Matching charging rate to solar generation

How will Evnex users be advised when the new current matching feature becomes available? I have 10kW of solar and want to use that and only that to charge my EV. I have installed an 8 core cable from the Evnex to my incomer switchboard ready for the CT when it and the firmware is released. Will you inform customers like me by email?
Is there any way of current limiting by software available now?
Is there an API to pull data from the cloud?

Hi Simon, I loaded a reminder so we will be able to give you an update closer to the time.

If you log in using your app details via https://app.evnex.io/ you can go to the Chargepoint Load Management menu and define a 24-hour profile.

You can use this tool, but every time you make a change you have to unplug the car and plug it back in. So not very useful for ‘interactivity’ when remote from the garage.

Hi Simon,

You might want to check Home Assistant’s new Energy Management feature (the CO2 intensity of the grid is interesting if you’re trying to get to net zero emissions):

Hopefully the new Evnex meter current/power sensor will have an api that can be used with it.

You can also add your Evnex charger using this Ocpp integration (for more sophisticated automations eg solar load balancing) through HACS:

Hi @derek and @smbunn

Please be aware that we no longer allow our hardware to be connected to other OCPP backends.
@smbunn despite being pushed back a little further due to Covid, our power sensor accessory is very close to being ready for sale. We expect to have stock available and be ready to ship within two weeks.

Best regards.
Ed

NOOOOO!!!

I was just setting up the OCPP integration in Home Assistant.

What is the thinking behind not letting people like me to access the API or use OCPP?

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My Home Assistant automation is pretty extensive, and I am a professional Electrical Engineer (ex Director of the Control Systems division at Beca). The image above is my powerflow based on my own meters which do have an API

Kind regards

Simon Bunn

Hi Ed,

That would be a pity as most of the leading worldwide AC chargers are following the model of allowing the user to manage their Ocpp provider, as well as remaining connected to the charger suppliers back-end. For example https://easee.com/ , Wallbox Pulsar | Compact and efficient charger, https://new.abb.com/products/6AGC082156/tac-w11-g5-r-0 etc

The business case for the extra price premium of an Ocpp charger reduces significantly if you become locked to a niche manufacturer in my view.

Hi @smbunn and @derek

We will continue to allow both of you to operate your chargers on your own network, since you purchased them before this announcement. Simon, I will be in touch with you via email to advise on this. Please understand however that we can only provide limited support and that it is your responsibility to read and understand the OCPP specification. When the charge point is removed from our network, it will no longer have automatic firmware updates applied.

While we will continue to support the OCPP protocol internally, our experience from working with a range of different products and vendors over the years has largely indicated that offering a fully interoperable OCPP compatible hardware will add limited value for the vast majority of mass-market customers, who will not understand what OCPP is. The reality is that very few customers have the technical understanding or time to set up Home Assistant.

Our current priority is to ensure that our products are simple and easy to use, and cover the main requirements for the majority of our customers. Having said this, an API for home users who wish to further extend the capability of the system is certainly something we are considering.

When we get to this point, we would be very open to talking with you both about what features may be useful, if you are interested.

Best regards,
Ed

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Thanks for clarifying @edharvey, if I update my firmware manually I take it doing so will not prevent the ocpp connection from working in the future?

@edharvey Have downloaded the app and pressed ‘connect to charge device’ Left my phone resting against the Evnex, been 4 minutes now and no conenction. Of course I can see the Evnex on my router and I am sure you can see it in its cloud connection. Using the Android App on my Huawei P30 Pro. Any ideas?

Hi Derek, that’s correct, updating the firmware will not affect your OCPP connection.

I removed the EVNEX bluetooth connection, rescanned, saw it again and paired again. But it never says ‘connected’. Do I need to do something in the Evnex itself to pair?

No the charge point should be listening all the time. When you say you “paired again” do you mean that you did it in the generic Bluetooth menu or from inside the app? Because I expect it to be done from inside the app.

One thing we have found helps on Android (for no reason that we understand…) is turning on the “Improve Accuracy” setting (which you can find by searching in the settings menu). The wording implies that it does more scanning of nearby wireless things in order to give a more accurate location, but it’s possible that it also causes the phone to find more Bluetooth devices for some reason.

Worked first time from my wife’s iPhone

Switching to an iPhone is the other thing we have found to help…

There is some planned work to look at Android Bluetooth over the next couple of weeks as you aren’t the first person to have trouble.

Is there a ‘minimum’ charge rate for an EVNEX? I want to balance my solar into the car so look at export power, and if above say 1 kW, then divert this into the car.
Export power /230 = current out
car charge rate = car charge rate + current out
If car charge rate > 32 then car charge rate =32
If car charge rate < 5 then car charge rate =0

Something like that proto code?

Hi Simon, the minimum charging rate for any IEC 61851 compliant charger is 6A.

Thanks Ed😊

Working hard on my home automation

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Hi Ed, I upgraded my EVNEX last week as it was incompatible with my Polestar 2. Pedro helped me upgrade. It now charges the Polestar correctly, but when I tried to switch back to my own OCPP server it is not connecting. The blue light flashes rapidly. My IP Scanner shows the EVNEX is on my network but my old settings of 192.168.1.22 and port 9000 in the Evnex installation app no longer work.

Hi Simon,

I’m picking this one up for Ed :slightly_smiling_face:

I think we managed the resolve this issue and the fix was to use [ws://192.168.1.22:9000] as the OCCP Endpoint.

Cheers,

Pedro