Yes I’m having exactly the same unfortunately. The toggle to turn smart charging off seems to work and it kicks straight in, but the charging allowed toggle doesn’t appear to work. I’ve setup scheduling from the car (and leaving Podpoint on manual) for now.
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I might go down the route of turning Smart Charging Off & On in my integrations instead. I’ll test to see if it works reliably.
So, having checked:
Turning Off Smart Charging is actioned on the Solo 3 within 20s and it begins to charge.
The reverse is also true for ending charging.
All integrations now updated to use this method.
My guess is that the problem lies with the Pod-Point servers being able to reliably switch the Solo 3 on or off based on schedules since the schedules seem to be accurately reflected in the App after HA has updated them based on the state of “Charging Allowed”
There is a ping device for HA.
My Solo 3 is assigned a static IP by the router.
I use that to send an alert.
Looks like you’re right — I set an overnight charge schedule on the PP app last night which started fine but failed to stop and has no record of the schedule I set…
Thank you both for catching the issue here…
I’ve been experiencing exactly the same behaviour, good shout to use the smart charge toggle.
I was going to revert to scheduling through Pod Point but you’ve saved me an extra step of frustration.
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My Solo reliably changes between Smart and Manual charge modes in the PP app based on the integration status, but unfortunately this doesn’t result in the car charging. I have seen the charge mode in Manual with charge status of “Paused”.
It seems to reliably stop in Smart mode but not reliably start in Manual.
So I guess I’ll have to split my automation in 2 to “start” and “stop” automations from 1 “start and stop”.
Edit: Now the kids are in bed and I have some time to monitor properly, there is just anywhere up to 6 minutes delay before the PP switches to Manual and starts charging.
I don’t use the Charging Mode to set the mode to manual. There is a specific smart charge entity - Similar to : switch.psl_123456_smart_charge_mode which I switch to “off” to start a charge and “on” to stop a charge. It takes less than 3 seconds to update the actual Pod-Point. I don’t use the app for any charging schedules or or switching charging on or off.
Hi, thanks for this integration, its great. I have just moved to a new property that has a charger and i have connected to it and all seems fine, except the “total cost” shows lifetime cost, which for me is currently 0 as i didnt start using it yet … is there any way to reset this to 0 either artificially (i guess i could use a helper) or via Api?
You could probably contact Pod Point support and ask them to zero it for you.
Anyone else seeing 401 Unauthorised errors occasionally when trying to switch on Smart Charge via automation?
Be careful - I’ve read they can be a bit difficult with change on owners (normally if you buy it 2nd hand) and magically your PP stops working overnight. Would be easier to note the current level and make another sensor that keeps count minus this number
Anyone else seeing this
Started recently no changes my end.
- Unable to connect to Pod Point. (Connection Error: Timeout error fetching information from https://mobile-api.pod-point.com/api3/v5/users/707771/pods - )
Took the app ages to load up.
Try logging in to the app and see if that works. Could be their API is down. I upgraded my HA server yesterday and it’s ok - can see the app getting info from the API.
Was this at the time of the Octopus Free energy session today from 2-3pm? My podpoint was slow to start the charge and HA took 15 minutes to recognise the charging session has started, so I assumed it was lots of people instructing their PodPoint to start charging at the same time, and maybe causing delays?
Hi folks,
I’ve been using this integration for a while, and use the option to disable Smart Charging to start the charge, which does start very quickly, less than 30 seconds. But I have problems getting the charge to end when re-enabling Smart charge mode, and am getting some odd messages in the Activity log, and I want to start by asking if others also get the odd messages, or maybe this indicates something wrong with my installation.
When HA turns Smart Charge mode off, I usually get the same set of odd messages:
PSL-xxxxxx Cable Status became unavailable
PSL-xxxxxx Status became unavailable
PSL-xxxxxx Cloud Connection became unavailable
PSL-xxxxxx Charge Mode became unavailable
PSL-xxxxxx Charge Overrid End Time became unavailable
PSL-xxxxxx Charging Allowed became unavailable
PSL-xxxxxx Smart Charge Mode became unavailable
PSL-xxxxxx Firmware Update became unavailable
And then usually after 5 minutes, another set of messages showing the correct status for each of the above entities.
Anyone else seeing all of the entities become ‘unavailable’ when starting a charge by turning off Smart Charge?
