[donald]

I ordered a commando-Type2 for the Zoe and am just trying it now.

I am sure the app makes sense to someone but doesn't seem to work.

You have an option to set two schedules morning and afternoon, so I deseleted both and set the car to immediate charge.

I put the price limit to 6p/kWh and it said 'you'll charge at 10:30PM' or whatever, but on plugging in it started charging immediately.

I hit the stop charging icon on the app and it stopped, and hit start charging and it charged. So it is talking with the network, hears my basic commands, knows the Octopus rates, etc..

I activated both timer schedules to run to 23:59 and it still charged immediately even though I'd put the price limit in, it knew what times that was from Octopus, but still charges immediately.

How do I set this so it doesn't charge above a certain unit price? This is 'the' function, and yet it is even hidden away under a 'settings' icon on the schedule screen.

Doesn't seem to work!?

All I want is one screen and I set the price on it. If it is higher the thing should refuse to charge, if it is lower it will charged if the car tries to pull a charge. That's what I want! Isn't it what most people want?

 

[donald]

It has also come up with a wierd value saying I charged 57.3kWh, and £3.77, in the 2 minutes it was charging for...? Where did those numbers come from?

 

[Tandy0]

Donald, I've come to the conclusion that things like that, although very clever are more hassle than they're worth. You get to a point, around age 50 in my case, where you find it hard to read the numbers and don't have the patience to persevere with setting it.

Is there any chance of returning it?

 

[donald]

It is useful just as a dumb charger, but the whole concept of the app seems to be trying to be 'too clever'. You have to set the amount of miles you want and the time to charge, then 'it' readjusts what you just put it!! I had it charging and then 'it' stopped my charge because it decided to charge over a longer period of time, and set some of the charge into tomorrow!!

FFS. Bloody thing! What it needs is a 'dumb' option that simply has 'start charging (within X price limit)'. That's it, that is all I want.

You have to 'trick'; it into specifying how many miles you want. I don't 'want' miles, I just want to load it up with electricity occasionally!!

 

[proddick]

I had heard similar complaints from a friend who bought one, but he was perhaps less enlightened.

I think a charging point that could work with IFTTT and the Octopus channels would be a better solution. I find the Hive Socket works well on Octopus so may look at options I could connect to the pilot signal on my PODPoint...

 

[dk6780]

I had heard similar complaints from a friend who bought one, but he was perhaps less enlightened.

I think a charging point that could work with IFTTT and the Octopus channels would be a better solution. I find the Hive Socket works well on Octopus so may look at options I could connect to the pilot signal on my PODPoint...

The major theoretical advantage of Ohme is their integration with the API for the car SoC and the Octopus API for the calculation of the lowest price to achieve the necessary number of half hour segments to achieve the desired SoC.
With the LEAF it's easy to guestimate the required number of half hour segments, but a pain to then have to use an App to obtain the Agile prices and sort those to work out the minimum price needed before your desired departure time and then another App to program that into IFTTT each day.
For me the Ohme leads cost is not justified due to the short life it will have as it's likely my next car will have a type 2 connector and the current LEAF is type 1. Also under normal circumstances Go suits us better (the costs pre-Covid were about the same) as SWMBO is obsessed by the perceived inconvenience of the 16:00-19:00 penalty period (although at least that has replaced her ongoing obsession with range despite never having seen the Turtle in 30 months of BEV driving).

 

[donald]

What I can say is that the customer service is instant and very responsive. I have the feeling of a very early stage company who is totally devoted to getting the best product and service out there to dominate this 'new' market of 'smart EVSE'.

I have no reason at all yet to doubt that when I propose a 'ohme-lite' app that they will give it a properly full consideration and probably implement it (because if they don't, someone else probably will).

If only I had enough brain capacity left to learn how to programme apps for phones, you only need one to do well at $1 each and a million downloads, and retirement is secured!!!...

 

[donald]

The major theoretical advantage of Ohme is their integration with the API for the car SoC and the Octopus API for the calculation of the lowest price to achieve the necessary number of half hour segments to achieve the desired SoC.
With the LEAF it's easy to guestimate the required number of half hour segments, but a pain to then have to use an App to obtain the Agile prices and sort those to work out the minimum price needed before your desired departure time and then another App to program that into IFTTT each day.
For me the Ohme leads cost is not justified due to the short life it will have as it's likely my next car will have a type 2 connector and the current LEAF is type 1. Also under normal circumstances Go suits us better (the costs pre-Covid were about the same) as SWMBO is obsessed by the perceived inconvenience of the 16:00-19:00 penalty period (although at least that has replaced her ongoing obsession with range despite never having seen the Turtle in 30 months of BEV driving).

