Octopus charges but not Intelligently

[jonathanflowers]

New ID3 Pro S. Myenergi Zappi 22kW. Our first EV. Registered for the Intelligent Octopus tariff.

Can anyone tell us the blindingly simple thing we’re not doing?

If we plug in and bump charge, it charges. But set it up to add 10% by 8am and it doesn’t. It sets up new schedules through the night and then Octopus tells us later that it was “unable to control your device”.

Registered on the VW app. Car is set to charge to 80%.

(Hello fellow ID3ers!)

[StewartManley]

Which is set to be controlled by IOG: the Zappi or the car? You're sure there are no schedules set in the car or on the Zappi, and the Zappi has good connectivity to the internet?

[Scratch]

Your’e lucky bump charge works for you. It doesn’t work for me. Made an enquiry with Octopus about 2 weeks ago and still waiting for a response.
We also have a Zappi, which is integrated with IOG and the normal IOG scheduling always works OK for whatever percentage I request. Although I have found that if I want 30% charge, I have to set it above that level, maybe 35%, for it to achieve what I asked for. The car is set to stop charging at 80%.

[jonathanflowers]

Which is set to be controlled by IOG: the Zappi or the car? You're sure there are no schedules set in the car or on the Zappi, and the Zappi has good connectivity to the internet?

Thanks very much for this.

The Zappi has good connectivity (it would need it for Bump Charge to work, which it does) . But I’m not sure about the answers to your other questions. I can check about other schedules (I don’t think there are any but I can look) but I’m wondering whether having the myenergi charging set to Eco+ it may be interfering with the charging by having partial control? Any view on that?

[Raxacorico]

Which is set to be controlled by IOG: the Zappi or the car? You're sure there are no schedules set in the car or on the Zappi, and the Zappi has good connectivity to the internet?

Thanks very much for this.

The Zappi has good connectivity (it would need it for Bump Charge to work, which it does) . But I’m not sure about the answers to your other questions. I can check about other schedules (I don’t think there are any but I can look) but I’m wondering whether having the myenergi charging set to Eco+ it may be interfering with the charging by having partial control? Any view on that?

As I understand IOG the Zappi needs to set to 'dumb' ie FAST.
I had lots of issues until I deleted all the other options, as mentioned by others, both in the car and on the Zappi.
Hope this helps ...

[wisey78uk]

I set the Zappi app to Charging Mode to Eco+, Boost settings to Scheduled, Car set to 70-80% and I leave IOG to 100% as the car will stop itself. The octopus app, to me at least, should really do what the car wants as although you say you want 10%, the app doesn't know what 10% really is.

[jonathanflowers]

Which is set to be controlled by IOG: the Zappi or the car? You're sure there are no schedules set in the car or on the Zappi, and the Zappi has good connectivity to the internet?

Thanks very much for this.

The Zappi has good connectivity (it would need it for Bump Charge to work, which it does) . But I’m not sure about the answers to your other questions. I can check about other schedules (I don’t think there are any but I can look) but I’m wondering whether having the myenergi charging set to Eco+ it may be interfering with the charging by having partial control? Any view on that?

As I understand IOG the Zappi needs to set to 'dumb' ie FAST.
I had lots of issues until I deleted all the other options, as mentioned by others, both in the car and on the Zappi.
Hope this helps ...

Thanks, but if out the Zappi to Fast it starts charging immediately. I see another response here which looks usefully specific.

[jonathanflowers]

I set the Zappi app to Charging Mode to Eco+, Boost settings to Scheduled, Car set to 70-80% and I leave IOG to 100% as the car will stop itself. The octopus app, to me at least, should really do what the car wants as although you say you want 10%, the app doesn't know what 10% really is.

This looks really usefully specific. Thanks. Will try this tonight.!

[Raxacorico]

Thanks very much for this.

The Zappi has good connectivity (it would need it for Bump Charge to work, which it does) . But I’m not sure about the answers to your other questions. I can check about other schedules (I don’t think there are any but I can look) but I’m wondering whether having the myenergi charging set to Eco+ it may be interfering with the charging by having partial control? Any view on that?

As I understand IOG the Zappi needs to set to 'dumb' ie FAST.
I had lots of issues until I deleted all the other options, as mentioned by others, both in the car and on the Zappi.
Hope this helps ...

Thanks, but if out the Zappi to Fast it starts charging immediately. I see another response here which looks usefully specific.

Yes, on 'FAST' the car starts to charge, but only for a minute or so. It then stops, and the IOG schedule takes over.
I have seen charging start outwith the cheap time, but it would appear Octopus still only bills you at the cheap rate.

