Charging timer woes - how to set properly?

I've been trying to set the charging timer on my 2015 Leaf SV (with nav system) and am having trouble getting it just right. The timing is fairly simple. The cheapest rates in my area are:
Mon - Fri: 7pm through 7am
Weekends: any time

Another way to say it is that I want the charger to be off Mon-Fri between 7am and 7pm.

I have no problem setting Timer 1 to be on at 7pm and off at 7am for Mon-Fri. That seems to work fine. The problem is how to let it charge any time on weekends. I've tried the following:
- not assigning anything to Sat,Sun.
- setting Timer 2 to Sat,Sun with Start: 12am, End: 12am
- setting Timer 2 to Sat,Sun with Start: 12am, End: --- (not set)
- setting Timer 2 to Sat,Sun with Start: 12:10am, End: 11:50pm

No matter what i seem to try, it will not charge on weekends unless I press the immediate charge button after plugging in. Does anyone know a combination that should work? I'm willing to give anything a try at this point.

I'm not sure the timer system is smart enough to do what you want it to do. I believe the way it behaves is if it is plugged in when the timer start time hits, then it starts charging. If not, it waits until the next start time hits. When it does start charging, it goes until it is charged or the stop timer hits, whichever comes first. To confirm this, you could try waiting until 7:15pm on a weekday and then plug the car in and see if it starts charging.

I prefer to charge during the coolest part of the day. I have mine set to start at 12:30am and stop at 5:30am every day. If I need an additional charge during the day, I just plug it in and use the phone app to tell it to start charging.

Thanks for the suggestion - I'll try that tonight. It certainly makes sense from what I've been observing, but it's a pretty lame way for it to operate. It seems trivial for the timer to do some simple logic like this:

Event: charger attached
Check time: can I charge now?
Yes: start charging
No: wait for the next start

Perhaps Nissan could update the software to handle that kind of thing.

With our 'static' kWh utility rates, it doesn't matter when we charge ours but we do charge it at night all week regardless on the timer; M-F its at 80% as we just do work commutes; on the weekends we charge to 100% because we do lots of errands but I will tell you (at least with our '12) that we also may take even more trips than a full charge will give us, say at mid-day so after shutting the car off and just pushing the 'override timer' button and then plugging it in its no great shakes as that blue light shows you that you pushed the override to charge immediately --- I guess from living with the car this long (3+ years) I don't see the issue here. As your rates are the same all weekend, the timer aspect would only come into play as to when you want it ready to go more than start/stop times.

I certainly don't consider having to push the button a huge issue. i just thought it should be possible and was getting frustrated with not being able to figure it out.

baustin said:

To confirm this, you could try waiting until 7:15pm on a weekday and then plug the car in and see if it starts charging.

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I tried this (came home at 9:50pm and plugged it in) and it did start charging immediately. This is what I'd want but I am still confused why I get wait-mode on the weekend.

stvcisco said:

- setting Timer 2 to Sat,Sun with Start: 12am, End: 12am

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That should start charging immediately if you plug in after Saturday 12 am and before Monday 12 am.
Of course if you plug in late on Sunday depending on what you have set for Monday it might stop charging at midnight.

TimLee said:

stvcisco said:

- setting Timer 2 to Sat,Sun with Start: 12am, End: 12am

Click to expand...

That should start charging immediately if you plug in after Saturday 12 am and before Monday 12 am.
Of course if you plug in late on Sunday depending on what you have set for Monday it might stop charging at midnight.

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Thanks Tim - I thought that would work too, but mid-day on Saturday after coming back from somewhere, I plugged in and got the progressive flashing lights meaning it's waiting til later. I'll try it again just in case I messed up somehow.

stvcisco said:

...
Thanks Tim - I thought that would work too, but mid-day on Saturday after coming back from somewhere, I plugged in and got the progressive flashing lights meaning it's waiting til later. I'll try it again just in case I messed up somehow.

Click to expand...

When I was using 80% charging on a 2011 LEAF I never had a problem with that setting.
Since I lost two capacity bars I mostly charge to 100% and use the timer override.
Most likely there is something wrong with your timer setting.

I have no idea why anyone uses a start timer. If you leave at 7Am just set an end timer for 6am and let it go. This is simple, gives the best range with a warm pack, reduces long term high SOC, charges only on off-peak times on 240V.

One problem I see is that there is an overlap on Friday with Timer Two on Saturday. The easiest fix I can think of is to turn off the timer on Friday, and to remove confusion use your last Timer Two option. Another way would be to leave Timer One as is and change Timer Two to start at 7am and end at 7am on Saturday and Sunday.

