Sensor or user input for charger voltage

[flashg1]

Moved @andrut1291's discussion from TeslaSolarCharger project to here since I have ended support for TeslaSolarCharger.

Hey,

Just bought 3-phase charger. Gonna have same issue - is there any chance that these two:

are going to be based on the entities, so that I can easily change them depending on the charger I select ?

Also since charger voltage is in my location (Poland) fluctuating between 220 V to 250 V due to poor grid quality users would be able to use 'sensor.charger_voltage' entity which is exposed for example by Tesla Fleet. This would make the calculations more accurate.

[flashg1]

Congratulations on your purchase of a 3-phase charger!

Let me think about this.

Which 3-phase charger did you buy? Can your charger automatically switch to use 1-phase, 2-phase or 3-phase? Can 'sensor.charger_voltage' automatically detect the number of phases used and report charger voltage accordingly, ie. 230V, 460V or 690V ?

Why do you need the maximum charger current to be an entity? Shouldn't you just set it once for your charger? How do you select your charger in the Blueprint?

On another topic ... since you are using the Tesla Fleet API, do you have any issue with charger states not being up-to-date? How often do you poll for updates, or you are just using default polling? Does Tesla charge for API usage in Poland?

[BJReplay]

automatically detect the number of phases

I think you can get the number of phases active as part of the OCPP standard when phase switching is in place. I'll have a look and report back.

I too think having an entity for voltage would be great (with a default) - then users could either set up an entity, or if none is supplied it could default. Mine varies from 220 to 250 so 2500 W is 10A at 250V or 11A at 220V (as I'm single phase)

Power is then voltage (default or from entity) * active phases * current.

Excess power is as current set up.

Amps to set is Excess Power / active phases / (voltage - measured or specified or default).

[flashg1]

Welcome back @BJReplay! Happy charging. Hope your OCPP charging profiles are working for you and that it can coexist with evSolarCharger. Not sure if you had chance to test the latest evSolarCharger? I have made quite a lot of changes since our last chat, with some specific fixes for OCPP.

Let me think about this request. Agree that current voltage config is not as accurate, but it is simple. It will also mean that I need to add another config/sensor for the number of active phases too. There are a lot of configs for this Blueprint already, and the user need to create a lot of helpers and sensors if not using default! Will wait for @andrut1291 response.

A compromise might be to have charger voltage as a sensor, and it is up to the user to program that sensor for whatever phases? I think it should have no default to enforce user to create the entity.

[andrut1291]

Simple 3-phase charger 230VAC * 3 phase * 16Amps max = 11kW
https://pl.aliexpress.com/item/1005007574408171.html

Charger itself does not have any connectivity, so its not possible to set its mode to 1-phase. I tested it yesterday and after changing the voltage to 690V the automation works fine.

The reason I prefer voltage as an entity is that its easy to make a button on HA dashboard that will set voltage to 230V or 690V - lets say
Toogle button:
3 phase charger on/off

It will let people configure the automation for both type of chargers 1-phase or 3-phase.
The downside of such 3-phase charger is that a step in charging Amps of 1A is (230x3x1= 690 W), so its not that accurate with the solar excess as 1-phase (23011 = 230 W).

I was thinking yesterday that its stupid that its not possible to set charging amps as a decimal value -> this would allow a perfect fit for a solar excess to be used by a charger.

Lastly regardning the Fleet API -> it just works fine with the default settings you provided on the latest version of the blueprint (I am using latest now). There is a delay however and when I park car on the driveway, plug it in, the HA does not have its state immediately (that its plugged in and at home), so the automation does not work in 1 min, but rather around 5 min after reaching home, but still its not a big deal.

As for the costs, I think all of us are getting 10 EUR for free for API usage per month. All API request regarding charging are free. Below the chart of last 30 days - costs are in PLN - 10 EUR ~=42 PLN:
https://developer.tesla.com/docs/fleet-api/billing-and-limits

It seems like this credit of 10 EUR is enough to keep the FleetAPI + HA working 24/7 for free.

