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!

 

[jimbo69ny]

Cool thank you! If I have any more issues I'll let you know.

 

[jmccloud]

I just setup a trial ravcharge.com account, set timer 1, set the ECP timer (both at 22:10), but when I plugged my 2014 Rav4 in, it charged at 20:00. I believe my 240 power is 20 Amps and the car was not set to 'charge immediately'. There were ~55 miles left, so it was about 50% charged. Also, the car timers were set to all days at 6:00 am. Any thing I should check so that I can push the start time later?

I can't find anything about it, but when you plug the car in, is there a delay before the software connects and does its 'magic'? Maybe that is my problem?

Thanks.

 

[fooljoe]

I just setup a trial ravcharge.com account, set timer 1, set the ECP timer (both at 22:10), but when I plugged my 2014 Rav4 in, it charged at 20:00. I believe my 240 power is 20 Amps and the car was not set to 'charge immediately'. There were ~55 miles left, so it was about 50% charged. Also, the car timers were set to all days at 6:00 am. Any thing I should check so that I can push the start time later?

I can't find anything about it, but when you plug the car in, is there a delay before the software connects and does its 'magic'? Maybe that is my problem?

Thanks.

Thanks for trying RavCharge! With a 20 amp EVSE, you're going to have a tough time getting your charges happening when you want, but RavCharge's ECP (early charge protection) feature can definitely help. The problem with any EVSE that's <=20 amps is that the Rav4's timer assumes that such EVSEs are level 1 (it's blind to the actual voltage.) Because of this it's going to think your charge will take 3-4 times as long as it will actually take, and therefore start your charges way too early.

The first thing I would do is push your car's timer out much later than 6:00am - maybe 11:00am will do, but it will probably take a little trial and error, and it depends upon your average depth of discharge. ECP will automatically push the departure timer back as needed, but it's meant to be for the occasional deep/extended charges and not as something to rely on every day.

You're essentially correct about the software needing a little delay to do its "magic" - the way ECP works is that it checks your car's SOC about every 20 minutes and determines if the conditions are right for the car to start your charge early, and if it does need to act the process of sending the command to Entune to push your departure timer back can take up to 5 minutes. And since Entune can be flaky it might not work on the first try, potentially delaying it even further.

Since the car only sends its updated SOC info to Entune each time your turn it off, if you take a long drive and arrive home with a low SOC relatively late what could happen is that the car's timer might be set to start charging at a time before you arrive, in which case it'll start charging immediately when you plug it in, or it might be set to start charging at some time in the next half hour or so, in which case ECP might not have enough time to get your updated SOC data and then push back your timer before charging starts. I'm guessing this is what happened in your case. And unfortunately there's no way to remotely stop your charge once it starts.

Go ahead and shoot me an email at [email protected] and I can help you get everything working smoothly.

 

[n3ckf]

Interesting effect i'm noticing in ravcharge.

I (almost) never, get a battery storage reading of > 35.0 KW (a full standard charge).

This is true even if i put the car on extended charge and charge it.

Happened today: i drove home (after having an extended charge). When i got home, i had slightly *MORE* than a standard charge in the car (but it was set to extended)

Ravcharge said i had 35.5 KWH in the battery (which is correct, it takes me almost exactly 7KWH to drive home).

I charged for a little while and now i have 35.0KWH after an hour of charging
(But not really my entune range has increased from 93 to 106miles)

This is merely annoying (and as far as i can tell if i have less than a full standard charge in the car, the reading i get is accurate).

Is this a known issue?

 

[fooljoe]

RavCharge spits out data direct from Entune, and Entune data - just like the charge bars in the dash - never shows anything beyond the 35 kWh "100% of normal charge" level. It's an Entune limitation, not a RavCharge limitation, and unfortunately there's no way around it other than to use the GOM (aka "Entune range".)

 

[yblaser]

RavCharge appears to be down this morning. I cannot reach its website and it did not initiate a charge last night.

 

[bdunst]

I am unable to reach the RavCharge site as well

 

[eplantz]

seems to be working now......

 

[fooljoe]

Thanks for the heads up guys. I was able to restart the server and restore functionality at about 11 this morning, and everything seem operational as of now.

 

[miimura]

If only Entune themselves were this responsive...