Macan 4 EV - Octopus intelligent sync issue

[stevieg]

Have you found it to be reliable Steve? Its my first run of it tonight but had a few issues when I let the EV Charger schedule previously.

Any issues with the car coming up with a charging error when it is first plugged-in if Octopus doesn't permit it to draw charge?

Also, I am assuming this is all controlled by some central Octopus server-side cleverness once configured, and it doesn't rely on the App being active on your mobile?

Cheers

Ok so you need to make sure you have completed the test charge so the Octopus App knows when your car is at home and that it has control of the MyPorsche app. It will stop the charge by creating a departure schedule in the charging section of the Porsche App and thus making the car suspend the charge. Octopus then uses this to turn the charge on and off.

The thing to do is to plug the charger in when you are at home and leave it plugged in as much as you can. The car WILL start to charge initially, as your charger will be set to start charge straight away. Within 30 minutes, but normally less than 5, the Octopus App will suspend the charge and show you a schedule in the app. Just leave the car plugged in and by whatever time and SOC you have set in the Octopus app, the car will be done.

I always make sure my target charge % is the same in both the car/Porsche App and also Octopus.

App just needs to be on your phone and logged in I think (to get the notifications). You don't need to be actively 'in the app' for it to work.

See how it goes!

 

[thealbs]

Ok so you need to make sure you have completed the test charge so the Octopus App knows when your car is at home and that it has control of the MyPorsche app. It will stop the charge by creating a departure schedule in the charging section of the Porsche App and thus making the car suspend the charge. Octopus then uses this to turn the charge on and off.

The thing to do is to plug the charger in when you are at home and leave it plugged in as much as you can. The car WILL start to charge initially, as your charger will be set to start charge straight away. Within 30 minutes, but normally less than 5, the Octopus App will suspend the charge and show you a schedule in the app. Just leave the car plugged in and by whatever time and SOC you have set in the Octopus app, the car will be done.

I always make sure my target charge % is the same in both the car/Porsche App and also Octopus.

App just needs to be on your phone and logged in I think (to get the notifications). You don't need to be actively 'in the app' for it to work.

See how it goes!

Thanks for the advice.

I wondered where that random Departure time entry had come from in the Porsche App but this explains that also!

 

[stevieg]

Yeah, got me too! It will keep updating every day to be around a week in advance. If you do charge elsewhere, you might need to turn it off or use 'Direct Charging' whatever that is!

 

[W1NGE]

It's so the Octopus app can test that it can control your car and schedule the charges as the correct time. Normally you only get 6 hours of 7p per KWh but with the App controlling it you can get AS MUCH POWER AS YOU NEED at 7p to get the car to up to 100% by the time you set on your Octopus app. It's a great way to get much more than 6 hours of cheap electric by just scheduling with your charger app.

So the test charge is essential for the Octopus App to know that it can communicate successfully.

I use Ovo Charge Anytime for the same 7p rate but no requirement for testing. Checks are made by the software before you sign up to the service.

 

[SimonEV]

The purpose of the Octopus Test is to show that they can control when the Wall Charger can stop charging the Macan.

The only way I can pass their test is to ignore the request to have charging stopped is to have it charging when the test has just started. It passes the test ok.

If the test fails then I don’t have a “tested” car, but if the test is ok then I don’t think they can control it. I suspect they measure “success” as adding charge to the Macan and without the test doing anything, this would have succeeded anyway if the Macan was already charging.

I will try the wait for the white light technique. Why is it a solution?

 

[SimonEV]

Yeah, got me too! It will keep updating every day to be around a week in advance. If you do charge elsewhere, you might need to turn it off or use 'Direct Charging' whatever that is!

I think what Octopus do is set a destination charge exactly 7 days in the future to inhibit charging. The car expects to either be charging now or waiting for a destination (delay) charging.

Whilst it looks odd, it probably means that inserting a destination charge that is “now” can trigger starting a charge and the “future” request either times out or can be cancelled?

Direct Charging just means ignore any request mechanism that inhibits charging and start “now”.

 

[SimonEV]

As well as starting the Octopus Test Charge when the car’s white light is active and connecting/negotiating:

1. Move the Charge Limit down in the car e.g., to 50% so that charging is stopped

2. Start the Octopus Test Charge

3. increase the Charge Limit up in the car e.g., to 80% so that charging is no longer inhibited

The Octopus Test Charge completes Okay and the Car/Charger is activated.

 

[thealbs]

As well as starting the Octopus Test Charge when the car’s white light is active and connecting/negotiating:

1. Move the Charge Limit down in the car e.g., to 50% so that charging is stopped

2. Start the Octopus Test Charge

3. increase the Charge Limit up in the car e.g., to 80% so that charging is no longer inhibited

The Octopus Test Charge completes Okay and the Car/Charger is activated.

It's definitely a game of hit & miss but I managed to get through the Test without having to lower/raise the car's capacity. I probably just caught it at the right time by sheer chance.

