[djtseatmii]

Hi, hope someone out there is able to help me with my recent Pod Point home charger installation.
Am totally new to this world but believe I have the S7 model with a tethered cable. I had expected to achieve a 7kw an hour charge however I’m currently only getting 1kw an hour. Had a number of technicians out to inspect it who claim all is well. After doing a bit of research online I can only presume it’s something to do with the DIP switch settings and was wondering if someone could take a look at my photo and tell me if they are set correctly.
I’m pulling my hair out with the customer service of this company so any help would be appreciated!

 

[dk6780]

That's not a standard setting - I see that as 1101 and tethered.
.

Try changing it to 11001.

Also, how are you measuring the current, what car and have you installed the current clamp?

 

[djtseatmii]

That's not a standard setting - I see that as 1101 and tethered.
.
View attachment 143878

Try changing it to 11001.

Also, how are you measuring the current, what car and have you installed the current clamp?

Thanks for reply. I guess you’re referring to the bottom row of the table ? I thought it might have been the second row that it needed to be on but to be honest I don’t understand the 1phase and 3phase terminology. I thought the bottom row looked a bit powerful but like I say I know nothing!

I have a Seat Mii, measuring the charge with my Pod Point app and my smart meter which remains on green when I charge my car but turns amber when I boil my kettle?! and if you are referring to the energy clamp, yes it’s installed in my meter cupboard.

 

[dk6780]

You should ask whoever installed your PodPoint whether you have single or three phase. Most houses are single phase.
We may be talking at cross-purposes about clamps - you have should have one for the PodPoint to ensure that your house doesn't draw too much current overall by causing the PodPoint to limit the current to your car. If this is installed back to front the PodPoint behaves strangely.

 

[djtseatmii]

You should ask whoever installed your PodPoint whether you have single or three phase. Most houses are single phase.
We may be talking at cross-purposes about clamps - you have should have one for the PodPoint to ensure that your house doesn't draw too much current overall by causing the PodPoint to limit the current to your car. If this is installed back to front the PodPoint behaves strangely.

To be honest if I was to ask PodPoint about single or three phase I think I’d be met with a wall of silence.

After looking online I’m certain I must have single phase. I have two cables running under my floor from my pod point to the consumer unit- the technician explained the thinner one is the energy clamp lead which restricts the flow if the rest of the house is using a lot of power. I had to send a photo of the clamp installation to their technical team and they seemed to be ok with it so I think it must be the DIP switch settings. Will alter them tomorrow in daylight and let you know how I get on.

If it works I’ll use your Octopus link as a thanks as I was just about to switch to them

 

[dk6780]

Safety says check the rating on your MCB before altering the dip switches. If that doesn't work check the arrow on the current clamp is pointing the correct way.

 

[djtseatmii]

Safety says check the rating on your MCB before altering the dip switches. If that doesn't work check the arrow on the current clamp is pointing the correct way.

No luck with the dip switch settings. Was sure that was going to work but hey ho. I’ve taken a photo of my energy clamp, is this pointing the correct way (In case you can’t see it it’s pointing left)
Any help appreciated before I telephone PodPoint for the umpteenth time!

 

[cyclingaviator]

No photo showing

you should see two cables (tails) coming from the main fuse into the meter, then another two cables from the meter to the consumer unit, there may be other things before they get to the consumer unit but you get the general idea. The clamp needs to be on the positive, either red or brown, or if it’s grey it should have some kind of red or brown indication, be it tape or collets.

the arrow need to be in the direction of the electrical flow. If it’s clamped before the meter it needs to be pointing in the direction of the meter, if clamped after it needs to be pointing toward the consumer unit.

 

[djtseatmii]

No photo showing

you should see two cables (tails) coming from the main fuse into the meter, then another two cables from the meter to the consumer unit, there may be other things before they get to the consumer unit but you get the general idea. The clamp needs to be on the positive, either red or brown, or if it’s grey it should have some kind of red or brown indication, be it tape or collets.

the arrow need to be in the direction of the electrical flow. If it’s clamped before the meter it needs to be pointing in the direction of the meter, if clamped after it needs to be pointing toward the consumer unit.

Sorry forgot to attach the photo!

 

[cyclingaviator]

it should be left, so yeah it’s correct.

Also, just having a re-read, that table above, the columns under ‘circuit protection’ don’t correspond to the individual dip switches, it’s just telling you what you need to have for that particular setting.

for instance, 1100 is the setting for unrestricted power, the table to left is simply telling you that on single phase that’ll be 7.2kWh or 21.6kWh on three phase, it needs to be supplied with 6-10mm cable and a 40A breaker.

The setting in the first image, 11011 is not listed on that table, dip 5 is the tethered/non tethered selector.

as @dk6780 already mentioned, you need to check the rating of the breaker to confirm it’s 40A, that’ll be the metal box you can see the top of at the bottom of the image. Lift the flap and take a look, it should have a rating clearly on it. If it’s less that 40A then you shouldn’t be running the PodPoint at full whack, but I’d be surprised if its not 40A.

