Looking for a simple, easy to understand and follow, guide to charge programming J1.1

[Bennachie]

As per the title. My EVSE does it all for me but I feel I should/must understand how to program my car. The 'instructions' read like double dutch - apologies to our friends in die Nederland. I am sure the NASA manual for the moon landings was clearer.....
I find the 'logic' difficult to follow and... illogical, Captain.
Forum search has been negative so far.....

Thanks in advance.

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[SergeyIndy]

We can help but need to know what you want to accomplish if your intent is for the car to handle the charging and EVSE acts as a dumb charger by providing power when car asks for it.

Please share your use cases and I can tell you exactly what you need to do. I spent about a year figuring it out with the help of the forum so I can cut to the chase, but explaining every use case without knowing yours is not efficient since terminology and rules are not intuitive and backwards at times confusing about everyone who went into it assuming by now (2020) they should have figured it out.

 

[Bennachie]

Thanks for the reply.
I want, primarily, to be able to plug in at any time, on any day and have the car charge to 85% between 11.30 and 5.30 during my 'off peak' window. Potentially not just when 'at home'.

 

[SergeyIndy]

Thanks for the reply.
I want, primarily, to be able to plug in at any time, on any day and have the car charge to 85% between 11.30 and 5.30 during my 'off peak' window. Potentially not just when 'at home'.

This is how it works and this is what you need to setup. J1.1 Only. J1.2 has a different setup.

First rule to know is that regardless of your settings as soon as you plug in the car and the SoC is <20% the car will start charging immediately as fast as possible until it reaches 20% and then will look for the next instruction. This is to say that there is no way for you to charge your car during any fixed start/end time if the SoC is <20%.

Then it will look what you have setup in the following setting, but I will cut to the chase for your case.

- Direct
- Profile
- Timer

Your setup for your use case needs to be the following:

Profile
General (default) - some try to be cute and mess with this, do not.
Location-independent (default) - keep it that way
Minimum Charge = 85% - makes no sense but that would be your max target charge
Profile setting = Preferred Charging Period and set your Start/End time

The expected behavior at plug in time, if SoC is <20% then it will start charging immediately until it gets to 20%. Then it will wait (blue pulse) until Start time and start charging until the End time or until it reaches 85%.

Best practice is to keep the car no lower than 50% on a daily basis, so I set my daily target to the type of SoC rate that by the time I am home, it is close to 50%.

The only time I ever go to 0% is when I need to rebalance, that I do every 5k miles, that also requires the car to be charged to 100%. Then I only go to 100% if I need to go somewhere long distance and then use the Timer function so it is 100% in time for departure.

I am happy to help with any other uses cases but try the above and let me know if it works but be sure the EVSE is not controlling any supply of power, it just provides it when the car asks for it.

 

[RBGtaycan]

Thanks for the reply.
I want, primarily, to be able to plug in at any time, on any day and have the car charge to 85% between 11.30 and 5.30 during my 'off peak' window. Potentially not just when 'at home'.

Don't feel bad. It took me days of reading, trying, testing and re-doing to get my Taycan to charge the way I wanted (mostly).

By way of comparison, it took me 3 minutes to do the same thing with my KIA EV6!

A sad statement about German software engineering.

 

[Watchesandburgers]

Some of this will be duplication of what others post. Here is my setup, which works very well, and is similar to your requested setup (the times differ a little, but that‘s immaterial).

First, setup your Profiles. The General profile is your “When I’m not home” profile. If you go to a friend’s house and need to plug in, or use a Level 2 charger at a hotel or whatever.

Set Minimum charge to 85% and select the Optimize charging radio button. This means, “when I plug in at a non-home location, immediately start charging to 85%.”

Then create a new “Home” profile for your home charging scenario. The Minimum charge default is 25% - the car will always charge to this minimum amount when you plug in. Select the “Set preferred charging times” radio button and add the times for your lower electricity rate.

Now go to Timer. Set Date and departure time to the end of your overnight rate, 5:00 AM. Check the Charging checkbox and set the Target charge to 85%.

All done! Be sure to set your home charger as a “dummy” charger. Let the car decide when to charge and by home much. Delete any schedules on the charger itself.

With this configuration, you’re set to charge to 85% between your configured overnight hours when at home. When plugged in anywhere else (friends house, hotel, office, whatever), the car will immediately charge to 85%. Note that NONE of these settings apply at a Supercharger or other Level 3 (fast) charging stations. Those stations bypass this entirely and will immediately charge to 100%.

Enjoy!!!

 

[Tooney]

Charging Profiles and Timers Graphic by @Jhenson29

 

[Jasper4S]

I still don't get it after 3 years so I've set a profile to always charge to 85%.