It's a nice idea and will work well for some.

I just don't want or need that.

For 6 years I have set the required charge level on my cars by simple arithmetic; 10% an hour, to go from 30% to 80%. I mean, FFS, really, I don't need a fancy app with a dozen button presses to do that, plus not forgetting all the rigmarole of connecting the car to the phone.

No, I want 'that' myself, thanks, I need zero assistance with that.

If someone can't perform the mental calculation of; (80%-30%)/(10% per hour) = 5 hours, then they are going to be seriously under-equipped in the mental gymnastics department to figure out a plan for public charging stops to ensure they don't get stranded!

 

[Kingpleb1]

The issue you have is that clicking max charge is doing what it's meant to, telling the charger to charge the car to the max level as quickly as possible.

You need to leave that option alone and move the slider along to 100% instead.
Mines not plugged in but the screenshots should look familiar.

I do agree a simple schedule of just saying, charge at any time the price is below 0p would be great.

 

[dk6780]

You missed my point. Calculating the amount of time is easy, it's the stage of getting to the lowest price to get the desired number of half-hour slots before a certain time that's harder.

 

[kcrane]

Donald, you thread bandit ! I had already started a thread on this and made similar points. Oh well, I shall accept your higher forum profile and join in anyway as there are several other threads on the same topic 😁

Here is what I found:

I had a 32amp commando socket fitted and bought an Ohme cable to go with it.

I have the Ohme app and it connects to the charger. It is charging a Tesla M3P. The supply is not with Octopus, so no Agile complications (yet).

All I want to do is have it supply max current to the car until the car hits whatever charge limits I have set in the car. I don't need cost constraints or charging targets or timing. Just "supply 32 amps until the car says stop".

I can't see how to avoid the charging schedules, nor how to see the information that is shown on the unit (amps, volts etc)...

It does charge, but decides for itself how long to take and how many amps to supply.

It can run well. The M3P is reporting charging at 8kw, which must be every ounce of 32amps, which is better than I have seen from my PodPoint.

 

[Kingpleb1]

Donald, you thread bandit ! I had already started a thread on this and made similar points. Oh well, I shall accept your higher forum profile and join in anyway as there are several other threads on the same topic 😁

Here is what I found:

I had a 32amp commando socket fitted and bought an Ohme cable to go with it.

I have the Ohme app and it connects to the charger. It is charging a Tesla M3P. The supply is not with Octopus, so no Agile complications (yet).

All I want to do is have it supply max current to the car until the car hits whatever charge limits I have set in the car. I don't need cost constraints or charging targets or timing. Just "supply 32 amps until the car says stop".

I can't see how to avoid the charging schedules, nor how to see the information that is shown on the unit (amps, volts etc)...

It does charge, but decides for itself how long to take and how many amps to supply.

It can run well. The M3P is reporting charging at 8kw, which must be every ounce of 32amps, which is better than I have seen from my PodPoint.

What's the voltage and amps showing on the Ohme charger outside as maybe your voltage is slightly higher than 230v??

Maybe the admins could merge the threads into one?

 

[donald]

Donald, you thread bandit ! I had already started a thread on this and made similar points. Oh well, I shall accept your higher forum profile and join in anyway as there are several other threads on the same topic 😁

Here is what I found:

I had a 32amp commando socket fitted and bought an Ohme cable to go with it.

I have the Ohme app and it connects to the charger. It is charging a Tesla M3P. The supply is not with Octopus, so no Agile complications (yet).

All I want to do is have it supply max current to the car until the car hits whatever charge limits I have set in the car. I don't need cost constraints or charging targets or timing. Just "supply 32 amps until the car says stop".

I can't see how to avoid the charging schedules, nor how to see the information that is shown on the unit (amps, volts etc)...

It does charge, but decides for itself how long to take and how many amps to supply.

It can run well. The M3P is reporting charging at 8kw, which must be every ounce of 32amps, which is better than I have seen from my PodPoint.

Sorry, I did not see your thread.

For your query, try 'disconnect' the cable from Ohme by deleting the app and all your settings.

If it has no information to go on and is not registered on Ohme it is just a dumb lead.

If it is already somehow 'locked' into your phone and you can't unpick it (as is the way with such things these days ... I am having this problem with the Zoe itself) then just drop Ohme a call and they will disable all contact with the cable and revert it to a 'dumb' state.

I think yours is an easy problem for them to solve.

