Stop Charging Timer?

Our electric rates are high from 3 PM to 6 PM. My wife and I work from home primarily. Therefore I would like to set up my charging to start whenever I plug in, but to shut off automatically during peak hours. So far I am hving to do this manually. Any suggestions on how to achieve this?

Start at 6pm, end at 3pm (the next day)?
Then, if you plug in at 4pm, it will wait until 6pm to start charging.
Is that what you want?

garygid said:

Start at 6pm, end at 3pm (the next day)?
Then, if you plug in at 4pm, it will wait until 6pm to start charging.
Is that what you want?

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But he said he wants it to start charging as soon as he plugs it in. I don't think it's possible to have it both ways. Your suggestion would be the closest though.

LEAFfan said:

garygid said:

Start at 6pm, end at 3pm (the next day)?
Then, if you plug in at 4pm, it will wait until 6pm to start charging.
Is that what you want?

Click to expand...

But he said he wants it to start charging as soon as he plugs it in. I don't think it's possible to have it both ways. Your suggestion would be the closest though.

Click to expand...

If he plugs in during the off peak hours then it would start charging as soon as he plugs it in. If he plugs in during the on peak hours and wants to override the Blink timer, he'd simply have to click on "Charge now" on the Blink to override the timer and force the Blink to turn on NOW.

Basically, what I am getting from these replies is an affirmation that the charging timer cannot do what I want. I am going to have to manually control it. Will take this up with Blink. Hope they will provide me with an API so I can reprogram their box to do what I want.

Thanks for the replies everyone.

Use the timer in the car. I have mine set to be ready at 6am. It will calculate what time it needs to start to be ready by 6am and start accordingly.

danscottphx said:

Basically, what I am getting from these replies is an affirmation that the charging timer cannot do what I want. I am going to have to manually control it. Will take this up with Blink. Hope they will provide me with an API so I can reprogram their box to do what I want.

Thanks for the replies everyone.

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No, I don't think you fully understand the replies. If anything, you did not articulate clearly what it is you want.

The only time you have to manually control anything is when you want to override the OFF time that you had programmed into the Blink during the peak hours so that the Blink will "Charge Now" right away during the peak hours despite the timer being told that it's supposed to be OFF time.

Otherwise how is the Blink going to know whether your action of plugging in is to wait until the peak time to charge like you told it to, or to charge right away if you change your mind? Even if the Blink is a smart human, it's still not going to be smart enough to guess your intention unless you tell it. Clicking on the "Charge Now" button to override the timer you set on it should be no hardship to complain about. It's just a simple way to allow you to declare your intention of when you want it to deviate from your original timer programming.

And good luck asking Blink to give you an API to mess around with their boxes. They even put a temper-proof lock to seal off their units so users can't open it up, so why do you think they're give you any API to mess around with?

Leafboy said:

Use the timer in the car. I have mine set to be ready at 6am. It will calculate what time it needs to start to be ready by 6am and start accordingly.

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That's what most people do, use timer in car instead of the Blink timer. But even in this situation, if you want to charge outside of the timer's ON time, you have to push the timer override button in the car to declare your intention to charge now.

So regardless of which timer you use, you still at the minimum need the push a button if you want to override the timer OFF period to Charge Now.

You can also go online and start/stop the charging anytime you want to.

Leafboy said:

You can also go online and start/stop the charging anytime you want to.

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Really? You can start it anytime, but I haven't figured out any way to stop it.

Ray

Maybe I am wrong! (won't be the first time) But I thought I read it in one of the manuals(BOOKS!) that came with the car. I'll have to give it a test soon.

planet4ever said:

Leafboy said:

You can also go on-line and start/stop the charging anytime you want to.

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Really? You can start it anytime, but I haven't figured out any way to stop it.

Ray

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Ray, you are right. I tried to do it and couldn't. Then I contacted Nissan on-line chat and asked if there was a way to do it and they said there was not. I stand corrected!!!