ALL POSTS about Charge Timer Failure

[miimura]

I never use time charge. The "interrupt" message also happens during non schedule plug-in charge. I often get the "interrupt" message few hour after the bulk charge is completed when I unplug the J-connector from the J-inlet.

Waidy, Do you get the Charge Interrupted e-mail every time you disconnect, or only sometimes when you unplug a few hours after the bulk charge is complete? I saw that you have more than one type of EVSE. Does it happen on all your EVSE or only certain one(s)?

There is another member that says he always gets the message, so I thought it may be that certain EVSE cause that issue when idle, not because the user unplugged during the "balance charge".

 

[miimura]

I just noticed another strange thing about the RAV4 EV charging calculations. When I got out of the car, the charge time forecast on the right side of the instrument cluster showed 240V 1:00 for the estimated charge time. Then I plugged in the EVSE and the 120V line disappeared and the new forecast was 240V 1:33. I have a Leviton 40A EVSE installed on 240V power - how could the time possibly be calculated to be longer based on what I plugged in? I have the maximum output EVSE that the car can take. This charging system just defies logic.

 

[fooljoe]

Lol. I guess if I had to speculate I'd say that the pre-plug-in number might factor in some "learning" based on your charging habits, while the post-plug-in number only factors in the pilot signal along with some assumed voltage (since it doesn't check the voltage). Anyway, the important thing is that only the post-plug-in number is used to determine the start time that will be used for your charge (if it actually happens.)

By the way, still getting the charge interrupted emails every time I unplug, regardless of how long after charge completion I unplug. I tried both setting an earlier departure time and waiting a very long time after charge completion to unplug (like a whole day.)

 

[waidy]

Waidy, Do you get the Charge Interrupted e-mail every time you disconnect, or only sometimes when you unplug a few hours after the bulk charge is complete? I saw that you have more than one type of EVSE. Does it happen on all your EVSE or only certain one(s)?

There is another member that says he always gets the message, so I thought it may be that certain EVSE cause that issue when idle, not because the user unplugged during the "balance charge".

Hi neighbor, I don't always get the "interrupt" message. Only few times when I unplug couple hours after the bulk charge is completed, sometime if I unplugged in early in the morning (4:30-5am) when I plugged in to charge before I go to bed. In the case of unplug few hours after the bulk charge, it is for sure that it was doing its cell balancing (noted from my energy monitor). In the case of unplugged early in the morning, it was drawing power to warm the battery (also noted from my energy monitor).

In both cases, I do not get interrupt message every time. Only occasionally.

Oh forgot to answer your question of the EVSE I use. I use random EVSE depends which garage spot I park. I have a 5 car sgarage and every spot reaches one of the charging stations.

 

[waidy]

I just noticed another strange thing about the RAV4 EV charging calculations. When I got out of the car, the charge time forecast on the right side of the instrument cluster showed 240V 1:00 for the estimated charge time. Then I plugged in the EVSE and the 120V line disappeared and the new forecast was 240V 1:33. I have a Leviton 40A EVSE installed on 240V power - how could the time possibly be calculated to be longer based on what I plugged in? I have the maximum output EVSE that the car can take. This charging system just defies logic.

It also depends on the voltage at the time when you plugin. It may be anywhere from 208-270V. If you share a transformer with your neighbor, it is likely that someone is turning on their dryer or charging their Tesla

 

[adjackson3]

Yet another charging oddity. I have my departure time set for 6am every morning. Invariably the end time is displayed as 5:40am. That's 20 minutes prior to the departure time. Of course the actually ending time, based on the email, never corresponds to either time. It's all over the map.

 

[miimura]

I just noticed another strange thing about the RAV4 EV charging calculations. When I got out of the car, the charge time forecast on the right side of the instrument cluster showed 240V 1:00 for the estimated charge time. Then I plugged in the EVSE and the 120V line disappeared and the new forecast was 240V 1:33. I have a Leviton 40A EVSE installed on 240V power - how could the time possibly be calculated to be longer based on what I plugged in? I have the maximum output EVSE that the car can take. This charging system just defies logic.

