Intelligent Octopus and 2018 94h i3

[Ultraligero]

Hello all

Was wondering if anyone has successfully managed to get their IO to charge on an octopus-driven schedule via their own app?
I have a 2018 i3 94Ah, and a MyEnergi Zappi, on the intelligent octopus tariff

I have tried to follow what seems to be the prescribed method;
disable schedules in the car/bmw-app and leave it as 'charge immediately'
activate the 'smart mode thing in the octo-app
set desired charge limit (80%, by 6.30am in my case) in the octo-app
Connect the car to the wall charger, octo app schedules the plan for the night ahead successfully.
Leave the car and hope for the best come the morning.

The problem I get is that the car gets sent a schedule by the octo-app it seems, but it looks different to what their own app claims the charge schedule for that night is, so then the car doesnt charge at all. Next morning, not charged.

Any golden set of steps someone has tried to works? Please advise!


Second question, where on earth in the BMW app can you set the charge limit so the car stops charging at about 80% for example? I cannot ee a way to do it. (I ask as I might turn of octopus smart scheduling and just let the car control it if I cannot fix the above!

Scheduled charging is a bit ridiculous with potentially apps and three pieces of hardware all interacting! The scheduling can be either Charger, (podpoint in my case) Supplier (Octopus) or the Car, or any combination! Nightmare!
Mine also was problematic, so I set Car to charge immediately, and Podpoint to the low rate window. Works a treat, ignoring their possibly cheap daytime slots.

 

[mojo]

Hi Mojo,
I believe we are talking about two different things. Octopus 'ready for x' is about when the battery will reach the set level % which is not the same as the BMW pre-conditioning time which will get the battery and cabin up to comfortable temperature ready for driving, not about charging. I may be wrong and I'm not suggesting you are wrong, I've only had the car a few months and are still learning its features, but I haven't seen any such description from Octopus of the latter either. Everything works perfectly as I currently have it (once smart charging was disabled).
Thanks.

As I understand it, preconditioning simply won't work with Intelligent Octopus Go. It doesn't matter what you set it to - Octopus will always turn it off.

If you need to pre-condition the cabin, the easiest way is just to use the BMW app 15 minutes before you want to drive the car. If you want to pre-condition the battery, tough - IOG cannot accommodate that at present.

But... the alternatives are not easy either, unless you are happy to precondition the battery outside of your supplier's Time of Use hours. So if (for example) you choose to use Octopus Go instead, it's fine as long as you leave home at 04:30 or soon after. If you leave at, say, 08:00 then the battery will have been cooling for three and a half hours - unless of course you choose to pay for your battery conditioning at daytime rates.

And if you do choose to pay for your battery conditioning at daytime rates it then becomes difficult to make it such that the battery is charged to anything less than 100%. It's that conundrum that Octopus has had to deal with - there is no simple solution.

 

[Badgersbits]

Apologies for being slightly off topic but it’s Octopus related;
I switched to Octopus hoping to get on to the intelligent tarif, which they said I could only apply for once I was with them, and then had a smart meter installed. Unfortunately after switching they then told me that there was no WAN in my area so I couldn’t get a smart mete! So I’m stuck on their 15p overnight rate now.
Additionally, I always have to double check that the car is showing as plugged in in the app, as sometimes it doesn’t register and then doesn’t charge! I think it’s due to a weak phone signal resulting in the car not connecting with the app. Anyone else have this?

 

[BrianM]

As other have noted - the "GPS not enabled" message is inaccurate. A(nother) BMW communication error with the car.

Elsewhere, I have demonstrated the i3 in car software/firmware is deficient. A CCS charge point would not handshake with my car and so wouldn't charge, but a new (from the local dealer) i5 connected and starting charging without problem.

 

[Gonville]

As other have noted - the "GPS not enabled" message is inaccurate. A(nother) BMW communication error with the car.

Elsewhere, I have demonstrated the i3 in car software/firmware is deficient. A CCS charge point would not handshake with my car and so wouldn't charge, but a new (from the local dealer) i5 connected and starting charging without problem.

Didn’t want to resurrect this but our UK FaceBook group has a long article on the whole IO thing.

Regarding the GPS. I find that periodically the app reports that the car hasn’t enabled GPS. This is important. It is part of what Octopus does to check if you have plugged in at the registered address for the utility supplier to enable the timed charging. It isn’t ‘deficient’. What happens - and I have no idea of the reason/frequency - is that for EU customers it periodically requires you to login again on the app to re-affirm your credentials. Part of GDPR? Anyway my theory is that it also periodically - as when the clock change - it changes the GOM algorithm winter/summer - and - if my theory is right it ‘unsets’ the GPS flag in the server. Then the car has it set but the app can’t track location anymore - until - you cycle the toggle in the car. Radio button Off then On. The car then sends that to the server and all is well. It’s about reaffirming the right for the server to know where you have parked. Similarly you probably find the clock set also does the same thing. It is set to auto update on clock change in the car but the server turns it off after each clock charge. So you need to cycle it in the same way to get automatic DST change next time around. Just a theory but after 10 years seems to be holding and is also the reason IOG fails for many folks.

If you don’t have it set to ‘charge immediate’ then the i5 will work but the i3 not?