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[HS PHEV ISSUE] Headlights & Brake lights come on every time HA requests an update - regardless of update interval. #269
Replies: 27 comments 68 replies
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Ouch. That doesn’t sound good. I bet the neighbours are loving it lol. I have just tested on my MGS6 and don’t get the same. I am going to need logs though to see what is happening. Get the live logging working on screen and open another tab to go to the integration and press the refresh button. I can’t see how the integration is the fault though as it doesn’t have control of the lights. It can read the status of the lights, just not control them. I am curious though - on your car settings, can you change the setting to just flash lights from the key fob? On the MGS6 you can choose to do just the lights or horn and lights to locate the car. If that’s an option on your car, what do you have it set to? I know we have a trigger alarm button in the integration…….but I haven’t pressed that. Maybe have a look at the history of that button? |
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Hi James, and thanks for the response. I initially thought your suggestion of the 'find the car' option did the trick, as when I switched it off the lights did not come on when charging - but - I needed to go back out. So after disconnecting the the car from charge, 30mins driving, and then plugged it back it to start charging again, the lights continued to come on with the 'find the car' option disabled. Thanks again. |
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PS - also forgot to mention that I moved the integration from a Docker to a HA OS instance, just incase their was any weird going on in the container, but it made no difference. |
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@paulfcarney-ship-it thanks - no rush for the logs but it will help look through the issue. It certainly is a strange one. The move from Docker to HAOS wouldnt have made a difference, but its all worth a shot as just becuase it SHOULDNT make a difference it might have. It might also pay to try out the newer 1.1.2 release. Or even the beta I just relased - there may be some new features in the beta that applies to your car (ventilation, steering wheel heating etc) |
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Ok, so from what I have found out, the headlights appear to only come on when charging - when its dark! |
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Very weird behaviour. Hope you get to the bottom of it |
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I have the exactly same problem with my hs phev 2024 model. My remedy at the moment is to set the charging update interval to something above 7 hours (which it needs at most to charge from 0-100) and only get updates during non-charging. The normal update interval does not trigger the headlights - during charging not because the other interval is prevalent and at other times not because it only happens in conjunction with charging. Can also confirm the dusk behaviour. |
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Many thanks for the feedback Zickezack and it is good to know that I am not the only one with this issue. |
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It's a 7kW but funnily it went to emergency mode for some days and only delivered ~1kW and the problem persists in both cases |
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Morning, still wrestling with this but at the moment I have implemented the AC charging update adjustment suggested by @Zickezack above. Also, are the 'MG/SIAC Options' in the SIAC integration explained anywhere and what takes preference when they are altered? Many thanks for supporting this endeavour and apologies for all the questions! |
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Thanks both — and @paulfcarney-ship-it, the "only when dark, only when charging, on every poll" detail is exactly what cracks this. Why it happens: the integration can't and doesn't control your lights — it only reads their status. What's actually going on is that every status Your questions:
Thanks for the patience and the detective work — genuinely tricky one, and knowing it's two HS PHEVs behaving identically is really useful. |
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Many thanks for your very detailed response and I am grateful that you managed managed to home in on the issue from the random findings I presented. Good to know that it's an edge case that was not foreseen by the developers rather than a fault with the car. |
