Zappi help?

Ewan Hoosarmi

I have an Ioniq and a Zappi home charger. I don't yet have solar or wind generation, so it all comes from the grid.

I want to charge the car on night rate electricity, but I'm struggling to find the right settings for this. If I set the Zappi to 'fast', plug it in and use the car timer to start at 1am the Zappi times out long before that and the car doesn't get charged. This seems to rule out using 'fast' completely, as it seems to be for instant charging only.

Setting the mode to 'eco' starts an immediate charge at 1.4 kW. So I'm guessing that 'eco+@ is the mode I should be using. But how do I use this mode with timers, and which one, Smart Boost or Boost Timer?

I have a dual rate meter, but there is nothing that comes on at the changeover time, so no 'e-sense' input to start the automatic night rate charging.

Can anyone with the Zappi give me a clue as to how to set it up to charge on night rate, bearing in mind there is no surplus power at any point.

Thanks.

KCross

I think the section you need to read is the "Economy Tariff Boosting".
It depends on how your Zappi was installed and what sensors it has.

Ewan Hoosarmi

KCross wrote: »

I think the section you need to read is the "Economy Tariff Boosting".
It depends on how your Zappi was installed and what sensors it has.

The only sensor it has is CT1, which measures the flow between the meter and the consumer unit. That is, the total flow in.

Economy Tariff Boosting needs the e-sense to trigger it. As I have nothing that is made live by the switch over to night rate, this sensor isn't fitted. Therefore, that setting doesn't apply to my installation.

KCross

Ewan Hoosarmi wrote: »

The only sensor it has is CT1, which measures the flow between the meter and the consumer unit. That is, the total flow in.

Economy Tariff Boosting needs the e-sense to trigger it. As I have nothing that is made live by the switch over to night rate, this sensor isn't fitted. Therefore, that setting doesn't apply to my installation.

It gives 3 options. One of them doesnt require the eSense input.

"For option 1, the eSense Input in the Advanced menu should be set to
Boost Timer Enable."

Ewan Hoosarmi

KCross wrote: »

It gives 3 options. One of them doesnt require the eSense input.

"For option 1, the eSense Input in the Advanced menu should be set to
Boost Timer Enable."

That looks like the best option alright. Do you read that as setting the mode to eco+ then? That's the only setting that seems to pause and wait for the car. I just worry that it won't wait long enough. I suppose it could be time to suck it and see.

KCross

Health Warning.... I dont have a Zappi but I plan to get one in the near future and so I have read the manual.... a little knowledge being dangerous and all that!

My reading of it is that you set the eSense input to use the Boost timer (since you dont have an eSense sensor) and as long as the car is connected and its timers are set accordingly it should fire up at the configured time.

I'd try it out when you get home using a 5min charge boost rather than waiting in the morning to find a dead car!

I'm not 100% sure how the Zappi handles the cars own timers. Are they compatible or not.
i.e. if you set the Zappi to boost at midnight but the cars own timer is set to charge at 3am... what will the Zappi then do.... will it try it at midnight, fail to start and then skip the entire session or will it happily start at 3am.... i would hope it would but only you will be able to tell us that!

Ewan Hoosarmi

KCross wrote: »

Health Warning.... I dont have a Zappi but I plan to get one in the near future and so I have read the manual.... a little knowledge being dangerous and all that!

My reading of it is that you set the eSense input to use the Boost timer (since you dont have an eSense sensor) and as long as the car is connected and its timers are set accordingly it should fire up at the configured time.

I'd try it out when you get home using a 5min charge boost rather than waiting in the morning to find a dead car!

I'm not 100% sure how the Zappi handles the cars own timers. Are they compatible or not.
i.e. if you set the Zappi to boost at midnight but the cars own timer is set to charge at 3am... what will the Zappi then do.... will it try it at midnight, fail to start and then skip the entire session or will it happily start at 3am.... i would hope it would but only you will be able to tell us that!

From the small trials I've done, if it fails to handshake with the car it goes into a huff and won't charge at 3. It looks like the charger has to have full control to work. The car timers seem to just get in the way.

Open to being corrected on this stuff, I'm just stumbling through it.

_dof_

Ewan Hoosarmi wrote: »

From the small trials I've done, if it fails to handshake with the car it goes into a huff and won't charge at 3. It looks like the charger has to have full control to work. The car timers seem to just get in the way.

Open to being corrected on this stuff, I'm just stumbling through it.

Did you get to the bottom of this? I was planning on getting the Zappi, but like you using only grid power for now. I was expecting that in fast mode, it would act like a regular EVSE and would provide power to the car whenever it asked for it.

I was expecting to set up charge and cabin preconditioning timers in the car and letting the car completely control the charging. Is that possible?

Ewan Hoosarmi

I tried setting the charger to 'fast' and the timer on the car for the time I wanted. The charger just timed out and charging just didn't happen.

I don't use preconditioning as I don't set off at any regular time. So I just set the boost timer for the night rate meter time (on mode eco+) and leave no timers on in the car. This charges the car to full when on night rate. That's all I want it to do for the moment.

I did e-mail Myenergi, the company that make the Zappi, asking about the preferred method of charging, but they chose not to answer me. I'll try again to another e-mail address. I'll report back here if they respond.

_dof_

I downloaded the user manual and I see a setting that might help, in Compatibility…, there's one called Infinite PWM.

