question

julien-coissac avatar image
julien-coissac asked

Is there really a team in charge of the development of the EV charging station?

Hello everyone,

Hello to the staff of EV charging station if he still works at Victron...

We use many high value Victron products like the Quattro 10000.

Due to the quality of the Victron products and the integration of the EV charging station with the Victron infrastructure, including VRM, I chose this charger instead of the SMA charger.

Unfortunately, this product was put on the market without being finished and yet it is not a "cheap" product, just with its price!

What happens at Victron with this product?

Don’t you have a development team available to properly operate this charger?

The web and touch screen interface seems to come out of the 80s!

The automation allowing charging only when the batteries are sufficiently charged does not work.

The adaptation of the load according to the sunshine does not work either.

I paid for a machine that was supposed to function according to its characteristics.

This is not the case and it is not worthy of Victron to abandon us like that.

Julien


ev charging stationdevelopment
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14 Answers
Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff) avatar image
Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff) answered ·

Hi, yes there is a team in charge, I'm part of that team. I will answer your complaints one by one:

  • it is a new filed for us, so we are adding new features with every update. We've started with software version 1.19 and nor we are on version 1.23, soon to release version 1.24.
  • "The automation allowing charging only when the batteries are sufficiently charged does not work. "—that function does not exist, and it is not advertised to work like that. Automatic mode is working based on the energy exported into the grid.
  • "The adaptation of the load according to the sunshine does not work either. " - if your system is connected to the grid and feed-in is allowed, it should work. If not, you can contact me directly and I can have a look
  • "The web and touch screen interface seems to come out of the 80s!"- all the monitoring and control functions are being moved into Victron Connect, as you can see below. That's probably next week. So with this version, Bluetooth functionality will be enabled.1671103481127.png
  • You are not abandoned, if you check this community, all the questions or issues EVCS related are answered and solved.

1671103481127.png (371.8 KiB)
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julien-coissac avatar image
julien-coissac answered ·

Dear Lucian,

I don’t want to be unpleasant or create controversy, but this is not very serious....

  • it is a new filed for us, so we are adding new features with every update. We've started with software version 1.19 and nor we are on version 1.23, soon to release version 1.24.

4 versions in such a short time and a 5th version that doesn’t happen... Frankly we can’t say that the product was ready for the factory release! I rather believe that Victron did not want to lose an opportunity to be on the charger market, even if it means launching an unfinished product...

  • "The automation allowing charging only when the batteries are sufficiently charged does not work. "—that function does not exist, and it is not advertised to work like that. Automatic mode is working based on the energy exported into the grid

  • "The adaptation of the load according to the sunshine does not work either. " - if your system is connected to the grid and feed-in is allowed, it should work. If not, you can contact me directly and I can have a look

If I look at the product manual, here’s what I can read:

"Thanks to the seamless integration of the EV Charging Station with the rest of the Victron installation, it detects when surplus power is available and uses only this power to charge the vehicle. Instead of loosing surplus energy when the batteries are full or instead of feeding back into the grid at a lower price, the energy is stored into the EV battery".

We have an isolated installation with a generator of 25 Kw + 3 quattro 10 KW and 3 batteries 15.4 KW. So according to the manual, I should be able to automatically charge the vehicle when the batteries no longer require a charge (according to a % charge to be defined). Now, you are telling me that this is not planned and that it only concerns the grid... Sorry, but that’s not what’s written in your commercial and technical documents.

  • "The web and touch screen interface seems to come out of the 80s!"- all the monitoring and control functions are being moved into Victron Connect, as you can see below. That's probably next week. So with this version, Bluetooth functionality will be enabled.

According to what you write, this means that the web interface from the IP address of the EV charging station will no longer be available? Yet it is this interface that is useful from a PC or tablet and therefore deserves a design of the years 2020 and not the 1980s!

Concerning the "physical" design of the product, which is the engineer who had the strange idea to force us to wire the product before its installation... The lid only opens from the back, which forces you to drop the product... Frankly, it’s absurd.

Finally, originally Victron offered its products for boats... So isolated systems! The interest of the EV charging station is obviously to know how to manage energy flows also in isolated systems... Otherwise, what is the interest of paying twice the price of a charger on the market?

Today I am not happy because with the information you provide in your documentation, I feel I have been deceived and this is not acceptable on the part of a company like yours.