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Hi guys - may I Join your club please? I'm a complete Novice using Home Assistant and MG-SAIC-HA, indeed I've only had my MG HS PHEV 2026 (UK) since beginning of July and became a Home Assistant user only a couple of weeks ago. @townsmcp has been brilliant getting me to the stage I am now at. Just one issue and it's exactly the same one as in this Discussion. He's asked me to post what I am finding, so here goes: - My neighbour, who lives in a bungalow and sleeps at the front of his house, adjacent to my driveway, where I park my car, spoke to me on Thursday morning. It seemed when my car was charging on Wednesday night. I always charge between 11.30pm and 05.30am, the off-peak times for Octopus Intelligent Go. I use an RTSKY Granny Charger not compliant with Octopus but we'll see what happens (my previous car was an Audi TFSI e and came with it's own Charger). However During this 6 hours charging time he told me my Car's headlights, and rear tail/brake lights too, kept coming on and going off. It kept him and his wife awake, hence him seeing me about it. After googling a bit I checked the obvious things like Headlight Stalk in car set to "Auto" (it may not have been as I'd been playing about) , checking nothing else turned on in car and checked there were no conflicting Active Charging Schedules in operation, such as, the Car (Primary Schedule - the one I use), my Granny Charger and in MG iSmart. So on Thursday night I topped up my Car's battery to "full" (only needed a few miles) left over from night before. I haven't spoken with neighbour yet but the Lights came on again and I'm now beginning to worry this may have something to do with the MG Home Assistant app and I'm now hoping for help. FWIW I had deleted & turned off the Charging Schedule in iSmart before charging Thursday night but yesterday I noticed it's been put back in and switched on! My son has exactly the same car, bought at the same time and in his iSmart, it remains completely off after charging so I'm very confused - and now I'm here getting even more confused lol! You guys are way ahead of me with figuring all this out, not sure I can contribute, but please ask away if there's any information about my situation which you may find useful. But I think I'll do what @paulfcarney-ship-it does and disable the MG-SAIC-HA Integration before Charging. Could some kind person tell me the best way to do this, allowing me to enable it once more in the morning please? I'm asking due to my unfamiliarity with HA as mentioned above. Thanks |
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On this page, you can click the dots and select ‘Disable’ |
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This issue seems to primarily concern the MG HS PHEV. |
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Thank you for your experience. You say "I can say, the issue does not appear to be HA integration related in any way". Well that makes this issue and even bigger one. I will be turning off completely HA this evening and told my neighbour to put him at ease! I shall stay up until 11.45pm to see what happens - my charging starts at 11.30pm. I shall update on here. |
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You could always enable holiday mode this evening and then switch holiday mode off tomorrow after charging is complete? |
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Alternatively do what @Zickezack suggested and just the 'AC Charging Update Interval' setting to a value longer than it takes to charge the battery. Once charging has completed the lights don't come on. |
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Sorry for not updating sooner but I've established that no lights came on the other evening when charging, during which I'd closed down Home Assistant completely. So in my case that supports that the Lights Issue is only prevalent my car when using MG/SAIC. I don't know what "Holiday Mode" is - certainly one does not exist for my MG HS PHEV Trophy 2026 UK and remember I use a Granny Charger between 11.30pm to 05.30am. |
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Thanks for checking @rozel33. That’s good feedback. 
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I hadn't realised Holiday Mode referred to a selection on the HA Companion App - I will try when I return from holiday in a couple of weeks - thanks |
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Returned from holiday and to be honest have Charged my car without HA, which I have switched off for now. Not exactly sure how "Holiday Mode" works or rather what it does, so for now I'll continue to leave HA off until this issue is sorted. |
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Holiday Mode is a switch that slows the integration's idle polling right down while you're away, to reduce how often the telematics module is woken (and so reduce 12V drain, which is especially useful on PHEVs).
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Has Holiday Mode worked for anyone in the end? @Q2hyaXM seems to be having the same issue as you all on a HS PHEV charging on a 7kWh PodPoint charger. |
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In a word, no, not resolved. I do have an outstanding issue on this raised with MG and on my return from holiday, a promised reset of my TBOX. It strikes me that this maybe more of a hit & hope rather than a targeted solution though. |
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I've been testing something on my own car over the last two days that could help with the lights flashing during a charge, and I'd like your views before I build it. What I found (on an MGS6):
What I'm thinking of building: quiet hours
What you'd give up overnight is live battery % during the charge. The Last Charge sensors would still be correct, because the car records its own start and end times. Questions for you:
Can you help test? All of the above is from one MGS6, so I need to know the HS behaves the same.
