RavCharge, a solution to charge timer and entune woes

[n3ckf]

so i finally gave in and started using RavCharge today. Is there an actual phone app for this service or do you actually have to log into the website to use it?

[jimbo69ny]

so i finally gave in and started using RavCharge today. Is there an actual phone app for this service or do you actually have to log into the website to use it?

You can pin a short cut to the ravcharge webpage on the home screen of your phone. It looks and acts just like an app when you open it. There is no real app. This is how it's done.

[yblaser]

I'm having issues with Entune and remote climate in that it doesn't seem to be working at all. RavCharge however is reporting that it successfully initiated the remote climate way faster than it would be able to. If I go back to the Entune app immediately after RavCharge reports the success, the app acts as if it is still waiting for a response from the car.

Edit: I was just able to issue a remote climate command through Entune, so it may have been where my car was parked, but RavCharge reporting a successful climate start when it actually had not started is still weird.

[fooljoe]

Did you happen to notice if the climate button at the bottom of the RavCharge screen indicated climate was 'On' before you tried to start it? I have seen a few instances of cars getting stuck in a weird state where the Entune data makes it looks like climate's on even though it's not. Were that the case RavCharge would immediately report back that it successfully started the climate because it think's it's already on. It should clear up by either sending the 'stop climate' command first or letting a climate cycle complete someplace where the car has cell reception. Let me know if the issue persists.

[jimbo69ny]

I've been having the same problem. For the past few weeks I have tried to precondition my car to warm it up. (-9 in Ithaca ny right now) Ravcharge will say that the car has been started but when I get out to the car it hasn't been and I'm in turtle mode due to the temps.

Lately I've been using entune again and it's been working every time.

[fooljoe]

Interesting. I'll have to dig into this and see if there have been any changes in how the Entune app sends the climate commands.

[yblaser]

Unfortunately I didn't look to see if it was stuck on. It shows off now, so I'll keep an eye on it and see what happens.

[fooljoe]

Looking at the log I see that Peter's was stuck "on" from the 16th until this morning, while Jimbo's was stuck from 2/18-2/20. The coincidence makes me think that maybe something was just up with Entune during this time, but I'll dig into the way RavCharge determines whether the climate's on or off to see if there's a way I can pull in data from some other fields to get a more intelligent assessment of whether the climate's actually on. Thanks for letting me know! I almost never use remote climate so if something funny's going on with Entune it's unlikely I'd notice it myself.

By the way, even if RavCharge reports "success" right away, it still will have sent the command to the Entune server (equivalent to pushing the start climate button in the Entune app - which I just checked and saw hasn't changed since April 2014) - the only difference is it won't keep "pushing the button" automatically every 2 minutes (up to 5 times) if it doesn't detect that the climate started.

So it's quite possible that you might've gotten the false "success" from RavCharge and then went into the Entune app to try again, only to have the command that's already in the system from RavCharge eventually click on, giving you the mistaken impression that it was Entune that "fixed" it.

[yblaser]

So it's quite possible that you might've gotten the false "success" from RavCharge and then went into the Entune app to try again, only to have the command that's already in the system from RavCharge eventually click on, giving you the mistaken impression that it was Entune that "fixed" it.

Thanks for looking into it and giving us a little more insight into how it works. I think I was having cell issues this morning as I was never able to get it to start until I drive to work and tested it again.

[fooljoe]

I made a small change to the way RavCharge detects whether the climate control is on. I expect that this will resolve the issue Peter and Jimbo reported, but if you guys (or anyone else) notice this again don't hesitate to let me know!