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Open EVSE won't charge

Advanced kit diy assembly. After assembly, tried charging. EVSE boots fine goes into ready, 12A. Tried changing to 15A, only changes on a restart Before plugging in, EVSE said ready. When plugged into car, contactor " clunk" is not heard , EVSE says connected but charging did not start. Have double, triple checked wiring, pilot definitely connected to correct terminal, coils definitely connected correctly, have had sparkie friend who has a assembled a few of these check my work. We connected 12v to the contactor coil and it activated , so contractor works. Have checked all continuity, earth is connected via the backplane , all wires are correct. Have tried on two cars, same issue. Could this be a dud controller? Do I have to order another one to check?
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I mean retaining ring

I don't see a retaining pin on the Struther Dunn, I don't see anything that would obstruct the Struther Dunn.

@Anthony the command for relay delay and power is $Z0


Here is a picture of the retaining ring. It should be easy to tell if the relay moves freely by pressing the contacts down by hand (with the power off).


I wrote the command here from memory, when I sent it I was consulting your previous comments. So sent the correct one. The relay feels like it moves freely when pushing the arms down. One other thing I didn't mention is that when setting the current from the app, it doesn't "take". The openEVSE has to be restarted for the new setting to take effect. In other openEVSE I have used it's immediate. I think we have eliminated all possible known causes, what more do I have to do? I think I more need to try another board. Please send another one and I will return the current one. I really need to get this working and we've tried everything.

@Antony -The odds that both relay outputs on your controller are bad are essentially zero. We have never seen this.  We can exchange controllers if you wish however we do not think it will resolve your issue.


Older WiFi firmware does not update the current value immediately, even though the current was written to the controller. You can verify this using the RAPI commands. 


Send a set current (this example sets 24A)

$SC 24


The controller should respond $OK


Then send the get current command

$GC


It should respond with an Ok and 24


The latest WiFi firmware is here:

https://github.com/OpenEVSE/ESP32_WiFi_V4.x/releases

I will update the WiFi firmware. However I'm still stuck, having tried absolutely everything. If you don't think it's the controller then what else could it be , given the now multiple remedies that we have tried and failed to fix the issue?

We are making progress, your issue with the handle seems to be resolved now. 


We clearly understand the "No Ground" the issue.  Assuming your earth ground is good. The false positive can only be two things, electrical or mechanical.


Electrical -  "OpenEVSE now goes ready -  plug car in - connected - KLAK" proves the output on the controller is working. I am not very familiar with the "EU firmware" you have loaded it likely does not have Adjustable relay power enabled however if it does, adjustable power was disabled in software with $Z0 command.


Mechanical - The pictures show no wires are providing a physical blockage. If the retaining clip is Okay and the relay is smooth easy to close by hand then the only other mechanical issue we have seen is the relay contact gap is too large. The Gap should be about 2mm. The gap can be adjusted by squeezing the top contact plate and the stop on the side. 





PXL_20221017_150124985.jpg
PXL_20221017...
(2.34 MB)

I measured the contact gap - I had a strip of aluminium 1mm thick, doubled it and that fitted - so gap ( on L and R gaps ) is almost exactly 2mm.





What more could I possibly do apart from replacing the controller now?

Which version of the firmware should I load ( I don't have a firmware programmer so need to go to a friend who has one and is running 8.2.0 eu  successfully

When I send $SC 10 Then $GC Returns >$OK 6 16 10 10^11
By the way, I certainly can't lift the arms of the Struthers dunn as high you do in that picture.. and I've yet to find the "retaining pin" you refer to.
Unfortunately it's a round trip of 100km for me to go to a friend who has an openEVSE programmer. And I'm going overseas for 3 weeks . would like to order one so it's available for me to use when I return, but they're sold out. Is there any way to program it without that?

We have spent the morning searching for information about Firmware 8.2.0. It seems there are numerous reports with issues for both GFCI Faults and "No Ground" errors on 8.2.0. All issues were resolved by going back to 7.1.3.


We were going to report the issue to OpenEnergyMonitor, the organization that maintains the EU version of OpenEVSE firmware. Their latest release is 7.1.3_EU, it looks like 8.2.0 was either not officially released or removed.

https://github.com/openenergymonitor/open_evse/releases


At this point, we would suggest going to 7.1.3.



I managed to look at the retaining ring, all looked good same as your pic. I'll downgrade the firmware. I upgraded it when I was having issues with the handle so there is a chance that there have been two issues, the handle, now sorted, and the firmware. We shall see. If the firmware downgrade doesn't work then I'm fresh out of ideas

With regard to the firmware, I only applied that version of the firmware because I was having issues 

I will re apply 7.1.3


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