Advice on home charger configuration

[Aussi55]

Hi,

Just had a Sync EV charger fitted. Does anyone know if I need to configure the keep awake function with the ZS?

I have the choice of pulse every few minutes or continuous trickle charge until the cheap rate start time which then starts charging at 7kw.

Currently set to pulse, every few minutes I hear a short buzz and the mg light glows white before it stops again.

Thanks in advance.

 

[JodyS21]

Depends on it you have one of the first/original cars that hasn't had the software updated, if so then yes need the trickle to keep the car awake, otherwise no you don't & it will wake up to be charged when it's given the "signal" (although I think it only waits for something like 12 hours still so the charge must be started within that window)
Best thing to do is just try it without trickle and see if it works!

I've never heard of this pulse thing before you mention.

 

[Aussi55]

Hi Jody,

Thanks for your reply. Having had the chance to do my first full charge on the Sync EV I'm wondering if it's a good solution or not.

It would appear that if you configure for smart or timed charging then you only have the choice of pulse or trickle charge, there is no option to just have neither.

With pulse every 2 minutes whilst waiting for the start time it sends a quick pulse to the car. This causes a load of clicks, the dash display lights up saying charging started and the led lights in the MG badge start. Then it all turns off. To me this can't be doing the car electronics any good.

Trickle seems to take 1.5kw, better for the car but not making full use of the cheap rate.

I've emailed EV Sync support to see if there's a better way.

 

[JodyS21]

Hi Jody,

Thanks for your reply. Having had the chance to do my first full charge on the Sync EV I'm wondering if it's a good solution or not.

It would appear that if you configure for smart or timed charging then you only have the choice of pulse or trickle charge, there is no option to just have neither.

With pulse every 2 minutes whilst waiting for the start time it sends a quick pulse to the car. This causes a load of clicks, the dash display lights up saying charging started and the led lights in the MG badge start. Then it all turns off. To me this can't be doing the car electronics any good.

Trickle seems to take 1.5kw, better for the car but not making full use of the cheap rate.

I've emailed EV Sync support to see if there's a better way.

Anyone else out there got a Sync charger? Maybe worth starting a new thread asking that so everyone sees it.

I totally agree, that pulse thing does not sound at all good for the car.
I can’t really understand when that pulse functionality would ever be needed.

It’s very odd if your charger insists on doing the trickle (or pulse), as it is very rare for a car to need the trickle functionality to keep it awake before starting a charge - it’s effectively a bug in the original ZS that meant it was needed & the charger companies added the trickle functionality to get over our original cars problem.

I don’t know if it’s the same on all brands, I’ve got an Ohme. When I setup the charger it asks what the car is so that it can setup various parameters appropriately. The Ohme offers 2 selections for the ZS, one that trickles & one that doesn’t. If yours is similar, I wonder if you could just choose another make of car and then it would just do it “properly” with no trickle (or pulse).
I imagine it’s likely they need to create a second ZS profile.

 

[Aussi55]

Hi,

Good idea on a new thread.

I can't see any profiles on the Sync EV, it's fairly basic.

I'm hoping tech support will get back to me with an answer.

Beginning to wish I'd gone for the ohme.


Will keep you posted.

Thanks again.

 

[JodyS21]

Hi,

Good idea on a new thread.

I can't see any profiles on the Sync EV, it's fairly basic.

I'm hoping tech support will get back to me with an answer.

Beginning to wish I'd gone for the ohme.


Will keep you posted.

Thanks again.

The Ohme isn’t that great for a car like ours that hasn’t got the ability to tell the charger what SOC etc it’s got, you have to come up with a bodge to get a simple scheduled charge.

 

[DaveandTeena]

Depends on it you have one of the first/original cars that hasn't had the software updated, if so then yes need the trickle to keep the car awake, otherwise no you don't & it will wake up to be charged when it's given the "signal" (although I think it only waits for something like 12 hours still so the charge must be started within that window)
Best thing to do is just try it without trickle and see if it works!

I've never heard of this pulse thing before you mention.

Hi Jody what do you mean about a 12 hour window? if i plug in at teatime on the eco++ setting and i don't get any solar charging until 9a.m next morning that's 16 hours and it wakes and charges

 

[JodyS21]

Hi Jody what do you mean about a 12 hour window? if i plug in at teatime on the eco++ setting and i don't get any solar charging until 9a.m next morning that's 16 hours and it wakes and charges

That’s good to know. Was the car woke up at all in that 16 hour period, kind of like a keep-alive ping?
It had been quoted that the change to allow the car to wake up was restricted to a certain time frame.
I’ve never tested it accurately myself.
My Ohme charger I did notice the other day didn’t charge my car 2 nights after it was plugged in. I’ve not looked into exactly why.

 

[DaveandTeena]

No it wasn't woken through the night, ours is a Zappi charge point, but even before we had it fitted I would plug in the granny charger at teatime and turn it on next morning to take advantage of solar and it would wake and charge

 

[Kithmo]

That’s good to know. Was the car woke up at all in that 16 hour period, kind of like a keep-alive ping?
It had been quoted that the change to allow the car to wake up was restricted to a certain time frame.
I’ve never tested it accurately myself.
My Ohme charger I did notice the other day didn’t charge my car 2 nights after it was plugged in. I’ve not looked into exactly why.