EVDRIVER said:

I have no idea why anyone uses a start timer. If you leave at 7Am just set an end timer for 6am and let it go. This is simple, gives the best range with a warm pack, reduces long term high SOC, charges only on off-peak times on 240V.

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For me, I don't have a set time I leave every day (it varies greatly) so I want to just plug it in and forget it. As long as the electricity is cheap, charge it up so it's ready when I need it.

KennyLewis said:

One problem I see is that there is an overlap on Friday with Timer Two on Saturday. ... Another way would be to leave Timer One as is and change Timer Two to start at 7am and end at 7am on Saturday and Sunday.

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That's a good idea Kenny. It might also avoid the potential 7 hour dead-zone from end of Sunday to Monday at 7am.

Using a Timer 2 setting of 12am-12am worked this weekend. I must have done something wrong the first time I tried it. Next week I'll try the 7am-7am mode to see if that covers the range perfectly. Thanks for everyone's input.

adspguy said:

from another thread......

On week days I have a peak time of 4pm to 9pm and need to not charging during.

So I set timer 1: start 9:10pm end 3:50pm days: sun, mon, tues, wed, thurs
And set timer 2: start 9:10pm end 9:10pm days: fri, sat

This makes it charge any non-peak time when it is plugged in, and not charge during peak.

Click to expand...

change the times to match your needs and you should be good to go.

adspguy said:

adspguy said:

from another thread......

On week days I have a peak time of 4pm to 9pm and need to not charging during.

So I set timer 1: start 9:10pm end 3:50pm days: sun, mon, tues, wed, thurs
And set timer 2: start 9:10pm end 9:10pm days: fri, sat

This makes it charge any non-peak time when it is plugged in, and not charge during peak.

Click to expand...

change the times to match your needs and you should be good to go.

Click to expand...

Ahhhh, the part I was hung up on was that the timer crosses the day boundary, so a Thursday timer that starts at 7pm and ends at 7am actually will end on Friday at 7am. I didn't know I could count on that reliably, but perhaps so. In that case, this setting should work for my needs:

• Timer 1: start 7pm; end 7am; Sun-Thu
  TImer 2: start 7pm: end 7pm; Fri-Sat

That way the timer turns off Friday morning at 7am due to the Timer 1 on Thursday, and turns back on at 7pm Friday due to Timer 2. Similarly on Sunday, the timer turns off at 7pm Sunday (due to Timer 1 on Saturday) but on again immediately due to Timer 1 which allows charging again until 7am Monday.

This seems way more complicated than it should be. I suspect a mode telling it when not to charge would be more straight forward.

Thanks for your help @adspguy!

Just to wrap this up, I wrote a blog post [1] mostly so I could reference it later if I need to.

[1] http://somecisco.blogspot.ca/2015/04/nissan-leaf-charging-timer.html

I have read this whole thread trying to figure out specific charge timer settings for my situation with a 2013 SL.

All I want to do is have it charged to 80% on M,T,W,T mornings ready to go. Then anytime friday/sat/sun have it charge to 100%.

So I have set Timer 1: End time 6 am, MTWT, 80%
Then I set F/S/S End 0:00

So last night it stopped charging at 0:00 friday before it was full. I wasn't expecting this but it makes sense now.

I had tried a F/S/S timer of start 12/end12/100% but that didn't seem to work.

I will have to re-read this thread very closly and try a few more scenarios. Anyone have an off hand recommendation?

vwDavid said:

All I want to do is have it charged to 80% on M,T,W,T mornings ready to go. Then anytime friday/sat/sun have it charge to 100%.

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Hi vwDavid, after struggling with this for a while I think I'm qualified to make a suggestion - if it doesn't work then I'll have to reconsider my qualifications

Here's what I think will mostly work:

Timer 1:

• - no start time
  - end time 6am, 80% (as you had it)
  - Mon, Tues, Wed, Thu

Timer 2:

• - start time 6am, 100%
  - end time 6am
  - Fri, Sat, Sun

This will get you close but not perfect. It will leave you with 100% charge on Monday morning because of Timer 2's Sunday setting ending at 6am Monday at 100%. Other than that I think it gives you what you hope for.

The reason it's tricky in your case is because you're wanting to change both the percentage and modes of charging (just an end time for one, any time for the other), and with just 2 timers to play with I don't think that can be done perfectly.

If you don't care about it ending at 6am you could try this:

Timer 1: start 12am, end 6am, 80% M,T,W,T
Timer 2: start 12am, end 12am, 100% F,S,S

That would charge to 100% if you plug in on Sunday, but stop at 80% if it's not done yet and it passes midnight (aka Monday morning).

Hope that helps!