Cannot connect to MG4 via iSMART, when Car is connected only to WiFi

[jakeellis01]

I live in apartment complex and have an underground garage.
I managed to pass electricity (for charging), and a reliable wifi connection too (since there is no cellular connection underground).
I managed to connect the car via WIFI, however the iSMART app seems to only connect when the car is connected to cellular?

Is this for all cars or just MG?
Is there another solution for my situation?

I would like to control my scheduled charging.

 

[mg4mc]

AFAIK the WiFi is not active when the car is switched off. WiFi can be quite power hungry.

 

[jakeellis01]

Good to know, however I tried to connect to the car (which was on but without cellular) using the iSmart app but still no go.

The car was not turned off.

 

[Ian Key]

Can you set the charging schedule while it's connected to the cellular before you put it into the garage?

 

[jakeellis01]

I will test that, however it would be great to find out what percentage your car is at from home while it's charging.

Another feature I would like is to stop charging if say I would like to turn on power hungry appliances such as AC or Electric Ovens/Kettles at home.

I can't seem to understand why the app can be only connected only when the car is connected via cellular.

That also means that if once upon in time in the (near) future the eSim expires, the app is pretty much useless.

I bet I'm not the only person with an underground parking space... so I'm disappointed that this issue was not solved.

 

[DBedford]

I’m not sure your issue is an issue as iSmart as you have said is a cellular connection. I guess the connect with continue to work for at least as long as regulations require the emergency services connection following a RTI.

Just checked my iSmart connection. Works with either mobile data and/or Wi-Fi on and the other off. So it is working over Wi-Fi somehow!! Does not work with both off (to be expected)

 

[siteguru]

To clarify ... the car connects to MG servers via cellular data using the eSIM built-in to the car. Whether the app is using WiFi or cellular is irrelevant. The app connects to MG's servers, and the servers then use the cellular data connection to poll the car.

 

[jakeellis01]

To clarify ... the car connects to MG servers via cellular data using the eSIM built-in to the car. Whether the app is using WiFi or cellular is irrelevant. The app connects to MG's servers, and the servers then use the cellular data connection to poll the car.

Correct...

Is this something MG only does? Or is this standard for all vehicles?

 

[trurodentist]

To clarify ... the car connects to MG servers via cellular data using the eSIM built-in to the car. Whether the app is using WiFi or cellular is irrelevant. The app connects to MG's servers, and the servers then use the cellular data connection to poll the car.

Thank you for that post. I was just puzzling how my app was giving me real time data when there was no wi-fi. Hopefully that doesn’t mean that someone in China can take control of the car at any time?

 

[Ian Key]

Thank you for that post. I was just puzzling how my app was giving me real time data when there was no wi-fi. Hopefully that doesn’t mean that someone in China can take control of the car at any time?

Not a chance. They can't write software that works properly in the car now even without OTA updates so what chance have they got at writing software that can remotely take over the car from China ?