Running it once before you plug in and once a minute or two after the charge starts would tell me whether the HS reports a charge start the same way. |
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No worries @HarryFlatter, whenever it charges next. Close, but not quite. Two things work differently because of how the stored copy behaves. Using your example of quiet hours from 00:00 to 06:00, with a charge running from about 01:40 to 04:10:
How often it reads the stored copy: at your normal Update Interval from Configure (30 minutes unless you've changed it), so a charge is picked up within one interval of starting. The read only talks to SAIC's server, so it costs the car nothing. Regular battery % from the stored copy: unfortunately not. The stored copy doesn't update while the car is charging. On my car it sat at 58% for an hour and 40 minutes of charging, so reading it more often wouldn't tell us any more. The battery % comes from the live polls at the start and the end. However the car does get polled by SAIC every 4 hours ish and we read that cached data. So battery SOC at that 4 hour window may update battery level but my car was only charging for less than the 4 hours so that’s yet to be confirmed. Waiting for the flag to go back to 0: I haven't seen the car update the stored copy when a charge ends, so instead it predicts the finish from the car's own "time remaining", or from the battery level, your target and the charging power. If the charge isn't done at that check (the zappi pausing it, say), it stays quiet until the stored copy shows charging again. Afterwards: it stays quiet until your end time, rather than going back to live polling straight after the charge. That's the point of the window. If you want polling back sooner, there's the Quiet Hours Live Polling switch, which you can flip yourself or from an automation. One extra thing for your test, if you can: after the charge has finished (the next morning is fine), run the action once more and note the time the charge actually ended. If the stored copy shows the flag back at 0 with a time around the finish, the HS does report the end of a charge, and I'll use that instead of the prediction. |
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I may be missing something. I have 1.3 loaded but can't see anywhere to set the Quiet Hours start/stop times, nor the switch itself. I did notice 2 new sensors, Handbrake and Journey Distance. Handbrake currently reads 'on', but what does Journey Distance relate to? |
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Sorry, ignore bit about Journey Distance - just read your docs on it. Presumably it correlates to Last Trip Distance once stopped? |
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Sorry @HarryFlatter, that's my fault for not being clear: Quiet Hours isn't in 1.3.0. It's built but not released yet. I was holding it back until your charge test. That's daft really, since the best test is you running the real thing, so I've released it as 1.4.0-beta1. To turn it on: Configure (cog) → tick Quiet hours. That adds three controls to the car:
The switch's attributes show the last stored-copy read, its charging flag, and when the finish check is due. That's handy for seeing what it did overnight. If your lights flash at any time other than the charge-start poll, please note the time. On Journey Distance: yes, more or less. Once the car is switched off it should match Last Trip Distance to within about 1 km (0.6 miles), because the car counts in whole kilometres. The difference is that Journey Distance goes back to 0 when a charge starts, and Last Trip Distance keeps its value. Handbrake reading "on" while you're parked is right. |
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Submit on quiet_hours does not commit the change. Will the normal data Refresh control work during the quiet period, or will the integration block any refresh requests from my dashboard? |
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Apologies for being a bit late to the party, but I am planning to test this out tonight. |
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Hi James, did you pick up on the fact that the reconfig for the 'Quite Hours' would not 'Submit', so at present I cannot use the cached update switch. |
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Thanks Harry, really useful run. Short answer: I don't think our poll caused it. What your log shows:
That's exactly what Steve's MG4 did on 10–11 October in #419. The status worked, the charging data failed with the same code, and the iSmart app's charging page failed too. It came back by itself after about 21 hours, and Steve wasn't using Quiet Charging at all. Your run on the 13th also had two polls mid-charge with no dropout afterwards. So it looks like something on the car or SAIC's side going quiet after a charge, rather than anything the poll did. I can't completely rule it out from one night, so if it happens again please let me know. While it's like this, could you have a look at the charging page in the iSmart app? If that fails as well, it confirms the problem is on the car or SAIC's side. On the good side, Quiet Charging did what it should: one poll as the charge started, while the lights were already on, and one when it stopped. Your log also showed two things I'm fixing in the next beta:
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Interesting, I could have sworn it gave me the option to opt out of that in the pop up. I guess it confirms my memory is shot😂 |
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Hi James, just to confirm, the iSmart app is also timing out and those 2 'blips' caused the infotainment screen to wake up, but not the external lights👍 |
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Damn. Must still be your car that’s the issue. That gives you good justification with your dealer if the ismart app is going bad like that. |