Julien

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

Dear Julien,
Regarding the automatic mode, please check our manual: (https://www.victronenergy.com/media/pg/EV_Charging_Station/en/setup.html)
Especially this part:
1671208315057.pngFor all our devices, we are releasing a new software version almost every month. For example, have a look at the change log for Victron Connect https://www.victronenergy.com/live/victronconnect:beta
If you want, you can have an active role here, just by saying what you need, and if possible, we will add it. Check other posts, there are requests already solved.
Or, you can return the product, we are sorry that we are not providing the expected quality.



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julien-coissac avatar image julien-coissac commented ·

Dear Lucca,

I understand that you love your business, that you defend your business... But sometimes it is good to recognize its wrongs...

1) No. User manual is not clear. We are talking about grid but we are also talking "Instead of loosing surplus energy when the batteries are full".

"To lose" energy when the batteries are full, you must be isolated (or the grid refuses your energy, which is unlikely...)

2) If you open the cover of a Quattro and that of an EV charging station, if you do not see the difference in design/manufacturing quality between the two, it is that you are blind or that you refuse the evidence !

3) I think you have now understood why I was not satisfied with the product today. It is up to you to give me the information of 1.25 regarding the automation "off grid".

Is it possible that the EV charging station module the load according to the solar production (indicating the maximum permissible charge level and depending on the sun, with delay of course to avoid permanent variations, charging it would vary or stop the load power ?

4) Finally, one last criticism anyway!

Don’t tell a customer to "return the product" when there are design and development problems... You will explain to me how our supplier and your importer in Spain will accept to take back a product installed... I’d like to, but it’s also an admission of failure on your part. And I still want to believe that you will find solutions for me and that you will do everything necessary to improve the documentation.

I would be happy to receive good useful information from you and even a beta firmware to test progress!

Have a nice weekend.

Julien


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Javier Pardo avatar image
Javier Pardo answered ·

Hello all, I understand the frustration of Julien in all the arguments that he gave in his message.

I, like many other users in this community, bought the Victron vehicle charger fully trusting in the professionalism and high quality of its products.

I think that many of the users who have a Victron charger know the brand because we are users of their products and I think that 99% of us are fully satisfied with these products and for this reason we have decided to buy the Victron charger.

I had some problems just like Julien the first days of using the charger. I have to say that @Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff) helped me with each of these problems and to this day I am happy with the performance of the charger, but like Julien right now my system is isolated from the mains and the integration of the charger with the rest of the Victron devices is completely null.

I am a user who hopes to have an integrated system with the rest of the Victron devices in my installation and to be able to choose when to charge my vehicle and in what way. Right now my only option is to charge the vehicle manually, without the option of being able to choose any parameter other than the charging power and without taking into account the rest of the charges in my house or the amount of remaining battery.

My question right now is the following @Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff) : Will users who have an isolated installation be able to use the automatic mode of the vehicle charger one day or will this never come?

I would just like to have a clear answer to this problem and to know if I have invested my money well or, on the contrary, I have thrown it away and I need to buy another charger that can do what I am asking for.


Thank you.

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

@Javier Pardo The answer is yes, next update (1.24) is the one that enables Bluetooth and Victron Connect and the next one (1.25) will add automatic mode for off grid installations.

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Javier Pardo avatar image Javier Pardo commented ·

Nice to hear this. Thank you @Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff)

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Michelle Konzack avatar image Michelle Konzack commented ·
This sounds already very good
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lucca371 avatar image
lucca371 answered ·

I also think that the Victron EV Charger is quite expensive compared to other devices. But the integration into the GX world works well and new functions are added with every update.
PV excess controlled charging in an ESS system works very well. The charger uses the energy that is otherwise fed into the grid.
The case could be easier to maintain. You could also use a short fixed cable with a junction box like the go-charger. Then assembly would be easier.

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julien-coissac avatar image julien-coissac commented ·

Dear Lucca371,

I want to do all the DIY possible but it’s still DIY... It should be possible to remove the charger cover and access the connection terminals. I don’t know another charger that has to be mounted upside down!

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julien-coissac avatar image
julien-coissac answered ·

Dear Lucca,

I understand that you love your business, that you defend your business... But sometimes it is good to recognize its wrongs...

1) No. User manual is not clear. We are talking about grid but we are also talking "Instead of loosing surplus energy when the batteries are full".

"To lose" energy when the batteries are full, you must be isolated (or the grid refuses your energy, which is unlikely...)