If it is 40A, you can then try changing the dips to 11001, but I’d switch it off at the breaker first, firstly because you don’t want to be inside the PodPoint with it live but also it may need a reboot to take the new setting, probably not, but the first point overrides that anyway

 

[djtseatmii]

it should be left, so yeah it’s correct.

Also, just having a re-read, that table above, the columns under ‘circuit protection’ don’t correspond to the dip switc positions, it’s just telling you what you need to have for that particular setting.

for instance, 1100 is the setting for unrestricted power, the table to left is simply telling you that on single phase that’ll be 7.2kWh or 21.6kWh on three phase, it needs to be supplied with 6-10mm cable and a 40A breaker.

The setting in the first image, 1101, is not listed on that table

So are you basically saying that me changing the switches would make no difference anyway? Have currently got them in the position 11001. Do you think I should leave them in that position? Any tips on where to take things from here would be appreciated - I’m all out of ideas. PodPoint think it’s something Seat needs to look at but they tell me if all chargers were giving me a 1kw charge then yes it could be the car but the car charges within a couple of hours with public chargers.

 

[cyclingaviator]

no the dip switches do actually do something, they set the upper limit to what the PodPoint will supply, remember, it’s not a charger, that’s in the car, it’s simply a fancy plug socket. Having the switches as 11001 the PodPoint is set unrestricted, unless it senses the current flow is in danger of overloading the household in which case it’ll throttle back, that’s what that clamp thing is for, but that’s an aside, unless you have lots of power hungry appliances running at the time of charging you can ignore that aspect.

I suspect you are also comparing the AC charging at home with DC charging at a public charger, to compare apples to apples you need to see what you get on another AC charge point, be it a public one of someone you know with a home unit.

 

[dk6780]

The Mii should charge at least at 3.7kW which should show on both the PodPoint App and the OP's smart meter.
Given that the dip switches are now in the correct place, the current clamp is correctly oriented then the next point of call is back to PodPoint to ask them to check the commissioning of the current limitation. At the same time check that the twisted pair of orange and blue cables are correctly to GND and EXTC in the PodPoint.
Good luck!

 

[davesul]

According to some of the posts in this thread New Seat Mii some recent cars have apparently needed a software update to achieve an AC 7 kW charging rate...

 

[gladini]

And .... what do you get at supermarket 7kw posts --- the right amount, or the same low you are getting at home --- if it's the same low then it's the car , could be you've some in-dash setting to only pull reduced current.
If it works fine at a Asda/Tesco/Sainsbury 7kw, then it's the pod point somehow.

Also see if you can get someone else's car to come to your house
if they get crap , again this points to the pod point

 

[djtseatmii]

And .... what do you get at supermarket 7kw posts --- the right amount, or the same low you are getting at home --- if it's the same low then it's the car , could be you've some in-dash setting to only pull reduced current.
If it works fine at a Asda/Tesco/Sainsbury 7kw, then it's the pod point somehow.

Also see if you can get someone else's car to come to your house
if they get crap , again this points to the pod point

Cheers for all your help guys. I was convinced it was the home charger at fault but now I think it must be the car. When I use the 22kw fast chargers at work they charge the car from empty in about two hours. I took it to my local supermarket today and used a 7kw charger, as per the recommendation above, for the first time and only achieved 0.2kw in half an hour so I’m starting to think the car doesn’t communicate correctly with the slower chargers?

I have booked it in with my local Seat dealer but have had to wait two weeks as they claim to only have a handful of technicians nationwide who can service electric cars. Really starting to think I should have waited until these sort of bugs and infrastructure were sorted before going electric but I guess things can only improve. Thanks again all.

 

[dk6780]

the 22kw fast chargers at work they charge the car from empty in about two hours

Are these AC or DC? DC is unusual but easily identified as they are a relatively large box (think pillar box) size as the contain the rectification circuitry and associated cooling.
When you charged at the supermarket you presumably took your own lead? Is this the same lead that you used at home?

 

[djtseatmii]

Are these AC or DC? DC is unusual but easily identified as they are a relatively large box (think pillar box) size as the contain the rectification circuitry and associated cooling.
When you charged at the supermarket you presumably took your own lead? Is this the same lead that you used at home?

I think the ones at work must be DC as they are a fair size. The lead is attached to the charger and they plug in to the top and bottom parts of the socket on my car.
At the supermarket I use my own lead but the one at home is tethered so didn’t think the lead would be at fault either.

 

[djtseatmii]

I think the ones at work must be DC as they are a fair size. The lead is attached to the charger and they plug in to the top and bottom parts of the socket on my car.
At the supermarket I use my own lead but the one at home is tethered so didn’t think the lead would be at fault either.

This is a photo of the work charger if it helps?:

 

[dk6780]

Those are DC given the choice of CCS or CHAdeMo.

So it does appear that the car is at fault on AC given different charge points (home, Supermarket) and different leads (home tethered/supermarket untethered). Back to SEAT.

Yet again it appears that (VAG) dealers are failing to PDI the cars properly - can you imagine them selling an ICE where the fuel filler was so heavily restricted?