EVCS constantly falling off wifi

Q&A and troubleshooting EVCS
21

My problems with the Unifi AC Mesh interfering with the Victron EV 's wifi connection to my main Victron control system have now been solved.

I updated the firmware in the EV controller to the newest version.
This also required me to subsequently upgrade the Octo GX to the newest version, and the charge controllers to their newest versions etc.

Once all that was done I restarted the AC mesh and there is no longer any interference with the EV charger’s station access. I presume there must have been some kind of a fix in the EV charger firmware.

22

No, last time we were discussing in Nov, firmware 2.0 was already released, and the tests with Dan were performed on 2.0.

23

Dear Lucian, there is, at least, another case with connection / communication issues.

I got the Victron EV Charging Station a long time ago, at the time when it’s price EX-VAT was above 1,5k€.

For many months, besides it had good Wi-Fi signal, the connection of the EVCS with my TP Link router (2,4GHz) was totally unreliable, one day the full day Ok, the next not, then a couple hours Ok, after that a full week disconnected, three hours more connected, three weeks more unreachable, this was its usual behavior.

At home I have dozens of devices connected to the router flawlessly, the only one that hasn’t worked was the EVCS.

The solution for the connection problem was to use a dedicated Unifi Ubiquiti UAP AC Wi-Fi Access Point for the EVCS. It didn’t have more connection / communication issues, until firmware 2.0 was released.

When I updated to firmware 2.0 It didn’t go well: Error “W-104: GX communication warning”, the situation was:

  • EVCS connected Ok to Wi-Fi.

  • EVCS can’t see the GX.

  • GX detected the EVCS Ok.

  • GX could change parameters of the EVCS (switch mode, etc.).

I’ve checked the GX configuration in the EVCS side and everything looked good.

I tried to update it several times having always the same result, so I downgraded to 1.30 to be able to keep using the charger…

Anyway, with the Ubiquiti AP, the connection / communication between EVCS and GX was fine until firmware 1.30, not fine with 2.0.

Considering the persistent and recurrent connection / communication issues that the EV Charging Station had, and mine has not been the only one, the over price of the unit at that time compared with the competition, payed happily assuming a supposed free of trouble integration with a Victron ESS system, it would be highly appreciated that Victron offered an Ethernet connector as a retrofit complement for existing EVCS, to be finally free of this kind of troubles.

Thanks for your consideration.

24

After updating the EVCS to 2.0, it is better to delete the Wi-Fi configuration and do it again. This is because 2.0 contains some new Wi-Fi libraries with extra security.

25

Hi, I updated again the EVCS to 2.0, deleted the Wi-Fi configuration, re-configured the Wi-Fi and it didn’t work: same error and behaviour as described.

That’s why would be highly appreciated that Victron offered an Ethernet connector as a retrofit complement for existing EVCS, to be finally free of this kind of troubles.

Thanks.

26

Hi @bulmonoss.
Thank you for reporting this issue. Let’s try to understand what the problem is. I’ll send you a private message.

27

… same issue here :frowning:

EVCS is stopping to be visible in WiFi after 1-3 days - loosing connection to GX (and the WiFi)…

My EVCS is still accessible via Bluetooth. FW releases of GX and EVCS are up to date.
Only workaround to get EVCS back is to restart the device and configure WiFi from scratch - as any network settings are lost for whatever reason and the the EVCS is starting into his default mode: AP with Ip-Addr 192.168.0.1 …

Pls help
(can provide further details if needed, as well as screenshots, etc)

28

Hello @mschloe. I’m sad to hear that. Let’s try to clarify why it is happening. I’ll send you a private message.

29

Erm, i think people just don’t bother. I have had the same issue from day one … i have a wifi extender connected, i have a tp link outdoor wifi booster, i get 64% wifi in the garage and yet wifi drops regularly. Sometimes it says it cant find the wifi module before it changes its mind. I am close to taking a hammer to it !

30

You are wrong about the “don’t bother” part.
We are discussing with every customer that is complaining about an issue.
let’s discuss about yours - “Sometimes it says it cant find the wifi module before it changes its mind” - Who says this?

31

Hi, I say this. Basically, I am standing in front of the GX, it is connected to wifi with 66% strength (currently) and then it says the wifi module is missing. 20 to 30 seconds later it identifies some wifi options. 5 minutes later it shows the one it was connected to, but I have to put the password in again, sometimes it just reconnects without me having to put in the password. This happens multiple times day and night…

32

But this topic is about EV Charging station

33

My message was in response to similar complaints about dropping wifi.

34

Yes, but unrelated with the topic, completely different hardware

35

I guess I spoke too soon when I thought mine was fixed earlier - I am now having exactly the same problem as everyone else here is reporting. W-104 error, and my GX sees the EVCS but the EVCS doesnt see the GX to know the SOC etc. EVCS goes back to AP with IP 192.168.0.1 and is hard to coerce to connecting on its dedicated IP address, and if successful soon drops off again.

I would appreciate whatever solutions others have found that were not reported here! Since I am totally off grid, I rely on the GX-EVCS comms to charge my car without overloading the inverter or draining my house battery…

36

Can you describe a bit your system - I’m talking about the communication part like routers, APs etc

37

Sure, thanks. I have fibre to my house. I have a TP-Link CPE710 connected to the router (which is connected to fibre). The TP-link extender points at my garage. On the GX I have a Netgear A6210 which is mounted outside of the garage line of site with the Tp-link. I get about 64 to 68% signal strength. My cell phone and other wifi connected equipment maintains a steady connection. The GX connection has suddenly been working solidly for three days but this often happens and then it comes and goes. Hope this helps ?#

38

I have fibre internet into the house connected to a Ubiquiti Unifi network.
There was one Unifi AP7 router connected by ethernet that reached most of the house including the garage where the EV charger is located.
The Unifi AP7 router was mesh connected to another AP7 in the shed where the victron controllers, inverter and batteries are located.
The GX is connected by ethernet as are the 2 Fronius systems to a Unifi network switch connected to the mesh connected AP7.
The EVCS and the victron beaglebone have dedicated IP addresses.

Everything worked fine until I added a mesh connected 2.4Ghz Unifi AC to provide wifi to one room near the garage.
Then the EVCS dropped off until I turned off the extra mesh device and restarted the EVCS. Once the mesh turned off it behaved perfectly.
I mentioned this problem in an earlier comment.

I finally added another AP7 connected vie ethernet in that room next to the garage, and upgraded the firmware on the EVCS and everything worked flawlessly for a month or more until yesterday morning.
I noticed that the EVCS was suddenly indicating it was connected to 192.168.0.1 instead to its usual dedicated IP address at 192.168.86.159. The GX is at 192.168.86.100

I wifi connected to the EVCS and turned bluetooth on so I could tinker with the settings as suggested on this thread.
After many tries at adding and deleting wifi etc, it finally reconnected to my 2.4Ghz ssid I use for IoT (ie on 192.168.86.xxx)
I thought all was good until half an hour later I noticed it had dropped back to 192.168.0.1 again.

39

Nicolas, as I tried to reach you several time by email, I‘d kindly ask for your feedback/help!

For sure I will share the outcome with the community, as this would be of interest for others as well

40

Hello,

I have the same problem as everyone else. Error W-104, my GX sees the EVCS but the EVCS does not see the GX.

In the EVCS control panel menu: General/GX device, communication is enabled and it found the VRM Portal ID of my installation as well as the IP address, but during the “Check” error W-104.

I don’t know what to do anymore. I specify that the firmware version is v2.00.

Thank you for your help.