EV charger not resuming charging

ohh yes, gotcha

So today I completly change EVCS to “special” version. I implemented two relays for multirelay function and also activated it and next I implemented shelly1 relay as switch for CP signal to wake up a Stellantis Opel car.
All functions tested and working, so now I’m really happy with it.
Hope it will help also to other users.

2 Likes

I made a video to document this issue:

It is clear that disconnecting of the CP line is the way to go.

Victron, could you please make an official retrofit kit for this? You did a retrofit kit to make Multiplus II fan more silent, you could do this as well.

Thank you

Just to make things clear, this is not an issue with the EVCS!
This is just a workaround for vehicles that are not waking up based on CP signal, but are reacting just when disconnecting the cable (or by simulating it)

This is a problem of EVCS and this is a problem of Victron.

Because the EVCS was not tested enough before the release. And Victron Energy did not test EV charging stations of other manufacturers enough. If Victron did that, Victron would know.

The real world is not about “following specifications”. The real world is about products, that work properly and are thoroughly tested.

I want to be constructive, so there are my points, that could be fixed in software:

  1. When switching from “auto” to “manual”, there is no reason to stop the charging process. Because I have the “autostart” option ON. EVCS knows that the autostart is ON.

  2. When switching from “manual” to “auto”, there is no reason to stop the charging process if all the “auto mode” conditions are met.

These two modifications could significantly improve reliability.

1 Like

Products are developed based on standards, not on opinions.

Hi Folks,

1st post, be gentle :-).

I have a Victron system and EVCS charger. EVCS has been working fine for about 12 months on the legacy firmware. Cam back from a work trip 2 weeks ago and the EVCS has completely stopped working. If I am reading this thread correctly, people are disconnecting the CP relay/fuse inside the EVCS, is that correct?

  • Victron Inverter and Solar stack
  • EVCS Charger, 2.1 firmware
  • Tesla 3 but charger is used for a variety of vehicles.
  • EVCS when 1st connected closes the relay (thunk noise) and starts charging. Auto stops after 1-2 seconds.
  • System defaults back to “Charged” when car is clearly not charged
  • Assuming its a CP issue but would welcome thoughts.
  • EVCS is getting power, as confirmed by the electrician.

Connect the cable and press cp calibration

Sorry, should have mentioned that I’ve done that nearly 10 times with no success.

Do u want to post screenshots of your configs?

The thread is not related with this behavior, it is a modification for vehicles that are not waking up
So you didn’t update the EVCS ? It is just happening without having a clear reason, correct? And this is happening on manual mode as well, correct?
For me, it sounds more like a hardware issue.
Are you technical? I can give you some directions for things to test. In my opinion, it is either a ground issue or L1/N are not received by the vehicle. I would start with the second one.
after pressing start, you should hear the contactor closing inside the EVCS, can you measure the contactor input/output voltage ?

Spot on Lucian. I only updated the firmware after the issue started.

The contacter will close after plugging in, it will then deactivate within seconds. I always have had it on manual mode as we run accomodation where people need to be able to charge as needed.

Does the unit need to be open to measure the contacter voltage? Had an electrician neighbour have a quick scan the other day and he was seeing 240v on the large white box inside the unit. However, it was not “on” at that point. You are saying that I need to measure once it’s plugged into the car?

See images below of config and error. Car starts and then say’s charged within a few seconds after contactor closing. In this case, car is 89% so should receive a charge.

Tesla Model 3 Plugged in giving error code “External charging equipment not providing power” “Check Power source or try different equipment”

Car is 89% charged and battery/solar has enough power to charge the car.






Hello Alex

Can you shed some light on how you exactly implemented it? I.e. what materials you used and how you controlled it (timings).

I will try to implement it with for my stellantis Citroen eC4… I was about to start investigations this weekend, but then I stumbled upon the answer because some reminder mail from the Victron message board.

Thanks!

Hello h2r,
I did two modifications :slight_smile:
One is implementation of multirelay mode, so I can switch between Single Phase and 3Phase charging. About this modification is on the network a lot of informations.
Plese check this :
evcs-phasenumschaltung.pdf

Regarding wake up of my Stellantis car, all is described here. It’s quite simple. Car will wake up when cable is disconnected and connected again. But how to do it remotely ? So I found, that enough is disconnect CP signal. Inside EVCS it is very easy. It’s this connector :


So I used shelly 1 wifi relay to do it.
So every time when I want start charging, I will open relay and disconnect CP signal for 2 seconds. Car will wake up and charging can start.
Easy :slight_smile:

2 Likes

Just switched over to the Victron EVCS from a Wallbox Pulsar, and honestly, I’m pretty bummed about this charging issue. I went with Victron because I’ve got the whole ecosystem – battery, inverter, the works – and figured the charger would just fit right in. But this thing not restarting charging is a real pain. If I’d known it was this flaky, I might’ve stuck with the Wallbox.

Anyway, rant over, let’s talk solutions.

With the Wallbox, I had the same kind of problem, but it was easy to get around. All I had to do was nudge the charging current up or down a bit, and boom, it would start charging again. I set up a quick automation in Node-RED, and it was sorted.

On the Victron charger the only thing that seems to work is a full-on reboot. Cant a firmware update not fix something this basic?

So, here’s what I’m wondering:

  1. Is there any way to reboot this thing remotely using Node-RED? Or the shelly is the only solution ?
  2. Would be nice if the charger could track the car’s SOC somehow?It cannot talk to the car directly, but what if we could tell it the battery capacity and starting SOC? Then, it could figure out the SOC as it charges and know when to kick back in.

A bit depressed by this and I just installed the unit … :expressionless_face:

Hi Nuno, as you can see above, this is not an EVCS issue. I presume you have one of the vehicles are not waking up when the CP signal is again set for charging. Most of the vehicles are doing so because that’s what the protocol says. There are solutions, you can see above, you have to simulate cable disconnected. Soft restarting the EVCS is not helping because the CP line remains at 12V. But there are some software tricks that we will try in the next firmware, so before modifying the hardware, wait 1-2 weeks max.
Then, about reading the car SOC, we have some plans, unfortunately it is not possible over the charging cable. So we are working on solutions for getting the data over the cloud. But more on that later, that’s all the inside info I can share. :slight_smile:
So don’t be depressed, there are lots of advantages and solutions.

Hello Lucian ,

Thank you for the feedback looking forward to the new features :slight_smile: .

Iin my case a soft reboot is working, after doing the soft reboot the car starts charging again , my car is the dacia spring . Maybe there are different issues here .

Just started up setting everything but am having some troubles having the EVCS showing up in VRM and in the venus os , might it be because i have a raspberry pi running venus os ?

Might be, Venus OS for the Pi is not updated for some time. And that can cause incompatibilities with newer products or newer firmware versions.