I wouldn't think the car would go to sleep if its plugged in with no power (12v) going to it from the charger, it's the same as it not being plugged in.

 

[JodyS21]

Unfortunately our car gets used every single day, otherwise I'd do a test of plugging it in and not trying to start a charge for over 24hours and see if it wakes up and takes the charge.

 

[DavidGM]

Hi,

Just had a Sync EV charger fitted. Does anyone know if I need to configure the keep awake function with the ZS?

I have the choice of pulse every few minutes or continuous trickle charge until the cheap rate start time which then starts charging at 7kw.

Currently set to pulse, every few minutes I hear a short buzz and the mg light glows white before it stops again.

Thanks in advance.

I have a SyncEV charger set up to charge my ZSEV on Octopus Go at 12:30am - I found that it is best to set up the charger to require Authentication on the phone app to start pulse charge to keep the car awake. Works every time. The charging history gives a graphical display of the charge including balance at the end of the cycle. I read reports of problems with other chargers but the SyncEV is excellent.

 

[Gomev]

The car will go to sleep after 10 hours, I wonder if the Zappi is 'leaking a bit of power, even negligible amounts into it to keep it awake ?
This was an early problem for the car as it was stopping a lot of timed charging, Podpoint and I think Rolec had to update their software to run a trickle charge to prevent the car falling asleep before the big event of charging started.. An update to the car later introduced the 10 hour wait time before it would fall asleep.

 

[DaveandTeena]

The car will go to sleep after 10 hours, I wonder if the Zappi is 'leaking a bit of power, even negligible amounts into it to keep it awake ?
This was an early problem for the car as it was stopping a lot of timed charging, Podpoint and I think Rolec had to update their software to run a trickle charge to prevent the car falling asleep before the big event of charging started.. An update to the car later introduced the 10 hour wait time before it would fall asleep.

This isn't what my MyEnergi dashboard is showing and certainly not what was happening with the granny charger because it couldn't leak when I unplugged it from the wall and started charging when I powered it up the next day, maybe the newer cars have overcome the problem of waking up, solar dropped of at 1.30 yesterday afternoon and restarted at 10.31 this morning

 

[Aussi55]

Hi all,

Quick update, Sync EV tech support called me back. The option to have no keep awake functionality will be available in the app before Christmas.

In the meantime I will plug the car in as late as possible and use trickle charge.

They responded very quickly and seemed very on the ball which is a good sign.

 

[JodyS21]

Hi all,

Quick update, Sync EV tech support called me back. The option to have no keep awake functionality will be available in the app before Christmas.

In the meantime I will plug the car in as late as possible and use trickle charge.

They responded very quickly and seemed very on the ball which is a good sign.

That's good news. I don't supposed they said what the point of the pulse thing is?

 

[JodyS21]

The car will go to sleep after 10 hours, I wonder if the Zappi is 'leaking a bit of power, even negligible amounts into it to keep it awake ?
This was an early problem for the car as it was stopping a lot of timed charging, Podpoint and I think Rolec had to update their software to run a trickle charge to prevent the car falling asleep before the big event of charging started.. An update to the car later introduced the 10 hour wait time before it would fall asleep.

That's exactly what I'd heard said.
@DaveandTeena are right though, if they've used the granny and it's been switched off at the socket until hours (>10) later when it's been switched on, if it does charge then the car must be waking up?
I think a proper test is needed......

 

[Ozzie1989]

That's exactly what I'd heard said.
@DaveandTeena are right though, if they've used the granny and it's been switched off at the socket until hours (>10) later when it's been switched on, if it does charge then the car must be waking up?
I think a proper test is needed......

I'm no expert but I believe that when you plug in your wall charger it does communicate with the vehicle, perhaps applies a small test charge (or at least some voltage) before going into standby waiting for the timed charge to start. This was causing issues on earlier vehicles that couldn't take more than one charge (or contact from the charger) without the cable being reseated.

The granny charger on the other hand, being dumb, is only turned on once per charge cycle. You could, in theory, test this by turning the granny on for a few minutes then off and back on a few minutes later, without removing the car plug to see what happens but I think most vehicles don't have this issue now?

 

[MG Brian]

The Ohme isn’t that great for a car like ours that hasn’t got the ability to tell the charger what SOC etc it’s got, you have to come up with a bodge to get a simple scheduled charge.

I was thinking of getting an ohme. What do you call a bodge? Also what would you recommend instead? Thanks

 

[JodyS21]

I was thinking of getting an ohme. What do you call a bodge? Also what would you recommend instead? Thanks

Have a read here:

Discussions on using Ohme charger with the ZS EV

This started off being discussed on another post (Which charger? Experiences?). I thought I'd start one specifically for the Ohme charger, so we can share info and tips. Preamble: The Ohme charger isn't geared up for what I want, which I think is probably a pretty normal requirement. Charge...

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