Can I set charging Departure SoC preference?

[Salava]

I am a new user of ABRP so I'm still learning the idiosyncrasies of the web app. (And I am finding a few) I imagine this has been asked before, but I can't find it.

When I plan a route, ABRP calculates how long to charge at each charging stop. But I find that it seems to minimize the charging time. This means it says to leave a charger with less charge than I would prefer or expect. For example, if I plan a route from Phoenix, Arizona, to San Diego California, ABRP says to depart from the chargers with 49% to 65% SoC. I know I can set individual stops to specify the TILL SoC. but how do I tell ABRP to start calculate with charge to say 85%? I would rather start a leg with a higher SoC. Like always filling the tank on an ICE car. I find that I can eliminate some charge stops if I plan that way. (Of course this means the ones left take longer.)

[TomTomZoe]

Hi @Salava

ABRP tries to minimize the overall travel time, that means driving plus charging plus overhead for charging.

Please check if you set the „maxium SOC allowed when charging“ to the desired value of 85%.

You find it at

Settings -> Battery & Chargers -> Charger max. SoC

You can also adapt charging overhead (searching a charger, connecting the car, starting the charger, etc.) to your demands, maybe to 5 minutes.

You find it at

Settings -> Battery & Chargers -> Charging overhead

Take into concern that the possible max. charging power of batteries will decrease in higher SOCs (60…90%+ depending on the car). Sometimes the overall travel time is shorter with one charging stop more (and using the lower SOC area with higher charging power capability) instead of charging with less power into higher SOCs.

I hope this annotations will help you.  

Edited June 3, 2021 by TomTomZoe

[gnuarm]

I think the control that will get you want you want is the Charger Arrival SoC.  I'm not sure what the default is, mine shows 10% but I may have set that previously.  That's what you really want, more charge when you get to the next charger, so this control will provide that. 

Trip charging is the one area where EVs fall short of gas cars while they are so much better in many other ways.  The redeeming quality of EVs on trips is that while you may not want to stop so often (that was my thinking early on) it is much more relaxing to get where you are going more rested and less full of stress.  I think people are so used to pushing themselves they don't notice how they feel at the end of the journey.  Driving a vehicle that enforces many short stops lets you arrive at your destination without needing to recover from the trip.  The only thing better is to get there without driving at all and they are working on that one too.

[Samuel-ABRP]

The charge speed normally drops the higher the soc gets. So it's often faster to leave earlier. As already mentioned ABRP tries to minimize the total driving time. If you want to have longer stops, you could increase "charging overhead" time in "Battery & Chargers". The higher that value, the less stops you will get, as the total time of a charge to a higher soc (charging + overhead) will be less than multiple short stops with higher speed.

[Salava]

TomTomZoe, I tried the settings you proposed. It did not have the effect I was looking for. When I set the Charger Max SoC to 85%, the plan was worse. On a leg from Medford, Oregon to Red Bluff, California, to passed two SCs and depleted down to 10% Arrival SoC at Red Bluff, and limited speed to 65 MPH max. This could be just a quirk, but not a good plan. I'll play with the other setting.

gnuarm: I think you are correct. Charger Arrival SoC may do more of what I want. I'm also not comfortable only charging enough to get to the next charger. That doesn't leave any room for unexpected energy usage. Like you always want a some reserve fuel.

Samuel-ARBP: Given that ABRP is calculating for shortest overall travel time, I think the planner is much too conservative on the Charger Departure SoC, leaving chargers at a lower SoC that I would like. It seems to be assuming a too conservative a drop off Rate of charge as the battery charge increases. I would like to see a Charger Departure Min. SoC. Sort of like I always want to fill my tank instead of only filling it enough to get to the last station I could reach.

BTW, The web interface has a lot of quirks, also.  1) When I login and start using it again, it has remembers and plots a route that wasn't the last one I was using with I logged off. And the map keep going back to it if a switch to a another tab and back. I have to recalculate the whole route again. 2) When I switch between the waypoint list and the detailed plot, it always must recalculate. 3) The active route name is not displayed on the Waypoint list or plan details. So I don't always know which plan to resave it to and the list of plans doesn't always help.

This is only a partial list for me.