Intelligent Octopus Go

[Leccy61]

Some glitches early on, but IOG controlling my car has been absolutely fine. Sometimes it can take 15 minutes after plugging in to handshake and set up a charging schedule, but usually within 5 minutes. It hits the SoC and times asked for, don’t give it much thought any more.

Re: Using a commando instead of a EVSE. Cant see why not. Even when the car is the IOG device, the app asks what home charging equipment you’re using, I would imagine so it knows the charging rate to calculate schedules to achieve the SoC you want.

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[E500]

Re: Using a commando instead of a EVSE. Cant see why not. Even when the car is the IOG device, the app asks what home charging equipment you’re using, I would imagine so it knows the charging rate to calculate schedules to achieve the SoC you want.

Thanks. Without dragging this too far off topic, I was considering starting with using a commando socket and seeing if I can live with it; as there will be days at a time where I don't use the car, or only use it locally, so there'll be plenty of time for it to charge slowly at home.

 

[bn8959]

Thanks. Without dragging this too far off topic, I was considering starting with using a commando socket and seeing if I can live with it; as there will be days at a time where I don't use the car, or only use it locally, so there'll be plenty of time for it to charge slowly at home.

If you are referring to a 32a commando socket then you’d get exactly the same 7.2kw charging speed as any fully wired EVSE (unless you have 3 phase of course).

 

[E500]

If you are referring to a 32a commando socket then you’d get exactly the same 7.2kw charging speed as any fully wired EVSE (unless you have 3 phase of course).

Thanks - exposing my ignorance here but I had assumed it was a lower output for some reason.

 

[Boer13]

Hello

New here, new to the car and new to EV's. Not new to Porsche. Have been on a steep learning curve re home charging and not there yet but maybe this is helpful to someone noting YMMV.

Setup:
2020 Taycan 4S with 79kWh battery
Andersen A3 charger
Octopus Intelligent Go

Learnings:
Octopus & Andersen are both keen to help
Could not get the car set up on the Octo app until I signed up for Porsche Connect
Octopus wants to know charger and vehicle info, and then seeks to control the car not the charger
On my car, that somehow doesnt work well - ie Octo ignores the 80% limit set via their own app
After a few emails - Andersen had upgraded the charger firmware, and Octopus had given in to my request to link to the charger, as opposed to the car so in the Oct app, the linked device is now Andersen A3 as opposed to Taycan
OIG rate still applies, though I now need to dial in the % charge I want to add to the battery, as opposed to the % level to achieve.

Test run coming up tonight. Keen to see if the 15% I dialled in, will make it go from 65% to 80%.

 

[Cappo]

Hey Boer

With my Ohme wall charger on Octopus I'm able to set the desired SoC (85%) on the Ohme app and it communicates with the Porsche server via Porsche connect and tops up to that level no problems. Does the Andersen not prompt you to sign in to Porsche Connect when you select your car in the app?

 

[Bennachie]

This is why you don't get an Andersen EVSE.... Reviews very negative on its use (and cost) - very positive on its looks,

 

[Leccy61]

Good luck with the test @Boer13. When your car was the Octopus device did you ensure there were no timers or profiles set in the charging part of the Porsche app? I ask because it can be confusing to see how Octopus interacts with the app, but bottom line its only going to work properly if there are no timer or profile flags already there. If the Andersen EVSE being the Octopus device doesn't make you happy and you revert to the car being the Octopus device, suggest you check that.

 

[Boer13]

With my Ohme wall charger on Octopus I'm able to set the desired SoC (85%) on the Ohme app and it communicates with the Porsche server via Porsche connect and tops up to that level no problems. Does the Andersen not prompt you to sign in to Porsche Connect when you select your car in the app?

Cappo, yes, the Andersen got connected to the car via Porsche Connect sign-in.
I have however not tried to set a limit there - in my first setup.
In my second setup, ie with Octo controlling the charger, the Andersen app has switched to a dumb mode so no settings possible.

If I revert to the former setup, I will try your proposal, thank you. Hopefully the Andersen app works in this way too.

This is why you don't get an Andersen EVSE.... Reviews very negative on its use (and cost) - very positive on its looks,

It was recommended by the Porsche Centre, when I bought the car.

Good luck with the test @Boer13. When your car was the Octopus device did you ensure there were no timers or profiles set in the charging part of the Porsche app? I ask because it can be confusing to see how Octopus interacts with the app, but bottom line its only going to work properly if there are no timer or profile flags already there. If the Andersen EVSE being the Octopus device doesn't make you happy and you revert to the car being the Octopus device, suggest you check that.

Leccy61, depends on the definition of 'set'. I have dialled in the general profile settings, but keep it not selected (no tick mark) and 2 x heating only timers.. which might have been ticked too. Would active heating timers make a difference?

(If it does, then by implication heating the car in the morning, if it was charging overnight, needs to be activated manually via app or unlocking, is that right?)

Lastly - the trial run didnt go to plan and I may very well revert to the original setup, as Octopus controlling Anderson and asked to top up by +15% to reach 80% got their math wrong.. so it was 100% charged this morning. I've send them both further emails and await responses.

