Add Yours: VW ID. Buzz Owner's Registry

FOB Presence disrupts scheduled charging

6452 Views 37 Replies 16 Participants Last post by 2811, Oct 18, 2021

Swimrwo

Discussion Starter · Mar 31, 2021

I picked up our ID.4 FE on 3/24/21 and have been trying to get a functional home charging schedule.

I've set the parameters as follows:
1) Charge Immediately to 20%
2) Max Charge to 80%
3) Departure time to 7:00am

The first two or three days, I'd plug in the charger around 8:00pm on the night before, make sure all was good (charging port led was pulsing green), and go away until the next morning when I'd return and the unit only charged about 10-15 minutes and was "done" but no where near 80%

Doing some research, I found that each and every time I (or my spouse with her key fob) walked near the ID after 8:00pm, it would charge for 2-3 minutes and quit. Wait.. WHAT? We had a 'discussion' about touching the car, fiddling with the charging port, pressing a fob button, etc. - all not very productive. We noticed that after a few minutes, the charge port led would go out and if we walked nearby with the fob, the ID and the charger would click-click-click and the led would go back to green pulsing.

So, 2 nights ago, I did the same preparation around 8:00pm: checked the scheduling, checked the charge cable plugged in properly, checked the ID doors were locked, AND THEN.. I PUT BOTH OF THE FOBs AT THE OTHER END OF THE HOUSE.

We each checked the car a couple of times during the night (we don't want it driving around the neighborhood without us

) and all seemed good and quiet.

Next morning, the car had charged! First day it underestimated the needed time to get to 80% and the second day it got there a few minutes early.

We now have a FOB-free zone around the ID when we want it to charge on a schedule.

Anyone else seen this behavior?

Is there some other setting that I'm missing that ignores the presence of the fob when a charging schedule is set and the ID is plugged in?

BTW - just in case it matters, I'm using a Chargepoint Flex as the EVSE but I do NOT have any schedule or charge settings turned on for that at this point (just using it as a dumb EVSE)

Ideas? What have I missed?

Thanks for any suggestions.

See less See more

1 - 20 of 38 Posts

Nai3t

· #2 · Mar 31, 2021 (Edited)

Sounds like an unintended bug, but I would try turning off "Unlock When Approaching Vehicle" in the Doors menu to see if that eliminates the behavior.

On my i3, unlocking the car also unlocks the charging port, so if your FOB being in the vicinity is unlocking the car, this is likely the trigger for ceasing charging.

Reactions: 1

NBCGLX

· #3 · Mar 31, 2021

Why not just set it to charge to 80% and plug it in, and leave it plugged in till you’re ready to use the car again? General rule of thumb with most EV’s is ABC (always be charging). Unless I was planning to leave shortly after returning to an EVSE (whether that’s home, work, etc.), my i3 was always plugged in. No need to overthink anything, just plug the car in.

amartko

· #4 · Mar 31, 2021

NBCGLX said:
Why not just set it to charge to 80% and plug it in, and leave it plugged in till you’re ready to use the car again? General rule of thumb with most EV’s is ABC (always be charging). Unless I was planning to leave shortly after returning to an EVSE (whether that’s home, work, etc.), my i3 was always plugged in. No need to overthink anything, just plug the car in.

Some people have time of use rates and want to charge when it’s cheaper.

Reactions: 5

egsell

· #5 · Mar 31, 2021

What if you set your "Charge By" time to be 3AM or 4AM? It needs "smart" dialogue to either anchor the charge to start or end at a certain time at XX%. This is certainly one to put on the software request list.

Reactions: 1

theboomr

· #6 · Mar 31, 2021

My Bolt had the ability to program my time of use rates into the car, and it could tell when I was at home, so I could just leave it plugged in all the time, but it would only charge during the nighttime lowest rate hours. There were various ways to configure it too, like I had the option turned on that it would immediately charge up to 40% if it was lower than that, regardless of time of day.

I had just been assuming the ID.4 could manage home charging in a similar way, so if it can't, that's pretty disappointing...

Reactions: 4

NBCGLX

· #7 · Mar 31, 2021

amartko said:
Some people have time of use rates and want to charge when it’s cheaper.

Fair enough. I’ve found it easier to deal with that at the EVSE level, as most EV’s I’ve experienced leave something to be desired with detailed charging schedules like that in the car itself. I guess my point was, just plug the car in when you get home, and then use scheduling (whether that’s through the car or the EVSE) if you only want to charge during specific times. Other than that, there’s no reason to not just leave the car to charge to 80% and be done with it.

Reactions: 1

Swimrwo

Discussion Starter · #8 · Mar 31, 2021 (Edited)

Thank you all for the comments, gives me something to do while my spouse is out driving the car around

Nai3t said:
I would try turning off "Unlock When Approaching Vehicle" in the Doors menu

Good Idea - I just checked and it is already off - I toggled it on and then off just in case.

egsell said:
What if you set your "Charge By" time to be 3AM or 4AM?

That's essentially what I'm doing but my time is 7AM - the goal is to hit the lowest rates, have the charge completed to 80%, and have the battery warm-up done while plugged in.

theboomr said:
I had the option turned on that it would immediately charge up to 40% if it was lower than that, regardless of time of day.

The ID has this capability with the "Charge immediately to %", mine is set to 20% so that I have around-town miles even if it is high $$$ charging time

NBCGLX said:
I’ve found it easier to deal with that at the EVSE level,

I have put working directly with the EVSE on my to-do soon list.