2) If you open the cover of a Quattro and that of an EV charging station, if you do not see the difference in design/manufacturing quality between the two, it is that you are blind or that you refuse the evidence !

3) I think you have now understood why I was not satisfied with the product today. It is up to you to give me the information of 1.25 regarding the automation "off grid".

Is it possible that the EV charging station module the load according to the solar production (indicating the maximum permissible charge level and depending on the sun, with delay of course to avoid permanent variations, charging it would vary or stop the load power ?

4) Finally, one last criticism anyway!

Don’t tell a customer to "return the product" when there are design and development problems... You will explain to me how our supplier and your importer in Spain will accept to take back a product installed... I’d like to, but it’s also an admission of failure on your part. And I still want to believe that you will find solutions for me and that you will do everything necessary to improve the documentation.

I would be happy to receive good useful information from you and even a beta firmware to test progress!

Have a nice weekend.

Julien

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lucca371 avatar image
lucca371 answered ·

Hello,

3: At the moment the GX device controls the EV charging station exclusively with the current fed into the GRID. It works only if you have a GRID meter (EM24) in ESS Mode.
If I feed in 1300 W, the car charges with 1300 W (1 phase mode)... The GX device tries to regulate the feed to 0 W. This control works well.
Lucian said that in later Firmware release this also works in offgrid mode without GRID. This is what you and also i want. We have to wait for that.

I know the manual: It detects when excess power is available and uses only that power to charge the vehicle.

Unfortunately, there is nothing about GRID or offgrid. But it will come.

....

There are many other chargers on the market. I don't know of any charger that works well in the Victron world and automatically uses the surplus. I don't know of any other device that can charge the car in off-grid mode. Zappi can charge surplus, but only in GRID mode.
So I will wait for the new firmware.
Many greetings

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elbarjo avatar image
elbarjo answered ·

Dear Lucca371,

Thank you very much for this new comment, which I hope will not only be useful but also herald of a super firmware that will make us move to the year 2023 with pleasure!

Many greetings to all.

Julien

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julien-coissac avatar image
julien-coissac answered ·

Good evening and happy new year to all!


The latest firmware 1.23 is dated September 20, 2022....


It is January 7, 2023 and still no news of a new firmware?


Maybe a beta firmware to test?


Some news of the ongoing development would be a good thing to start the year well!


Julien

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mcwidowmaker avatar image
mcwidowmaker answered ·

Good day,


I am using firmware 1.25 and I still cannot get it to function in off grid mode. The charger remains at waiting for the sun state. Is it possible to refer me to some documentation or give me advice on how to configure it to feed excess power into the EV in a off grid setup?

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Can you send me an email with the vrm portal of your system? ( lpopescu@victronenergy.com)
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stakai avatar image
stakai answered ·

Hello, please where can be found change log of firmware 1.25 ? Thanks

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Victron Professional, Firmware/EV Charging Station

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

Thanks for such fast response.

Two more questions/tips for improvement:

  • I can see EVCS statistics only via Victron Connect. There are only Total Energy and last session energy. Is it possible to divide this to energy from grid and energy from solar panels?
  • Imagine situation: EV is scheduled for delayed charging (because car can control and stop charging when 80% SOC baterry is reached in this mode). When EV is connected to EVCS and EV is still waiting (due to delayed charging), EVCS is sometimes switching between "Starting" and "Charged" states with repeatedly clicks with relay. Sometimes it does this only few times and stay in "Charged" state without relay clicks and wait to start charging to EV. Is it possible to configure EVCS to avoid this repeating switching between "Starting" and "Charged" states?

Thanks in advance and have a nice day

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

" EVCS is sometimes switching between "Starting" and "Charged" states with repeatedly clicks with relay. Sometimes it does this only few times and stay in "Charged" state without relay clicks and wait to start charging to EV. Is it possible to configure EVCS to avoid this repeating switching between "Starting" and "Charged" states?" - https://www.victronenergy.com/media/pg/EV_Charging_Station/en/setup.html#UUID-bbe807c2-c40e-3b58-9ab8-10894214836e

Please perform CP line calibration, as explained in the manual

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

I have tried calibration. I'm doing it a bit blindly because I didn't understand from the manual whether the calibration should be done when charging or when car is connected, but still waiting for charging (delayed charging from EV side).

What is the right procedure in my case?

After calibration it is better than before but still not 100% OK. Still sometimes repeating switching between "Starting" and "Charged" states occures.

