Tesla Model S

slave1

Thanks both, I have a charge point already but not Grant Aided so I would not expect a high installation charge as it's just swapping out my Pod Point for a Zappi, anyhow will update when I've quotes in.
Agree with the as many panels as possible but it irks me having to buy a battery the way the grants have gone.
Okay, no more on this, I'll keep to the Renewables forum which the advice/quotes come in, first guy coming around tomorrow evening...

KCross

slave1 wrote: »

Model S and Solar Panel charging

What is the lowest output that a 2015 Model S will take off Solar Panels e.g. 1.4kW and do I need to adjust anything in the car or will it just kick in automatically...

unkel wrote: »

5A

You can adjust that in the car on the charging screen. If you don't do this, the charger in your car will take the max it can get (which is usually 32A, or 7.4kW on a single phase connection)

The above 5A setting will limit the charger in your car to only take 1.2kW (5A * 240V = 1.2kW)

garo wrote: »

I am currently charging at 1.2kW so can confirm what Unkel said. And Zappi is smart so if your excess is 1.5 it will put 1.5 into the car. Very happy with the setup.

Eventhough the charging protocol says 1.4kW is the minimum, some cars will go below that. Most of the Hyundai/Kia cars will allow it.... as low as 500W.

Does the Model S allow less than 1.4kW and if so how low does it go?.. or does it disconnect the charge session if the excess drops below 1.4kW from the Zappi?

unkel

slave1 wrote: »

I would not expect a high installation charge as it's just swapping out my Pod Point for a Zappi, anyhow will update when I've quotes in.

Have you bought the Zappi yet? If not, I wouldn't bother. It will never pay for itself even if you have a car connected to it all day every day during day light hours. Unless you bought the Zappi second hand for very cheap and you can swap it over yourself.

I considered doing this myself, there was one for sale recently for EUR400. If I got it for EUR300 and switched it over myself (including changing out the tethered head and chopping up my current cable to fit it), it still made very little economic sense. So I left it

unkel

KCross wrote: »

Eventhough the charging protocol says 1.4kW is the minimum, some cars will go below that. Most of the Hyundai/Kia cars will allow it.... as low as 500W.

Does the Model S allow less than 1.4kW and if so how low does it go?.. or does it disconnect the charge session if the excess drops below 1.4kW from the Zappi?

I have charged the Model S at 1.2kW on my 32A charge point. And I have charged the Ioniq at just 760W on the granny charger (from memory the lowest it took on the 32A charge point was 1.4kW)

slave1

unkel wrote: »

Have you bought the Zappi yet? If not, I wouldn't bother. It will never pay for itself even if you have a car connected to it all day every day during day light hours. Unless you bought the Zappi second hand for very cheap and you can swap it over yourself.

I considered doing this myself, there was one for sale recently for EUR400. If I got it for EUR300 and switched it over myself (including changing out the tethered head and chopping up my current cable to fit it), it still made very little economic sense. So I left it

I want to change to a tethered charge point in any case, was grand when just the Leaf but with both cars now EV it will reduce a lot of hassle, especially when raining etc, boots open, disconnecting one cable, putting it away, opening another boot and taking another cable out to connect up etc, Yuk.
Cost will be dampened by the €600 grant

garo

The Model S has a 5A min. Note it is the same in the US so there it will charge at 600W = 5*120V. One of the few places where having a higher grid voltage is not an advantage.
The Zappi will make sure it supplies 1.2kW to the car. If the solar excess drops below that it draws from the grid or your battery. But you can set a limit on that. For instance I have a threshold set that if solar excess is less than 750W it won't charge the car. And it's really smart about and doesn't conflict with the battery like I was afraid it might. They've got the algorithm right.

KCross

unkel wrote: »

I have charged the Model S at 1.2kW on my 32A charge point. And I have charged the Ioniq at just 760W on the granny charger (from memory the lowest it took on the 32A charge point was 1.4kW)

If you use a standard charge point it will be just an on/off switch at the charge point side so ultimately the rate is controlled by the car.