The real bug/gotcha in my process is currently that the "ID.4 Waiting to charge" state is interrupted if anyone takes the key fob near the vehicle. This problem should affect the EVSE operation as well. I'd love to have others test my observations and I'll keep looking for creative solutions.

SunWizard

· #9 · Mar 31, 2021

NBCGLX said:
Other than that, there’s no reason to not just leave the car to charge to 80% and be done with it.

I can think of another good reason: In very cold weather like we get in CO, have it charge as late as possible before I need to leave. This gives the benefit of warming the battery, so my range will be extended by not having the large 5kw battery heater stay on as much. The opposite may be true in hot climates, but still a benefit of doing late as possible charging, you get the battery already cooled since it starts its cooling at 77F.

Reactions: 2

michael

· #10 · Apr 1, 2021

Same thing happened to me. Set 7 AM departure, and the car only charged from 32% to 47%, instead of the 80% target I set. The app showed last activity around 5 AM and I’m guessing that’s when it was interrupted. Tonight I’ll try locking the car when it’s charging

NBCGLX

· #11 · Apr 1, 2021

SunWizard said:
I can think of another good reason: In very cold weather like we get in CO, have it charge as late as possible before I need to leave. This gives the benefit of warming the battery, so my range will be extended by not having the large 5kw battery heater stay on as much. The opposite may be true in hot climates, but still a benefit of doing late as possible charging, you get the battery already cooled since it starts its cooling at 77F.

The solution to that is to set a departure time in the car's settings ahead of time. Then it's always ready to go when you're ready to leave, and it uses wall power to do so rather than the battery.

TPG

· #12 · Apr 6, 2021

michael said:
Same thing happened to me. Set 7 AM departure, and the car only charged from 32% to 47%, instead of the 80% target I set. The app showed last activity around 5 AM and I’m guessing that’s when it was interrupted. Tonight I’ll try locking the car when it’s charging

How did locking the car work out for you?

I tried charging for the first time last night and it also stopped around 5am with the car unlocked.

michael

· #13 · Apr 6, 2021

TPG said:
How did locking the car work out for you?

I tried charging for the first time last night and it also stopped around 5am with the car unlocked.

Here's what I do to make sure the car is charged to the desired % while using departure time:

1. Enable location-based departure time (I set 7:00 am)
2. Swipe down and also select a charging time (I choose 11 pm to 7 am)
3. Plug car in
4. Lock the car

I don't know if all the steps are necessary, but it charged fully to 80% last few times I did that. I found that doing solely step 1 doesn't always charge the car to the desired percentage, and solely doing step 2 doesn't charge the car overnight at all.

If you want the car to charge immediately, selecting "charge immediately" from the vehicle exit screen doesn't work. It charges for a few minutes, then quits. You have to turn off the location-based departure time in order for "charge immediately" to work at home.

Reactions: 2

N00bomb

· #14 · Jun 23, 2021

Honestly I just got my ID4, i still have my model 3 and this not charging to full operation seriously piss me off. It’s just charging why is it so complicated. If Tesla can do it why can’t VW?

TPG

· #15 · Jun 23, 2021

N00bomb said:
Honestly I just got my ID4, i still have my model 3 and this not charging to full operation seriously piss me off. It’s just charging why is it so complicated. If Tesla can do it why can’t VW?

It seems like all EVs can do do this except VW. Even my limited production Toyota RAV4 EV compliance car did scheduled charging OK.

I bet that VW has to fix this before or shortly after the Audi Q4 etron arrives in the US. Something tells me that Audi drivers will not be happy with this bug.

Reactions: 3

JimmyVW

· #16 · Jun 23, 2021

The Audi uses different software

N00bomb

· #17 · Jun 23, 2021

the car not charging is the equivalent of me getting a car, but can’t fuel it up. I’m also on TOU so my off peak is 9 cents / kWh but peak is 56 cents / kWh. This is a non starter for me

Huey52

· #18 · Jun 23, 2021

What time in the evening does your off-peak commence? Mostly just curious, but you know where I'm going with this. However one shouldn't have to stay up late to accommodate same.

Yes, we're all perplexed (those w/o off-peak)/annoyed (those with off-peak) that this feature remains inoperative.

Welcome to ID.4 and the forum, despite this issue.

N00bomb said:
The car not charging is the equivalent of me getting a car, but can’t fuel it up. I’m also on TOU so my off peak is 9 cents / kWh but peak is 56 cents / kWh. This is a non-starter for me

Tonyschmo

· #19 · Jul 19, 2021

Sorry to dig this back up, but it certainly does seem that the fob is doing it. I saw another thread where there were issues with the Id.3 and the fobs and ACC battery draining due to the constant communication. I think they set the car to just sleep when it senses constant common. That inadvertently shuts down the schedule. The past two nights I’ve kept the fobs out of range and it has worked perfectly

Reactions: 1

TPG

· #20 · Jul 19, 2021

Tonyschmo said:
Sorry to dig this back up, but it certainly does seem that the fob is doing it. I saw another thread where there were issues with the Id.3 and the fobs and ACC battery draining due to the constant communication. I think they set the car to just sleep when it senses constant common. That inadvertently shuts down the schedule. The past two nights I’ve kept the fobs out of range and it has worked perfectly

Did you actually get scheduled charging to work from something like 30% to 80% with it starting at least a couple hours after you plugged it in?
I think that would be a first if so. I keep my FOB in a Faraday cage well away from the car and have never gotten a 50+% (30 - 80%) scheduled charge to work.

1 - 20 of 38 Posts

This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.