question

mholzer avatar image
mholzer asked

EV Charging Station: Shows Power, but does not charge

Hi,

The EVCS is part of a 3-Phase cerbo-GX System which does communicate with the system perfectly. If I plug my Renault ZOE (Q210) into the EVCS and start the charging process manually it shows up like everything is working fine (around 7,3kW of charging power) but the car does not charge! Charging the ZOE does make some high frequency noise which can not be heard. The Display in the car shows that it should be charging, but stays at the same SOC forever.
In the screenshot attached you can see that the power drawn for charging does not relate to any power meter shown in the system.

The difference between PV and Load is being balanced by the battery. But where should these 7,39kW come from? They do not exist, as proven by not charging the vehicle.

screenshot-2023-03-22-114331.png

ev charging station
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9 Answers
Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff) avatar image
Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff) answered ·

try to increase the charging current higher than 12 and tell me the results

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mholzer avatar image
mholzer answered ·

I have changed the Current up to 15A and it started to charge! Oddly enough the car shows (CanZE) that the nominal power of the charger is around half the value which is showing up in the Chargers website! I played around with the power calibration value but even at the lowest factor (0.6) the charging power value is not small enough to match the power that the car sees.
By the way, sometimes the start of a charging cycle is not working. It seems, that the car is recognized an then it says "charged" as if the car is fully charged, but it is not.

I have already calibrated the CP several times. I have tried to set the charging current to higher values because of the chameleon-charger of the ZOE. Once this problem of not starting a charge occurs, it seems that only a re-plugging of the vehicle is helping out.

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Yes, ZOE has a strange AC/DC converter, using the main motor as inductor. That's why you hear that high frequency noise. So configure the EVCS to start with a higher current, you'll have to experiment what's the minimum on that model.
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mholzer avatar image
mholzer answered ·

Hi, Seems that I have to set at least 12A to charge correctly.
But why is the actual charging power showing that much more than the real power?
When I set 12A the CanZE from the car shows that the charging station is capable of charging at 3.6kW, the actual charging power shows around 3,4kW (due to some losses i guess) but the EVCS shows somewhat around 5,5kW with the power factor set to 0,6!

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Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff) avatar image
Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff) answered ·

Can you try at higher charging current in the difference stays the same ?

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mholzer avatar image
mholzer answered ·

OK with Factor 0.6:
12A -> Car: 3,3kW EVCS: 5,14kW
13A -> Car: 4,7kW EVCS: 5,83kW
14A -> Car: 5,3kW EVCS: 6,24kW
15A -> Car: 6,4kW EVCS: 6,4kW
16A -> Car: 7,2kW EVCS: 6,6kW
17A -> Car: 7,9kW EVCS: 6,9kW
18A -> Car: 8,8kW EVCS: 7,5kW
19A -> Car: 9,6kW EVCS: 8kW
20A -> Car: 10,3kW EVCS: 8,4kW
21A -> Car: 11,4kW EVCS: 9kW
22A -> Car: 12,1kW EVCS: 9,3kW

So, it seems that the only correct display is happening at 15A. At lower Power EVCS shows too high, at higher power it shows too low.

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mholzer avatar image
mholzer answered ·

With Factor 1:
12A -> Car: 3,3kW EVCS: 8,5kW
13A -> Car: 4,7kW EVCS: 9,7kW
14A -> Car: 5,3kW EVCS: 10,2kW
15A -> Car: 6,4kW EVCS: 10,6kW
16A -> Car: 7,2kW EVCS: 11kW
17A -> Car: 7,9kW EVCS: 11,9kW
18A -> Car: 8,8kW EVCS: 12,5kW
19A -> Car: 9,6kW EVCS: 13,2kW
20A -> Car: 10,3kW EVCS: 14,2kW
21A -> Car: 11,4kW EVCS: 14,9kW
22A -> Car: 12,1kW EVCS: 15,4kW

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Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff) avatar image
Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff) answered ·

That's strange, there are differences, but I never saw differences so big. Is it possible to try with a different vehicle type?

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mholzer avatar image
mholzer answered ·

I will do so if somebody shows up with an other vehicle..
Btw. Automatic Charging with excess PV Power does work!
But I still have Problems that it does not start charging, just saying "charged" after connecting to the vehicle. I calibrated CP many times now.
Sometimes I have to try several times vie Website or Display, sometimes I have to dis- and reconnect the Typ2 Connector...

3 comments
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When can I have a look at your system? Please send me an email with the vrm portal ID

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mholzer avatar image mholzer Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff) ♦♦ commented ·
Hi, that would be great. I have not found your email address...
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andreas-messerli avatar image
andreas-messerli answered ·

Just wanted mention that I have the same issue as mholzer with showing the wrong data. It is showing charging eventhough it is not charging. My Grid Meter is not showing a single Watt.

Also, as mholzer has mentioned, the power values are way off.

I also drive a Renault Zoe and I'm on firmware v1.24/4.3 on the charger box.

I sadly can not provide any other vehicle data until the next week when my new Cupra Born should arrive and of course I will test it with it too but we are keeping the Zoe too so the box should work and not showing any charging when there is no charging to the vehicle occurring and also it should show the correct values. I was at 0.76 at 13A to be somewhat close to the official grid meter.

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That's a known issue with ZOE, and it's not something we can manage. Minimum charging current for that vehicle should be 13A.

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