Thanks. Ian
Hi Ian, PodPoint quote ‘up to 5 minutes’ for changes to reflect. Based on what they say, the device seems to only look for changes once ever 5 minutes. You can compensate for this by doing things 5 minutes earlier than you need, or vise versa
Hi Matt,
Yep, I am aware of the ‘up to 5 minutes to respond’ statement, and accounting for this by triggering 5 minutes early. However, my current trigger is when the Octopus Free Electricity binary sensor changes from Off to On, and I don’t think HA can plan something 5 minutes before a state has yet changed.
But I am keen to know if other people are seeing the same odd messages with every Pod-Point entity changing status to “unavilable” ? If not, then there must be something wrong with my implementation of the integration, and I will be tempted to remove and re-install. But if everyone is getting these odd messages, then it must be a red herring that I will ignore.
My PodPoint is powered up from a 13a socket at the moment, just so I can get it configured and working with HA. Hopefully it will be wired up in the next few weeks.
I have a few things I would love to be able to do with it, perhaps you can tell me if its possible…
- Is there any data exchange between vehicle and PodPoint charger, that provides any information as to the vehicle? Such as chassis number? (Would be good to be able to check whether mine or my Wife’s car is plugged in and charging and record how much power consumed. Maybe even have a icon on a dashboard showing which vehicle is charging)
- Can I create a routine to dump excess Solar power into the PodPoint and override any schedule charges? (PodPoint scheduled, not vehicle scheduled)
- Can HA set a charge speed? For example 3.6kW if Solar excess is 2-4kW, 7.2kW if Solar excess >4.
- Can I create a routine to charge the vehicle at a certain time, replacing the vehicles charging schedule? (All charging then triggered through HA)
- Does PodPoint know anything about the vehicle state of charge, so I could display it on a dashboard?
I appreciate some of these may be beyond the capabilities of the charger, or the integration.
Hi Paul and welcome to the PodPoint integration.
To help people try and answer some of your questions, can you provide the model of PodPoint charger you have, as the newer models have more features.
Is there any data exchange between vehicle and PodPoint charger
My 5 year old Pod Point Solo does not exchange any data with the car, I can’t comment for newer chargers
Can I create a routine to dump excess Solar power into the PodPoint and override any schedule charges?
Diverting spare solar to charge a car may be possible, but will be affected by the model of car and charger. Many EV’s have a minimum charge rate, I think it was 1.5kW, so if there is less than 1.5kW of solar, the PodPoint would end up importing electricity anyway. I believe the newer Solo S supports solar charging, but I don’t have one so cannot comment on exactly how it works. I would suggest searching for your car model, charger and ‘solar charging’
It is possible to override the Pod-Point schedule, that is exactly what this Pod-Point integration will do for you, but this integration will not be able to override any schedule in the car. The recommendation is to use one method for scheduling, either the PodPoint app, or HA, or the car, but using more than one is bound to lead to confusing problems.
Can HA set a charge speed? For example 3.6kW if Solar excess is 2-4kW, 7.2kW if Solar excess >4.
For HA to set a charge speed would first require either the charger or car to have the capability of being charged at a specific rate. Then the charger or car would need to make that setting available for control through software. And finally, there needs to be an integration in HA that can control that charge speed setting. As an example, my Kia EV6 allows me to set the charging rate via the dashboard in the car, but does not make that setting available for control through software, so the KIA integration in HA cannot control the charging rate. Again, I suggest searching for your model of car and “HA charging rate”
Yes, absolutley, that is what this integration will do for you (but you should disable the scheduling built in to the car)
Does PodPoint know anything about the vehicle state of charge, so I could display it on a dashboard?
This depends on the model of charger and car. However, even if the charger does not get the SOC from the car, if there is an HA integration for your car, I would expect that would get the SOC, and then you can display the SOC on a dashboard.
I would suggest you look for a HA integration for your model of car, and see what features are available through that. You may then be able to create an Automation that combines features in the PodPoint integration and the car integration to do clever stuff.
As an example, I have an automation that is triggered when the cable is connected between the PodPoint and a car, and it then gets the SOC, mileage and remaining range for our EV6 and Renault Zoe via those integrations, and sends that data to me in an email. This helps me as I like to track the charging of the cars, and it saves me having to remember to get the data before the charging starts. I have another automation that gets the same data once the charging cable is disconnected. Although both cars in theory know if the charging cable is connected, for both cars this data is completely unreliable, hence I get the data for both cars.
Hope this helps.
Ian
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