According to Entunes emails, the charging actually took 55 minutes - 5:08 start, 6:03 end with scheduled departure at 7:00. Taken at face value, if it really thought it would take 1:33 to charge, starting at 5:08 to complete by 6:40 is not bad. The problem is that it adjusted the time from 1:00 to 1:33 when I plugged in when the original estimate was the correct one.

 

[fooljoe]

It also depends on the voltage at the time when you plugin. It may be anywhere from 208-270V. If you share a transformer with your neighbor, it is likely that someone is turning on their dryer or charging their Tesla

Waidy, the time-to-charge estimate displayed by the car can't depend on the voltage, since the car doesn't know what the voltage is until it actually starts charging.

 

[Joe_EV]

Just to add to the statistics here: I have had this failure occur twice. I've owned my RAV4 EV one month, I don't drive every day, and I don't charge the EV every night, so that's a very sad statistic indeed. When we built this house our block was upgraded with a new transformer to support our cars, and as far as I know these are the only cars on this circuit. The charge schedule targets a 6 AM departure time.

 

[priuspete]

New owner of a 2012 here, already frustrated by the timer (seems a common condition..). Agree just from reading the past several pages of posts that (too) much agida exists, and just a little progress is being made in achieving a complete understanding of what appear to be multiple interrelated bugs.
In my case (and in hindsight, some ignorance), I first set just one 'day' and 'time' in the schedule. Now, it won't do anything else until the next occurrence of that day (it's tomorrow, Wednesday, thank goodness) has passed. Sure, I deleted the time for that day entirely, and 'saved' the change, but it's 'stuck' in there and that's that! It also did not recognize earlier days which had been entered subsequently - go figure.
Forgive me for not reviewing all 30+ pages of this thread, but it appears that using the Level 1 charger will not allow the car to utilize programmed charge/precool times. So, if that is the case (or is it just the precool that's inop on 120v?) the provided 120v connection at my office is only of limited use. (appreciated, of course, but limited)
Thanks to our Moderator for the recent summary, and hopefully continued quality dialogue with the mother ship.
BTW - Home charger is a Siemens, which works fine (though not tested, yet, with delay program or with delay-charge in unit). Happy to do any tests which will aid the collective understanding, as my commute is only 10+ miles so impact of a charge failure would not be tragic.
Pete / FL (latest software update installed prior to delivery)

 

[Khaihon]

Hi priuspete,

I haven't had any problems with my charge timer on L1. I've done all my overnight charging on L1 since I haven't installed an L2 system yet (been about 2.5 months). I also have a programmed timer set to 7:45am every day with climate control. It seems if you set the scheduler, you need to set it for every day. Otherwise, the charger won't start until the next occurrence of your schedule unless you remote start a charge or press the charge immediately button.

On L1, I can charge about 40 miles overnight (13 hours charge of, about 3.08 miles gained per hour charged). If I have less than 40 miles to a full charge, the scheduler will kick in when it expects to be ready by my departure time. My car receives the charge completed notification usually about 30-45 minutes before my departure time, but never on the departure time.

on days where I can't charge my car fully on L1 even overnight, it will start the charge immediately when plugged in. Scheduled Climate Control will still operate even if the car isn't fully charged as long as SOC is over 50%.

To me, charging on L1 seems to work as expected (thought certainly not as desired). If there's a specific case that you'd like me to test/try, I'll be happy to do so. I haven't had any of the problems people seem to have on L2 charge mainly because I don't have an L2 charger set up!

 

[miimura]

I've now had two charging failures on the last two Sunday nights. I have my charge timers set for departure every day at 7am. The error is a "Charging Malfunction" which prevents the scheduled charge from occurring. The Entune e-mail says "Our systems indicate that your RAV4 EV vehicle's charging process was interrupted", but no charging has actually occurred and the dashboard screen has this message:

The Entune App shows this error:

The first time this happened I did not notice it until the morning. I simply unplugged the J-plug and reconnected it. The car immediately started charging even though it would not be able to complete the charge by the departure time. I let it go for about 45 minutes because the Off-Peak period was ending soon and I didn't need a completely full charge.

The second time, Entune e-mailed me at about 10pm. I was still awake at midnight, so I tried something different. I turned on the car and turned it off. Then, I pressed the Charge Immediately button on the main screen. It started charging immediately without touching the J-plug.

