Open EVSE - Losing Wi-Fi

greentangerine · 19 January 2022 07:08

I’m finding that my OpenEVSE WiFi is losing connection on an almost daily basis.

It is on V4.1.1 and is the ESP32 version (but not the most recent with different power supply requirements).

It used to be rock solid but now it refuses connection and the MQTT feed stops; the only recourse is to cut the power to the unit at the CU and then on reboot it is fine again.

The OpenEVSE unit continues to charge fine; last night it charged my wife’s Zoe from 00:30 to 04:30 but the MQTT feed stopped around 03:00. The night before, the charge was the same time and the MQTT feed stopped about 06:00. I can’t connect to the unit.

The AP it connects to hasn’t moved/changed and other devices are using it fine.

Is there a known issue with v4.1.1 or is the ESP32 on its way out? I guess I could get the latest board to eliminate it being hardware.

greentangerine · 7 March 2022 11:17

I’m still having this issue; charger continues to work fine but the emoncms and MQTT feeds stop and the web interface won’t connect. In addition, my network controller reports the OpenEVSE offline.

I’ve now purchased the combined wireless / wired ESP32 board and will run a cable to the unit when I get a spare hour or so; hopefully that’ll resolve it.

Wrightwells · 7 April 2022 21:44

You could also use a Esp32 wroom 32u with the external antenna, this has a much better range, although you need a buck converter rather than take power from the evse board like the original.

leafydriver · 25 October 2022 11:27

Hi @greentangerine
Did you fix the wifi or have you resorted to a wired connection?
My OpenEVSE also regularly loses wifi even though the wifi access point is close by.
Same symptoms - no self recovery so only option is a power cycle.
Really annoying
Currently running V4.1.5

greentangerine · 25 October 2022 12:13

Not yet but it’s come even more pressing now as I want to use the Current Shaper ability in 4.1.5 which relies on a stable network connection.

I have a external antenna ESP32 arriving hopefully tomorrow but then I’ve got to work out what (if any) firmware is usable - I’m assuming either openevse_huzzah32.bin or openevse_wifi_v1.bin but tbh. I don’t know - and then some command line incantation to load it up assuming I can work out which wires to connect for both programming it and also normal operation within the unit (I’ve used a Windows tablet and thingy to update the main EVSE firmware a few times but never the wifi board).

I did buy the wired gateway unit from the shop as mentioned but have never got around to installing it but remains a final option I guess.

glyn.hudson · 25 October 2022 12:38

The wired gateway will also work on WiFi, it’s actually rather good at WiFi

greentangerine · 25 October 2022 13:47

I’ve connected it up but can’t get any device to connect to the default gateway on wifi. I can see it, put the password in and connect but then it drops the connection almost immediately after.

Phone, laptop, old laptop, tablet … all fail.

I updated the firmware to 4.1.5 before this which seemed to go OK using the instructions for my board (rev G) and esptool.py.

greentangerine · 25 October 2022 15:57

So I took the firmware back to 4.1.4 and the green light came on this time. Put it back to 4.1.5 and no green light and the wifi doesn’t boot it seems - nothing on the screen. I’ve just put it back to 4.1.4 and will try in the unit.

So v4.1.5 doesn’t work on the wired gateway unit it seems which is a pain as I need the current shaper.

greentangerine · 25 October 2022 16:18

So the firmware which purports to be v4.1.4 is actually v4.1.3 according the the GUI and the CRC64 values for the two openevse_esp32-gateway-e.bin files on github under the assets for v4.1.4 and v4.1.4 are identical. However, my charge unit is functional again.

So v4.1.4 is MIA and v4.1.5 doesn’t appear to work.

Anything I can do to rectify that/test, please let me know as I’m about to butcher my existing huuzah esp32 in an attempt to add an external antennae so possibly no going back. I do have 100m of external cat6 on standby too.

glyn.hudson · 25 October 2022 23:44

Correct there is an issue with the latest releases and the ESP gateway:

github.com/OpenEVSE/ESP32_WiFi_V4.x

V4.1.4 does not work with ESP gateway

opened 05:12PM - 10 Sep 22 UTC

glynhudson

ESP gateway Ethernet Module seems to boot up, then crash with error `analogRead(…): Pin 1 is not ADC pin!` V4.1.3 works fine Testing on rev G hardware ``` OpenEVSE WiFI 7294 Firmware: 4.1.4 Build date: Jul 21 2022 12:11:28 IDF version: v4.4.1-1-gb8050b365e Free: 270496 [ 225][E][vfs_api.cpp:104] open(): /littlefs/schedule.json does not exist, no permits for creation [ 226][E][esp32-hal-adc.c:180] __analogRead(): Pin 1 is not ADC pin! AP IP Address: 192.168.4.1 E (10412) task_wdt: Task watchdog got triggered. The following tasks did not reset the watchdog in time: E (10412) task_wdt: - loopTask (CPU 1) E (10412) task_wdt: Tasks currently running: E (10412) task_wdt: CPU 0: IDLE E (10412) task_wdt: CPU 1: IDLE E (10412) task_wdt: Aborting. abort() was called at PC 0x4012d7f4 on core 0 Backtrace:0x400836e9:0x3ffbed8c |<-CORRUPTED ELF file SHA256: 0000000000000000 Rebooting... ets Jul 29 2019 12:21:46 rst:0xc (SW_CPU_RESET),boot:0x1a (SPI_FAST_FLASH_BOOT) configsip: 0, SPIWP:0xee clk_drv:0x00,q_drv:0x00,d_drv:0x00,cs0_drv:0x00,hd_drv:0x00,wp_drv:0x00 mode:DIO, clock div:2 load:0x3fff0018,len:4 load:0x3fff001c,len:792 load:0x40078000,len:8160 ho 0 tail 12 room 4 load:0x40080400,len:5732 entry 0x4008069c ``` To allow our factory firmware uploading tool to function I've temporarily uploaded V4.1.3 Ethernet gateway .bin to the V4.1.4 release.

