A250e Charging Woes

[IbanezDan51]

Hi guys

So something which appears to be simple with every other manufacturer, however, mercedes seem to be unable to get right...

I’m struggling to charge my vehicle during off peak electric periods. Although im led to belief that the mercedes me app is suppose to prepare the vehicle to charge before you’re required commute time (pre 7am for me) everytime I plug the vehicle in (via wall plug or 7kw) the car starts to charge... brilliant. I’ve seen a few issues about this online... so ... BP chargemaster came to fit their unit... great, an app that I can use to set the charging time ... or so I thought.. downloaded the app to find you need to register, but wait, no way to register a new account... tried to call but no answer and all online reviews say exactly the same, no way of registering...
So, next... Octopus energy offering a deal on a Ohme smart charge cable. Can set the times you want to charge... plug this in and it takes an hour to get signal and recognise the cars plugged in... at which point the car is already 75% charged and making use of the cheaper tariff is rendered useless yet again..

Right now I’m thinking I go back to the 3 pin wall plug and stick a timer on it (or one of the sockets with a dedicated timer that’s IP rated for outside). My house was rewired just over a year ago to modern standards all round so shouldn’t be a problem overloading the circuit?

Really losing patience with it, spoiling the ownership of this car 1 month in.

Cheers
Dan

 

[GLK]

Can't comment on other problems you're having, as I'm on a single tariff and my smart EQ handles pre-set departure time perfectly, getting the car nice and toasty (and it's only once a week, as we mostly work from home). The 'start charging at ...' function also works fine for other times, though rarely needed.

However, I think it's a bad idea to use a mechanical timer for this - at least in my manual, it clearly states to plug into the wall socket first, otherwise you might get errors and malfunctions.

Not having much experience with EVs - only had this smart EQ for just under five months - I follow that rule religiously: car plug goes in last and comes out first, just like handling a 12V car battery - becomes second nature.

 

[IbanezDan51]

Can't comment on other problems you're having, as I'm on a single tariff and my smart EQ handles pre-set departure time perfectly, getting the car nice and toasty (and it's only once a week, as we mostly work from home). The 'start charging at ...' function also works fine for other times, though rarely needed.

However, I think it's a bad idea to use a mechanical timer for this - at least in my manual, it clearly states to plug into the wall socket first, otherwise you might get errors and malfunctions.

Not having much experience with EVs - only had this smart EQ for just under five months - I follow that rule religiously: car plug goes in last and comes out first, just like handling a 12V car battery - becomes second nature.

Hi GLK, thanks for the reply.

The start charging at function does not exist on my app, do you have a screenshot of this on your app? This is all that’s available kd to me.


thanks
Dan

 

[Deleted member 126969]

I’ve converted my Rolec charger to be slightly more smart than it was by adding a SonOff switch to control the power to the comms unit. This effectively behaves exactly the same as switching power to the whole charger. I plug the C350e in when it gets home, then the power comes on at 01:00 and off at 04:00. Of course, the tiny battery in the C350e only takes just over an hour to go from a typical 20%-ish to full. As soon as the power is applied, the comms unit talks to the car and charging starts.

The Me app used to offer scheduled charging for the car but it vanished at some point. I think when the old app was retired?


I use Apple Home to control the SonOff, but it needs to be reprogrammed for that. Out of the box, they can be managed with a dedicated free app.

 

[Jigglyjohnson]

Its advised against using a timer as u described due to the heat could melt or even catch fire !! All technical publications say not to use extension leads or plug timers. In the Mercedes me app is it just listing departure time or does it list a section where u can delay the charge?? The new smart ad allows this from the app

 

[GLK]

The start charging at function does not exist on my app, do you have a screenshot of this on your app?

I've yet to get to the dealership to activate smart EQ Control app - certain COVID-19 lockdown measure are not helping ... so I'm just using the car instrument cluster to set departure, on/off, etc. A bit old-fashioned, but works and okay for now. Looked at demo in the app and it'll be fun to get all these features ... hopefully we'll be back to normal in 6 to 8 months' time.

 

[Deleted member 126969]

I wouldn’t want to use plug-in style timer for this task either. I used to have a coolant pre-heater on a car that was set on a timer for the colder mornings. Only 2kW but it still melted the thing.

 

[IbanezDan51]

I’ve converted my Rolec charger to be slightly more smart than it was by adding a SonOff switch to control the power to the comms unit. This effectively behaves exactly the same as switching power to the whole charger. I plug the C350e in when it gets home, then the power comes on at 01:00 and off at 04:00. Of course, the tiny battery in the C350e only takes just over an hour to go from a typical 20%-ish to full. As soon as the power is applied, the comms unit talks to the car and charging starts.

The Me app used to offer scheduled charging for the car but it vanished at some point. I think when the old app was retired?


I use Apple Home to control the SonOff, but it needs to be reprogrammed for that. Out of the box, they can be managed with a dedicated free app.

Can you explain or show an image of how you have connected the so off switch and which you have used? This may be a good option for me.

thanks
Dan

 

[Deleted member 126969]

The viability of this depends on your charger, so I can only speak to my Rolec. It has a small communications/control module in it that talks to the car via the charge cable to tell it how much power it can have, and when asked to by the car, it turns on the contactor in the charger to supply the power for charging.