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Hi James, take a look at this log would you. Leaving aside why QC schedule is running approx 20 mins late, QC turned on when car was unplugged and charge data was AWOL. So no live polling and hence discovering charging data had returned around 01:11. Also once it did update the charging data from the previous night, it all looked OK except SOC added and End SOC was actually current SOC instead of 100%. |
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Thanks both, and well spotted @paulfcarney-ship-it, that's exactly it. @HarryFlatter, it's a bug, but an older one than Quiet Hours: it's been there since 1.2.9. If you've ever set the usable battery capacity or fuel tank size, Configure won't save unless you retype those two boxes. That's because they're saved as numbers but shown as text, and the form rejects them if you submit them untouched. Quiet Hours just meant a lot of people opened Configure at once. The fix will be in 1.4.0-beta2. Refresh during quiet hours: yes, it works as normal. The Update Vehicle Data button, the action, and any refresh you ask for always go to the car. Quiet hours only swaps the scheduled polls for reads of the stored copy. Just bear in mind each refresh you do is a live poll, so on your HS it'll flash the lights if it's charging. @paulfcarney-ship-it, thank you, and good luck with tonight's test. If you can, note the time the charge starts and finishes and anything you see happen with your lights. The Quiet Hours Live Polling switch's attributes show what it read overnight. |
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Done. Beta 1.4.0-beta2 is out |
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@paulfcarney-ship-it thanks for the test results. I caught them before they came down, and they're really useful even though the charge started before your quiet hours did. Three things they show:
Your next test, with the charge starting inside the quiet window, is the one I need. If you can:
One question about tonight: do you know what caused the flashes at 18:46, 18:47, 18:49 and 18:54? Your charging interval was 15 minutes, so the scheduled polls don't explain four in 8 minutes. Had you pressed refresh or opened the iSmart app? Also, |
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Morning, I took the post down as I realised I had messed up. When I updated to 1.4.0-beta2, I didn't go back and reset the quiet hours to 1900 - 0700, which I what I wanted to do. I anticipated that the lights would come on several times before the quiet hours commenced, hence why I started the charge at 18.35. I was looking to see if the quiet hours would suppress this activity from 1900 onwards, so this explains the lights on at 19.02. When I realised my mistake, I adjusted the quiet hours to 1900 and the lights no longer came on - so that's a positive! It may be of interest that I get HA to save selected values to a .csv file, which I then auto-imports into a spreadsheet in Nextcloud, every 15 mins. From last nights data, I can see that the SOC held steady from 2015 onwards (at 37%), but was then updated to 67% at the 2330 spreadsheet refresh and this value was maintained in the 0700 update. The 0715 updated registered 100%. With regards to your question: "do you know what caused the flashes at 18:46, 18:47, 18:49 and 18:54? Your charging interval was 15 minutes, so the scheduled polls don't explain four in 8 minutes. Had you pressed refresh or opened the iSmart app?" FYI something else I have noticed is, when sat in the car for a period of time (like when my wife is shopping ....), when the car is unlocked and the ignition/power is off, periodically there is a dull click sound, and a red light comes up on the dash - I think it could be the handbrake indication. I have assumed that this is the car being polled by something - either HA or iSmart. It would be good to know if anyone else has experienced this? Two quick questions if I may?
Will report back later with the correct test data, Many thanks. |
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"With regards to your question: "do you know what caused the flashes at 18:46, 18:47, 18:49 and 18:54? Your charging interval was 15 minutes, so the scheduled polls don't explain four in 8 minutes. Had you pressed refresh or opened the iSmart app?" Might this be a characteristic of the charger. In the same way that my zappi periodically pauses charging and when it resumes causes the lights to come on, might your granny charger go through some start/stop processes before it gets into the 'meat' of the charge? "FYI something else I have noticed is, when sat in the car for a period of time (like when my wife is shopping ....), when the car is unlocked and the ignition/power is off, periodically there is a dull click sound, and a red light comes up on the dash - I think it could be the handbrake indication. I have assumed that this is the car being polled by something - either HA or iSmart. It would be good to know if anyone else has experienced this?" Not something I've seen. I'll keep an eye out when next waiting for the wife to come out of the hairdresser. Just for ref, I tend to keep the car on/in ready mode so that it charges the 12v battery. |
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Thanks @paulfcarney-ship-it, no problem at all, and good news that moving the start to 19:00 stopped them. 1.4.0-beta4 is out with fixes from Harry's test, so please update before tonight's run. The flashes at 18:46–18:54: Harry's idea sounds likely to me, the car or charger stopping and starting at the beginning of the charge. Each restart turns the lights on by itself. Tonight's debug log will settle it: if there's no live poll at those times, it's the car. Your CSV is really useful. 37% → 67% at 23:30, then nothing until the end time, tells me there was one live poll at about 23:30 and then no "has it finished?" check. There should have been one. Your log tonight will show what made that poll and why the check didn't follow. The click and red light while you're sat in the car: that'll be the integration. After you switch off, it checks the car at about 1, 3, 7, 15 and 25 minutes to catch you plugging in, and each check wakes the car. To confirm, untick Enable Post-Shutdown Refresh Sequence in Configure and see if they stop. (@HarryFlatter, that'll be why you don't see it, with the car left in Ready it's awake anyway.) 1. Last Charge Energy: not deprecated. Two things:
