From what I’ve read so far, it’s already included in the Alfen software. When you choose 100% green it will communicate with the P1 meter and charges the car purely on the surplus. The only uncertainty is how to make sure you’re charging single phase. Otherwise you’l be charging with 3x6a minimum. More than most PV home installations can provide. The handshake protocol between car and charger should manage that. So when charger is in green mode before you plug in, it should start with 1 phase charging. The test I could do so far, it will allow charging below the 6A threshold as well
About the spikes in paused charges; when a car is plugged in, there I a small bit of communication between car and charger. But that communication is also keeping the various systems in the car active. Draining the 12v battery. The 12 v battery is only charged, when the main battery is charging. My hunch is that it’s on purpose that the car starts charging, in order to trigger the 12v batteries charging.
I don’t know exactly what you mean? What is different and/or working in the old version that isn’t in the new one?
And what kind of charger do you have (single or dual socket?).
I have no issues with my single one with the new app (although the start/stop charging buttons seems to crash my charger, and then I have to reboot - so I think that is quite drastic, also can’t find an official start / stop mechanism in the app).
But wondering what issues you encountered and if they are reproducible so that I might be able to mitigate them.
We had some issues with the 12v battery of the car (VW). The ongoing communication between car and charger was most probably causing this. So I was delighted you’ve founded a way to stop the charger. Not so delighted that it produced an 206 error. And then it got from bad to worse. Checking the settings with the MyEve app, getting locked out (due to two devices trying to connect, my bad). But I could undo all of that. This morning I was able to take control again. Except I couldn’t get the insights. Couldn’t check when it has started charging and so on. Then finally I went back to the “old” version, and I immediately had the insights back. I did do several restart of the app and homey (and charger) trying to test everything. Al in all it toke me some hours trying and testing. Don’t get me wrong, I like this kind of stuff. Don’t mind to puzzle a bit. I probably will install the new app in a couple of weeks, giving it another try. For now I don’t send the amps back to one, but set the charger in green mode to stop charging
Note, not sure it was the charger causing the 12v issue, because the car is now in shop for a high voltage malfunction.
Going back to green doesn’t do the job proper, because the sun isn’t always down ;-). I need to set the charger to accepted phase mapping. Is there a quick and easy way to stop the communication between homey and charger, so I can use the Eve app for this setting?
Btw, I did install the test version back on the homey, and the insights are back again.
Edit, phase mapping was already turned on, but somehow the charger will use all three Phases. (L1, L2 and L3, whenever I have a surplus on L1 due to my solar panels.
@Andre_van_der_Steen in my experience I can use both Homey and the Eve app along side, both not at the same time. Meaning, use Homey to set one thing. Go out of Homey and into Eve app, and change another.
Basically that yes, but if I recall correctly I do no even have to close the Homey App (but yes that is the best way), as long as you are not in the device or sending commands in Homey to Alfen). iOS works about the same.
I’ve set loading to 100% green in Homey. And changed it back to normal in the Eve app for example.
Had any success? Just checked; when I set the charger at 100% green my charger only uses one phase, to make use the surplus of solar energy. This can be activated in Homey with the card (assuming your Dutch) “Zet manier manier van laden op 100% groen”. Within this 100% green is a choice, like standard, and comfortable (the latter will prevent stop charging and keep charging at a minimum, when solar energy goes down.
No success. Still struggling with my charger. Even when I use the EveConnect app to start charging directly it keeps using 3 phases. In settings I enabled 1-3 phase charging.
I deliberately chose a Dutch product, but to be honest, I regret it a bit now. Alfen is clearly not there for the consumer.
it’s hard to get in to the settings, and it’s It is ridiculous that they don’t arrange a good API.
Hi Andre, what are you trying to achieve? You have the Eve Connect app and the MyEve app, the latter you can change a ton of parameters (but not really user friendly). Maybe I can help if I know what you are trying to do, I think I kind of start to understand how they build up their app/config. Let me know and then I can check
I appreciate that. I have my Alfen hardwired to my router. Fixed IP. my Eve does see the charger. Asked first I’ve we should make a wireless connection. I’ve disabled that in a previous attempt. Gemini told so. And then
I’m trying to achieve that my homey controls the charging. I want to charge direct, or at bottom price or only on PV. Beside my Alfen I have a controlled power outlet for a granny. With similar controls. Build a virtual device to control the settings and to start a flow. I think the flows are okay. Charger mostly responds ds, except for 1 phase charging.
I Must say, we have two Volkswagens. A hybrid golf and a 2020 ID3. The golf is draining its 12v battery due tot the ongoing communication when I tell the charger it can only draw 1 amp. The OBD stores multiple issues of low voltage. Last week it went below the treahold and “died” wegenwacht could restore it back to normal, but then the onboard charger had a shortcut. Blowing out the main fuse. Not only at my house, but tested it at another charger as well. Car is now in repair shop, waiting for spare parts. Hopefully they will arrive Thursday. I can’t say the ongoing communication is the cause. But I can’t tell for sure. That’s why I want it to stop charging. But it keeps charging at 100% green so my flows ain’t working g anymore.
I think you should be able to achieve your requirements with the new test version and the following settings.
For charging:
Bottom price (determine via pricing → set the target power to 0 or max watts)
Only PV charging: set the charge type to 100% green, or, when you know your P1 values, control the ‘target power’ of Alfen through the cards. But be careful, you shouldn’t update that every 30 seconds, I think a refresh rate of 1 minute should be best.
I don’t know what you mean exactly with the car keeps communicating. The main thing is that you shouldn’t control 1 vs 3 phase charging. Your Alfen will do that for you depending on the target power you set.
Also, keep in mind that most cars stop charging when the target power goes below a certain value. For most cars that is somewhere around the 1 to 3 kWh. So setting your Alfen below that value will automatically act as a ‘stop’ for charging.
Also keep in mind that your Alfen charger & the device you are communicating from should be on the same subnet within the same network. Otherwise you can’t communicate through the API.
Next to that, only 1 device can communicate through the API at the same time. Normally Homey can run in parallel (as it nicely disconnects after every refresh - releasing the login token and allowing other devices to connect). But it might be that if you login at the exact same time / trying to change values from the Alfen App on your phone, whilst the Homey app is refreshing or setting values as well that one of them might collapse and start giving errors.
If you really want to experiment with the mobile app, you can turn off the Alfen app on Homey for a while by disabling it. This doesn’t remove any devices and data, just turns the app off until you turn it on again.
Had a strange thing the other day: had the charger on 100% green. But when my airco unit turned on, the solar surplus lowered below 1400 watts. The charger kept going at 1400 (coincidentally exactly the comfort level (however, this wasn’t the chosen mode)), therefore I had power usage from the grid.
Has this ever happened to you, or do you have any guess what this might be?
No, haven’t seen it, but to be honest, I haven’t used the settings. I always just time it manually, currently with the salderingsregeling that is often the cheapest anyway. Especially when tariffs are negative.
Thanks. Some clarification about the communication. Car and charger “talk”. About when to start, how to start. As from what I’ve learned it’s a low energy consuming communication. But this communication prevents the main car unit from powering off. It’s on some kind of standby to assist the communication unit. And in runs on 12v. The 12V battery only gets charged when the main battery is charging. So, after about 12 hours the 12V battery goes down. Or at least below the safety threshold. Next thing to happen is that internal components get locked out, causing a chain of errors. Happened to me with the previous Golf GTE multiple times. And it happened with my 2015 golf hybride as well. Only difference between the to cars is my charging policy. The GTE got charged as soon as we where at home. The new golf gets charged at bottom price. So its usually making it until the next morning.