[StewartManley]

As I understand IOG the Zappi needs to set to 'dumb' ie FAST.

Only if IOG controls the car. If it controls the Zappi, it must be in ECO+ (in fact it will be commanded into that mode by Octopus). Any Boost setting other than STOP is fine, that doesn't matter. The important thing is to ensure there are no schedules set in the car or on the Zappi.

The OP still hasn't told us whether the car or the Zappi is the controlled device. I'm assuming the latter as the first post implied "charge to add" rather than target charge level.

The IOG platform has sadly started springing "can't control your device" messages of late, for reasons unknown. I get them occasionally despite everything being correctly configured and having a wifi signal strength of -50dBM or the Zappi, though despite that my charge schedules run correctly. I suspect the platform (or ENode, through which it works) has some sort of internal timeout when expecting a response from the Zappi.

[jonathanflowers]

Okay, so it's now working! Thanks for the help. For the benefit of anyone else coming here for the same question...

I deleted the car as a device from the Octopus app and re-added it, as someone suggested elsewhere.

I set the myEnergi app to prioritise the grid for charigng not the solar panels (should be irrelevant as not much solar power at night but wanted to keep it simple)

As wisey78uk suggested I set Zappi app to Charging Mode to Eco+, Boost settings to Scheduled, Car set to 80%. I put the IO App to do 80% and set the car to charge to 80%. I put the "leaf" setting on the Octopus App to 1% - I'm not sure what that does, but since I'm charging overnight I didn't want to worry about energy use in the house or solar power.

(By the way the wording on the Octopus app suggests that you should put there the amount you want to add but I wonder if they really mean the charge level you want).

My car is an ID3 Pro S 2025 which isn't actually an option on the Octopus app. After failing with the 2024 setting I did try to see if the 2023 one worked and it was a lot more complicated, eg I had to choose between controlling the car and controlling the charger. Neither attempt at setup worked and I went back to the 2024 setting which is what it worked on, last night.

I'm not sure which combination of the steps above was the decisive one that made it work, maybe it was more than one of them. But anyway, it did work last night so I hope that has cracked it.

For my particular configuration setting the Zappi to FAST just made it charge, I left it doing that for ten minutes and it didn't stop, so that piece of advice didn't work with my config but will likely do with others.

THANK YOU again.

[jonathanflowers]

As I understand IOG the Zappi needs to set to 'dumb' ie FAST.

Only if IOG controls the car. If it controls the Zappi, it must be in ECO+ (in fact it will be commanded into that mode by Octopus). Any Boost setting other than STOP is fine, that doesn't matter. The important thing is to ensure there are no schedules set in the car or on the Zappi.

The OP still hasn't told us whether the car or the Zappi is the controlled device. I'm assuming the latter as the first post implied "charge to add" rather than target charge level.

The IOG platform has sadly started springing "can't control your device" messages of late, for reasons unknown. I get them occasionally despite everything being correctly configured and having a wifi signal strength of -50dBM or the Zappi, though despite that my charge schedules run correctly. I suspect the platform (or ENode, through which it works) has some sort of internal timeout when expecting a response from the Zappi.

This makes a lot of sense. Interestingly, I don't know whether the car or the Zappi is the controlled device - I didn't get the option to specify when adding the device the way that I was offered the choice when I tried it with the ID3 2023 option. It just connected with the ID3 2024 option without asking. Your point about the App showing charge to add does make sense though. Do others' IOG apps show "Charge to reach"?

[StewartManley]

Do others' IOG apps show "Charge to reach"?

It would show that if the car was the controlled device. Generally the charge point is preferred, if compatible, since VW's infrastructure is considered rather less reliable.

The latest version of the IOG onboarding process requests car then charge point and, if both are compatible, then asks which you'd prefer to control.

[jonathanflowers]

Do others' IOG apps show "Charge to reach"?

It would show that if the car was the controlled device. Generally the charge point is preferred, if compatible, since VW's infrastructure is considered rather less reliable.

The latest version of the IOG onboarding process requests car then charge point and, if both are compatible, then asks which you'd prefer to control.

I didn’t get that if I register a 2024 car, only if I tried the 2023 option. However it seems that it has chosen the charger, so that’s good. Thanks for your advice.

[steve]

The percentage is the percentage to add if IOG is controlling the Zappi. I think it might be the target if it is controlling the car, but I found the ID3 too unreliable for that. Having IOG controll the Zappi is way more reliable than it controling the ID3 in my experience.