You also have the option in the app to press 'max charge', press 'change profile' and then 'max charge', it does what you want, but annoyingly you can't set that AND a max kWh price, which is actually the precise thing I think most of us actually want?! To have those options come up, you have to physically plug into the car first (sigh!).

 

[donald]

What's the voltage and amps showing on the Ohme charger outside as maybe your voltage is slightly higher than 230v??

Maybe the admins could merge the threads into one?

Mine was pulling the full 16A at 240V, which ties up precisely to the 3.8kWh recorded in (two x half hour slots).

 

[Mld]

It's worth noting that the electronics in the Ohme are dormant until the car is plugged in, even if the Ohme is connected to the supply.

When you plug the car end in the Ohme will boot and contact the server over cellular. Once server connection is established the charging instructions set on the phone app are downloaded and implemented.


This means that when initially plugging in there might be a minute or two that the Ohme charges at full speed while it boots and gets the latest charging info from the server. This might make you think it does not work.

Once Comms with the sever has been established them smart charging can begin and it will use the cheapest half hour periods from the current day ahead prices to get to you charge target.

Of you have a charge schedule active then after the initial boot and server comms period (~ 1 min) then it will use that schedule with no further intervention from the user. Note that the schedule is activated by the act of plugging in, so changing the schedule will not take effect until next plug in. You can of course manually override the charging profile from the main screen of the app by setting you desired target.

My Ohme has been working great for me on Agile and has changed the way I charge my car. Not only do I only charge in the cheapest Agile slots but I also only charge as much as I need for the next day, meaning in the long term I am using more of the cheaper Agile half hour slots compared to using what ever slots get me to 100%

 

[Mld]

Sorry, I did not see your thread.

For your query, try 'disconnect' the cable from Ohme by deleting the app and all your settings.

If it has no information to go on and is not registered on Ohme it is just a dumb lead.

If it is already somehow 'locked' into your phone and you can't unpick it (as is the way with such things these days ... I am having this problem with the Zoe itself) then just drop Ohme a call and they will disable all contact with the cable and revert it to a 'dumb' state.

I think yours is an easy problem for them to solve.

You also have the option in the app to press 'max charge', press 'change profile' and then 'max charge', it does what you want, but annoyingly you can't set that AND a max kWh price, which is actually the precise thing I think most of us actually want?! To have those options come up, you have to physically plug into the car first (sigh!).

You can set the max price in the charging schedule by clicking on the gears icon from the charge schedule screen, without having the car plugged in. So just enable a schedule to fully charge the car but with a price cap. Then whenever you plug the car in it will charge when ever the price is below your chosen threshold

 

[donald]

It's worth noting that the electronics in the Ohme are dormant until the car is plugged in, even if the Ohme is connected to the supply.

Seems to be a bit of a poor design that?

It'd be best that when the power first comes on the Ohme that it spends a few minutes exchanging information, and settings, with the central, and then it's all set to go once you plug in.

 

[Mld]

The issue you have is that clicking max charge is doing what it's meant to, telling the charger to charge the car to the max level as quickly as possible.

You need to leave that option alone and move the slider along to 100% instead.
Mines not plugged in but the screenshots should look familiar.

View attachment 131680
View attachment 131681

I do agree a simple schedule of just saying, charge at any time the price is below 0p would be great.

That can be done by having a schedule active, with the time and SOC at max and the schedule charge restriction, for that schedule set, click on the schedule options, gear icon.

 

[donald]

You can set the max price in the charging schedule by clicking on the gears icon from the charge schedule screen, without having the car plugged in. So just enable a schedule to fully charge the car but with a price cap. Then whenever you plug the car in it will charge when ever the price is below your chosen threshold

It didn't work.

Not matter what I did, it would not start charging.

I set to 8p/kWh and the price was 7p/kWh at the time, and it refused to commence charging at 7p/kWh.

Even more oddly it is proposing that I can charge at 4PM!?!

 

[Mld]

Seems to be a bit of a poor design that?

It'd be best that when the power first comes on the Ohme that it spends a few minutes exchanging information, and settings, with the central, and then it's all set to go once you plug in.

No it's sensible. You do not want the unit consuming power and using data (paid for by Ohme btw) unless plugged into a car.

It's good embedded electronics design and has little impact on overall charging costs.

I'm a field applications engineer in wireless embedded electronics. I help companies design wireless embedded devices and have a number of charger manufacturers as customers (not Ohme). Ohme implementation is sound design and I have been impressed with it so far.

If I had one critism it would be that they could do better in conveying the theory of operation.