Solved

Indra Smart Pro EV Charger not recording charging information correctly and flashing white Indra logo?

D
Rank
Badge +1

I have recently had an Indra Smart Pro EV Charger installed and joined charge Anytime.  All went well for the first charge, then I had red flashing light which stopped after several resets and leaving it for a while.

Now I have a constantly flashing White Indra Logo (Almost ready to charge apparently) and when I connect the car it starts charging almost immediately, the car reads it is charging at 7.5kWh but the website for indra shows it as charging at 0.0 kWh and it does not record how much energy is being used hence will not log that information into the Charge Anytime calculations.  Resets of the unit have not helped.

 

Has anyone else seen anything similar?

icon

Best answer by Hicks 12 May 2023, 10:17

View original

24 replies

Blastoise186
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge +1

Hey @darren.guscott ,

Sorry about that! There’s a dedicated team for this one. Can you try emailing them via smarthome@ovoenergy.com ? They should be able to help

Securing energy by zapping security bugs... For that is The Blastoise Way!
D
Rank
Badge +1

OK, in case anyone else has an Indra - flashing white light means it has a schedule and is waiting for a scheduled start time.  So that is all good - now to understand why it is not registering the amount of charge used.  @Blastoise186, thanks - I have emailed smarthome@ovoenergy.com as well.

H
Rank
Badge

I have flashing white primary LED on Smart Pro charger but schedule is not successful.  I believe the primary LED should be solid to indicate charger is in smart mode?

Waiting for advice from Smarthome Support staff.

D
Rank
Badge +1

@Hicks, I thought that as well but ChargedEV have said flashing white is it has a schedule and is ready to charge - slightly different from the explanation in the user manual.

What is the issue with the schedule being unsuccessful? 

H
Rank
Badge

The Indra webpage shows the charger ‘Idle….waiting for best time to charge’ all night.  I wake up and Boost to get juice for the day.

Having just spoken to Smarthome Support there are gaps overnight in the readings at Indra/Kaluza.  Currently investigating whether there is a problem with the 4G dongle.

Blastoise186
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge +1

It might be worth considering whether connecting the charger via Ethernet is more suitable than using 4G in your case.

As long as the charger is within 100M of the router, it’d be pretty easy for Indra to do. If it’s further away, a couple of network switches along the way would work nicely to act as a sort of booster.

Securing energy by zapping security bugs... For that is The Blastoise Way!
D
Rank
Badge +1

Also to check whether the scheduling is the problem or the connection, modify your schedule to a time when you can be there to monitor it and look to see if the charger has lost connectivity or something else has stopped it charging.  

If you are at home for a couple of hours set the schedule to finish in 2 hours time and it should start fairly quickly.

H
Rank
Badge

Thanks for the replies, much appreciated.  I’m ruling out Ethernet as charger is located in external carport.  Power line might be possible but property has 3 ring mains.

4G is readily available in the carport so a 4G dongle should be suitable.  The car connects via WLAN in the carport so that should also be viable.

Important for me today to get boost charged ready for work.  As I understand the system, if I schedule a charge to end during the day it still may not schedule due to grid overheads?

Blastoise186
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge +1

Gotcha. HomePlugs are dead unfortunately. The standard died a few years ago when the HomePlug Alliance kinda self-destructed, making Power Line Networking basically useless. Not recommended anymore sadly.

Are you able to have a schedule that can run overnight consistently?

Securing energy by zapping security bugs... For that is The Blastoise Way!
D
Rank
Badge +1

@Hicks, as I understand it, you set the finish time and if it can physically charge it by then it will.  Obviously we are trying to save on Carbon overhead but it should still charge but it will choose the best time in that window to start the charge

D
Rank
Badge +1

I have had consistent charge overnight, just not always recorded it has done it.  If you schedule now it should charge as the grid looks optimal according to OVO insights at the moment

H
Rank
Badge

I have compatible charger and compatible car.  I am told I have to go down the Smart Charger route, not the D2V OVO app route.  I am not convinced there is not a software glitch in the system somewhere; I have checked and double-checked for conflicting apps on my phone but find none.