 

[Katodude]

Best practice is to keep the car no lower than 50% on a daily basis, so I set my daily target to the type of SoC rate that by the time I am home, it is close to 50%.

The only time I ever go to 0% is when I need to rebalance, that I do every 5k miles, that also requires the car to be charged to 100%. Then I only go to 100% if I need to go somewhere long distance and then use the Timer function so it is 100% in time for departure.

So two questions here, I always thought that the bottom was closer to 20% rather than 50%. Typically I charge mine when it hits 30%. Should I adjust my behavior?

Do you really also rebalance every 5K miles? What benefit does that give you? Its quite the process, is there a longevity benefit to doing it?

 

[SergeyIndy]

So two questions here, I always thought that the bottom was closer to 20% rather than 50%. Typically I charge mine when it hits 30%. Should I adjust my behavior?

Do you really also rebalance every 5K miles? What benefit does that give you? Its quite the process, is there a longevity benefit to doing it?

20% vs. 50%: There are two schools of thoughts. One says that there is nothing you can do to hurt the battery so just charge whenever is convenient as BMS handles it on. Second, my view based on evidence that the battery is happy at 50% that may not be material or make any difference long term but that is what I do. My daily habit is to bring it home at 50% so if I do not drive next day, it is happy standing, but if I do, then I plug it in and charge to whatever I need above 50% so when I am back it is back at 50%.

Checking SoH: I do this every 1k miles as preventative step to detect any sudden drop in SoH and cell outliers using cell SoC and Voltage graphs. The benefit is that if you detect anything then you have cause to go to the dealer to say my cells going bad, do your own thing.

Rebalance: I do this every 5k miles as it resets cell chemistry (I think of it as flushing), recalibrates the BMS, and the only procedure that makes bad cells come forward sooner. Rebalance discharges to 0%, did it last night so percent showing -- (J1.1 only please as it has a large buffer) , then leave car locked undisturbed 6.5 hours min, then recharge back to 100% on home charger and then leave alone again for 6.5 hours min. Then measure SoH and battery cells and ready to drive again.

 

[targa666]

I still don't get it after 3 years so I've set a profile to always charge to 85%.

I got it after an explanation of someone here on the forum right in the beginning of ownership. Thank you - someone.
we can meet up for a coffee and program your car / app if you want

 

[Bennachie]

A Thank you to everyone. Experimentation onward...

 

[targa666]

20% vs. 50%: There are two schools of thoughts. One says that there is nothing you can do to hurt the battery so just charge whenever is convenient as BMS handles it on. Second, my view based on evidence that the battery is happy at 50% that may not be material or make any difference long term but that is what I do. My daily habit is to bring it home at 50% so if I do not drive next day, it is happy standing, but if I do, then I plug it in and charge to whatever I need above 50% so when I am back it is back at 50%.

Checking SoH: I do this every 1k miles as preventative step to detect any sudden drop in SoH and cell outliers using cell SoC and Voltage graphs. The benefit is that if you detect anything then you have cause t o go to the dealer to say my cells going bad, do your own thing.

Rebalance: I do this every 5k miles as it resets cell chemistry (I think of it as flushing), recalibrates the BMS, and the only procedure that makes bad cells come forward sooner. Rebalance discharges to 0%, did it last night so percent showing -- (J1.1 only please as it has a large buffer) , then leave car locked undisturbed 6.5 hours min, then recharge back to 100% on home charger and then leave alone again for 6.5 hours min. Then measure SoH and battery cells and ready to drive again.

This sounds very interesting! Is there a more extensive tread on this?
how to do it exactly, what you need, etc

 

[SergeyIndy]

This sounds very interesting! Is there a more extensive tread on this?
how to do it exactly, what you need, etc

Yes, there is:

https://www.taycanforum.com/forum/threads/-baseline-for-hv-battery-soh-performance-battery-degradation-data-by-taycan-owners.12815/

You only need an OBD reader and free CarScanner app to do SoH checks.
Rebalance official procedure is also on that thread and comes from corporate TSB.

However, I am happy to explain everything in a step by step.

 

[W1NGE]

As per the title. My EVSE does it all for me but I feel I should/must understand how to program my car. The 'instructions' read like double dutch - apologies to our friends in die Nederland. I am sure the NASA manual for the moon landings was clearer.....
I find the 'logic' difficult to follow and... illogical, Captain.
Forum search has been negative so far.....

Thanks in advance.

You've been a member since 2024 and owned your car for quite a while (I assume) - how have you managed until now?

Quite simple really but others may disagree with the requirement to have a timer and profile (profile only never worked for me but has for others in US).

Recurring timer + profile

Worked for me flawlessly since 2021 through 2023 when I changed Ovo Charge Anytime and used their app instead.

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