Charging is interrupted (Amp Guard)
If charging is interrupted, the most common problems are the following:
- Other consumption in the installation is too high
- Rotated from power meter to charging box
- Connectivity
- Minimum current is too low
Other consumption in the installation is too high
As a partner, you can see this if you go to power meters under the menu item "power meters". There you can see the consumption graphs for the last 24h and the last 7 days. Take the time of the charging session when the customer experienced problems and see what the consumption was at the time. Also look at whether the customer has high consumption in general and possibly suggest upgrading the main fuse.
As an end user, you can ask your partner to have access to view the graphs from your electricity meter and see the consumption of your site.
Rotated from power meter to charging box
It is common that something has been rotated either in the plant or during installation. You can troubleshoot this by disabling the load balancing and then go into the charging box and set it to 1-phase. Then start a charge on L1. Then look under the power meter at the 24h graph and see that the graph for L1 rises in line with the charge. Repeat the procedure for L2 and L3. If the correct graph rises in comparison with the phase you have chosen where charging should take place, everything is correct. However, if a different phase rises than the one on which charging takes place, it is rotated somewhere.
Then check that the incoming L1, L2, L3 matches the incoming L1, L2, L3 in the charging box.
Also check that the current transformers for the current meter are on the correct phase and that they are correctly placed in the terminal block.
Connectivity
If the Charge Amps Amp Guard loses connection, the charging will be interrupted and the charging session will start again, the charging will then be limited - Check the signal strength of the Charge Amps Amp Guard. It should be at worst around -80 dBm where -60 dBm is very good signal strength and -90 is very poor.
- If the Charge Amps Amp Guard is connected to an extender/repeater, make sure it has a good signal to its AP (access point).
- If the customer has a mesh system, this can mean that Charge Amp's products have difficulty focusing on the AP with the best signal strength. The easiest way to get around this problem is to install an extender/repeater with a different SSID that only Charge Amp's product is connected to. It will then stay fixed to the same AP.
- Charge Amps Amp Guard is only capable of 2.4 GHz and therefore networks broadcasting both 2.4 and 5 GHz with the same SSID may cause problems for Charge Amps Amp Guard.
Also in this case, an extender/repeater is an aid against this. Install it with a different SSID than the rest of the network and set it to 2.4 GHz only.
Alternatively, remove the 5 Ghz frequency from the network if you feel you can do without it. 5G can handle higher speeds but has a shorter range. However, most people can handle the speed of the 2.4 GHz frequency.
Minimum current is too low
All cars have a minimum current they can charge at. This differs between car models. If the load balancing is set to a lower limit than the car can handle, charging will be interrupted when the car is allocated too little power.