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Hypervolt Review

35K views 118 replies 27 participants last post by  Bluekia 
#1 ·
The smartest way to charge?
Integration with your smart home?

These are a couple of the things that drew me to the Hypervolt.

I had my install done by a local company and they were fantastic. I had watched some reviews on the Hypervolt and all seemed good. Since we are planning to buy another electric car next year I wanted the option to be able to balance across the chargers and the Hypervolt does support this. Plus if we added solar/battery then the Hypervolt would also support this and in my eye, it is more attractive than the Zappi.

As someone with a smart, automated home I was eager to integrate the Hypervolt into my house.

Sooo…

“Integration with your smart home” - means an Alexa skill and not a great one at that.

Very disappointing.

I have written several emails and used the web contact form with no response. I have looked at the data going in and out via the Hypervolt via my network and found that it’s using a hardcoded DNS - Which was annoying, as this is something I block. Port forward later I got it going where I wanted. Luckily I had added this quickly to my guest device VLAN so it can speak to the internet when it was first installed.

A few days after the installation the Hypervolt stopped responding to the iPhone App and the Web Portal. Sent off another email with some packet data and eventually, I phoned them. I got an emailed response the following day asking for some basic wifi information which I responded to. I was informed that I would be called at a later time (and given a 30-minute window). They did not call me back :-(

Called them an hour after they were supposed to call me and was told it just needs a firmware update which was being pushed as we speak… I was convinced I was being fobbed off so started another packet trace which confirmed the download a few minutes later. The Hypervolt shortly afterward rebooted and was fine (has been ever since). Why did this need me to call before they could push out??

I like the look of the box and the kids like the lights. I need/want an API to make this smart I worry about the longevity of the company and since all requests go through their cloud so local WebSocket access ( I can see it has one) would be good, but other companies are in the same boat. Hopefully, the company will start to add these much-needed features to allow “Integration with your smart home” and “The smartest way to charge”

Security was another thing I brought up in an email. Why does the Portal not have the option for 2-factor authentication? So there are limits to what you can do (certainly not what is shown on their website) and a limit on the personnel data you could pull. However, the ability for someone else to access the portal is only limited by my username and password which in 2021 is not acceptable.

So I am mixed on the end product. Calling the company has led to a resolution to the issue I faced. However, this is not an issue I should have had to start with. The emails have been ignored and I really question the “Integration with your smart home” statement. I suspect I will have to write a handler for their APIs when I have time. Since this was one of the deciding factors in buying the product.

Given the choice again the Hypervolt would not be at the top of my list.
 
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#2 ·
For the mass market, "Integration with your smart home " means Alexa not everyone has their own networks, VLANs etc.

The Facebook group is very active with users, and the CEO responds to messages on there, 2FA while would be nice is not a deal breaker, you should be using different secure passwords for each website anyway.

API access again is a niche market thing, most people buying a Hypervolt just want to plug their car in and check their app, they are working to deliver things like solar integration, tariff charging, I am sure API access is on their roadmap but not a priority.
 
#3 ·
For the mass market, "Integration with your smart home " means Alexa not everyone has their own networks, VLANs etc.
Not giving the user the ability to manage a network device sitting on the user's network is just bad practice. I never implied that other people would have these things however some people and especially companies and those working at home, will. It is simply presumptuous to assume that everyone will have their network setup as anything other than a basic router and even if this is the case, to take away choice is not something I see as a good thing.

I am sure for a few "Integration with your smart home" means Alexa, however, selling it as "Works with Alexa" does not have the same impact as adding "Smart Home" in a few places. It does not work with a Smart Home. It has a poorly designed skill that is very limited and cannot be integrated by any stretch of the imagination in a Smart Home. In my review, this was something that I was disappointed with.

The Facebook group is very active with users, and the CEO responds to messages on there, 2FA while would be nice is not a deal breaker, you should be using different secure passwords for each website anyway.
There is no excuse for not implementing the option of 2FA in this day and age. My review was simply pointing out features that "could" be important for some i.e. me. This was something that I would like to have been aware of before buying.

