question

kudos50 avatar image
kudos50 asked

EVCS feature change request: whilst waiting for power, move from stop-start to charge current = 0

The EVCS currently seems to use a stop-start mechanism to overcome situations where available power is not enough to continue the charge process. It is not allowed to set charge current to 0 and instead stops the charging process.


From experience with EVBox Elvi you could set charge current to 0 instead of hitting the stop button. I'm not much of a charger guru but from what I have read there are 2 types of charge suspend methods:

SuspendedEV, when the car tells the charger it's either charged or has it's own charge schedule and is waiting for that schedule to kick in.

SuspendedEVSE, when the charger is telling the car it's unable to charge.


If the Elvi has charge current = 0 than the CP status turns SuspendedEVSE and all contactors remain active. From an automation perspective (and from a firmware coding perspective) it's much much easier if charge current = 0 can be used for the simple reason that you don't have to put reservations in your code to define WHO stopped the charging process.

Not sure if this will work in EVCS but if it does, it would save quite some lines of code for solar excess auto mode, overload protection and waiting for the schedule to start.

ev charging stationevcsev charger
14 comments
2 |3000

Up to 8 attachments (including images) can be used with a maximum of 190.8 MiB each and 286.6 MiB total.

kudos50 avatar image kudos50 commented ·

I'm also not sure about the consequences for other cars as I never tested this but my own car cannot use EVCS scheduled mode in its current state. In "stopped" state the car wakes up every 20mins or so to check. I know some other EVs don't have this problem :-)

0 Likes 0 ·

Thanks for creating this topic, I'll keep you posted with the development

0 Likes 0 ·
Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff) avatar image Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff) ♦♦ Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff) ♦♦ commented ·

writing here again from here - https://community.victronenergy.com/questions/263471/evcs-throttling-charge-power-on-schedule.html

"We are preparing a new firmware around this feature, to use it in:
- Automatic mode when production is not enough
- Scheduled mode while waiting
- Overload while waiting for more power available
Anything else?"

0 Likes 0 ·
kudos50 avatar image kudos50 Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff) ♦♦ commented ·
I would very very much like to have an override feature of the input current limit if Venus is connected. Not sure if that will cover the rest of the load sharing functionality I wrote but it will make it more versatile for more customers. By making it modbus rw only people cannot accidentally put something in ?

If you have time, have a look at the flows I shared earlier. Maybe it will give you idea's.

0 Likes 0 ·

Noted, check your email please


0 Likes 0 ·
ebringas avatar image ebringas Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff) ♦♦ commented ·
Can I have te beta also?
0 Likes 0 ·
sure, as soon as we have one :) Next week maybe
0 Likes 0 ·
getacca avatar image getacca Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff) ♦♦ commented ·

Good morning, I am also interested in a beta version and am looking forward to the changes.

1 Like 1 ·
ebringas avatar image ebringas Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff) ♦♦ commented ·
Hi @Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff)


any update about this?


regards

0 Likes 0 ·
ebringas avatar image ebringas Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff) ♦♦ commented ·
Hi ,

@Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff) have you had the chance of taking a look at this?

0 Likes 0 ·
There are multiple topics here, please explain.


0 Likes 0 ·
ebringas avatar image ebringas Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff) ♦♦ commented ·

@Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff) The beta version you are working on,

Remember? You told us to wait a few days for you to test if the set charge current to zero worked, before fixing the dynamic current limit to avoid setting the current to a mínimum if the system reaches the maximum limit several times.


This thread was created on your request, coming from this one https://community.victronenergy.com/questions/263471/evcs-throttling-charge-power-on-schedule.html?childToView=265844#comment-265844

0 Likes 0 ·

Yes, unfortunately is not working well, lots of vehicles are not working with this mode. So most probably is not going to be added.

0 Likes 0 ·
ebringas avatar image ebringas Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff) ♦♦ commented ·

@Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff) this was already known, not all cars accept this charge mode, but ok.


Then let’s continue with the fixing of the dynamic power, could you please add the option to enable/disable the current behavior when it reaches the input current limit several times and then unlike the rest of the dynamic enable chargers of the world decides to set a low charge power not only for the current session but also for the scheduled mode.


If you like we can continue in the original thread https://community.victronenergy.com/questions/263471/evcs-throttling-charge-power-on-schedule.html?childToView=265844#comment-265844

Please! This is not a request to make things better or improve functionality, this is so this functionality works, I currently have to manually fix the charge power during the charge sesión if I’m lucky and I’m awake and also in the schedule profile, so, what is the point of having a smart charger if I need to manually fix this misbehavior?


I don’t really understand why this is not added as an additional option like so many other that we already have, so users that wants the dynamic power balancing works as it should can have it and those who wants this other behavior that we currently have can have it also all happy with the flip of a virtual switch


0 Likes 0 ·
1 Answer
ahtih avatar image
ahtih answered ·

I would also like to test beta version when it will be available. I'm running not supported "Single + 3 phase" option if that matters.

2 |3000

Up to 8 attachments (including images) can be used with a maximum of 190.8 MiB each and 286.6 MiB total.