The question I have, is how do Tesla's behave when connected to a Zappi (or other Solar integrated charge point) as they are a bit different in that they will signal the car to reduce the rate below 1.4kW... as I said, even as low as 500W but its then down to the cars software as to whether it does that or disconnects.

So, I'd be interested to know how low the Tesla's go when connected to a Solar integrated charge point. Maybe 1.2kW is its minimum.

As you saw yourself the Ioniq went much lower... thats a really useful capability if you are integrating with Solar as it means it will soak up alot more of the excess you have and not simply keep cutting out every time the excess drops below 1.4kW. So you might have 1kW of excess but its not going to the car. That adds up.

garo

@KCross: Cross-post. See my answer above.

KCross

garo wrote: »

@KCross: Cross-post. See my answer above.

garo wrote: »

The Model S has a 5A min. Note it is the same in the US so there it will charge at 600W = 5*120V. One of the few places where having a higher grid voltage is not an advantage.
The Zappi will make sure it supplies 1.2kW to the car. If the solar excess drops below that it draws from the grid or your battery. But you can set a limit on that. For instance I have a threshold set that if solar excess is less than 750W it won't charge the car. And it's really smart about and doesn't conflict with the battery like I was afraid it might. They've got the algorithm right.

1.2kW is its minimum then. Thats unfortunate.

unkel

KCross wrote: »

As you saw yourself the Ioniq went much lower... thats a really useful capability if you are integrating with Solar

Only when on the granny cable though :-)

I think it was minimum 1.4kW on the type 2 home charge point

garo

KCross wrote: »

1.2kW is its minimum then. Thats unfortunate.

Actually it's not that bad. I have a battery too and the Zappi and the inverter work well together. On a partly cloudy day like today my PV output ranging between 700W and 2500W, and a base load of 400W, I have only exported 0.2kWh out of 7.3kWh produced. And I don't have an immersion diverter.

_dof_

KCross wrote: »

If you use a standard charge point it will be just an on/off switch at the charge point side so ultimately the rate is controlled by the car.

The question I have, is how do Tesla's behave when connected to a Zappi (or other Solar integrated charge point) as they are a bit different in that they will signal the car to reduce the rate below 1.4kW... as I said, even as low as 500W but its then down to the cars software as to whether it does that or disconnects.

The Zappi doesn't signal the car to tell it what current the car should draw, it only signals the maximum that the Zappi can provide. It's up to the car to draw whatever it likes up to that limit. So, if you have the Zappi in Fast mode, it will signal to the car that it can draw up to 32A (unless you have configured a lower device limit).

The car can choose to draw much less than that if it likes, but not more.
So even if it signals that it can supply 32A, an older leaf will only draw a max of around 16A. Also, when the car's battery is nearly full it will draw a lot less power than the maximum it's allowed to.

When you use Eco or Eco+ mode and you don't have enough surplus, the Zappi will signal that it can provide a maximum of 6A, which is the lowest that the standard allows. The car can still draw less than this if it wants.

KCross

_dof_ wrote: »

The Zappi doesn't signal the car to tell it what current the car should draw, it only signals the maximum that the Zappi can provide. It's up to the car to draw whatever it likes up to that limit. So, if you have the Zappi in Fast mode, it will signal to the car that it can draw up to 32A (unless you have configured a lower device limit).

I understand that, it's what I said.... "its then down to the cars software as to whether it does that or disconnects.".

I was just interested in how low the Tesla would go, thats all, as I know the Hyundai/Kia's go much lower than 1.4kW.

daddy_boy

I have decided that I am going to bite the bullet and get the MCU upgrade sorted, its driving me crazy. I don't really want to get in the car one morning and ….

I just want to make sure that it is the MCU unit that is dying.

These are the symptoms,

1 the bottom of the touch screen when selecting A/C controls slides up and I get a lot of pixelated horizontal lines up to about 5 cm and when I try and clear by tapping the car icon (repeatedly) it eventually slides back down

2 When opening the main menu and trying to select suspension or driving or one of the sub menus it either dosnt respond to the “touch” or it superimposes the new screen on top of the old one , so its impossible to access anything.

