RAV4 Phev, MyToyota App and the HomeCharge from Toyota

[Paul1905]

Hi, I have just had the ABB Terra Wallbox installed as part of Toyota's offer. I cannot fault the service and time taken, but you are left with very little information and I have to admit, this is not something I am very clear on!

Am I right in thinking that I can plug the car in, authorise it to charge using the RFID, but then use the My Toyota App to set a schedule that conforms with my 6p overnight tariff, so I only therefore charge at a cheap rate, but can leave the car effectively plugged in far earlier than the midnight start time.

The delayed start and use of the RFID is confusing things, The tests I have done today are not much use as its now charged and not yet midnight......

Google is not helpful and there is very little information in the public domain!

This is probably really simple, but I am just not seeing it.

thanks

[Paul1905]

Scrap a chunk of this as I cannot see how you actually schedule charging in the MYT app…..

amazing app and charger integration (NOT) and I have no idea how to contact support. 

[All the cream]

I am still waiting for my charger to be installed (next week👍)and I have set charging to commence after midnight through the app with no problems although this has always been with the three pin charging cable so not sure if this makes a difference

When using the app click on where it tells you how much range you have left this is where you are able to set charging for a set day and time

Hope this helps

G

[philip42h]

12 hours ago, Paul1905 said:

Am I right in thinking that I can plug the car in, authorise it to charge using the RFID, but then use the My Toyota App to set a schedule that conforms with my 6p overnight tariff, so I only therefore charge at a cheap rate, but can leave the car effectively plugged in far earlier than the midnight start time.

I can't be of much help, but 'yes' this must be true. I was hoping that it would all become clear in the supplied documentation once my charger was installed but ...

According to the 'guide' - toyota-homecharge-guide-june-2024.pdf - you can:

• Authorise the charger to charge a vehicle via the App, allowing access to all or the RFID card.
• Connecting the car to the charger.
• Waiting for, or overriding, the Random Delay (up to 10 minutes).
• Waiting until the preset schedule on the vehicle or overriding that via the App or in the vehicle.

Which includes exactly what you (and most will) want to do. You should be able to authorise, connect and go ...

The other amusing complication appears to be that, by default, the charger is configured NOT to supply charge at peak times - i.e. 08:00 - 11:00 and 16:00 - 22:00. Hopefully this won't prevent us from plugging in and setting up an overnight charge session during the evening peak hours (which is when most of us will want to)!

I haven't spotted any way to override this default once set other than removing the charger from the app and re-adding it to change the defaults during the onboarding stage.

Hopefully someone who has got further down the track with Toyota Home Charge will be able to advise ...

[PeteRav425]

I have used the RFID and it works OK, but the other day the charging light on the EV charger lit up but not the one on the car, and I could see it was not charging, thru my octopus live usage app. What is this delay? and how long should you expect to wait?. I unplugged and tried again and it charged instantly. As I have already said on a separate topic, I have no internet connection at present to either monitor or control.

[Paul1905]

13 hours ago, All the cream said:

I am still waiting for my charger to be installed (next week👍)and I have set charging to commence after midnight through the app with no problems although this has always been with the three pin charging cable so not sure if this makes a difference

When using the app click on where it tells you how much range you have left this is where you are able to set charging for a set day and time

Hope this helps

G

Thank you

do you have a full window of schedule available. In my app, I can set one day only and it’s the ‘next charge’ and then you can’t delete that once it’s set either.

 

[Paul1905]

2 hours ago, philip42h said:

I can't be of much help, but 'yes' this must be true. I was hoping that it would all become clear in the supplied documentation once my charger was installed but ...

According to the 'guide' - toyota-homecharge-guide-june-2024.pdf - you can:

• Authorise the charger to charge a vehicle via the App, allowing access to all or the RFID card.
• Connecting the car to the charger.
• Waiting for, or overriding, the Random Delay (up to 10 minutes).
• Waiting until the preset schedule on the vehicle or overriding that via the App or in the vehicle.

Which includes exactly what you (and most will) want to do. You should be able to authorise, connect and go ...

