EV charger not resuming charging

Yes, I can confirm it. Some problems that I had with Renault Zoe (and then with VW ID.3 too) I don’t have with Tesla Y now - same EVCS, different car :–)

I can bet other EVSEs might not have those problems with those cars.
Of course, I can understand that different cars could have different outcomes, but isn’t the manufacturer’s role to try to minimize different experiences?
Just because 2 different cars speak different languages, this doesn’t mean that the EVSE can’t understand both. Moreover, increasing functions also increases complexity, I get all that.
I also understand that some situations weren’t accounted for, during the initial design, we are limited to what can be done at hardware level.
What I have observed is that frequently (not always, as the above video proves) unplug / replug the charger can solve some issues. So, for example, a relay cutting the pilot might simulate that.

What I’m yet to understand is the need for frequent calibrations when other EVSEs don’t need even once, and also all the different status. What do they signify and how does the EVSE gets them.
I doubt my cars (both) are broken. If they don’t show problems with other EVSEs why put the guilt on both cars? I just need to understand this incompatibility and try to find a workaround.

Please don’t tell me that my car can’t charge on excess solar, automatically.

How do you know, that on other EVCS communication does not need to be calibrated everytime after connecting EV? Maybe other EVCS do it automatically on the background… This is probably something, which is already being considered by Victron experts :wink:

I am only said, that some problems with charging are due to not very great SW implementation of the EV and this is also one of the main reasons why I finally chose Tesla instead of European, Korean or Chinese EV…

EVCS from Victron is relatively young device and I understand, that they need to get some experiences in this area, and great thing is that Victron staff is open to changes and suggestions from end-users - for example by some guy from Czech Republic (me) :grinning:

Well, I know that on other EVCS communication does not need to be manually calibrated by the user every time after connecting EV. Are they considering this? From my understanding of @Lpopescu answers is, the case is closed.

Not very great SW implementation of the EV, I can also understand. Not all cars are the same, I get it.
So, you have a car for years, you charged that car in several places without issues. After buying the Victron EVCS, you noticed that the EVCS and your car don’t get along and the advertised functions don’t work; are you telling me the next logical step is change the car for one with better SW implementation? Yes, let’s ditch European, Korean and Chinese and buy only Tesla cars because their software implementation goes better with the Victron EVCS… I’m sorry, but this doesn’t seem logic to me.

I understand the EVCS from Victron is a relatively young device and I also understand that they need to get some experiences in this area; no worries understanding all this. Not only that, but I even made myself available to share and freely contribute in whatever way Victron seems suitable, to make Victron’s product better. Apparently, the interest is zero, and that’s fair.
What I absolutely don’t find fare is closing the door in my face, after I paid 18000 for products that advertise certain functions, and in the end they seems to not be able to do.

Imagine the position that Victron is putting my Victron distributor when I next week come to him, telling him that I want to return my EVCS because it can’t do the advertised functions. It can do less than the OpenEVSE I built in 2016.

What makes me sad is not the device supporting functions or not. What makes me sad, is the person I believe is the head of the EVCS development, Lucian, doesn’t want to discuss or even say, we are going to look into this, give a few weeks, and I’ll come back to you on an issue that is clearly the EVSE faults. It’s amazing how I didn’t got yet a direct answer…

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Same here… I have a Citroen eC4 (Stellantis platform) car (there are many cars of that platform out there!) and used it in conjunction with Shellies in front of a Juice Booster for controlling the charging (1 or 3 phase) and all worked just fine (other than not being able to remotely control the power of the charging). Turn on AC in the middle of the night, car in deep sleep after days of not using and it starts charging right away.

Now with the EVCS its a different story: the charging only works if the car is in full-on mode. I.e. I need to be close to the car with the key to wake the car up when charging begins. That was never needed with the Juice Booster (or any other wallbox I used for that matter).

There has to be a major flaw either in the hardware or in the SW of the EVCS

That is a real pity as I bought the product for its better integration with my system (to which, beyond the blue items also belongs a typical EV…)

@Lpopescu look into it if you want to get the product moving… with no fixing of this problem the reputation of the product will deteriorate over time and sales will go down instead of up.

I think that the issues should be rather easy to find by comparing the PWM handshake of e.g. a Juice booster (or any other working Wallbox) to the one of the EVCS not working on these particular cars.

PS: before some 20 calibration attempts charging was not possible in 1Ph mode at all. Also here: there is something not to standard how the Victron EVCS is handling the CP signal… no other Wallbox or brick needs manual calibration to work (and 20 attempts at that).

Maybe it would be an idea to engage with a consultant in the field?

Well, I installed recently 4 smartpee charging points at the company.
Sorry, I couldn’t recommend Victron to my CEO, since the interest to fix problems that several people have, doesn’t seem to be moving.
Interestingly enough, my car has no problems in charging there; starting and stopping the sessions remotely by the EVSE side, are done without issues. At home, I can’t change from manual to auto, without first go physically to the car, remove the plug and put it back in.

As I said before, I’m open to help the development of the Victron EVCS.

