Set up charging infrastructure with Raspberry Pi

With the help of a Raspberry Pi and the cFos Charging Manager, you can add two important functions not only to our wallboxes, but also to other wallboxes: intelligent load management and PV surplus charging. As an alternative to the Raspberry PI, you can also use a PC with Windows 10.

Application scenarios:
You have a wallbox and want to retrofit PV surplus charging and load management.
You want to set up a charging park with third-party boxes and your grid connection does not support all wallboxes with maximum power. The cFos Charging Manager regulates the charging power of the connected wallboxes as low as your grid connection allows.
You have a charging park with third-party boxes and a solar system and only want to charge with your solar surplus at certain times.

Requirements

• Raspberry Pi with installed cFos Charging Manager Setup Raspberry Pi
  Note: You can also buy a ready-made Raspberry Pi from us cFos Charging Manager Raspberry Kit
• Supported wallboxes (you can control almost any number of wallboxes with one Raspberry Pi)
• All EVSEs must be integrated into the network. Please follow the instructions of the respective manufacturer
• One cFos Charging Manager charging point licence per wallbox (cFos Power Brain wallboxes can be integrated free of charge)
• Supported intermediate meters / inverters for PV surplus charging
• One USB RS485 adapter (FTDI, virtual COM port) per Modbus RTU
  The cFos Power Brain Wallbox also has a Modbus proxy. If you have limited EVSE reception or do not want to connect all EVSEs to the network with WLAN, you can use Modbus RTU at these points instead. To do this, connect the EVSEes without WLAN coverage to a EVSE via Modbus RTU and then set up the proxy. The master box then addresses all EVSEs via the cFos Power Brain Controller as if they were connected via WLAN or Modbus TCP/IP.
• general material list

Setting up EVSEs

1. Open the cFos Charging Manager on your Raspberry Pi by entering the address of the Raspberry PI in your network in the browser and 4712 as the port, e.g. 192.168.2.111:4712.
2. Register your wallboxes in your network via WLAN (Modbus TCP/IP). Please use the manufacturer's instructions for this if it is not a cFos Power Brain Wallbox.
3. Add all your wallboxes to the settings. Use the following parameters for the device configuration: (Figure 1: Example for cFos Power Brain Wallbox)

• Device type: Select your wallbox
• Address: the corresponding address in the form IP address:port, example: 192.168.2.150:4701
• ID: will be filled in automatically
• Optional: Attached electricity meter
4. You can repeat this process as often as your licence allows. In the shareware version (without charge point licences), 3 charge points are available until the expiry date.
5. The configuration is now complete and your wallboxes are controlled centrally from the Raspberry Pi by an intelligent load management system.

Establishment of PV surplus shop

(Version 1.7.1079)
For PV surplus charging, the cFos charging Manager needs reference values for the current. There are two possibilities for this:

• Ask your electrician to install a bidirectional meter at the transfer point of the house connection. Suitable meters include Modbus meters or internal grid reference meters from your solar system(list of supported intermediate meters). In order for the Charging Manager to be able to calculate the grid consumption independently of the charging of the electric cars, a meter with the role "Electric car consumption" must ideally be configured for each wallbox in this configuration. If you do not require individual recording of the power/consumed kWh of the individual wallboxes, you can also set up one or more centralised meters with the "Electric car consumption" role, which measure the total power of the wallboxes.
• You measure the generation output of your solar system and the household consumption without EVSEs. Ask your electrician to install a supported electricity meter for domestic consumption. Supported inverters measure the generation automatically, you then only need a meter for your domestic consumption.
  Home consumption - electricity generation = solar surplus

Step by step guide:

1. Open the cFos Charging Manager user interface on your Raspberry Pi.
2. Settings > Add Meter.
3. Select your meter/inverter and add the device address.
4. Under the Load Management role, now select:
   • Grid reference, for your house transfer point meter. If you have installed a grid reference meter, the Charging Manager will always use this as the reference value
   • or consumption or generation for your home consumption or electricity generation
   
5. Configure PV Surplus Charging for each individual user or for each individual wallbox.
   User: Open the RFID/PIN tab at the top of the bar. Once you have selected a user, click on Edit.
   Wallbox: Open the settings for the respective wallbox. You can see an example on image 1 of this page.
6. Add rule.
7. Use the following parameters:
   
   • Solar
   • Start current limit: We recommend a value of 6500 mA (or a value slightly above the minimum charging current of 6A). Excess charging is thus carried out from a feed-in of 6.5 A
   • Solar surplus
8. Save the settings.
9. For more details on surplus charging, balance surplus charging, phase use and electricity storage, see our surplus charging documentation
10. The configuration is now complete and all registered EVSEs will only charge in the event of a solar surplus if the corresponding user has been selected.