Octopus Intelligent with Zappi integration erroring for about a week

[bn8959]

I am on Octopus Intelligent and have the integration set with my Zappi ESVE.
I think this issue relates specifically to this combo.

For the past 18 months everything has been working perfectly.

either I just have a profile set to 75% and I plug in and forget and OI schedules the charge and enables the Zappi boost mode at the right time.
Or if I am going on a long journey and would need more than 75% SoC, I set the profile to 25%, and set a timer for my departure time with the SoC target (usually 100%). I then in the octopus app set the ‘ready by’ time to be 30 mins after my timer time.

this has all worked really well.

Up until last week. I’m sure this is a change in behaviour on the OI side.
I now frequently have charges fail with the Octopus app reporting a charging error:

I’ve emailed Octopus and they said they are receiving an error from the Zappi:

• cloud-device-external-stop-charge
• cause: Car stopped charging. External interference - chargePointState: other, deviceStatus: charge_delayed, operationalStatus: active, isBoostActive: true, supplyMode: eco+

In my mind this is normal and expected behaviour. The Taycan is choosing to stop charging, due to timer, as it will normally do multiple times in a charge session. This must be generating the ‘external stop charge’ message.

I think OI may have made a change and are thinking this is an error, then unschedule the whole charge, which will take the Zappi off boost mode and you then get no charge at all (even in the normal 23:30 - 05:30 window) and you have to unplug and re plug to fix.

Has anyone else started having issues?

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[tophamn]

I am on Octopus Intelligent and have the integration set with my Zappi ESVE.
I think this issue relates specifically to this combo...

I have the same setup as you.

I too use a single profile, no timer, to limit the charge. If I need more charge I change the profile setting; I never use a timer. I sometimes also go into the Octopus app and up the charge-required % in this case. Not sure that's going to fix your problem but might be worth trying.

Something else I noticed recently: the Zappi locked up and needed to be reset - the screen on the unit itself has some error and tells you what to do (hold some key for a while, I think).

Let us know how you get on.

 

[tophamn]

Thinking about this more it seems normal: you plug in and Octopus schedule the charging slots, but if your car already has more charge than the profile minimum it will refuse to charge and Octopus throws the error. Your car wants to charge to its own schedule as dictated by the timer/leave-by but that won't align with the Octopus schedule.

What might have changed recently is Octopus adding in more charging slots outside the usual overnight cheap rate window due to the sunny days we've been having (excess solar on the network).

I think if you go back to the profile-only setup, making the % there what you want as a maximum, and the % set in the Octopus app as more than you really need, you'll be good - the car will charge whenever Octopus enables Zappi and stop at the % set in the profile.

 

[bn8959]

I’ve worked round that pretty successful in the past. Always set the % to add to 100%. Octopus then schedules the maximum amount of charge time - always plenty in the morning.
If you are just using a profile - no problem, car will just charge (and only error when outside of an IO charge slot).
But you can use timers too and for the times I need 100% at 7am I’ll change the profile to 25% and enable a timer and set IO ready time to be 30 mins after that.
In the past it’s always worked out and met the charge at the correct time. But recently IO has been ‘unscheduling’ the charge and going in to an error state whenever the car pauses. This then causes all subsequent charging to fail (including the standard overnight period).

 

[tophamn]

I’ve worked round that pretty successful in the past. Always set the % to add to 100%. Octopus then schedules the maximum amount of charge time - always plenty in the morning.
If you are just using a profile - no problem, car will just charge (and only error when outside of an IO charge slot).
But you can use timers too and for the times I need 100% at 7am I’ll change the profile to 25% and enable a timer and set IO ready time to be 30 mins after that.
In the past it’s always worked out and met the charge at the correct time. But recently IO has been ‘unscheduling’ the charge and going in to an error state whenever the car pauses. This then causes all subsequent charging to fail (including the standard overnight period).

I've not tried what you have but I strongly suspect the Octopus scheduling is fighting the car's own scheduling - the car decides when it wants to charge based on the timer but Octopus may have decided that doesn't correspond to its own timing, thus your errors. In the case of only the default profile and no timer the car will take charge whenever Octopus/Zappi provide it, up to the % set in the profile.

I know you say it's worked well in the past but that may be more luck than anything. It could also be that Octopus has changed its scheduling algorithm.

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