ChargeAmps for Homey — New release v5.4.6
What’s new in 5.1.0 → 5.4.6
Version 5.4.6 is the latest stable release after 5.1.0. Below is an overview of what’s new, improved, and fixed — plus step-by-step guides for dynamic electricity pricing via Flow and RFID setup (especially important for OCPP chargers).
The app supports AURA, DAWN, HALO, and LUNA. You need an API key from ChargeAmps support before adding a charger. Login is done during pairing (no longer as a separate step in app settings).
Summary: what’s new since 5.1.0?
Energy & Homey integration
- Smart charging via Homey Energy (target power, scheduling).
- Charge targets: charge for a set amount of kWh, for a set time, or up to a set cost (requires an electricity price) — charging stops automatically when the target is reached.
- Energy overview for today, week, month, and year with improved meter accuracy (reconciled against the charger’s session total when a session ends).
- Dashboard widget with start/stop, current slider, quick charge targets (+1h/+2h/+4h), and optional live session cost while charging.
- Dynamic electricity price via Flow (see guide below) or a manual fallback price in device settings.
- Optional weekly energy summary on the timeline and a charge-complete notification.
Device experience
- Reorganised device panel (logical order: charging state, power, energy, status, kWh, current limit, lights, RFID, totals, per-phase data).
- Per-phase current and voltage while charging.
- Now/Last charged as graphable kWh sensors (Insights).
- Identify — flashes the LED ring so you can find the right charger.
- Diagnostics: firmware, protocol (CAPI or OCPP), session stats, and combined warnings (offline, stale data, read-only, fault).
- New Electricity price tile on the device shows the price currently in effect.
Flow & reliability
- Many new triggers, conditions, and actions (connection, charging, RFID, charge targets, HALO ground light/outlet, and more).
- The “Charging completed” Flow card now fires reliably with tokens for energy, duration, minutes, RFID, and cost.
- Flows that control a charger now affect the device you picked — even when you own several chargers of the same model (fixed in 5.1.0).
- AURA (dual outlet): independent sessions, charge targets, and start/stop per outlet.
OCPP vs CAPI (important from 5.4.6)
Charging control is now clearly split by protocol (see Diagnostics on the device):
|
CAPI |
OCPP |
| On/Off (port) |
Turns the port on/off |
Enables/disables the port |
| Start/Stop charging (Energy tab, widget, Flow, charge targets) |
Same as port on/off |
Starts/stops the charging session via remote start/stop — the port can stay on |
On OCPP, use Start/Stop charging to pause charging without the port going unavailable.
Other improvements and fixes (brief)
- 5.1.0: Reliable start/stop, automatic re-login when the API token expires, charger marked unavailable only on API/network errors (not just because the cloud reports offline), energy meter can no longer run backwards, shared codebase for all models.
- 5.4.0: More accurate energy totals, reliable “Charging completed”, dynamic electricity price, cost-based charge targets.
- 5.4.1–5.4.3: HALO fixes (stale connector data, outlet tiles hidden when the model has no 230 V outlet), electricity price and cost shown with three decimal places.
- 5.4.5: Cable lock works when the charger reports maxCurrent 0 while idle; optional Remote start RFID in device settings.
- 5.4.6: AURA widget current limit follows installation current; OCPP RFID lock stays on after session stop if you already had it enabled (prevents unwanted plug-and-charge).
Guide: Dynamic electricity price via Flow
With dynamic pricing, the app calculates session cost time-exactly — each kWh is priced at the rate in effect when it was charged. This shows in the widget, the Electricity price tile on the device, and the cost token on the “Charging completed” Flow card.
Step 1 — Optional manual fallback price
- Open the charger → Settings (gear icon).
- Under Electricity price (per kWh), enter e.g.
0.25 (your currency per kWh).
- This is used when no dynamic price is active. Leave 0 if you only want to use Flow.
Step 2 — Flow that updates the price
Create a Flow (or one Flow per charger if you want different prices):
When…
The price changes in your electricity price app — e.g. Tibber, Power by the Hour, or any app with a trigger that provides the current price (often called something like “Price changed”).
Then…
ChargeAmps → Set price per kWh to [price from trigger]
- Pick the correct charger in the list (repeat for each charger you want the price to apply to).
- In the price field: select the tag/token from the price trigger (not a hard-coded value, if you want it to follow spot prices).
Tips:
- Repeat the action for each ChargeAmps device if you have multiple chargers.
- The dynamic price expires after 6 hours without a refresh — make sure your price app (or a scheduled Flow) updates it regularly, e.g. every hour.
- While dynamic pricing is active, it overrides the manual price. When it expires, the app falls back to the manual price (if you set one).
Step 3 — Verify it’s working
- The Electricity price tile on the device should show the current value (not 0).
- While charging, the widget can show live cost (if dynamic or manual price is set).
- After a completed session, the “Charging completed” Flow card provides a cost token.
Cost-based charge targets
The Flow action “Charge for a set amount of money, then stop” requires an electricity price (dynamic via Flow or manual in settings).
Guide: RFID — two different things
It’s easy to confuse these:
A) RFID lock on the charger (physical access)
This controls whether the charger requires an RFID tag to charge (plug-and-charge on/off).
Via the device panel: the RFID on/off button.
Via Flow: Turn on RFID / Turn off RFID, or the condition RFID is on/off.
Use this if you want to lock the charger so only authorised tags can charge.
B) RFID for OCPP start/stop from Homey (important!)
If your charger runs OCPP (shown under Diagnostics, not CAPI), Homey needs a registered RFID tag to start/stop charging sessions via Energy, the widget, Flow, or charge targets.
Step 1 — Register the tag with ChargeAmps
- Log in to the ChargeAmps User Portal.
- Go to Profile → RFID Tags.
- Add your tag. It must be hexadecimal, 8 characters (4 bytes), e.g.
1A2B3C4D.
Step 2 — Enter the same tag in Homey
- Open the charger → Settings.
- Field RFID for start/stop charging (OCPP) (
remoteStartRfid).
- Enter the exact same hex value as in the portal (no spaces).
Step 3 — Use Start/Stop (not just On/Off)
On OCPP: use Start/Stop charging in Energy, the widget, or Flow (Turn on charging / Turn off charging) to control the session while the port can stay on.
If you don’t enter your own tag: the app may use a built-in virtual tag for session start. This may work but is not guaranteed in all environments — your own tag from the portal is strongly recommended.
From 5.4.6: if you already had RFID lock on before Homey started a session, the lock stays on after session stop (so the car doesn’t start charging unexpectedly). If RFID was off, the app only enables it temporarily for the session and turns it off again after stop.
CAPI chargers
For CAPI, the OCPP remote-start setting does not apply the same way — start/stop maps to port on/off. RFID lock is still controlled via the panel or Flow.
Upgrading from 5.1.0
- No re-pairing is normally required.
- Check Diagnostics → Protocol (CAPI or OCPP) so you use the right start/stop behaviour.
- OCPP users: set Remote start RFID and test start/stop from the widget.
- For cost estimates: set a manual price and/or create a Flow for dynamic pricing.
- Please report feedback in this thread if something doesn’t behave as expected — include model (HALO/DAWN/…), protocol (CAPI/OCPP), and app version.
Thanks for using ChargeAmps for Homey!
i can’t find it or i am looking for something different
party built on how Homey describes it.
