Support

I've got data flowing now. I had a couple issues. I'll document them here for potentially helping others as they work through configuring the module.

I power-cycled the OpenEVSE using the service disconnect box and after a few seconds, I noticed the OpenEVSE SSID was being broadcast. I connected to that network and re-entered the setup data. This time, it seemed to have taken effect and was uploading data to the data web site. The "updated" value on the Inputs screen was now reporting between 1s and 30s. Unfortunately, all the data was just zero, even during an active charging session. Still, a little progress! In this case, incorrect data was better than no data.

I didn't see the IP address mentioned, so turned off the power and opened up the case a little. I discovered that I didn't get the connector on the OpenEVSE board in the right place. It was off-by-one on the pins. Grrr! Shifting the connector over, closing everything up, I did see a "Client-IP" message in the top-left corner of the screen. It didn't show the actual IP address, but had started a charging session right away, so it may have gotten into a strange place in the code, not expecting a charge session to start right after the initialization.

I power-cycled and restarted the OpenEVSE unit a couple times and couldn't get it to show the Client-IP address message again or to ever show the actual IP address that it had obtained. Are there any tricks to that?

Is there a minimum firmware level required on the OpenEVSE board for proper operation? I didn't see anything in the t purchased my kit in early Dec 2015. It looks like I have version D3.10.3 firmware loaded.

At this point, I started getting data on the web site, but only for a minute. The charging session finished shortly after this. I'll get some more time with it on my charging session over the coming days.

For anyone else trying to debug setup, I can confirm that the configuration web page is available once the wi-fi module has been configured and has an IP address on your wi-fi network. Not much to do there other than point it at a new wi-fi network and update the device access key.

For assistance in finding the IP address of the device on your own network, the MAC address on my device looked like 5c:cf:7f:xx:xx:xx. That MAC address block is registered to Espressif Inc. The module provides a DHCP hostname of ESP_xxxxxx (where xxxxxx is the last six digits of the MAC address). With those bits of info, you have an easy way to track down which IP address may be in use by the wi-fi module on your own network. More importantly, this lets you confirm that the wi-fi module has properly logged into your wi-fi network. In my case, the device I had seen yesterday in my DHCP logs was NOT the wi-fi module I was trying to use.

Firmware that supports the RAPI serial communications will work. I'd need to investigate how far back the support goes but 3.10.3 does support it. There were some updates made for the 3.11.x release so if you have the means to perform a firmware upgrade, you might benefit.

The firmware on the WiFi module will reset to using OpenEVSE if it doesn't connect to the specified access point within 5 minutes. Check if it's reset itself and waiting for you to configure it again. It also outputs the IP address obtained from the configured access point on first boot, but it doesn't stay on the screen long.