[BJReplay]

Welcome back @BJReplay! Happy charging. Hope your OCPP charging profiles are working for you and that it can coexist with evSolarCharger.

Yes, working well enough on sunny days with your all but latest version...

But the bad news is that I am just about to return my EV for a refund (I ended up with a lemon, unfortunately) - got agreement today for a full refund.

Next car will be a PHEV - I will only need to charge it for three hours at 6.6kW from full to empty - so I am going from full smarts to eek out the most of excess solar to get the most from it to fill a full EV to just charging during the free three hours.

At least I am not stuck with the lemon.

[flashg1]

Hi @andrut1291

Thank you for the information. It helps me to better understand your requirement.

I have made a number of changes in the latest version.

1. I've implemented the charger effective voltage, but not the max current setting. Trying to avoid creating too many helpers. The other thing you can do is to create 2 Blueprints, one for each charger, and you can disable or enable them depending on which one you want to use.

You most likely will need to create a sensor to calculate your charger effective voltage using 'sensor.charger_voltage' *3. Here is an example on how to create a sensor,

https://github.com/flashg1/evSolarCharger?tab=readme-ov-file#installation

2. I've removed polling for Tesla Fleet API update after turning on the charger in the latest release. Not sure if it will affect you since I'm not sure if that is required. The following is just FYI, you don't need to follow the instructions since it is working for you.

https://github.com/flashg1/evSolarCharger/wiki/Configuration#tesla-fleet-api-charging-status-not-up-to-date

Please try with the latest version with the charger effective voltage change, ie.

v3.0beta33 14/4/2025

• Breaking change: Default daily charge limits reduced by 10%.
• Breaking change: Suggest to create button helper to force Tesla Fleet API update.
• Breaking change: Can use either EV specific API or number helper to track charge limit.
• Breaking change: Create sensor or input number for charger effective voltage for more accurate calculation.

so the automation does not work in 1 min, but rather around 5 min after reaching home

For the Tesla custom API, I can wait up to 15 minutes for the poll. Like you said, it still works but takes time. Usually I just press a button to manually start the charging process after plugging in the charger.

All API request regarding charging are free.

Interesting. May be you don't need to poll for status updates during charging.

I was thinking yesterday that its stupid that its not possible to set charging amps as a decimal value -> this would allow a perfect fit for a solar excess to be used by a charger.

May be some OCPP chargers can support charging current in decimals.

The downside of such 3-phase charger is that a step in charging Amps of 1A is (230x3x1= 690 W)

A single-phase 32A charger might be more suited for solar charging, even better if it can support varying current between 0A and max current in 1A steps.

[flashg1]

Hi @BJReplay

Sorry to hear that you had to return your EV! Hope you don't mind me asking what was wrong with it? Glad you got a full refund though.

Yes, working well enough on sunny days with your all but latest version...

Something wrong with the latest version??

[BJReplay]

Something wrong with the latest version??

I just hadn't got around to updating :)

[BJReplay]

Hope you don't mind me asking what was wrong with it?

Not at all. When it worked, it was simply the best car to drive.

When it didn't, it varied from annoying glitches to undrivable, oh f~*k I have to try to get an Uber in a hurry and hope that I am not late.

[andrut1291]

Thanks for the update. Also a point from my side -> Tesla Fleet exposes a sensor (which is by default disabled) if 3-phase charger is connected. It can be used in order to create an enity with a condition for charger voltage:
{{
690 if is_state('binary_sensor.charger_has_multiple_phases', 'on') else 230
}}

[flashg1]

Thanks @andrut1291

Glad it is working for you. I've updated the wiki with your note above.

https://github.com/flashg1/evSolarCharger/wiki/Configuration#create-charger-effective-voltage-sensor-for-3-phase-system