The SonOff is a cheap WiFi controlled relay switch capable of controlling about 10A (2.5kW), but only needs to switch the power going to the comms module. It isn’t up to controlling the actual charging current, only the power for the comms unit. I wouldn’t even want to use one to switch a ‘granny charger’, although you could get creative and use one to control a more capable contactor if you could find something suitable.

Inside the Rolec, the mains comes in to a breaker and a couple of thin wires feed power to the comms module. Remove these from the comms module and connect them to the input of the SonOff. Connect the output of the SonOff to the mains input of the comms module where you just nicked the wires from...and that’s it. The SonOff now controls the power to the comms unit.

This is an example of what I used.

SONOFF BASIC WIFI WIRELESS SMART SWITCH FOR MQTT SMART HOME AMAZON ALEXA UK | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for SONOFF BASIC WIFI WIRELESS SMART SWITCH FOR MQTT SMART HOME AMAZON ALEXA UK at the best online prices at eBay! Free delivery for many products!

www.ebay.co.uk

As I mentioned, I wanted to control it with Apple Homekit so it has to be modified/reprogrammed, which is a bit more involved, but no reason you can’t use the inbuilt Alexa or Nest or the dedicated App without having to mess with it.

A simple test to get an initial idea if your charger & car will support this is to switch off the mains to the charger (I assume it has an RCD on it so use that), plug the cable into the car, then switch on the breaker. If all is happy and it starts to charge, you are good to go. Next step is to open up the charger and see if it’s going to be practical to intercept the low power mains feed to the comms unit. That depends on how the charger is made if course. The Rolec is very simple, so it was easy.

I claim no ownership of this idea by the way, I saw it on an EV forum and copied it!

 

[rafaelaviz]

I gave up dealing with BP chargemaster, always random excuses for not working. After some research I saw a video showing the operation of shelly relay, the most that would happen would be an explosion of the wall charger, and it no longer works, so I wouldn't miss anything. Booom! It's works perfectly. I bought it for £14 at Amazon.

Shelly 1 Relay Switch Wireless WiFi Home Automation iOS Android Application Shelly 1 Relay Switch Wireless WiFi Home Automation iOS Android Application : Amazon.co.uk: DIY & Tools

 

[spinaltap]

I recently read a newspaper article on the general shortage of BP chargers - and their unreliability once fitted.

 

[mikea250e]

I gave up dealing with BP chargemaster, always random excuses for not working. After some research I saw a video showing the operation of shelly relay, the most that would happen would be an explosion of the wall charger, and it no longer works, so I wouldn't miss anything. Booom! It's works perfectly. I bought it for £14 at Amazon.

Shelly 1 Relay Switch Wireless WiFi Home Automation iOS Android Application Shelly 1 Relay Switch Wireless WiFi Home Automation iOS Android Application : Amazon.co.uk: DIY & Tools

Hi, Could you let me know how you wired it in? i can't really see from the photo's especially the shelly terminals. I to have given up with BR after they said the issue regarding the scheduling was the fact that it uses a 2G is and my area has poor coverage even though holding my phone next to it has a strong 4G signal!! they only way i can get the usage data is to perform a factory reset each time.
I also blame Mercedes for not having this function in the car so i can use my Octopus 5p overnight charge rate.

 

[Petrol Pete]

Hi, Could you let me know how you wired it in? i can't really see from the photo's especially the shelly terminals. I to have given up with BR after they said the issue regarding the scheduling was the fact that it uses a 2G is and my area has poor coverage even though holding my phone next to it has a strong 4G signal!! they only way i can get the usage data is to perform a factory reset each time.
I also blame Mercedes for not having this function in the car so i can use my Octopus 5p overnight charge rate.

click on the link in post # 10 . the schematic is there.

 

[mikea250e]

Yes on Amazon it shows it in a lighting circuit, i want to know how you wire it into the BP breaker box.

 

[rafaelaviz]

Hi, Could you let me know how you wired it in? i can't really see from the photo's especially the shelly terminals. I to have given up with BR after they said the issue regarding the scheduling was the fact that it uses a 2G is and my area has poor coverage even though holding my phone next to it has a strong 4G signal!! they only way i can get the usage data is to perform a factory reset each time.
I also blame Mercedes for not having this function in the car so i can use my Octopus 5p overnight charge rate.

I took another photo and I'll try to explain it with numbers.

I made only three cables that are the number 3, 4 and 6. The number 5 I disconnected from the last circuit and put it in 0(Shelly).

Number 3 goes on L(Shelly), 4 on N(Shelly), 5 on 0(Shelly) and 6 on 1(Shelly).

The secret is in number 5 and 6, you make him pass by Shelly.

Basically Shelly cuts the current from 0 to 1, I used the last breaker since it doesn't pass the main current that goes to the car. It is a test circuit breaker.

 

[rafaelaviz]

The best part, Shelly works integrated with Alexa.

I created two tasks and works perfectly.

 

[mikea250e]

thanks rafaelaviz, i will give it a go.

​

 

[grober]

Can I just say this is exactly what this section of the forum should be about- to help the owners of Mercedes [ or other make] hybrids or EVs with using this new automotive technology which it increasingly looks like we will have deal with in the future- like it or not!