Timed charging

eUKenGB · 2023-04-16T15:20:01.617Z

Just a simple setup here. A single Open EVSE and a single car (Smart ForTwo ED). No other energy control equipment.

I want to have the car charge only between certain times, so changed the times in the ‘Charge Options’ block on the web page and then pressed the ‘Set’ button which seemed to then set those times.

With the car connected yesterday, the status (top of web page) stated “Waiting - EV connected” which yesterday I assumed to mean it was waiting for the Start time (00.00) and would then charge until the Stop time (07.00). It did not.

This morning I could see in the History section that no charge (or any event) took place.

So I thought maybe I should have pressed the ‘Start’ button to start the ‘timer process’. I had assumed that to mean CHARGE NOW and indeed once pressed, it starts to charge and ‘Manual Override’ is now displayed above the button which now is titled ‘Clear’. Clear what I wonder. Seems it might simply stop the charging initiated by pressing the ‘Start’ button, but ‘Clear’? Sorry, word makes no sense to me.

Anyway, Once I’ve got my head around the obscure terminology, it seems as if I did have it correct yesterday and “Waiting” displayed on the web page (“Sleeping” on the actual EVSE) was correct. In which case why did it not charge at the set times?

It’s hard to troubleshoot when what the buttons are supposed to do is unclear, so almost impossible to know what has been set, to then know if it is behaving correctly. Some clear documentation on this topic would help, but I could find nothing.

Would appreciate some advice on how to set up the EVSE to perform such a simple task as only charging my car at preset times. Currently it’s got me beat.

Guillaume_S · 2023-04-16T15:48:53.793Z

Please upgrade to latest version 4.2.2 with new user interface ( gui-v2 ) New UX is more consistent.

eUKenGB · 2023-04-16T16:15:33.807Z

Aha, that’s a good idea. What’s the best way to go about that. I did originally load the firmware when building the EVSE, but I have since forgotten how and also, now it is built and installed outside in the car port. Can this be done ‘on-line’, i.e. remotely, from the comfort of my desk or do I have to disconnect and dismantle it all?

Guillaume_S · 2023-04-16T19:04:10.413Z

You should be able to upgrade from the web interface directly using OTA What version of wifi firmware do you have?

eUKenGB · 2023-04-17T07:33:21.144Z

I assume you mean the WiFi board (that runs the web interface does it not?). That’s currently on 4.1.7.

I can see WiFi Firmware update options in the System tab, so I’ll have a look into that. I’ll try and find and download it now.

eUKenGB · 2023-04-17T08:00:25.767Z

Can only find 4.2.2 which was released 5 days ago. Is there a 4.2.3? If so, can you point me to where I can download it.

eUKenGB · 2023-04-17T08:54:12.589Z

As far as I can determine, for my openevse_wifi_v1 module, I will need:-

openevse_wifi_v1_gui-v2.bin

I can find the 4.2.2 (latest) release, or there is a V2 GUI pre-release a couple of days newer, but no version number is indicated.

Which one should I download and install?

Guillaume_S · 2023-04-17T09:04:43.481Z

Latest is 4.2.2 I’ve made a typo on previous post.
Takes the one ending by gui_v2 yes

eUKenGB · 2023-04-17T09:12:00.669Z

Thanks. Will do.

eUKenGB · 2023-04-18T13:33:50.763Z

Updated to 4.2.2, no problem. Well it’s certainly different. Better I think.

See if it manages to charge tonight.

eUKenGB · 2023-04-19T15:53:25.466Z

Well last night it did start charging at 00h00, but then went back to ‘Active - car connected’ about 2 seconds later.

This rather looks like the car has gone to sleep and won’t wake up for the charge. Is there any way to circumvent this problem?

glyn.hudson · 2023-04-19T16:04:55.327Z

What car is it?

This is an issue with the car not the EVSE. I’ve heard of a number of manufacturers retrospectively releasing firmware updates to fix this non-compliance with J1772. I think it was an issue with the Renault Zoe and MG ZS when they were first released but possible now the issue is fixed?

