Sending charge current via api does not work correctly

Voters 18

J
M
G
A
+ 12 voters
M
A
R
J

Fixed & released

A	The Spirit

If i try to send a dynamic charge current via the api it appears within the response, but the output current of the charger does not show the same value.
So if i send 15A the dynamicChargeCurrent shows 15A, but the outputCurrent only shows 12A.

22-02-2022 -

Activity Newest / Oldest

Alek Slater

Status changed to: Fixed & released

Alek Slater

With the release of firmware version 296 of the charger + 1.4.2 of the mobile apps, this is now released. Which should in my opinion fix the issues described or at least make it clear what's going on inside the charger when adjusting the dynamic charger current or dynamic circuit currents.

We will also shortly be adding the "Available Energy" feature in some shape somewhere in the portal as soon as we can.

The Spirit

Hi,
after my Easee Home was updated to v296 everything seems to work fine now.
Thanks

Robbe

I recognised, that everytime when the via API requested current is not considered by easee the power consumption of the easee wallbox alternates quickly wihtout any reason. Please see the attached screenshot.

Legend:
Green: Power of the photovoltaik systen. (Refreshed every 10 seconds)
Yellow: Overall consumption of my site including easee (Refreshed every 10 seconds)
Blue: The actual power consumption diyplayed by easee (Refreshed every 30 seconds)

The marked points:
1: Charging started
2: Charging power increased by API as desired
3. Quickliy alternatign power consumption by easee for unknown reason
4. Short decrease of PV power causes an API call to decrease easee also (which seems to work correctly) but the directly desired increase 30 seconds later doesn't work. Easee power consumption still alternating quickly
5. I stoped the chargy via easee App
6. Charge started by API again but some seconds later the coffee machine has been started so the requested power for easee has been decreased again. After that the power consumption of the easee is alternatign quickly again.
7. I stoped the chargy via easee App agian
8. Charging via API started again. No quckly alternatign power for some minutes
9. The API requested a higher current and the power increased as desired but the quckly alternatign power seems to be back.
10. Again short decrease of PV power causes an API call to decrease easee also but it doesn't go back high again as requested by API. Again quckly alternatign power.

The API is called every 30 seconds for adjustments of the desired current of easee.

Andreas Goetz

@Alek ist is the second-highest voted issue now on Easee. It seems it has some resemblance to feedback.easee.com/b/known-issues/missing-control-via-dynamicchargercurrent/ which says „issue identified“. Could you please share what the status is and which additional data we could contribute to further diagnose this?

Alek Slater

Good point Andreas.

As far as I remember, when you pause charging the dynamic charger current is set to 0.

If you set it to 6A, its barely able to charge, some cars will not be able to do so.

Anyways I'll see if i can get some more info.

Andreas Goetz

Thank you, much appreciated. I don‘t think the 6A is a problem. We‘re seeing almost all cars charge fine at 6A. If you see comment by Robbe below he had „Lastenausgleich (Load management)“ hints in the log file. That wouldn‘t match a vehicle issue either.

Alek Slater

I checked around a bit - By the sounds of it, a fix for this is included in version 296 of the firmware.
Currently in final testing, so should be released very soon indeed.

:D

The Spirit

Any news, when 296 will be released?
Thanks

Robbe

I have a very similar Problem but in my yase I get the (german) Error message "Angehalten aufgrund des Lastenausgleichs" some minutes after charging started. Some minutes later charging begins by itself. I can shorten the waiting time by pausing and starting via easee app. After that the charging works normal.

Andreas Götz

@Alex Slater any support here?
Our users at evcc.io are impacted by Easee behaving strangely when using the dynamic currents for phase switching. Our request to Easee, if this could be done by the non-dynamic properties as a workaround, was not answered. At this stage, user experience is bad. Feel free to reach out at info@evcc.io for cooperating on this issue.
Cheer, Andi

Alek Slater

Hi Andi.

Like I told Spirit, there are many possible limits that can affect the output current. Just because dynamic current is set to X, it does not mean you will get X as the output current, because the charger might have a lower limit due to the other factors.

Setting the dynamic current to 10A every 10 seconds wont make the other possible limits go away.

It’s bit hard to know at the moment what the limitation is, but very soon we will be expanding the reason for no current observation so it also is emitted when there is a lowering limit (as opposed to only being emitted when there is absolutely no current)

I very much doubt using these non dynamic settings as workarounds is a viable alternative , especially not if you use them in a dynamic way. But it’s worth at least checking if they are set to values lower than yer dynamic value, because if they are then obviously the output current won’t exceed that

Andreas Götz

Thanks Alek.
I agree there may be other variables in play. However, we're observing these issues even with users with simple setups: single circuit, single box connected, no load management. That should imho rule out pretty much all complexity.
Since we also have full access to the box/api we could provide any logging you might think useful.
We even have SignalR connected. For example, in github.com/evcc-io/evcc/issues/2519#issuecomment-1031828778 we're seeing `REASON_FOR_NO_CURRENT = RNC_WAITING_IN_FULLY` which is very confusing as VW ID cars are not susceptible to falling to sleep during charging.
Please let me know any detail that might help resolve this or that we should add to logging for further insights.
Cheers, Andi

Andreas Götz

One more datapoint: users report that the problem appears more often when switching dynamically from 3p to 1p than the other way round. That implies that the current for 1p will be higher than 3p at comparably the same power.

Alek Slater

Output current is the lowest value of all limitations, there will be other limitations that could result in something lower than the desired dynamic charge current.

The Spirit

how can i check if there are any limitations? which limitations are these?

Alek Slater

We are actually working on a way to make it more obvious in the User interface so for the time being its a bit hard to visualise but i can list some of the possible values i know of at least:

These values can be changed in the Site Settings / Charging current page in the "Power" section:
Max Circuit Current
Offline Circuit Current (if you have an Equalizer)

Equalizer available current (this is automatically set based on load in your house, only applicable if you have an Equalizer).

Charging schedule (can be set externally by some smart home / operators).

Temperature

Cable Rating

Car (temperature in batteries, other parameters in the car)

The Spirit

HI,
i just checked it again, and at the moment i am sending a dynamic charge current of 10A every 10 seconds.
But the charge current remains at 8A.
I do not have an equalizier so everything should be fine.
The Max Circuit Current for P1, P2 and P3 is set to 16.

JE

Hi, I have the same issue also using evcc.io. I have a simple setup with a single Easee Home and a Skoda Enyaq (i.e., no Equalizer etc). Setting evcc.io to "Now" in gives me the expected 11 kW but when I let it adapt to PV production and it tries to dynamically adjust the current, the actually used current is lower than what was configured. I can see it in the Easee App as well: the "Available charging current" shows a suitable dynamically adjusted value (seems to correspond to the programming from evcc.io) but the actual current is lower than that, mostly around 8A. As mentioned, the car can load with full power and I don't see what other factors should limit the current? Seems like an Easee bug to me. Thanks