It seems to me that this is some kind of glitch, not a persistent problem with the charging system. I have no idea why it has only happened to me on Sunday nights. Other than these two errors, the only charging problem I have is the systematically early charge start and strange charge duration calculations, none of which are a big deal to me.

 

[miimura]

The "system malfunction" error described above showed up on my car again. This time it came up after the bulk charge had already occurred, so the battery had a full standard charge. So, I decided to call Toyota Customer Service to report it one afternoon. The agent took my info and told me an EV specialist would call me back within 24 hours. The following day somebody called me back. He was very nice and well informed about the RAV4 EV. The important take-away was that the proper procedure is to take it to a dealer so they can inspect the car and open a case with corporate as needed. I told him I would likely wait for the 5,000 mile service since I didn't feel it was serious enough to warrant a special trip. He suggested that I call him at his direct number when I was ready to take it in so he could follow up with the dealer and the appropriate people inside Toyota.

We also got to talking about firmware updates and he said they were working on one to address a variety of charging issues. No real details were given.

 

[priuspete]

One observation, made after re-reading the manual "just a few" times: There is an instruction regarding inserting the J-plug which says something to the effect that you should insert the plug WITHOUT depressing the release button. Seems obvious enough, but it is also easy to push the button inadvertently while connecting. Apparently the release is not just mechanical, but electrical as well.
So, the suggestion is to be very conscious of NOT pushing the button as you insert the connector. Yes, a time delay would be nice, but perhaps for electrical safety it would be a potential problem on disconnect.
See if it makes a difference.
Pete

 

[yblaser]

One observation, made after re-reading the manual "just a few" times: There is an instruction regarding inserting the J-plug which says something to the effect that you should insert the plug WITHOUT depressing the release button. Seems obvious enough, but it is also easy to push the button inadvertently while connecting. Apparently the release is not just mechanical, but electrical as well.

I guess I missed that part in the manual. I always press the release button while I insert the J-plug and then release the release button once it is seated. Kinda like I tend to turn the knob of a door before I close it...a little OCD maybe. Regardless, I have never had a charging issue besides the early completion. But yes, the release button does signal the car that it is pressed so that the car can shutdown charging in a controllable fashion before the power is interrupted..

 

[miimura]

One more incident today with the "Stopped by System Malfunction". The car was doing what we call the "Balance Charge" in the approximately 30 minutes before the departure time through 7 minutes after the departure time this morning. I had to get something out of the car during this time and I opened the driver's door. I did not have the key with me. As soon as I opened the door the EVSE cut out and this error came up on the dashboard. This is similar to what happens when you open the door during Pre-Climate, except in that case, when you approach the locked car with the key, the dashboard specifically says that the Pre-Climate was cancelled because the door was opened. I have seen this when I use the iPhone app to start the pre-climate before I leave work. I have not tried opening the door during pre-climate without the key and with the car unlocked.

 

[eschatfische]

Just a reminder that tomorrow morning is the 31st. I'm going to initiate a charge manually tonight since we can't afford to not have the car charge for tomorrow, but I'll be very interested to see if the problems others have had with missed charges on the 31st of the month continue.

 

[vips]

My first timer failure today due to "31st" bug.
Had to start the charge manually this morning.
After the manual charge started, got 2 e-mails, first one mentioning there charge failure due to malfunctioning and then immediately another e-mail that the charging had started.
It seems the failed charging e-mail was just sitting in the car system or in a queue system somewhere but was not sent out till the charging actually begun. Then both the 2 e-mails came in rapid succession. Quite strange..

 

[miimura]

My car also did not charge due to the 31st bug. This was completely expected since my car has not had any firmware updates. Can anyone with a recently updated car say that they did NOT experience the 31st bug, when they had previously?

At 6:15am on July 31, the Entune app said "Next Departure Time Wed 7:00 AM PDT". I think this is the crux of the bug. The interesting thing is the Charge Now button at the bottom of the screen had a slash through the plug, which normally indicates that the car is not plugged in.

 

[yblaser]

My car actually charged successfully last night, but only because of the firmware bug that causes it to start way too early. In this case just before midnight.

Correction: It actually started 20 minutes after midnight.