The directions in the manual are not very clear. Try this.
1. The key must be off, and the paddle must NOT be inserted.
2. Press the Time Set button, and check that the present time is correct. If not, use the H and M buttons to set the present time. 12 noon and 12 midnight are represented by PM 0 and AM 0, respectively.
(The 0 instead of 12 convention applies to steps 3 and 4 as well.)
3. Press the Time Set button again to set the charge start time, if desired. If you want the charge to start immediately, set the charge start time to --:-- by pressing the H button repeatedly.
4. Press the Time Set button again to set the PRE A/C time. The time must be at least 45 minutes past the present time. The preconditioning starts 15 minutes before the time you set, and runs for 30 minutes in total. If you are not going to use PRE A/C, the PRE A/C set time does not matter. It can't be set to --:--.
(There's a Palm program, RAV4EVCalc, to do the calculations for you --
Click here for details.)
5. Press the Time Set button again, and the display goes blank.
6. Set the Timer Charge button. The light over the button should go on. The display should be flashing CON. If not, restart at step 1.
7. (Skip this step if you do not want preconditioning, and you want the charge to go to completion.) Press the PRE A/C button. The light over the button should go on. If not, restart at step 1.
8. The display should still be flashing CON. If not, restart at step 1.
9. Set the AC lever in the blue for cooling, in the grey for no preconditioning action, or in the red for heat. The fan switch can be in any position, including off. The AC button can be pressed or not.
Both the fan switch and the AC button are ignored by the PRE A/C
process. In any case, when preconditioning starts (15 minutes before
the time you set), charging will stop, and will not resume after the preconditioning is completed.
10. Insert the paddle within three minutes, with the display still flashing CON. If charge start is set to --:-- the car will start charging as usual. If the charge start is set to a future time, the white light (only) on the charger will come on, and the car will wait for the charge start time.
11. Check to see that both of the amber lights on the charge timer are still on (just one if you skipped step 7). If not, restart at step 1.
Regarding step 6 -- you must always press the Timer Charge button. The PRE A/C button will not work by itself -- the Timer Charge button must always be pressed. The charge start time can be set as indicated in step 3, for immediate start (--:--) or delayed start.
There is no way to do preconditioning without charging for at least 30 minutes.
It's possible to do delayed charging without preconditioning -- just skip step 7. In this case, the charge will continue until completed, or until you interrupt it by removing the paddle.
If anyone has any corrections to the above procedure, please let me know.