"Keeps zappi ready to restart charge after charge is complete – this is needed on some EV's when the user wants to preheat the vehicle in morning"

Don't really know if it would be applicable, but might mean the charger makes itself available infinitely.

creedp

_dof_ wrote: »

I downloaded the user manual and I see a setting that might help, in Compatibility…, there's one called Infinite PWM.

"Keeps zappi ready to restart charge after charge is complete – this is needed on some EV's when the user wants to preheat the vehicle in morning"

Don't really know if it would be applicable, but might mean the charger makes itself available infinitely.

Does this mean you can't charge at max 32amp when using the car timers?

KCross

Ewan Hoosarmi wrote: »

I did e-mail Myenergi, the company that make the Zappi, asking about the preferred method of charging, but they chose not to answer me. I'll try again to another e-mail address. I'll report back here if they respond.

I asked them and they did reply....

"I would run the device in eco+ mode ; eco+ mode can be configured not to charge unless there is surplus green power available, the required extra charge can then be topped up by off peak power which is just what you are aiming to do.

Don't worry about min green level as that is only applicable to percentage of green power required to charge vehicle - this is not available yet until your PV is installed and you will be charging via boost function anyway.

The car controls the time of the charge regardless of what any charging point is trying to do so you would need to set the car's built-in timer to coincide with your cheaper rate power. If you can disable the in-built car charging then that might work too as the zappi will be programmed to deliver charge during off peak tariffs."

This suggests that it is compatible with the car timers but he wasnt definitive about it in that he said "... that might work too..."

Ewan Hoosarmi

I finally got a reply from Myenergi. Make of it what you will.


Because you may have different settings in the Zappi & the Ionic, they may conflict. In all cases, the EV can only accept a charge & stop a charge. It can't start a charge.
Zappi tells the EV when it's ready, free to the EV to decide to charge.

For the preconditioning, you need to have Compatibility mode ON and the "infinite pwm" on as well

The infinite pwm leave the communication between Zappi & the EV when the batteries are fully charged or if the EV stops the charge for some reason (programmable timers etc). I would recommend you to leave it ON with the default settings.

KCross

Shefwedfan wrote: »

The zappi is pain in ass if you don’t have pv to be honest

KCross wrote: »

Once setup correctly it’s plug ‘n play.

One of its issues is that it’s too configurable which means it’s easy to set it up wrong.

Without PV the setup is easy enough.

What issues are you having?

Shefwedfan wrote: »

The charge master is plug n play. Set up everything on the car and then plug it up. Boom it charges


On the Zappi, even after contacting them I have to put at Eco mode and then it starts to trickle charge at 1kW and then the booster kicks in. I dont even think the booster is kicking in. Bu the trickle gives me enough. The fact I am paying premium rate to trickle is a bit pointless. I dont know why you just can't set it to dumb charger mode like the chargemaster is. A big glorified plug

Hey Shef, moved your post over here as its more appropriate than the Renewable forum!

Anyway, the Zappi should be the same as the Chargemaster in that regard. Without PV it will work the very same as the chargemaster except it will also do load limiting which is important when you have 2 EV's and an electric shower.


Setting it to Eco means it will be trickle charging waiting for excess Solar, which you dont have, so I dont know why you have been advised to use that mode.

If you are using the cars timers, rather than the Zappi timer, you should be using "Fast" mode and ensuring the PV settings are off. When you plug the car in it should say "Waiting for EV", then it will count down from 30s and realise the car is on a timer and then change to "Delayed Charging" and sit and wait for the car to initiate the charge and since its in "Fast" mode will allow the full 32A.

If you post some pics of your settings I should be able to help. Maybe the Grid limit or the Charger limit is set low or the boost settings are wrong or something. Hard to pinpoint it exactly without seeing all the settings.

randombar

Hi Guys, I'm kind of in the same boat myself with the charging settings.

So my nightsaver for some crazy reason is offset by 3 hours, clock is wrong so it's 9 to 5am.

Working on modifying my settings on my zappi so that it stops charging at 5 and it doesn't seem to be working.

I have Eco+ on and working, I have boost set to come on at 12:15 for 4:45 mins, however at 5am it just starts charging again?

I tried adding a schedule via the web app too but that doesn't seem to have worked either:

https://capture.dropbox.com/ISuSSkfNXs0FiTA0

eddhorse

I use ECO+ and have it scheduled using the Myenergi app (You need the Harvi for the app but you can do this on the Zappi itself too)

cannco253

same here, ECO+ and scheduled on the Zappi. Plug it in and walk away.

When I plug in to the ID.4 it tries to connect, after about a minute it stops (red light comes on). Only starts later on when the zappi scheduler tells it to.

Have never used the ID.4 scheduled charging as it doesn’t work.

You don’t need the Harvi for the app, only need the hub. The newer zappi has Wi-Fi built in so no need for the hub.

randombar

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119731673#Comment_119731673

So I was between phones but I've the app back now. Annoying that the functionality isn't mirrored on the web app.

How do I save a schedule I create?

If I set a schedule, close the app and go back in it reverts to the manual tab??

cruizer101

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119739260#Comment_119739260

It will revert to the manual tab but on the scheduled tab if it has the clock symbol that should mean the schedule is saved and active

randombar

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119739831#Comment_119739831

Ya I saw it reverts to manual all right but no clock symbol for me unfortunately and all schedules gone when I go to the tab. Might need to see about updating my zappi firmware but I thought that was automated.