You can try selecting ‘Pause Status’ > Sleep under Settings > EVSE which may help the issue.

eUKenGB · 2023-04-19T18:26:59.252Z

This is a Smart ForTwo ED3.

Even with the new update, I am at a loss to understand what it is telling me. There is a schedule set (from 00h00 to 07h00) and the status area top left shows car is connected and it’s disabled - sleeping. Which makes sense.

On the Charge Session page I then switched from ‘let EVSE decide’ in the middle to ‘enable charge’ on the left, which I assume is the manual override and the top left showed ‘Charging’, but only at 0.9A. I then checked the car and it is fully charged. So why nearly 1 A? I thought 6A was the minimum.

In fact I unplugged the car and then back in again.

Back on the web page and top left shows ‘disabled’, but Charge session toggle is still set to the left for charge (manual override). Seems to me those are mutually incompatible and should not occur together?

Moving the toggle back to match what the top left of the status page shows and now they switch together as makes sense. So looks like something of a glitch that can mean it’s somewhat confused.

I’ll leave it overnight again and see, but if it is fully charged, then may not be obvious what happens between 00h00 and 07h00. Didn’t there used to be more information about each charge, with a graphic display? The new ‘history’ display is kinda sparse.

It is possible this car does sleep. It has its own charge timer so I’ll try that to coincide with the EVSE being ‘enabled’ and then hopefully it will charge. Kinda hard to test though when it is already fully charged, so I’ll wait until I can use it a bit.

greentangerine · 2023-04-19T22:48:59.682Z

From my experience of a Zoe and MG5 for around 2.5 years, the unit will charge less than 6A when the battery is almost full / balancing etc.

No idea why but the data is out there on Emoncms for posterity under my account. It’s a good thing as far as I’m concerned. Of course firmware changes may alter that.

eUKenGB · 2023-04-23T16:12:09.319Z

Having almost emptied the battery on Friday, I plugged it in the hope it would charge between 00h00 and 07h00 Sat. morning as per the EVSE timer/schedule.

It did. YAY.

So looks like my problem not seeing the car charging when first setting up the schedule was simply down to it being already fully charged. I had thought it was only about half charge, but later realised my error and now a real test shows everything working as it should.

However, in the history section, all I get to see is that it was charging for a period, but no more information about how fast it was charging, exactly for how long, or how many kWh it took etc. Was that info not available with the earlier firmware? It would be good to be able to look back and see that sort of detail. Is it actually available? If so, could someone let me know where to find it.

Guillaume_S · 2023-04-23T21:08:22.987Z

You should see in the log when the charge has started ( the icon ) , with the time, and when it ended. ( With kWh too , 39.2 kWh in the example below )

Screenshot_20230423-2306551080×276 18.1 KB

eUKenGB · 2023-04-24T08:03:29.341Z

Yes, I do see that, but what is the kWh figure? Is that the amount ‘delivered’ in just that session?

What are the numbers at the top of the page? Some sort of totals, but totals of what? Between when and when? They were recently (after the firmware update) showing 0 when there had clearly been some charging with actual numbers showing in the list below.

I like to have this sort of data available, but it’s less useful if I don’t know what it is. Some more tooltips perhaps?

I have to ask. Where are you that it was 26° a couple of days ago?

Guillaume_S · 2023-04-24T10:26:38.843Z

It’s the session kwh displayed in the log. it goes back to 0 when session is ended ( vehicle unplugued )
You have those session value ( “elapsed” is session charging time, and “delivered” , session kwh ) in the status bar at the top too.
T° is 26° at the end of the charge as it generate heats inside the box while charging, it started at 19° as you can see. I’m in France, west coast, not so hot yet
You can get some other counters values in Monitoring / Data / Energy Meter

eUKenGB · 2023-04-24T11:05:49.221Z

Ah yes of course. The box warms up while charging. Didn’t think that through did I.

Thanks for all your help. Hopefully another EVSE will be required soon.