could my TeslaEV Node Server be running down my car's battery?

[someguy]

when i park my car at the airport, my battery seems to go down fairly quickly.  I was thinking that it was because my Node Server is keeping the car "awake" often.  is this the case?  if so, what could I do to stop it from waking my car up (and wasting battery)?  turn off the Node Server when I am parked at the airport?  or tweak the settings of the Node Server?

[asbril]

I have not yet left my car for a sufficient long time to notice this issue, but this is an interesting and important question. 

[Panda88]

I believe some users have found the correct settings - I think the long poll cannot be too small  otherwise the node server keeps the car alive.  I do not own a car myself, so it is a little difficult to investigate this - I have some code that is not released yet to check if the car is going to sleep - but I am not 100% if it works.

I think other users can chime in - or look is some of the other threads for the best long poll and short poll settings.

If you pull data yourself regularly (in a program) the car will not go to sleep for sure - I would only pull when needed (not just to keep data updated for now reason besides showing the data) - thus the large long poll requirement (long poll updates the data)

Edited March 8, 2023 by Panda88

[Geddy]

27 minutes ago, someguy said:

is this the case? 

Yes, I think @apostolakisl found the long poll was keeping the vehicle awake and set it to either 24 hours or near 24 hours. 

Anything that's checking the status of the EV will keep the vehicle awake and use battery. It's just as though you're opening the Tesla app. It's waking the car up to get status. 

[asbril]

57 minutes ago, Geddy said:

Yes, I think @apostolakisl found the long poll was keeping the vehicle awake and set it to either 24 hours or near 24 hours. 

Anything that's checking the status of the EV will keep the vehicle awake and use battery. It's just as though you're opening the Tesla app. It's waking the car up to get status. 

What is the best suggested  long poll setting ? Currently it is 86400.

[stevehoyt]

as an aside... I don't use the tesla nodeserver so can't comment on the polling interval. My tesla model s was using 2KW per day just while sitting in the garage. After much searching on the internet, I found that I could reduce this to zero by turning off the "cabin overheat protection". The car was NOT turning on the ac/heating. For some reason, this setting kept the car awake all the time which used the 2 KW per day. So if your polling often, this might be what would be expected in usage. 

[Geddy]

3 hours ago, asbril said:

What is the best suggested  long poll setting ? Currently it is 86400.

Don't know. I don't run the node server. But there was discussion about it in another post that worked out for them. It's all it what works for your needs/comfort. 

 

[tazman]

I have my short poll set for 86399 because I was worried about waking the car. I recently installed a Bluetooth 12V battery monitor and just ran a test and changing the short poll did not wake the car so I'm going to set my short poll to 14400. I usually charge my car over the weekend using the excess solar with programs to control the charge rate and query the car to have the information updated when charging starts and stops since I display it on my mirror. I have a trip coming up and if I remember I plan to stop the node server so it doesn't add any unwanted drain on the battery for my trip.

[asbril]

13 minutes ago, tazman said:

I have my short poll set for 86399

short poll ?

[tazman]

14 minutes ago, asbril said:

short poll ?

On the Configuration tab it has a short poll and a long poll and my understanding is that the short poll is suppose to pull the information from the cloud and not wake the car but I don't know what information is updated with it. The long poll wakes the car and I assume updates all the information. Maybe @Panda88can confirm if my understanding is correct and if both should update all the information or not.

[asbril]

24 minutes ago, tazman said:

On the Configuration tab it has a short poll and a long poll and my understanding is that the short poll is suppose to pull the information from the cloud and not wake the car but I don't know what information is updated with it. The long poll wakes the car and I assume updates all the information. Maybe @Panda88can confirm if my understanding is correct and if both should update all the information or not.

My question referred to "        I have my short poll set for 86399               ".  Did you mean long poll ?

[tazman]

37 minutes ago, asbril said:

My question referred to "        I have my short poll set for 86399               ".  Did you mean long poll ?

No we were not sure if the short poll was waking the car so the idea was to set the short and long poll around the same time so it was not constantly waking the car. In my opinion pending on what you are using the node server for there probably is not much value in constantly polling the car.

[asbril]

41 minutes ago, tazman said:

No we were not sure if the short poll was waking the car so the idea was to set the short and long poll around the same time so it was not constantly waking the car. In my opinion pending on what you are using the node server for there probably is not much value in constantly polling the car.

Understood.  In fact the HA Tesla Integration is a bit more complete, but I am not very proficient with HA Automations. As explained in a previous conversation, I mostly use the Nodeserver to keep maximum charge at 20 amps. I have not noticed heavy usage overnight, but I don't check much.

[asbril]

I left the car without charger overnight to determine the possible loss caused by the nodeserver, as well as by the HA Integration. In fact I realized that I forgot to disconnect a heads-on-display, which possibly also used energy.

The result was around 3 miles and about 1 %, which I find negligeable. As such I have no concerns over the nodeserver connecting to the car.

[someguy]

I left the car at the airport for 7 days and when I left the car, it had 178 miles on the battery.  when I came back after 7 days, it had 55 miles on it.  My cabin overheat protection setting is turned off. 

my settings on my polyglot are: 

short poll:  30

long poll: 86400

 

any suggestions?

[tazman]

Did you have sentry mode off? Do you have FSD and if so do you have smart summon turned off? Do you have any other programs that you gave access to the car?

[asbril]

23 minutes ago, tazman said:

Did you have sentry mode off? Do you have FSD and if so do you have smart summon turned off? Do you have any other programs that you gave access to the car?

That is a good point @tazman.  I have my Tesla setup to de-activate Sentry mode while at home. The Sentry mode uses considerable energy, so @someguy's 7 day use at the airport parking would make perfect sense if using Sentry mode.

[apostolakisl]

I have been running the tesla node server for about 6 months, basically since it was a thing.  The short poll just queries the Tesla server and does not affect the car.  The long poll will wake the car up and you will lose quite a bit, maybe 5 percent or more per day if you have your long poll short enough that the car never sleeps. I made this mistake when on a 2 week vacation and checked my car about 1 week in and saw that I lost like 40% of my battery.  I turned off the node server and then it lost barely anything for the second week.  I did not have sentry mode on at all for this trip.

I currently have the long poll set to 24hours and the short poll to 15 seconds.  When my car is at home and not plugged in, the battery hardly loses anything, less than 1 percent per day.  At the airport, with sentry mode on and long poll at 24hours, the car loses a couple percent per day.

[asbril]

1 minute ago, apostolakisl said:

I have been running the tesla node server for about 6 months, basically since it was a thing.  The short poll just queries the Tesla server and does not affect the car.  The long poll will wake the car up and you will lose quite a bit, maybe 5 percent or more per day if you have your long poll short enough that the car never sleeps. I made this mistake when on a 2 week vacation and checked my car about 1 week in and saw that I lost like 40% of my battery.  I turned off the node server and then it lost barely anything for the second week.  I did not have sentry mode on at all for this trip.

I currently have the long poll set to 24hours and the short poll to 15 seconds.  When my car is at home and not plugged in, the battery hardly loses anything, less than 1 percent per day.  At the airport, with sentry mode on and long poll at 24hours, the car loses a couple percent per day.

I use both the PG3 ns and the HA Integration, but I have not noticed much battery usage. I have programed that at home the sentry mode is off.

[apostolakisl]

1 minute ago, asbril said:

I use both the PG3 ns and the HA Integration, but I have not noticed much battery usage. I have programed that at home the sentry mode is off.

Yes, I guess I wasn't clear about the at home car is with sentry off.  Sentry definitely uses some battery.  Waking the car up once per day doesn't use much battery.