Storage Mode

[Botbldr45]

I figured as much! What an outstanding piece of electronics........I'm sure drivers all over the world thank you every day. Good job!

I just found it page 7 OVMS Technical Discussion.

 

[wycolo]

Roadster 2.0 #764 in storage mode since May 2014. Every time I check (max of 3 weeks between checks) it is within a few miles of 45. Today, 7 days after last check, it is down to 30 miles and saying 'connect power'. So without touching anything I switched to standard mode and it reported 'heating beginning' with a % scale. Was down to -7*F last night. I did unplug it momentarily a few days ago just to switch outlets so apparently that paused it and switching today to standard mode made it active again. Scary.

Agree now with the suggestions (and my prior practice) of keeping car in standard mode @60% or so. Then if it gets disconnected or PAUSED it will have weeks to slowly drop to the 30% level by its own efficient self before approaching the danger zone.
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[wiztecy]

Agree now with the suggestions (and my prior practice) of keeping car in standard mode @60% or so. Then if it gets disconnected or PAUSED it will have weeks to slowly drop to the 30% level by its own efficient self before approaching the danger zone.
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With the help of OVMS and good cell connection its possibly to manage your own storage mode thanks to Mark and the SOC limt. I'd really like to know why Tesla allows storage mode to get down so low and the rational for it if any. Only benefit I can think of is that you're away for a few weeks that the Roadster just monitors and really doesn't need to take a charge. But who cares about that. Let it take a sip if it needs to and give yourself a cushion in case something drastic happens to the power.

 

[strider]

Roadster 2.0 #764 in storage mode since May 2014. Every time I check (max of 3 weeks between checks) it is within a few miles of 45. Today, 7 days after last check, it is down to 30 miles and saying 'connect power'. So without touching anything I switched to standard mode and it reported 'heating beginning' with a % scale. Was down to -7*F last night. I did unplug it momentarily a few days ago just to switch outlets so apparently that paused it and switching today to standard mode made it active again. Scary.

Did you just unplug the wall side or the car side? I have found that if you need to unplug/replug for some reason you need to cycle the charge port door to "restart" storage mode and/or scheduled charging.

 

[wycolo]

I just changed it to the other half of the house outlet- took a few seconds.
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[strider]

I just changed it to the other half of the house outlet- took a few seconds.
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Ah. Then I would recommend opening and closed the charge port door. As I said I have seen weird behavior if the car loses the pilot signal - it doesn't always regain it which would explain what you saw with storage mode.

 

[wycolo]

Ah yes, the chargeport door! Anyway I switched to standard for the winter. Nice to have a car that zips thru the snow (snow tires still on from last winter).
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[wycolo]

Is STORAGE MODE reliable for the Roadster or will a momentary disconnect in line voltage threaten to brick it? Would mine have reconnected itself at some lower SOC?
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[wycolo]

At local Service Center is a 2.0 Roadster with totally bricked battery. This kind of neglect is still going on. :crying:

Owner could have had battery removed when it was still fresh and had it shipped to UK for example. Made some good money and then stored the car in a shipping container forever (which apparently was the original intention).
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[Doug_G]

The one thing I don't like about Storage Mode is how low it allows the battery to sink before topping it.

I'd prefer the battery to sit at 50%; that way if there's some kind of problem with charging while you're not paying attention to the car it is much less likely to hit bottom - it would take a couple of months.

 

[bonnie]

Heard a terrible story this last week over at one of the Service Centers. A somewhat new Roadster owner didn't realize he still needed to plug his car in while in Storage Mode, just put the car in that mode and left it for six months. Unplugged. (Maybe it's the one you saw, wycolo.)

Hello, New Battery!

 

[Doug_G]

RTFM.

(Read The Fine Manual.)

 

[bonnie]

RTFM.

(Read The Fine Manual.)

That's what I thought. Or something similar.

 

[wiztecy]

When selecting storage mode the following message is displayed to the user, "To gain the advantages of storage mode the car must be plugged in."

If I made that message I would have made it bolder and louder to the user, possibly not even enable storage mode unless voltage is present on the charge port. However it does state the car must be plugged in to gain advantages, in other words, that there's no advantage of using storage mode unless its plugged in.

 

[ecarfan]

That Roadster owner simply made an assumption, failed to verify it from readily available sources that would have corrected him, then failed to understand the warning message displayed by the car, then failed to check the battery charge level for six months. It seems difficult to design a system that would prevent such a series of errors. But I suppose it could be done, as @wiztecy described.

 

[Doug_G]

Actually the car likes to go "BRAP BRAP BRAP" and displays a plug-me-in message if you're in Storage Mode and not plugged.

 

[hcsharp]

That Roadster owner simply made an assumption, failed to verify it from readily available sources that would have corrected him, then failed to understand the warning message displayed by the car, then failed to check the battery charge level for six months. It seems difficult to design a system that would prevent such a series of errors. But I suppose it could be done, as @wiztecy described.

Actually the car likes to go "BRAP BRAP BRAP" and displays a plug-me-in message if you're in Storage Mode and not plugged.

To brick a 2.x you really have to be trying. First you have to do all the fails that ecarfan mentioned (ignore manual, ignore verbal advice when purchased, ignore the warning messages), then you have to ignore the audio messages. Then on top of all that you have to ignore the calls and emails from Tesla! Every summer when my car goes out of reach of cell towers so it doesn't do it's daily upload thing, I invariable get an email "Hi, this is your customer advocate at Tesla. "We haven't heard from your car in over 30 days and just wanted to make sure it's plugged in." He told me the first year that if he gets no response to the email, he makes a phone call. Hard to understand how these cars get bricked.

 

[augkuo]

If you aren't the original owner, then you won't get those emails or calls warning you of imminent battery failure - I never got those emails/calls when #783's battery was dying even though I was definitely in their service center's system (they downloaded logs, etc. from the car remotely).

To brick a 2.x you really have to be trying. First you have to do all the fails that ecarfan mentioned (ignore manual, ignore verbal advice when purchased, ignore the warning messages), then you have to ignore the audio messages. Then on top of all that you have to ignore the calls and emails from Tesla! Every summer when my car goes out of reach of cell towers so it doesn't do it's daily upload thing, I invariable get an email "Hi, this is your customer advocate at Tesla. "We haven't heard from your car in over 30 days and just wanted to make sure it's plugged in." He told me the first year that if he gets no response to the email, he makes a phone call. Hard to understand how these cars get bricked.

 

[spaceballs]

If you aren't the original owner, then you won't get those emails or calls warning you of imminent battery failure - I never got those emails/calls when #783's battery was dying even though I was definitely in their service center's system (they downloaded logs, etc. from the car remotely).

I'm the current owner of #783, and my local service center has my phone number in their system since last year, and I can confirm that I never got a battery warning call (this is when the battery was super low and GSM was turned on). Now that I've fixed the ESS, and I can manually control one sheet of voltages, I could test out the warning call system without actually putting the ESS at risk. Next time I'm at the service center I'll talk with the them to see it's it's ok for me to test out the system via this method.