API access again is a niche market thing, most people buying a Hypervolt just want to plug their car in and check their app, they are working to deliver things like solar integration, tariff charging, I am sure API access is on their roadmap but not a priority.
API access is not a niche market thing. However, I agree, most people buying this do indeed just want to plug in their car and use the App. In which case, there is very little that sets this apart from many of the other "boxes" out there.

My issues in my review were things that I was unaware of before buying and I was simply speaking of my experience.

Others will have different viewpoints and will share their reviews.

My biggest issue is the lack of communication from the company. I still have emails and communication via their contact form un-replied. The CEO might respond to messages on Facebook but to ignore communications directly to the company is not going to win anyone over.

At the end of the day, this is simply another box that sits on the wall. It does not have any stand-out features that set this apart and unfortunately for me the features I thought I would be getting don't exist. Maybe the features come out in a future release. In which case I would happily update this review. Communication is something, that all companies need to work on and it seems this one is no different.

But would I recommend it - nope
 
#5 ·
Interesting write up and firms up some of my own findings and largely cements why I went for the Zappi. Although I can see promise in what Hypervolt are doing, and it does look better than a Zappi, MyEnergi just appear to be on the ball more with what they are doing, and I guess that has come from a more mature platform. Not to say Hypervolt wont ultimately beat them to a better product, but it certainly needs some work.

I am surprised that you haven't had responses from their support, the no. 1 thing I'd heard going for Hypervolt was their customer support. Maybe a product of their own success in that they may not be having growing pains?
 
#6 ·
Maybe a product of their own success in that they may not be having growing pains?
The reports that the CEO is responding back that up. I'm all for senior management being involved but not as the the first or second line.
 
#8 ·
... I need/want an API to make this smart I worry about the longevity of the company and since all requests go through their cloud so local WebSocket access ( I can see it has one) would be good, but other companies are in the same boat. Hopefully, the company will start to add these much-needed features to allow “Integration with your smart home” and “The smartest way to charge”
I had a shortlist of Hypervolt and Zappi, and I eventually chose Hypervolt. I hope that eventually I will be able to integrate it into a home energy management system. It looks like the Hypervolt supports the ocpp protocol (see GitHub - hypervoltuk/ocpp: Open Charge Point Protocol and OCPP 2.0.1, Protocols, Home - Open Charge Alliance). Maybe it's possible to talk to it via this protocol on the LAN.
 
#9 ·
I had a shortlist of Hypervolt and Zappi, and I eventually chose Hypervolt. I hope that eventually I will be able to integrate it into a home energy management system. It looks like the Hypervolt supports the ocpp protocol (see GitHub - hypervoltuk/ocpp: Open Charge Point Protocol and OCPP 2.0.1, Protocols, Home - Open Charge Alliance). Maybe it's possible to talk to it via this protocol on the LAN.
I wish you luck. I had the same ideas.

I have had to reboot mine again tonight. It went offline a couple of days ago. But still works as a plug-in charger. I have noticed that this seems to happen after a software update. Then it gets a new MAC and IP.... Grrrrrr. At this rate, its going to end up on its own VLAN.

I have looked through the guthub repos before and have tried to talk to the Hypervolt, without success. I have been following a couple of projects with ocpp and HA, but I cannot get those to talk. I have port scanned and monitored all the traffic to and from the Hypervolt. I have also pulled the Web Dashboard apart and have built some clumsy functions which I could use. But I want direct access.

I am nearly at the point when I am going to pull the pi and gain access and write my own access. At least I know I could write something that reconnected back to the wifi or keep trying until connected.

If you are getting the Hypervolt then I would recommend that you get ethernet to the point. I have an ESP board that I use for temp and humidity that is located next to the Hypervolt and has never once lost access to the Wifi. Yet the Hypervolt seems to drop with regular frequency. I suspect this is to do with the enclosure (metal) and no external antenna.

I would happily swap mine for a Zappi. I have recommended people NOT to get the Hypervolt and they have gone for the Zappi. Once they get their cars I will see how they get along with it.
 