I have sent bug reports each time it happens , but have heard nothing back from the SC.

So if it is the MCU I believe I am out of warranty.



MS 90D
Built 2016 Q4
Registered 2017 Q1
Mileage 98,500 km ish
UK import

I have a question that is nagging me if the previous owner in the UK notified Tesla that they had a problems with the MCU and it was playing up while it was still under warranty, but for some reason decided not to get if fixed.

Would I be able to resurrect the fault/log complaint and get the unit fixed under warranty ? As the problem was notified while still under warranty. - I think I am clutching at straws – if you don't ask ….. !

unkel

Unless you have proof from the previous owner that he mentioned issues consistent with the MCU1 failing to Tesla, you're clutching at straws. At least you can now get the upgrade to MCU2 for less than Tesla was charging previously to just replace MCU1!

If you have balls of steel, you could get Tesla to do the work and then take them to the small claims court. An owner in the UK did that and the court found against Tesla (automatically as Tesla did not show up). Or wait it out an hope Tesla will do these replacements out of courtesy / goodwill in the near future

My own MCU1 will be replaced under warranty soon. Just waiting for the part now (got a call from Tesla this morning confirming this). Well, the daughterboard that is, with the eMMC chip that's the cause of all these issues.

ELM327

daddy_boy wrote: »

I have decided that I am going to bite the bullet and get the MCU upgrade sorted, its driving me crazy. I don't really want to get in the car one morning and ….

I just want to make sure that it is the MCU unit that is dying.

These are the symptoms,

1 the bottom of the touch screen when selecting A/C controls slides up and I get a lot of pixelated horizontal lines up to about 5 cm and when I try and clear by tapping the car icon (repeatedly) it eventually slides back down

2 When opening the main menu and trying to select suspension or driving or one of the sub menus it either dosnt respond to the “touch” or it superimposes the new screen on top of the old one , so its impossible to access anything.

I have sent bug reports each time it happens , but have heard nothing back from the SC.

So if it is the MCU I believe I am out of warranty.



MS 90D
Built 2016 Q4
Registered 2017 Q1
Mileage 98,500 km ish
UK import

I have a question that is nagging me if the previous owner in the UK notified Tesla that they had a problems with the MCU and it was playing up while it was still under warranty, but for some reason decided not to get if fixed.

Would I be able to resurrect the fault/log complaint and get the unit fixed under warranty ? As the problem was notified while still under warranty. - I think I am clutching at straws – if you don't ask ….. !

I did this, and they logged the issue, but as I've done 20k km since and the issues are not recurring I don't see it being linked.

unkel

ELM327 wrote: »

I did this, and they logged the issue, but as I've done 20k km since and the issues are not recurring I don't see it being linked.

In your case if you did get the MCU1 failing, I would argue that it started failing while still under warranty

slave1

daddy_boy wrote: »

MS 90D
Built 2016 Q4
Registered 2017 Q1
Mileage 98,500 km ish
UK import

The Tesla SC can remotely log onto your car and see if the memory chip is reaching capacity, this will provide you an answer (of sorts).
There are other MCU1 issues apart from the memory chip capacity...

daddy_boy

unkel wrote: »

In your case if you did get the MCU1 failing, I would argue that it started failing while still under warranty

that is my thinking for my problem, i am going to contact the previous owner tonight and see what he has to say, i saw also the article about the UK owner and the small claims do you have a link as i searched and failed - i would ideally like to see the court papers for the arguments that where used, i have messaged TGUK also asking for the info.

daddy_boy

unkel wrote: »

Well, the daughterboard that is, with the eMMC chip that's the cause of all these issues.

Daughterboard upgrades are now available in the UK for £314 incl


do you know how much dublin are charging? if dublin are charging the same i might go that route

ELM327

unkel wrote: »

In your case if you did get the MCU1 failing, I would argue that it started failing while still under warranty

I could, but I may just get MCU2 instead.

Gumbo

Need to keep an eye out for this.
Generally speaking I’ve had no problems.

I have LTE signal which leads me to believe the previous owner upgraded something but I’ve no documentation or evidence of this as it’s a 2014 car it should only have 2G or 3G?