The other amusing complication appears to be that, by default, the charger is configured NOT to supply charge at peak times - i.e. 08:00 - 11:00 and 16:00 - 22:00. Hopefully this won't prevent us from plugging in and setting up an overnight charge session during the evening peak hours (which is when most of us will want to)!

I haven't spotted any way to override this default once set other than removing the charger from the app and re-adding it to change the defaults during the onboarding stage.

Hopefully someone who has got further down the track with Toyota Home Charge will be able to advise ...

The charger default times for being off is a just a simple ‘turn off’ button but I don’t have any way to schedule anything properly in the app for the charger. 
 

I can set ‘start time’ only via the car but you can’t set an off time and I have no idea if it still starts to charge IF you connect after the start time.

I’m just glad I kept my pod point because that app is just plug it in, set the schedule and it charges when you expect! 

[nlee]

6 hours ago, philip42h said:

The other amusing complication appears to be that, by default, the charger is configured NOT to supply charge at peak times - i.e. 08:00 - 11:00 and 16:00 - 22:00. Hopefully this won't prevent us from plugging in and setting up an overnight charge session during the evening peak hours (which is when most of us will want to)!

I’d forgotten about this because my charge point was installed before the new regulations came in. I can’t remember when they came in (some time in 2022 I think) but a new installation has, by law, to have a default schedule set that avoids the peak use period and has a random delay up to 1800 secs for each session (to avoid everyone’s chargers kicking in at exactly the same time and causing a shock load on the network). It is also a requirement that the owner can override the default schedule or change the delay period during initialisation. 

[philip42h]

21 minutes ago, nlee said:

has a random delay up to 1800 secs for each session

The Random Delay as implemented is for up to 10 minutes - so, 600 seconds, but who's arguing ... 😉

[nlee]

37 minutes ago, philip42h said:

The Random Delay as implemented is for up to 10 minutes - so, 600 seconds, but who's arguing ... 😉

Yes, it also mentions 600 secs in the legislation but I’m not sure why it mentions both…..

Randomised delay

11.—(1) A relevant charge point must be configured so that—

(a)it is capable of operating, at each relevant time, with a delay of up to 1800 seconds, such delay to be of a random duration which is determined, to the nearest second, at each such relevant time; and

(b)the maximum duration of the delay referred to in paragraph (2)(a) can be increased or decreased remotely via a communications network.

(2) A relevant charge point must be configured so that—

(a)subject to paragraphs (2)(b) and (3), at each relevant time it operates with a delay of up to 600 seconds, such delay to be of a random duration which is determined, to the nearest second, at each such relevant time;

(b)at each relevant time, the owner of the relevant charge point is able to cancel the delay referred to in sub-paragraph (a) above.

(3) A relevant charge point must be configured so that the delay referred to in paragraph (2)(a) above will not operate where—

(a)the owner, or an end-user of the relevant charge point who is not the owner, has overridden it;

(b)an equivalent random delay has already been applied to the operation of the relevant charge point in respect of the relevant time; or

(c)it is providing response DSR services at the relevant time.

(4) In this regulation “relevant time” means the point at which, but for the delay referred to in paragraph (2)(a)—

(a)electricity would start flowing through the relevant charge point for the purpose of charging a vehicle; or

(b)the rate of electricity flowing through the relevant charge point would be increased or decreased.

[Paul1905]

14 hours ago, philip42h said:

I can't be of much help, but 'yes' this must be true. I was hoping that it would all become clear in the supplied documentation once my charger was installed but ...

According to the 'guide' - toyota-homecharge-guide-june-2024.pdf - you can:

• Authorise the charger to charge a vehicle via the App, allowing access to all or the RFID card.
• Connecting the car to the charger.
• Waiting for, or overriding, the Random Delay (up to 10 minutes).
• Waiting until the preset schedule on the vehicle or overriding that via the App or in the vehicle.

Which includes exactly what you (and most will) want to do. You should be able to authorise, connect and go ...

The other amusing complication appears to be that, by default, the charger is configured NOT to supply charge at peak times - i.e. 08:00 - 11:00 and 16:00 - 22:00. Hopefully this won't prevent us from plugging in and setting up an overnight charge session during the evening peak hours (which is when most of us will want to)!