2. Engine running: Engine Status comes straight from the car's own engine field, which on the cars I've seen means "car on", not "petrol engine running". If the HS reports the engine separately somewhere, a debug log of a drive where the engine kicks in (note roughly when) would show me. For now, Last Trip Fuel Economy's attributes show the fuel used on each trip, so you can tell which trips ran the engine. |
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@HarryFlatter and @paulfcarney-ship-it can I get your thoughts on the name of the switch “ Quiet Hours Live Polling” ? I can set a new name, the on and off meanings swap and push out a new release? What’s your thoughts? I can change it to something like “ Quiet Hours Active” as I think the current name could be confusing |
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How about "Quiet Charging" and flip the sensor values so that ON means Quiet is active and OFF means Live Polling is active. |
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Sounds good. I like it! Will be in the next beta due out very soon (in the next half hour) |
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@HarryFlatter and @paulfcarney-ship-it new beta reflects the new name and logic |
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Thanks and beta4 now installed. FYI extendedData1 does seem to reflect the current battery level. HA is currently reporting 49.3% and extendedData1 reported 49 when I just checked the cache. |
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Early update: cache taken at 1935: online_status: 1 |
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Morning, Test was successful with illumination of the headlights not detected. Cache dump taken this morning at 0832 below: online_status: 1 From the .csv file the charge value bottomed out at 49.3% which was reached at 1630, and was the same value when charging started at 1900. This value did not change until 100% appeared at the 0715 update this morning. Log file attached as requested. |
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Great result, thanks @paulfcarney-ship-it, and thanks for the log. It confirms:
Why HA sat at 49.3% all night: the last poll before 19:00 (18:52) saw the car not plugged in. When the car updated SAIC's stored copy at 19:02 as you plugged in, quiet hours didn't treat it as a possible charge, because it only does that for a car it knows is plugged in. That's a gap for exactly your routine (home, then plug in after the start time), and I'm going to close it. Your stored copy at 19:02 shows the car unlocked when HA had last seen it locked, which is a good sign something's happened, so that will get the one live poll too. Two smaller things from your log I'll tidy at the same time:
I'll post when that's in a beta. You've been very thorough, thank you. |
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Done. Released 1.4.0-beta6 |
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Sorry but won’t have chance to look at this tonight, but can confirm Last Charge Energy now reads 11.76kWh.
Updated to Beta6 so will hopefully try the below test tomorrow.
… On 12 Oct 2026, at 11:57, James Townsend ***@***.***> wrote:
Thanks @HarryFlatter <https://github.com/HarryFlatter>, a small charge is perfect. 1.4.0-beta6 is out, so please update first. Note the new names from beta5: the switch is now Quiet Charging, and on means quiet.
This tests the newest bit: plugging in after quiet charging has started, which is Paul's routine and what beta6 fixes.
Before you go out to the car: in Configure, set Update Interval to 15 minutes for tonight. That's how often it reads the stored copy, and those reads don't touch the car. Make sure your debug logging is on.
With the car still unplugged and locked, turn Quiet Charging on by hand.
Go out, plug in and start the charge (a zappi boost is fine). Note the time.
Note every time the lights come on. What I expect:
at plug-in/charge start: the car itself;
within about 15 minutes: one live poll from the integration (one flash, as it's charging);
when the charge should have finished, plus 15 minutes: one more poll, with no flash, as it's stopped by then.
Don't press refresh or open the iSmart app while it runs.
Once it's finished (the zappi will tell you), turn Quiet Charging off and put Update Interval back to what it was.
Send me:
the log covering the charge;
the Quiet Charging switch's attributes;
Last Charge Energy's attributes;
the times you noted.
If the charge is short enough to finish before the first poll, that's fine too. It should still be recorded, which tests the other half.
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No worries @paulfcarney-ship-it - I am grateful for all your testing and help |
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Home Assistant Version
2026.6.2, front end 20260527.5
MG/SAIC Integration Version
Currently 1.1.0, but every previous version has done the same
Installation Method
HACS
Did you check for existing issues?
Did you enable debug logging before and are ready to post logs?
Describe the Issue
Whilst charging a 2024 MG HS Phev using a granny charger, Head lights & Brake lights come on every time HA requests an update - regardless of update interval.
The problem is the car is on a sloping drive, so at night the headlights illuminate the entire street - annoying the neighbours! This issue prevents me fully using this integration, as I need to disable it over night - which is when I am normally charging.
Happy to start providing log files if this is an actual bug.
Logs
Additional Context
No response
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