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Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff) avatar image Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff) ♦♦ stakai commented ·
When the vehicle is connected and not charging
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stakai avatar image stakai Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff) ♦♦ commented ·

Hello,


I have tried another Calibration. So it should be OK.


EV is set up to start charging in some time - delayed charging (due to control EV charging not more than 80%).


In Manual mode, EVCS tries few cycles between Starting and Charged (including relay clicks) and then stay in Charged state. Waiting for EV to start charging and when EV wants to start charging it begins.

So in Manual mode it works pretty fine (it's just a pitty of a few cycles before it switches to the charged state, but it is almost perfect ;) )


In Auto mode, EVCS tries more cycles than in Manual mode between Starting and Charged (including relay clicks) and then stay in Waiting for sun (even if solar power is enought) for some time (in VictronConnect there is visible some countdown). Than repeats whole again and again. And when it is in Waiting for sun state it miss the proper time when EV wants to start charging. So charging does not start.

Can EVCS be set up somehow to work with EV in Auto mode when delayed charging is present as well?

Thanks in advance and have a nice day


StaKai


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

Please, what does it mean "Added 'Battery powered' auto mode algorithm." ?

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

Can you please clarify how exactly “off grid mode” is working on firmware 1.25.

Under which conditions charging will start?

In an off grid system there is no excess power until local battery is full.

How can I tell my charging station to automatically charge even if my local storage battery is not fully charged?

Please, make it work :-)

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

Hi, when the SOC is higher than configured value (setting/general/Start charging at backup battery SoC(%), and PV power is enough, it will start charging. After starting, it will monitor both PV and battery to prevent consuming from the battery.

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

I have set --Start charging at backup battery SoC(%)-- to 40% for testing.

My PV can deliver about 4.8kWp, today I got a max of about 3.4kWp.

Charger is set to charge starting at 8 Amps what is 1840Watts, so enough delta to start charging I assume.

Battery reached 83%, and has consumed 100% of delivered PV power today, but I expected that my car should have started charging, but nothing happened.

1 . What can be wrong?

2. Must "off grid mode" be manually activated?

My system is off grid, but there is a Phoenix (Generator) connected to AC in of my Multiplus. Maybe the system is not recognized as "off grid", so off grid mode of charging station is not activated !?

snip.jpg

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

Not for my system :-(

How does the system determine if it is in "off grid mode"?

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Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff) avatar image Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff) ♦♦ andreas-siebenmorgen commented ·
Why is that generator running? That is probably the reason. Can you repeat the test without generator?
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mcwidowmaker avatar image
mcwidowmaker answered ·

I have managed to configure the charger in offgrid mode using the start and stop SoC. I see however that the charger is not charging at a rate higher than 20A (4.5kw) single phase. Is there a setting somewhere preventing it from using the full 32A except for the max charge current in the setup? That is set at 32A.capture.png


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I see 32, not 20. What vehicle are you trying to charge?


1681815657600.png

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mcwidowmaker avatar image
mcwidowmaker answered ·

Hi, I am charging a volvo XC40 recharge P8. That setting is set at 32A, but the 4548W is only 20A. 32A will be around 7000W. The vehicle charges at 7.2kw if I use my other charger, but the Victron unit hasn't gone above 4.6kw

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Can you give me a picture of the label on the cable used for charging? Or the text written on the cable?
Cables have a way to communicate the maximum power supported, so that might be your case. Here an example for a 20A cable: https://www.evexpert.eu/p/351/phoenix-contact-charging-cable-type2-type2-20a-3phase

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Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff) avatar image Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff) ♦♦ Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff) ♦♦ commented ·
So? any update?
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andreas-siebenmorgen avatar image andreas-siebenmorgen commented ·

Maybe these two ModBus settings are causing this behavior. The default values are near your observation.

img-0137.jpeg

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Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff) avatar image Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff) ♦♦ andreas-siebenmorgen commented ·
No, those values are used to trigger automatic start, not related
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andreas-siebenmorgen avatar image andreas-siebenmorgen Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff) ♦♦ commented ·
Is there a detailed overview available of all these Modbus options?
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andreas-siebenmorgen avatar image andreas-siebenmorgen Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff) ♦♦ commented ·
I meant a -detailed- list.

It is not obvious for me what exactly every value is meant for.

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Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff) avatar image Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff) ♦♦ andreas-siebenmorgen commented ·
No, that's what we have for now
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