Phantom Charge Start

So.. my VisibleTesla installation just sent me an alert at 12:15am via email that my car started charging. It's not scheduled to do so at that time.

I have VT scheduled to command my car to start charging at 2:30am:


As a backup (in case my computer reboots and VT isn't running for some reason), I have the in-car schedule set to start at 3:00am. I just went out and verified that's correct.

And yet the car is charging. I haven't driven it today, and it was down about 3% from it's normal 90% "weekend" charge level. But I don't ever recall it deciding to "top off" at a time other than when I have had scheduled.

Odd. Has anybody else seen this?

FlasherZ said:

I don't use scheduled charging, but was thinking that seems like "topping off" behavior to me. I don't know, though - don't know what topping off behavior is like for those who use scheduled charging. Last night charged as expected?

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It did.

I have VT running consistently, and I don't recall ever getting a notification of a charge-start at an unscheduled time.

That having been said, it's unusually cold at the moment, and I didn't drive the car at all in the last 28 hours... so maybe it is top-off behavior. The charge went from 87% back to 90%, as best I can tell.

Combining responses to several posts:


I'm running the .115 flavor of 6.1. I went out and verified it was indeed charging.. and VT confirmed the same. It went back up to 90%.

It certainly could have been battery heating.... I've just never seen/been notified before for that to happen. That having been said, it's been pretty cold here recently, and that's first time it's been sitting that long without being driven I think.

I guess I should clarify that although the car had been sitting for 28 hours when the event occurred, it had only been about 14 hours since the car finished it's previous night's charge up to 90% (from ~11%). In my experience, that warms the pack up to operating temp in my garage. My garage isn't well insulated, so it was probably in the mid-to-high 30's in there yesterday... so not THAT cold. But maybe it had been sitting long enough to make the pack heater kick in.

Although, interestingly Visible Tesla reports not only current draw from the AC source (40A max for me), but also the current in to the battery (which is 21-22A). Typically if I have other draw on the system (such as when I have cabin heating on) while charging, I'll see the battery current drop down to 14-16A as a result of the heaters drawing some power.

I believe​ that when I looked at during the event, it showed a "full" battery current reading. So that would seem to imply that it was all charging, and no power being used for heating anywhere. I may be mistaken here however. (it was late and I was sipping on an adult beverage to keep me warm during the storm :wink

I'll see if it happens again.. although it's quite a bit warmer today...

jerry33 said:

The act of charging alone heats the battery, and at close to freezing temperatures that was probably all that was required.

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But the point was that it started charging at a non-scheduled time of it's own accord. The suggestions here are that because it woke up to heat the pack, it also started charging.

Although charging the pack does indeed have the side effect of warming it, I don't think there's any evidence that the car will wake because the pack is too cold, an opt to use charging as a heating method rather than the TMS...

SW2Fiddler said:

If the Gremlins movies and Jimmy Buffett have taught us anything, it's that it's always after 3AM somewhere

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Good point... I'll remember the "no feeding after midnight" thing too...