I haven't spotted any way to override this default once set other than removing the charger from the app and re-adding it to change the defaults during the onboarding stage.

Hopefully someone who has got further down the track with Toyota Home Charge will be able to advise ...

Further to this, I missed the charge time today by 5 mins - was set for midnight, on the car, charging has not started.

there is officially no full schedule available on the app. you can schedule one day only, that doesn’t appear to work either and you cannot remove this once you have set it:

it appears this is app is sh it

[Paul1905]

Further to this all and much faffing tonight I can confirm that to take advantage of my 6p a KWh tariff I have to get up, plug the car in, override the random delay manually so it locks my cable and I must do this after 12am myself

back to the podpoint it is

 

 

 

[Nick72]

16 hours ago, Paul1905 said:

Further to this all and much faffing tonight I can confirm that to take advantage of my 6p a KWh tariff I have to get up, plug the car in, override the random delay manually so it locks my cable and I must do this after 12am myself

back to the podpoint it is

 

 

 

Well that's **** as a design. 

My cheap Chinese Project EV unit installed nearly 5 years back just follows the car's lead. If it demands charge the car gets it. Locks the port unless overridden by the car or the charger App.

I mean, in the case of a war involving China I probably won't be getting my car charged and it might even get blown up but... In the meantime ...

[philip42h]

17 minutes ago, Nick72 said:

My cheap Chinese Project EV unit installed nearly 5 years back just follows the car's lead. If it demands charge the car gets it. Locks the port unless overridden by the car or the charger App.

Yes, but, your charger is an obsolete design - it just provides charge all the time (just like a granny charger) and the car can decide when to take it.

Modern chargers are required to be 'smarter' (aka 'dumber') and be able to not provide charge at peak times and insert a random delay before starting to charge. I rather suspect that this behaviour is confusing the car ... but I'll probably start to experiment over the weekend ... 😉

[Nick72]

1 hour ago, philip42h said:

Yes, but, your charger is an obsolete design - it just provides charge all the time (just like a granny charger) and the car can decide when to take it.

Modern chargers are required to be 'smarter' (aka 'dumber') and be able to not provide charge at peak times and insert a random delay before starting to charge. I rather suspect that this behaviour is confusing the car ... but I'll probably start to experiment over the weekend ... 😉

In that case I'm glad I've got a s*** 7.4kW wall box. 😂

[Paul1905]

New Update....

You cannot set anything up on the App. Toyota support have confirmed to me that the RAV4 set up does not provide for the App to have full scheduling.

Howver, if you set up your schdules in the Car as 'to be charged by' and I have chosen 6.45am as my tariff ends at 7am and you plug it in by 4am (I do some night shifts so this is mildly relevant) and when you plug it in, you go into the app and confirm the charge either in there OR with the RFID tap, it will now lock the cable and charge as expected.

If you miss the 4am cut off and you need the charge, I will just override the settings and charge now.

So currently, it works. Not as seemlessly as my podpoint but given they installed my Toyota box with its own breaker off directly off the mains, we can run both chargers.....

I can also confirm, you can override the peak hours limits by turning them off and you can overide the delay by teling the app to ignore it on each charge.

 

[Nick72]

5 hours ago, Paul1905 said:

New Update....

You cannot set anything up on the App. Toyota support have confirmed to me that the RAV4 set up does not provide for the App to have full scheduling.

Howver, if you set up your schdules in the Car as 'to be charged by' and I have chosen 6.45am as my tariff ends at 7am and you plug it in by 4am (I do some night shifts so this is mildly relevant) and when you plug it in, you go into the app and confirm the charge either in there OR with the RFID tap, it will now lock the cable and charge as expected.

If you miss the 4am cut off and you need the charge, I will just override the settings and charge now.

So currently, it works. Not as seemlessly as my podpoint but given they installed my Toyota box with its own breaker off directly off the mains, we can run both chargers.....

I can also confirm, you can override the peak hours limits by turning them off and you can overide the delay by teling the app to ignore it on each charge.

 

That's mostly a result by the sounds of it.👍