There is a fix for this, we’ve just not yet updated the release. Just remove the line RESET_ETH_PHY_ON_BOOT=1 from platformio

github.com

OpenEVSE/ESP32_WiFi_V4.x/blob/master/platformio.ini#L270


      
            -D WIFI_LED=33
            -D WIFI_LED_ON_STATE=HIGH
            -D WIFI_BUTTON=34
            -D WIFI_BUTTON_PRESSED_STATE=LOW
            -D DEBUG_PORT=Serial
            -D RAPI_PORT=Serial2
            -D ENABLE_WIRED_ETHERNET
            -D RANDOM_SEED_CHANNEL=1
            -D RX2=16
            -D TX2=32
            -D RESET_ETH_PHY_ON_BOOT=1
          board_build.extra_flags = "-DARDUINO_ESP32_GATEWAY=\'E\'"
          upload_speed = 921600
          
          
[env:openevse_esp32-poe-iso]
          # Tested against Rev C board
          extends = env:openevse_esp32-gateway
          board = esp32-poe-iso
          build_flags =
            ${common.build_flags}
            ${common.version}

See attached for a pre compiled V4.1.5 with this fix applied.

openevse_esp32-gateway-e.bin (1.4 MB)

greentangerine · 26 October 2022 14:16

That seems to have done the trick.

Currently running 4.1.5 on esp32-gateway (g).

I’ll see if the unit is more reliable on WiFi than the Huzzah ESP32 I’ve been using and if not, move over to a wired connection.

leafydriver · 26 October 2022 14:36

Seems I’ve restarted something here

I don’t think my unit dropping wifi is a signal issue as the AP is only a few feet from the EVSE.
Also, when it does drop the wifi it does not go into STA mode - it just becomes unresponsive and needs a power cycle to recover.

Are we sure there isn’t some interference in the EVSE disturbing/corrupting the ESP?

There is the potential for some RF interference inside the EVSE especially if the car’s electronics isn’t too well designed. Not to mention potential spikes at switch on/off.

Looking at my unit

The ESP power supply and Tx/Rx/Gnd wires are tied to the ct and earth cables. Maybe not the best route to minimise interference.
When I get a chance I’ll try segregating the ‘electronics’ cables from the ‘power cables’

borpin · 27 October 2022 08:54

Is the SSID Dual Band or just 2.4MHz?

IME the more advanced the AP, the more likely it is to drop the 2.4MHz connections. I have a cheap(ish) AP just for all my 2.4MHz IOT stuff.

leafydriver · 27 October 2022 14:47

Hi @borpin

Is the SSID Dual Band or just 2.4MHz?

Single band 2.4MHz
If it were a simple(?) wifi drop why doesn’t it retry or go to STA mode. I think something’s getting corrupted - hence the need for a power cycle

borpin · 27 October 2022 15:02

I think the issues I saw with other ESP devices were around authentication with the AP. When I moved to a different AP, they just went away

Irek · 6 May 2023 06:09

I have the same issue - one month old OpenEvse.
Tried two different access points - one 2.4GHz only. Both have excellent signal and both have problems:

unit will disconnect from WiFi, loose MQTT feed
screen is still on and cycling trough various display items as per normal
reboot typically solves it, but today after reboot max current was reset to 0
I am on the latest firmware: 8.2.2.EU

Can anyone with similar issue confirm that wired gateway indeed solves the problem?

Guillaume_S · 6 May 2023 07:35

What firmware version you have on wifi module?

thedawnbefore · 27 April 2024 20:02

Hi. Any more insight on this from others experiencing this issue?

I have a new OpenEVSE (with the colour tft) that behaves similarly. The unit appears to go offline after several hours and MQTT stops. Power cycling is the only way to restore. WiFi signal is unlikely the issue (it is 5 meters from UniFI AP that reports a strong signal to the EVSE).

Interestingly, when the unit crashes, the backlights begin flashing. Video below. Does this sequence have a particular diagnostic meaning?

Running OpenEVSE 8.2.2 and ‘V5.1.0 modified’ on OpenEVSE WiFi

Any insight would be v. much appreciated.

greentangerine · 27 April 2024 23:06

I had lots of issues with WiFi until I changed to a direct cable connection; working flawlessly since and don’t dare change anything now.

thedawnbefore · 31 May 2024 12:20

Many thanks for the earlier response on this.

Still have significant issues and not heard back from OpenEVSE support directly.

I have a new unit with a colour LCD - I understand this is a common issue and that Ethernet is the only way to rectify this currently.

Could somebody please advise on how to add ethernet to the new board (pictured below) with embedded ESP32 and recommend an appropriate module and wiring? I have only found guidance on the old units.

Many thanks

Ben.