Scheduling is through the Indra/Kaluza web page - I just saved the page on my homescreen as a bookmark.  All as per Smarthome Support instruction.  As stated, I successfully charged at cheap rate once.

H
Rank
Badge

The fact that there were interruptions in signal back to Indra/Kaluza overnight last night whilst I was sleeping is the latest theory re dongle trouble.

Blastoise186
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge +1

That definitely sounds plausible.

Securing energy by zapping security bugs... For that is The Blastoise Way!
D
Rank
Badge +1

That is exactly as I have done, I am convinced there are software issues as it seems a bit hit and miss whether it will work or not but I have only had it for a week so need to monitor it for a bit longer.  There are issues between OVO and the other software, not sure if they are fixed yet.  

 

Tim_OVO
Rank
Userlevel 7

@darren.guscott so at the moment you’re able to set ready by times and battery charge % online and you’re monitoring it to make sure the Indra charger works as expected? Keep us updated so we can assign a ‘best answer’ solution to this one!

Carbon neutral - we need a community to get there! My green tech: Aclara SGM 1411-B smart meter, Chameleon IHD6
D
Rank
Badge +1

@Tim_OVO, I can’t set charge %, it just tries to get to 100% by the time I set.  Unfortunately today I went to my garage and noticed the charger was flashing purple, I reset the charger again ad then it connected up.  It does seem like at the moment unless I reset it after every charge something goes wrong but I am keeping a log of that as well.  I will feedback here after a few days with those results

 

H
Rank
Badge

My charger was looking at the Indra App instead of the Kaluza Web Platform.  Once the switch was made the charger settled down and, although the 4G drops out at least once a day, the charger re-establishes connection seamlessly so I never notice.

I am calling Indra back in a week to checks the stats and make sure all still good.

D
Rank
Badge +1

So I have been logging further information with my charger and at present I am really disappointed with it, more often than not I have to flick the cut off switch for it and then turn it back on which is not ideal given where the switch is located. 

The charger seems to always lose connection when it rains but it doesn’t reconnect it just flashes purple until I reset it and then it connects up quickly.

The other issues is still that the charger will not always set the correct kWh when charging, it logs that it is at 0kwh even though the car is charging at 7.4kwh.  If I notice it, unplug the car, reset the charger and then plug the car back in once it is connected, it generally picks it up as charging at 7.4kwh.  

I have contacted ChargedEV again and they are escalating it to their In-Life support team so we’ll see what happens.

 

Tim_OVO
Rank
Userlevel 7

Keep us updated, @darren.guscott - if anyone else is seeing something similar it would be good to hear from you. 

Carbon neutral - we need a community to get there! My green tech: Aclara SGM 1411-B smart meter, Chameleon IHD6
Tim_OVO
Rank
Userlevel 7

What’s the latest on this, @darren.guscott @Hicks?

Carbon neutral - we need a community to get there! My green tech: Aclara SGM 1411-B smart meter, Chameleon IHD6
H
Rank
Badge

I haven’t re-contacted Indra as the problem has gone away.  In fact, I am very happy with the service I am now receiving.

Almost as soon as I plug the car in the Kaluza platform starts to charge the car; if the electricity overhead is high the platform reduces the amps to the car accordingly.   I can also regulate the amps from my Tesla app if required (when I want to charge to 100% but want the car filled in a definite time-scale).

Only downside I now see is when the Kaluza platform drops my charge amps down to, say, 6 amps then I am actually wasting a small amount of energy (therefore money) during the extended charge time.  Just an observation.

Hope I haven’t Murray Walker’ed myself :)

D
Rank
Badge +1

I have a service visit from Charged EV in a couple of weeks however, since the last time of posting I saw a couple of calibrating messages and since I have not seen any issues and it is always charging at 7.4 (although it is mostly plugged in when the demand is low). 

The thing to note is we have not had any really heavy rain and it seems to go strange around rain but I think it is because it loses connection with the 4g dongle.  Thinking just connecting it with ethernet will help that.

D
Rank
Badge +1

My charger is fixed following the visit from the service engineer, it turns out there was a technical issue with the charger as during testing it failed completely and refused to connect.

The whole unit was replaced and since then I have had NO issues.

Reply


Terms & ConditionsCookie settings