i3 Not charging During Low Cost Charging Period

[johnbartle]

I've set up Low Cost Charging for my i3 to run between 10pm to 2pm the next day when my electricity rates are most favourable. I've also set up a daily departure time of 7:30 a.m., only because it's required for the Low Cost Charging feature; there is no preconditioning selected. The problem I'm encountering plays out like this:

1) At 7pm I plug in my 240V (Clipper Creek HCS-40) charger with the car at 50% battery. The light around the charging port goes solid blue (expected, as this isn't during the Low Cost Charging period)
2) At 10:05 pm I check the car -- the charging port and the "Charging" indicator light on the Clipper Creek unit are both OFF. The car at this point should be charging, as it's within the Low Cost charging window.
3) I open the passenger side door and the charging port and charging unit come to life -- the charging port light is a slow blinking blue, and the "Charging" light comes on on the Clipper Creek unit.
4) The next morning I get up at 6 and the car is only at 98% charge. By 6:20 it's finally up to 100%.

Questions:
1) Isn't the plugged-in car supposed to automatically start charging when the Low Cost Charging period begins?
2) Is there an internal setting on the car that I'm missing that either activates or deactivates this?
3) Once I resumed the charging at 10:05 pm, shouldn't the car have charged to 100% by around midnight and then shut off, or is there a function in the car that kicks off charging to get to 100% by the set 7:30 a.m. departure time?

At this point I'm only guessing as there's nothing in the documentation that explains the logic behind it all. I would think it should be as simple as "here's my Low Cost Charging period -- accept a charge only during this time period". Has anyone had a similar experience or do you have any insights into how it's designed to work?

 

[jadnashuanh]

The indictor lights do NOT stay on indefinitely! That does NOT mean that things aren't happening. Opening a door reactivates the displays and indicator lights, but that does NOT mean things weren't happening beforehand.

Setting a departure time means conditioning the battery temperature for optimum performance and range, and if you set preconditioning of the cabin, that adds more load. That can take a fair amount of power, and can drop the battery voltage, but once it drops, a certain amount, the logic will reactivate the EVSE to top it off by the time you set it to depart. That last bit might be outside of your low-cost charging window.

 

[johnbartle]

The indictor lights do NOT stay on indefinitely! That does NOT mean that things aren't happening. Opening a door reactivates the displays and indicator lights, but that does NOT mean things weren't happening beforehand.

Good to know, thanks. One other thing: I forgot to mention that when I checked on the car past 10pm (when it should have resumed Low Cost charging) I also checked my iRemote app and it indicated that charging was still paused. I closed out of the app and restarted it and it still said charging was paused. That's what gave me the notion that something might be amiss.

I think my plan going forward is to leave it alone for a night and just see if the car's charged by morning. My 240V charger is only a week old, and I've had the car for a little over a month, so it could be that I'm being hypervigilant and should just let the car do its thing.

Thank you for the info, nonetheless. That was very helpful.

 

[jadnashuanh]

If you have a departure time set, and a low-cost charging time selected, it may not start until a bit before the departure time. Charging the batteries warms them up, which also can happen when you have the departure time set. So, instead of the natural effect of warming the battery while charging, letting it cool off again, and then rewarming them manually to accommodate the departure time, it takes less power to just let the recharging warm them naturally, rather than turning the heaters on later after they are already cooled off.

 

[barrychan]

If i may.....
Its been 2 months now for my bev, and 2 months on the forum and still not 100% understanding correctly on charging and maybe i am not alone....
So with L1 charging if no selected time, it will just charge until the battery is 100% on charge immediately yes?
If you selected a charging period, it will only start to charge within that time frame (even if you connect the charger before the set time) only if it is enough time for the battery to get to 100% yes?
If you selected a charging period and if the car thinks your selected time frame is not enough to get to 100% the car will start to charge immediately before and after the selected time yes?
* and these are not pre-cond selected yes?

Now comes the departure time and pre-conditioning......
If you selected the departure time and the pre-conditioning will come on hours before so the battery will not be at 100% yes?

If your charging option is set on L1, you don't need to switch to L2 when charged on public charging station yes?

Sorry if these have been answered.
Barry

 

[jadnashuanh]

If i may.....
Its been 2 months now for my bev, and 2 months on the forum and still not 100% understanding correctly on charging and maybe i am not alone....
So with L1 charging if no selected time, it will just charge until the battery is 100% on charge immediately yes?
Yes

If you selected a charging period, it will only start to charge within that time frame (even if you connect the charger before the set time) only if it is enough time for the battery to get to 100% yes?
When things are working properly - note, if the battery charge is very low, it will bring the level up some, then it should wait.

If you selected a charging period and if the car thinks your selected time frame is not enough to get to 100% the car will start to charge immediately before and after the selected time yes?
* and these are not pre-cond selected yes?

Now comes the departure time and pre-conditioning......
If you selected the departure time and the pre-conditioning will come on hours before so the battery will not be at 100% yes?
Note quite true...the car knows this and will turn the EVSE back on to bring the charge back up. This may occur outside of the low-cost charging time window if the departure time is outside of that window.

If your charging option is set on L1, you don't need to switch to L2 when charged on public charging station yes?

The settings for L1 and L2 for charging level (low, medium, high) are independent of each other. But, if you have a low-cost window enabled, you must disable it, regardless of whether you're using L1 or L2, and want to immediately charge. The car will automatically detect if the EVSE is L1 or L2 (or CCS) and charge with whatever is plugged in.

Sorry if these have been answered.
Barry

 

[johnbartle]

Update: I let the car do its job last night and woke up this morning to it 100% charged. Thanks again for all the helpful information -- I wish BMW was more thorough in its documentation.

 

[barrychan]

Thanks Jim....you are a great help in this community

 

[jadnashuanh]

Personally, how many people do you know that actually read the owner's manual? I'm one of the few, but then, that may be the engineer in me! I agree, though, that I'd like more info available, but to some people, that would just reinforce their concept that the manual is useless if they have to wade through all of it to find the little tidbit that is important to them at the moment. It's a tough situation. I remember when a car's owner's manual was maybe all of 30-pages - not all that much to describe. Our moving mega computers call for a bit more info.

 

[websterize]

Jim, you see the BMW University PDFs that Ben Keller posted to his site? LOTS of great technical details on the i3.

http://www.kneb.net/bmw/I01/

 

[jadnashuanh]

Jim, you see the BMW University PDFs that Ben Keller posted to his site? LOTS of great technical details on the i3.

http://www.kneb.net/bmw/I01/

Yes, thanks. I've read parts of them, but haven't gotten around to all of them yet.