The good news (although confidence is not yet that high) is that Octopus charged it perfectly last night. I left the vehicle plugged-in, removed the schedule from the Charger (effectively making it dumb) and left the car with a 80% max setting on it. I set Octopus to reach 80% also, by 7am today. My Porsche App said that charging was Paused, but seemed to go through the Initialising -> Pause cycle a few times when I checked the app from time to time.

After a short while, Octopus created 2 charging sessions (one from 3am to 3:30; and one from 3:30am to 5am for some reason). I checked it at 2:30am and nothing had changed. When I awoke at 7:15am, it was all completed. Yes, I am an insomniac at present.

I will try and stick with the approach of letting Octopus control the charging now and see if my confidence increases over time.

I also tried the 'Bump Charge' option in the Octopus app yesterday afternoon for a short period and it seemed to work as designed also.

 

[stevieg]

It's definitely a game of hit & miss but I managed to get through the Test without having to lower/raise the car's capacity. I probably just caught it at the right time by sheer chance.

The good news (although confidence is not yet that high) is that Octopus charged it perfectly last night. I left the vehicle plugged-in, removed the schedule from the Charger (effectively making it dumb) and left the car with a 80% max setting on it. I set Octopus to reach 80% also, by 7am today. My Porsche App said that charging was Paused, but seemed to go through the Initialising -> Pause cycle a few times when I checked the app from time to time.

After a short while, Octopus created 2 charging sessions (one from 3am to 3:30; and one from 3:30am to 5am for some reason). I checked it at 2:30am and nothing had changed. When I awoke at 7:15am, it was all completed. Yes, I am an insomniac at present.

I will try and stick with the approach of letting Octopus control the charging now and see if my confidence increases over time.

I also tried the 'Bump Charge' option in the Octopus app yesterday afternoon for a short period and it seemed to work as designed also.

100% the same as you but after a few nights I just trusted the process and it has never let me down... Until recently, but its an issue with my car. It won't now accept a charge faster than 3.6kw no matter what the AC charger power is. This is a car issue though as tested multiple AC chargers and it's only my car thats nobbled.

Booked in at the dealer to look at it, along with no assistance systems (all showing errors since the first cold night a week ago) and no speakers on the right of the cabin... Only got sound on the left side!

Also, note that as long as the Octopus app is driving the charger process and you have a ready time set of AFTER 5:30am, Octopus will continue to charge your car MUCH later than the cheap rate of electric... but still charge ONLY the 7p. But you must let the app schedule the charge.

 

[niall]

This is a solution that has worked for me.

I had the same problems that are detailed in this thread in not being able to set it up, and couldn't get the test completed, even tried the options people have had success with but couldn't either hit the test at the right point, or it just doesn't work.

I've got a Macan 4 with Andersen A2 charger and this is what worked for me, but should work for any charger.

- Leave the cable disconnected
- Delete all schedules from the charger, and put it in unlocked mode. So the car will charge as soon as it's connected.
- Delete all the settings (destinations) from the Porsche App
- Create a new destination to stop the car charging as soon as it's connected. I did this to start in the future, but also set the optimized charging to be 23:30 to 05:30. This is the key step as it stops the car charging as soon as you connect it - and the Octopus Intelligent Go setup only works if the car isn't charging.
- Connect the cable to the car and check it's not charging in the Porsche or charger app (charger app seemed to show status more accurately for me)
- Then run through the Octopus Intelligent Go setup by adding the device and running the test.
- All been working well for me now.

One thing I noticed but would be nice if others confirmed is that even if you set the Octopus app to charge to 100%, it seems to only charge the car to the % set in the Porsche App. So I've changed the Porsche App to be 100% and will use the Octopus App to set 80%, but will only need to change in the Octopus App when we want a 100% charge.
Lastly, for me the destination that I'd setup in the app got deleted by the Octopus process, so I didn't need to delete it afterwards.

Hope this helps, as I wasted hours trying to get it work. I can't believe that anyone at Octopus actually tested this themselves before giving out those generic instructions that don't work.

 

[SimonEV]

The Octopus Test "generic" instructions want the car to be ready to charge, but with the charging stopped at the beginning of the Test Cycle, but also without anything inhibiting charging during the test, which also contradicts the second requirement.

The Macan will start charging when the level is increased above the current level, but also inhibits immediate charging if a destination (delayed) charging is programmed.

For the Macan to complete the Test Cycle successfully requires the charging to be stopped at the start of the Test Cycle but restarted e.g., manually starting the test when the white circle is flashing (negotiating) on the charge port, or immediately increasing the level of charge required to initiate charging if a destination (delayed) charging isn't programmed.

Octopus gains control (inhibition) of charging by creating/using a destination (delayed) charging request to inhibit charging but still allow it to control charging e.g., at off-peak times. This also allows automatically restart of charging at the beginning of the Test Cycle if it was previously setup.

It would have been better if Octopus had provided explicit instructions for different car and/or wall charger combinations. The issues arises only because the charging has to be initially stopped at the start of the Test Cycle.

Confusion could also have been avoided if the Test Cycle first assumed that charging was already active (the default condition on plugging in) before then taking control of charging during the Test Cycle.

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