[kbfern]

Perhaps you guys can confirm till I get this issue sorted if wi-fi has dropped will switching unit off and back on again allow me to use the charger in dumb mode (just plug in car and it will charge whilst plugged in) it would be nice to know we have a backup in the event of servers/internet/wi/fi going down.

 

[mr.magoo]

If your having connectivity problems then make sure its in plug and charge mode, then when ever you plugin your lead it’ll charge

 

[kbfern]

Thanks for that, yes I think it is in plug and charge mode. I never want to do timed charging as we don't have an electric dual tariff with Octopus we are just on the standard variable rate atm so 27p Kwhr. The cheap overnight rate may only be slightly cheaper overall as we use most of our electricity during day/evenings.

 

[Will168]

Reboot the HV and it’ll be online for a while then drop, then reconnect, then drop

If I setup up a continuous ping to it’s IP it would stay connected but stop the ping and within a short while it’ll drop. It could be offline for a hour or more at times. Logs show it would be offline 4-5 times a day

Turn off band steering and it hasn’t dropped at all since. I’m a network engineer by trade so my home network has 24/7 monitoring in place

Mine was dropping after a few hours on my TP Link Deco M9 mesh. On the BT SmartHub 2, it never dropped.

I waited to see if their firmware update would fix the problem, but it did not.

I didn’t want to turn off band steering and split SSIDs, but I ended up creating a 2.4 GHz only guest network on the mesh and it’s been up for a couple of days now without dropping. Prefer using the mesh because the coverage is better for where the Hypervolt is.

 

[kbfern]

My wi-fi dropout is still an issue despite the firmware upgrade. I did get a call a couple of days ago after leaving messages with support and they tested my wi-fi signal at the charger and it was strong so that was not the issue. I am using the eero system round the house and they said mesh type systems have been a cause of the dropping wi-fi.

So they have sent me FOC a Mercusys AV1000 MP510 kit powerline wi-fi extender to use on 2.4Ghz I shall install that and see if that cures it.

 

[Will168]

My wi-fi dropout is still an issue despite the firmware upgrade. I did get a call a couple of days ago after leaving messages with support and they tested my wi-fi signal at the charger and it was strong so that was not the issue. I am using the eero system round the house and they said mesh type systems have been a cause of the dropping wi-fi.

So they have sent me FOC a Mercusys AV1000 MP510 kit powerline wi-fi extender to use on 2.4Ghz I shall install that and see if that cures it.

I think @mr.magoo is right about the band steering and mesh systems do seem to cause the Hypervolt problems.

The wifi extender will probably fix it, if it’s 2.4GHz only. It seems to be a Hypervolt issue though, as no other 2.4GHz devices on my network seem to have this problem.

Good luck with the extender, hopefully it will fix your problem.

 

[InspectorGadget]

I think @mr.magoo is right about the band steering and mesh systems do seem to cause the Hypervolt problems.

The wifi extender will probably fix it, if it’s 2.4GHz only. It seems to be a Hypervolt issue though, as no other 2.4GHz devices on my network seem to have this problem.

Good luck with the extender, hopefully it will fix your problem.

Agreed. Hypervolt have tried to tell me to connect via Lan or use an extender - but the unit is closer to my router and main mesh box than most other things in my house. And it’s the only one with an issue.

 

[Will168]

Agreed. Hypervolt have tried to tell me to connect via Lan or use an extender - but the unit is closer to my router and main mesh box than most other things in my house. And it’s the only one with an issue.

I didn’t want to use an extender in case it tried to take over the traffic on the rest of the network, so I was determined to get it to work on my mesh somehow. I’ve got the guest network workaround at the moment, but it’s not the ideal solution; I would just prefer Hypervolt address the issue somehow.

I have gotten back to them on the Whatsapp chat that I had going with them and asked if they are aware of the issues with band steering and mesh networks and if they are working to address it, but they haven’t responded to those messages.

 

[Orrery]

Did it re-establish connection occasionally then, or did you need to reboot the unit to get it to respond again?

You need to turn it off and on again. The issue is that newer units have a RPi4, not RPi3. Supposedly, the drivers for the USB WiFi adapter revert to the default drivers and it never re-connects.
I had the guy here to apply the software fix, but it makes no difference. Mine drops WiFi once or twice per week, so I don't think they've bottomed out the issue. Having said that, I'm now approaching 2 weeks from the last issue.
I do have other functional design issues with the unit: I can't set it to do an overnight charge and then still top up with solar - you can only have one or the other, with manual switching between the two. Use solar top up one day, then forget to switch back and it doesn't charge overnight. If I set solar charging and also a timed period overnight then it sits waiting for solar at 00:30 in the morning.
Ideas:
1. would it be better to use the WiFi extended to provide a wired ethernet into the RPi4?
2. Hypervolt: how about providing a restart function triggered by a schedule or a watchdog timer monitoring the connectivity?

 

[Orrery]

I have tried it with a TP-link extender, but it doesn't fix the problem. The bog standard TP-Link now has so-called "high speed" mode which allows a 2.4GHz extended network to be set up, connected back to the hub with a 5GHz bridge, which avoids it slowing the rest of the network.

 

[mr.magoo]

Firmware updates to date don't fix the issue, I've been there and got that tee-shirt. These chargers require a 2.4Ghz SSID without band steering. If your router supports a new SSID on 2.4Ghz only then save your money on buying an extender, that's only needed if your signal is terrible. Keeping the same SSID even with an extender may not solve your issues as the Hypervolt could still connect to your main router or mesh and continue to have problems.