 

[Spuddy]

I’ve been running on IOG and a Zappi for the past five months (after having solar installed). After setting up octopus to control the zappi and trying various settings, the only reliable method for me is to set a 100% charge in octopus and turn on/off using eco+ through the zappi. This tends to create an immediate schedule which allows the house to take advantage of the same cheap rate. Then I manually turn off the chrging when at 80% or so. This routine works as I typically top up 20% a day so 3 hours charge in the evening when we have peak usage.
As mentioned, I tried various ways to get it to automatically charge to a set limit but it just wasn’t reliable (not charging, semi charging or not stopping ). The current setup is manual but works really well for our current circumstances. Hope that helps someone as it seems very trial and error with the Taycan.

 

[Leccy61]

@Boer13 my references to “set” are a timer or profile with the toggle on.

In my early experiences it was me messing with charging timers that created issues with IOG. When I realised that Octopus creates charging timers in the Porsche app which don’t correspond to the times set in the Octopus but this is how it works all was fine if I left it alone.

You can create timers for climate only but you will probably find that if the Octopus charging schedule changes (it will do this sometimes) or if you change the schedule, Octopus will change the charging timer in the Porsche app and delete the climate timer you had in there! Pre-conditioning the cabin on demand from the app rather than use timers is where I ended up.

Oh and for the past month or so, Octopus sends an app notification “Unable to control your device” after it has started charging which seems to be spurious as it’s working fine.

 

[Boer13]

Thanks @Leccy61 for the helpful elaboration. I've seem some of this behaviour too, ie heater timers changing randomly ahead of the charging period commencing (then I'd fiddle them back via Porsche Connect in defence of a comfortable start to the next morning..).

Lesson learnt, I'll disable those heating timers now and give Octo another chance to control the car. Since I plan a 140mi round trip tomorrow morning, it won't be the end of the world should Octo again ignore the limit. I'll set it to 90% and update this thread some time tomorrow.

 

[NYLaw]

Thanks @Leccy61 for the helpful elaboration. I've seem some of this behaviour too, ie heater timers changing randomly ahead of the charging period commencing (then I'd fiddle them back via Porsche Connect in defence of a comfortable start to the next morning..).

Lesson learnt, I'll disable those heating timers now and give Octo another chance to control the car. Since I plan a 140mi round trip tomorrow morning, it won't be the end of the world should Octo again ignore the limit. I'll set it to 90% and update this thread some time tomorrow.

i would be interested in your experience, as i've a
Andersen A3 charger too. & thinking of defecting from OVO charge anytime to Octopus Intelligent Go tariff due to today's doubling of charge anytime tariff to 14p.

 

[Boer13]

And here's an update, following on post No.27.

I went a step further, before connecting the charger, by deleting the car's Timers.

Octo then set up a charge schedule:
Timestamp 20:02

Quick check.. the total scheduled time adds up to ca. 2 hours so it was planning to add ca. 14kW. Perfectly good plan, as the car was already at 76% at this time.

Here's the status on P Connect at the time:

So after a handshake, it had gone into 'Charge pause' and now await 01:11 and Octopus control and to complete charging by 06:30. All good & ready!
....

FF>> to this morning 06:30
I was pleased to note that my phone has charged from 22% to 100%.. but what about the car??

Car has gained 6% and reports for duty - 'Charging Process completed'.

And what does the Octo app have to say about this? Interestingly, the schedule had been updated during the night and they were still trying to top it up!!

So all smiles again - Octo are still planning to scramble to 90% by 08:00 and charging is to commence in 20 min ie by 06:50. Brilliant scheme!

But then it didn't.

And by 06:52 I had found the issue. Which I'm not sure Octo can solve - but I'll tell them.
Here it is:
Octo adapts schedules dynamically, and often (as in these schedules above) split across numerous slots. That's how their model works, shifting grid excess efficiently. Or trying to - unless the integration with the car is problematic - which it is:

Here's what P Connect (also) showed this morning:

A very random timer, out of nowhere! Wasn't me and not the type of prank my wife would pursue. The car? Octo?

Bottom line, the integration is not up to standard.

I did one more check - on the Andersen app, I found the charger was used once off last night from 00:02 to 00:32 - this lines up with the 6% charge increase overnight. It doesnt agree with the original Octo schedule, but that would have updated after I stopped keeping an eye on it last night.

So Octo had one shot at charging the car, it added 6% and then the random timer (above) appeared, after which Octo had no chance. While It had most likely continued to create new schedules each time when it could not execute its own plan, it could not get past that silly timer.

I'm not going to retype this, but will fw Octo a link to this note in case it helps them improve the integration.

Going forward, I guess I'll be using Octo in the dumb mode unless this get solved. The car timers, when set manually, pulls charge just fine.

Just to clarify - on my 2020 car the P Connect app offers no slider for 'Max desired SoC', which I think newer cars may have.

Apols the long post and many screenshots but hopefully this can help somebody with their own decisions or experiments.

 

[tophamn]

...
A very random timer, out of nowhere! Wasn't me and not the type of prank my wife would pursue. The car? Octo?

Yep, Octopus. I suspect they set a 'random' timer in order to limit the total charge, usually a few days out.

I found Octopus's integration with the Taycan to be unusable so I rely on them controlling my Zappi now; I use a single profile in the car to limit the total change.

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