Problems with Smart Charging

[blacknell]

I confess to not fully understanding how the end user interacts with the charger when trying to use the smart charger in the car. In fact, it's not entirely obvious when just directly charging. I've had a nightmare trying to get Octopus IOG working - it scheduled all the charging windows during the night and then I woke up to find the car was still at 19% and nothing had happened. I'm hoping this was down to me not properly setting the charger conditions. This was further complicated by the fact the car started charging when I plugged the car in instead of waiting until the off slot.

I'm using a Simpson charger and read #1372 to get some further tips.

So, as I understand it thesensor.ev_charger_status_connector shows whether the car is plugged in or not (and what state the charger is in). But also there is switch.ev_charger_availability binary which is on when the car is not plugged in. But why is this a switch? I can't switch it off.

And switch.ev_charger_charge_control as far as I can tell is the master control for whether the charger is allowing a car to charge from it. If I don't switch this on then car just complains of a fault.

Since it started charging immediately after plug in I then started playing current limits via the charger session profile except during the IOG dispatch window (and off peak).

What is the recommended flow?

Should I :-

• detect the charger has been plugged in (with switch.ev_charger_availability or sensor.ev_charger_status_connector
• immediately switch the charge control on with switch.ev_charger_charge_control
• let IOG do it's thing

Note that IOG seems to suspend charging several times during the night as the dispatch windows are not always immediately following each other.

I've had to completely disable IOG to get it working but I'll attempt again after my next full charge tomorrow.

As you can probably tell I'm properly confused and frustrated!

Any pointers as to best practice would be much appreciated.

[edc1]

Presumably your car is one that's supported by IOG? The S&P chargers isn't.

Octopus will be expecting to control charging by telling the car to charge. If your charger is connected to Home Assistant via OCPP it'll only start charging if the charge control switch is on. I doubt the two control methods can work together.

I'd disable OCPP on the charger and let IOG do its thing.

[blacknell]

Yes, the car is supported.

If I disable OCPP then I lose all the data I'd get from the charger.

I think the answer is to switch charge control on as soon as it's plugged in, leaving current alone at maximum. IOG should then we able to do its thing.

[edc1]

Yes, that might work. You could have an automation in Home Assistant that is triggered on the availability control going to off (which will happen when the car is plugged in), that turns charging control on. At that point the charger should go into SuspenedEV state and wait for the car to request the charging starts. Which will happen when Octopus tell the car to start charging.