In short

If you can create a 2.4Ghz only SSID for the HV to use then it should fix your issues

 

[Will168]

Firmware updates to date don't fix the issue, I've been there and got that tee-shirt. These chargers require a 2.4Ghz SSID without band steering. If your router supports a new SSID on 2.4Ghz only then save your money on buying an extender, that's only needed if your signal is terrible. Keeping the same SSID even with an extender may not solve your issues as the Hypervolt could still connect to your main router or mesh and continue to have problems.

In short

If you can create a 2.4Ghz only SSID for the HV to use then it should fix your issues

Completely agree. An extender is of no use to me.

I have it set up on the guest network as a 2.4GHz only network at the moment. It’s a little annoying as I do actually normally use that as an isolated network for guests, but is now repurposed solely for the HV. Guests of course could still use it, but it would be limited to 2.4GHz speeds.

Have you managed to get HV to acknowledge that this is an issue?

 

[mr.magoo]

I reported the issue to HV support on the 6th March, I even took the time to demonstrate it is a repeatable issue

Nothing more I can do now except help out others whom are experiencing the same issue, as time and time again on social media I see the wrong fix being put forward

 

[Will168]

I reported the issue to HV support on the 6th March, I even took the time to demonstrate it is a repeatable issue

Nothing more I can do now except help out others whom are experiencing the same issue, as time and time again on social media I see the wrong fix being put forward

I’ll call them on Tuesday and log it too. I raised it on the Whatsapp chat and have had no response.

 

[sungrad]

For what it's worth when I had this issue they sent out a little usb dongle to stick in the RPi inside, and I've not had a single connection problem since.

I was impressed with the customer service. They even offered to send someone around to do it, which would be great if I was a granny who didn't know what USB was.

 

[SHL-Kelso]

From what is being described, the issue with wifi sounds like a hardware issue with the wifi unit fitted inside charger - I work in the home automation field and see many 2.4Ghz-only devices that just will not work reliably (or at all) in wifi installations with a single dual-band SSID. In these cases it requires the use of a second 2.4Ghz-only wifi SSID otherwise the equipment cannot be connected to the network. I use Ubiquiti Unifi network and wifi equipment, so this makes it easy for me to implement a dedicated SSID in these cases (and make this a more secure, segregated network to keep such devices isolated from the regular LAN), but some consumer-grade routers/wifi equipment do not allow SSIDs to be split or set to 2.4Ghz only. Adding a separate wifi access point with 2.4Ghz-only operation may be the only solution in these cases unless the device with wifi issues can have its wifi radio replaced with new hardware (or if the hardware is suitable but needs improved firmware/drivers).

 

[kbfern]

Hypervolt sent me a powerline wi-fi extender (FOC) I installed it on Friday evening at around 6pm and it has not dropped wi-fi since. It's early days to say but it looks like it has worked for me, previously it would drop the wi-fi connection after anything from 30 mins to 5-6 hrs max.

Another thing that surprised me was my wife went to her Mom's about 7 miles away from our house yesterday but was able to change the chargers settings etc whilst there using the hypervolt app. Does that mean that when we use the app at home on our home wi-fi the app is communicating with the charger on the outside of the building or are all commands and control is via Hypervolts servers so can be worked from any location.

 

[Jeremy Harris]

Another thing that surprised me was my wife went to her Mom's about 7 miles away from our house yesterday but was able to change the chargers settings etc whilst there using the hypervolt app. Does that mean that when we use the app at home on our home wi-fi the app is communicating with the charger on the outside of the building or are all commands and control is via Hypervolts servers so can be worked from any location.

All smart charge points commmunicate via the internet, none (other than when in initial set up mode) communicate directly via the LAN/WLAN connection to the device running the app.

The routing from a phone to the charge point will be phone app ---> internet connection ---> server, probably in some far off land ---> internet ---> LAN/WLAN ---> charge point (and back again). The servers could be anywhere, but are most probably not in the UK.

 

[Shaunasaurus]

From what is being described, the issue with wifi sounds like a hardware issue with the wifi unit fitted inside charger - I work in the home automation field and see many 2.4Ghz-only devices that just will not work reliably (or at all) in wifi installations with a single dual-band SSID. In these cases it requires the use of a second 2.4Ghz-only wifi SSID otherwise the equipment cannot be connected to the network. I use Ubiquiti Unifi network and wifi equipment, so this makes it easy for me to implement a dedicated SSID in these cases (and make this a more secure, segregated network to keep such devices isolated from the regular LAN), but some consumer-grade routers/wifi equipment do not allow SSIDs to be split or set to 2.4Ghz only. Adding a separate wifi access point with 2.4Ghz-only operation may be the only solution in these cases unless the device with wifi issues can have its wifi radio replaced with new hardware (or if the hardware is suitable but needs improved firmware/drivers).

Hi many thanks for sharing your experience. Can I check have you had connection issues with hypervolt in a UniFi system. Am debating the ev charger to buy and have a UniFi home set up. Am an amateur and not well versed in networking but would probably be able to Google my way into setting up a 2.4Ghz SSID if needed.

 

[Bluekia]

My Hypervolt is connected to a 2.4G only radio and periodically drops. I set it this way when I first started to have issues.