Only yesterday I was waiting on herself in Argos so I start playing around in the toy box and the screen froze. I couldn’t start the car as it stated ‘please wait for systems to power up’

I done the soft reset (hold down steering wheel buttons) and it came back to life straight away.

Not sure if MCU issue or just me pressing stuff too quick.

unkel

daddy_boy wrote: »

Daughterboard upgrades are now available in the UK for £314 incl


do you know how much dublin are charging? if dublin are charging the same i might go that route

I think the guy from Tesla mentioned €600 to me this morning, but I might have misunderstood. Best ring them yourself and they will tell you.

Gumbo wrote: »

I have LTE signal which leads me to believe the previous owner upgraded something but I’ve no documentation or evidence of this as it’s a 2014 car it should only have 2G or 3G?

Yeah LTE is 4G. You lucky bastard

Satellite map refresh works really quickly then? Have you tried it in another older Model S that had only 3G? It is the one upgrade I would consider paying for.

Gumbo wrote: »

Only yesterday I was waiting on herself in Argos so I start playing around in the toy box and the screen froze. I couldn’t start the car as it stated ‘please wait for systems to power up’

I done the soft reset (hold down steering wheel buttons) and it came back to life straight away.

Not sure if MCU issue or just me pressing stuff too quick.

You should think of a Tesla more as a computer than a car. The occasional reboot is par for the course

If you get a lot of these though, system very unwilling to start, artifacts on the screen, etc. they might be signs of MCU1 failure.

Gumbo

unkel wrote: »

I think the guy from Tesla mentioned €600 to me this morning, but I might have misunderstood. Best ring them yourself and they will tell you.



Yeah LTE is 4G. You lucky bastard

Satellite map refresh works really quickly then? Have you tried it in another older Model S that had only 3G? It is the one upgrade I would consider paying for.



You should think of a Tesla more as a computer than a car. The occasional reboot is par for the course

If you get a lot of these though, system very unwilling to start, artifacts on the screen, etc. they might be signs of MCU1 failure.

No haven’t compared it against another to see if there’s a difference.
I wouldn’t class the map refresh as very snappy, although that does depend on signal.

Screen freeze. That’s first time that’s happened. But what I do notice quite a bit is when getting into the car, the main screen powers up perfectly but the dash screen takes about 10 seconds for the Tesla logo to appear and start up. And it always happens when in a rush

10 seconds is not a lot of time for a “computer” to boot up, it just feels like an age at the time but I’ve always discounted it as the main screen was powered up and functional every time.

slave1

The car was in “deep” sleep is all, you can change this in the various menu options at the cost of range loss as it consumes more power when always “awake”.
LTE is replacement, I have LTE too as mine was replaced earlier this year

garo

Yes LTE is an upgrade as it requires the SIM board in the MCU to be replaced. My car had the same done in 2018. I don't see the satellite refresh as particularly fast tbh - my phone is as fast if not faster. No idea what it's like on 3G.

Gumbo

slave1 wrote: »

The car was in “deep” sleep is all, you can change this in the various menu options at the cost of range loss as it consumes more power when always “awake”.
LTE is replacement, I have LTE too as mine was replaced earlier this year

Yes I have this setting off alright. I used to have it always connected but heard it loses range over night.

garo wrote: »

Yes LTE is an upgrade as it requires the SIM board in the MCU to be replaced. My car had the same done in 2018. I don't see the satellite refresh as particularly fast tbh - my phone is as fast if not faster. No idea what it's like on 3G.

So this is getting better. It appears I may have had it replaced but wonder is there any way to confirm?

unkel

garo wrote: »

Yes LTE is an upgrade as it requires the SIM board in the MCU to be replaced.

Is the SIM board the same one that has the eMMC chip on it or are they two different daughter boards?

I would imagine it's the same one.

garo

Short answer. I don’t know. Too tired to do a google search

garo

https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/posts/4903701/
Ah what the hell. No they are different. You have the mother board then you have the Tegra board that has the eMMC and then you have the SIM board.