging feature that's included in all i3's. He is not the only i3 owner who has complained about the low-cost time period settings not being retained by an i3 or charging always starting immediately even though low-cost charging has been configured correctly.
 
Hi Alohart, thank you, it seems as though what you say is correct. Do I assume correctly that BMW won't react to such reports? I know that when we have rung BMW for other things I have received a reply that the call handler doesn't know much about such things. Its as though our call has been answered by a call handler in a call centre using drop downs on a computer program rather than by BMW staff who know something. I think we will take it in to a dealership as it's under the warranty.
 
Mick787 said:
Do I assume correctly that BMW won't react to such reports?
I think your problem is due to buggy system software, but maybe using iRemote, or whatever the BMW i3 smartphone app is called in the U.K., is part of the problem. If you set the low-cost charging period and departure time using iDrive in your i3, do the low-cost start and end times remain as set and does low-cost charging work as expected? If not, buggy system software is likely to blame. If so, iRemote and/or BMW's servers that link iRemote to your i3 might be to blame.

If iRemote and/or BMW's servers are to blame, there's not much you can do but complain until BMW fixes the problem.

If your i3's system software seems to be the cause of the problem, determine the system software version. If it is an older version, maybe the problem is fixed in the current version which you could ask your dealer to install under warranty to fix the low-cost charging problem.

Unfortunately, the system software version isn't displayed in iDrive. You'd need to back up your driver profiles to a USB drive using iDrive (handy to do before taking an i3 to a dealer in case a software update is performed that could erase driver profiles). Then open the driver profile text file in a text editor on your computer. The value of the <i-step> tag in this text file is the system software version. The entry in the backup file for our i3 is:

<i-step>I001-16-07-506</i-step>

The initial 4 characters signify an i3. "16-07" is the system software version date, July, 2016, in our case. The final 3 digits are some sort of subversion number that might be different for REx vs. BEV, maybe differs depending on market (e.g., U.S. vs. U.K.), or maybe is just a minor version number within the July, 2016, version.
 
Thanks Alohart. Yes the times that are set in the car and on the app' are the same. It randomly does what it wants to! This last time we hadn't used the car for a week and the charging time had changed. Whether that was because the car hadn't been used we don't know. We now just keep an eye on the settings.
Another thing is the wife doesn't use an I phone, she has a Samsung, whether that is a factor we don't know. I use an I phone, but things may get even more complicated if I start to have access to the car's features!
Re checking the software, that is something way over our heads! We will mention this when we take it in to the dealership.
Thank you so much for your comments.
 
Mick787 said:
Re checking the software, that is something way over our heads!
Exporting personal profiles is described in the i3 Owner's Manual and is designed for i3 drivers to do via iDrive. It does require an inexpensive USB memory stick. Plugging that memory stick into a computer's USB port and opening the profile file in a text editor are steps that are not described in the Owner's Manual.

It is possible that accessing your i3 with the BMW smartphone app (it's called BMW Connected in the U.S., but a prior version was called iRemote) could reset the low-cost charging time period due to a bug in this app. Hopefully, your dealer can sort this out.
 
Mick787,
would you explain in detail how and what kind of app you are using with iPhone in UK to get remote access to your BMW i3?
Here, in Latvia, we haven't local BMW ConnectedDrive customer portal and services and I am using my account on UK BMW's customer portal and app BMW Connected from UK AppStore on my Iphone SE. I tried to find and get iRemote app on UK AppStore, but I couldn't.
 
The software on the phone my wife uses is called BMW Connected. The phone is a Samsung, not an I-phone.
When she left the car this evening she checked the times in the car and they were correct, within a couple of hours the car started to charge when it shouldn't have.
She checked the app' on her phone and the off peak charging times that had been set in it had changed! So the fault appears to be with the software in the BMW Connected app. It just cant be trusted.
 
Latest update on this. Its still happening. We removed and stopped using i connect from the phone. A day later, it happened again, the car has changed the off peak charging times that we set in it. It's going back to the dealers, we have had enough of this. BMW help in the UK is a complete waste of time, they haven't got a clue.
 
I wonder if someone else might have your log-in info and their device is updating your car. I know that I have it on my tablet and my smartphone...they seem to always list the same things. Way back when, the service person logged in with his phone to check the differences between iOS and Android to see if the app made a difference (it didn't).

I'll sometimes set it in the car for departure if I remember or know about my next outing, but usually do it from the app. It seems to always agree. No idea what the server and app might be doing in other markets like the UK verses the USA.
 
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