I agree, I posted a problem similar to this. It’s such a shame we are opening a new Lakeside solar powered business park and would have loved to put in Victron EVCS but its just not practical.
I have clients still hopeful and plugging in at 10PM for the cheap rate hoping that this is all fixed in a software update.

Software update can’t fix this because this is not software related. If the car computer goes to sleep, the only way to wake it up is by unplug/plug the cable. Or open the door of the car on some vehicles.
It is possible that on some charging stations they have a method to emulate disconnecting the cable. We don’t have that on the current model, but we can have it on the next one.
And this is a trick, is not part of the standard protocol.

Similar but not the same.
We have Dacia Springs, Renault Zoe’s, and VW’s that when connected charge straight away but if you stop and try to restart it won’t. Also scheduled charge doesn’t work.
Anyway that’s a different post I did.

@Lucian, I understand and respect that you want to keep faithful to the standard.

But, you must understand and you/victron should be clear about this situation, that decision makes a less good product to the end user.

This also creates a less desirable product. Honestly I love the auto function that the evse adapt automatically to the free sun power, but in my case, that only works 8 months per year.
The other months I need to stop and start manually, and PHYSICALLY at the car. In the cold and dark months of the year; Am I lazy yes call me lazy.
Much probably if I knew this, I wouldn’t had bought this EVSE. This is unexpected behavior from an EVSE.

Other stations emulate a solution that the standard doesn’t cover? Its a solution that solves the problem.
I don’t understand why Victron choose to make a worse product than the competitors.

I feel cheated by this situation, and from a brand I want to be a fanboy. I’m not a fanboy at the moment.
If Victron would refund this without a problem to the person that sold the station, I would return it a blink.

Nuno

What you are saying here would be truth if that would be the case on all the vehicles. And it is not like that. Unfortunately, there are lots of exceptions in the design of the charging mechanism. Some vehicles are disabling charging when you open the door. Is that normal? Is the EVCS fault?
There is a standard that we followed.
If you want to return the EVCS, I can help you with that if necessary, no worries!

I have “Charged” displaying when trying to start in Auto or Manual (BYD Seal). This has happened after car was parked overnight and still plugged in.
Rather than unplug and plug the charge cable I went to the BYD app on my phone and checked the tyre pressure. As soon as I did this, the car started charging. This has only happened today so will try again tomorrow and monitor other ways of waking the vehicle using the phone app. Hope this info is helpful as a workaround.

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Yes, if you can wake up the car computers somehow, it works. Some users are using the scheduled preconditioning. However, this depends on the vehicle’s capabilities.

Thats what my charger also shows. I don’t have an app; the ev soul from 2016 doesn’t have it yet.

@Lpopescu would interrupting the pilot wire with a relay, and closing it back, be interpreted by the car as a cable disconnect and reconnect? This is something I could easily implement with a shelly relay.

Because removing the cable and connect it back always solved my issues.

Preconditioning does not help with the latest Skoda Enyaq, software 5.2

I also tried remote unlock+lock using the MySkoda app, with no success.

Physically disconnecting the connector is the only method that works.

I’d guess all current MEB cars (VW, Skoda, Audi…) will behave the same way.

From my previous post, to wake up the vehicle (BYD Seal), I opened the BYD app on my phone and selected to check “Tyre Pressure”. As soon as I selected “Tyre Pressure” the EVCS started to charge in Auto.

Today I tried the same technique and the EVCS went from showing “Charged” to “Starting” and back to “Charged”. I tried to start a charge in “Manual” with the same result. I then tried unlocking the vehicle with the phone app and it did the same (EVCS went from showing “Charged” to “Starting” and back to “Charged”. I tried to do a CP calibration with the same result. I tried cycling the power to the EVCS, still the same result. I went into the vehicle and selected “Vehicle Start” and back off again. I tried removing and replacing the charge cable to the vehicle, still the same result. Last I removed the charge cable, reversed the vehicle slightly and moved it back, plugged in the charge cable and then selected “Start” in Auto and the EVCS started to charge as normal.

So, with all these attempts to start the charge, the vehicle was “awakened” and it still wouldn’t start a charge until moving the vehicle slightly. I’ll try this again in the next few days to see if it repeats.

It might, yes, you can try that.
We will have a similar approach on EVCS V2, where the CP line can be disconnected
I hope it will work on all brands, I heard some vehicles are using the PP line to detect the cable connected state
But you can try, there is a lot of empty space inside the EVCS to fit a small smart relay.
Just make sure that relay is not giving you 230V AC when you enable it

This morning I started the EVCS in Auto and it started charging the BYD Seal without having to wake up the vehicle. See my previous post on 01Mar about problems trying to start charging and the EVCS app showing “Charged”
Today it is working normally as it should. Maybe I didn’t have the charge cable connected to the vehicle properly a few days ago.
I’ll continue to monitor

So far the BYD Seal starts charging as normal. Looks like it could have been the charge cable not connected to the vehicle properly See previous posts on 28Feb, 01Mar and 03Mar

Ok, let me also react. I have a Stellantis car (opel Mokka-e) and same issue. When charging will not start immediately when cable is connected, charging will never start later in automatic mode. There is always message from EVCS : “charged”.
How do you handle it ? Any chance to solve somehow ?