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martin-fi asked

EV Charing Station - Charging impossible without Connection to GX Device

We are facing the follwing problem:


Our EVCS is connected to our CerboGX. In the settings of the EVCS the GX Device Communication is enabled (standard setting - see picture):screenshot-2023-03-30-172025.png


Once our LAN failed and the GX Device had no Connection to the EVCS --> Charging wasn´t possible.

We tried to start the charging process in Manual and Automatic Mode.

Every time the failure "LOW SOC" was shown.


Charging was possible again after deactivating the GX Device communication in the menue of the EVCS via AP Mode.

In my opinion charging should be allowed when a LAN Error occurs.


Is there a better solution than disabling the GX communication to start a charging process when network is failing ?


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

Hi, let me give you the following example – off grid system, a small battery and the communication fails. Don't you think that it is smarter not to continue charging the vehicle, to prevent over-discharghing the backup battery? That was the reason for this behavior. But we are working having the errors better explained, LOW SOC is not clear enough, indeed. In 1.25 it will be different, keep an eye on the updates, new very cool things are coming.

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ejrossouw avatar image ejrossouw commented ·

The legislation in the UK that came into effect last year, is quite specific on this point. There are also some other "MUST" aspects such as DSR and default off-peak settings that I am currently seeking clarity on from the sales manager. 1680771561333.png

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martin-fi answered ·

Ok. I will wait for the new Firmware and I hope that it will come soon.


A manual setting (with a PIN Input) forcing the wallbox to charge the car for emergency purposes would be perfect.

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Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff) avatar image Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff) ♦♦ commented ·

Tomorrow should be available


Lucian

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martin-fi answered ·

Thank you for the new firmware. Looks fine.


I got one more idea for the following usecase:

We have installed 2 Victron EV Charing Stations in our company. In Automatic Mode they will share the excess power to charge the EVs.

Typically we work until 5pm. During our working hours we have the highest consumption.

After quitting time there are some hours left in which PV energy is being produced to charge the ESS Battery until the sunset.


My Idea:

If there would be an option (just like the min SOC in case of lost grid) to set a SOC (e.g. 70%) where automatic EV charing is activated and the cars could be charged with excess PV Power without taking energy from the ESS battery.

The remaining 30% (from 70 to 100 SOC) can be charged between quitting time and sunset.


Is it possible to implement this ?

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Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff) avatar image Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff) ♦♦ commented ·

It is possible, but probably the easiest way is for you to create a custom setup over node red.

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martin-fi avatar image martin-fi Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff) ♦♦ commented ·
ok. I will try it with node red.
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