I’ve had my openEVSE for a year or so now. Initially when connecting our Smart ForTwo 451 ED it would start charging and fully charge the car (usually overnight). Then I tried to get clever…
I set a schedule so it would start charging at midnight and stop by 07h00. Mostly it did that, but would get confused if the override button was pressed to get an earlier charge.
At this stage I should point out that it makes no difference to cost as we have no special overnight charge tariff, but it was to practice for when we do.
After a few months of it happily charging from midnight, it began to occasionally not do so and obtain no charge overnight. In fact it soon never started charging at midnight.
I have read of this issue with other cars, when it sleeps before the charge start time in the EVSE and hence even after the specified time, it simply doesn’t request any charge as it’s gone to sleep. I am quite prepared to believe Smart have written such dumb software, but since it did originally work, this cannot be the case.
I tried to disable the schedule (without deleting it) but that seemed to make no difference. Just meant we ALWAYS had to use the override button.
So when plugging the car in, we had to press the override button, usually several times with no apparent consistency as to how we got it to charge. But it sufficed for many months.
A few days ago I started the process of integrating our EV charging into Home Assistant, via an openEVSE integration and also OCPP as the latter would be a more universal method of control. The car has never charged since. The EVSE sees the connection, but charging does not start. Pressing the override button and unlocking/locking the car in some impossible to remember arcane sequence has occasionally allowed charging to start. The EVSE relay clacks and the display shows the usual start of charge display, but before the amps begine to ramp up, it clacks off again. So again, no charge.
Thinking the car must be at fault, I extracted the mains charging cable (granny charger) from the car and tried that. To my surprise, it worked perfectly. The car instantly did what it should and charging commenced. So…
The problem is clearly with the openEVSE.
I then recalled that prior to doing anything in HA, I updated the openEVSE firmware
to the latest (8.2.2.EU). Is perhaps this the problem?
That is still the latest, but has it caused this problem?
Whether it has or not, my openEVSE is not working. Well it shows a pretty display, but is currently incapable of charging the car which is, after all, its raison d’etre. It is now incapable of doing what a basic granny charger does without issue. Well, the plug is getting warm, but that’s why I bought the EVSE.
I need 2 more EVSEs and I want those to be openEVSEs. However, obviously, I need to know they work correctly. So…
Please advise.