#22 · (Edited)
I know this is an old thread, and I doubt @Flavian Alexandru will read this comment, but it seems the above 'argument' is about if @Bluekia was making unreasonable demands.

Here is my take. I have had the charger since end of march. It took several attempts to adopt it to the app. Finally managed it.

The Alexa still is hardly worth having, as far as I can tell you can only ask if the car is charging or not. Not even start/stop charge. Edit- you can change brightness of LEDs, however even then, if I ask Alexa to set to 25%, the Hypervolt app only shows them set at 40%.

I set up 'scheduled charge' on the app last night for 0130-0630. I woke up at 0500. Checked Hypervolt app. Nope, not charging.

Tried to manually start charge on app. Button didn't seem to respond. Went to 'lock charger' which went to 'pending', and then the charge started.

I set the tariffs up in the app. 5.5p for 0130 to 0630, 16.03p all other times.
I am watching the charging now. Thus session so far: 8.88kwh = £1.29 =14.5p????????????. What tariff is that referring to? Obviously not the one I set up in the settings

1 day after the charger was installed it must have gone off line as there was no analytic data showing. Finally got it back on line.

Why, in the app, under 'Check network status' does it try to connect via Bluetooth (stood outside within about 6 inches of the unit) to confirm WiFi is active? Surely you should be able to check network status via WiFi?

Overall, this seems to be a very expensive 'dumb charger'. I have even dimmed the LEDs to minimum so even that gimmick isn't even a plus point.

Don't be taken in by any 'bells and whistles' the hypervolt unit might appear to offer
 
#24 ·
I got mine installed on 1st April and up till last Friday had problems with it falling off the wi-fi after as little as 30 mins up to a max of 6 hrs. This was a new unit that was supplied with the latest software that was supposed to fix the wi-fi issue for units supplied in Feb/Mar.

This apparently was due to supply chain issues getting the raspberry Pi4 and having to find alternative suppliers and with the new ones there was a problem causing some of them not dealing with wi-fi properly.

This has caused them huge issues in having to deal with this but under the circumstances they have thrown everything at it and seem to be winning but it ain't over fully yet.

In my case my installer and myself left various messages and he had conversations with them trying to find out what could be done to fix it as the only way to get it back on line each time it dropped wi-fi was to power cycle the unit and then get it back on line again for it only to drop off at max 6hrs later but usually in under 1hr.

My wi-fi signal is very strong throughout the house and 3 parts the way up the drive but still the Hypervolt was dropping wi-fi. After their support team called me middle of last week it was felt my eero mesh type wi-fi extender system may be causing an issue with their charger (strange as every other piece of kit in my house has no issues whatsoever and their are many of them). It was suggested they send me an FOC powerline adapter which I can plug in and that should hopefully rectify the situation. The powerline adapters arrived next day (thank you Emma) and I installed the 2 plugin units and since then (4 whole days now) wi-fi has been rock solid.

Fortunately during the almost 3 weeks we have had it we have still been able to charge the car (3 times now) even in it's dumb state which was no issue to us as we don't use schedule charging but it was useful to be able to check on the charger from the inside of the house when wi-fi was connected.

Regarding the charger itself, it looks nice and does the job as a charger but the software is wanting as there is functions that don't work properly as pointed out by previous posters and you would have though they would have been worked out by now as the unit has been out over a year. However that can be said for plenty of other chargers too so overall I am now happy that it is working and I imagine their software team will finally get back to developing the software once the major wi-fi issue is sorted for everyone. I understand there is a software update due this week addressing some of the issues such as charging tariff rates as at the moment their is a notional 14p Kwh price applied.
 
#25 ·
Mine still goes down with frequent reliability.

I am now used to powering it off and back on again. I am guessing, but I do wonder if it’s the updates causing it.

I also know this is nothing to do with the raspberry pi hardware inside. I have several pi’s and esp boards and not one has ever dropped the WiFi.

I also got another ticket with them showing the data is incorrect i.e. using 1100kwh in a single session and some of the other sessions were out by 5-30kwh. Not a big deal but it means the data in unreliable so I am not using it for that anymore (not that you can poll it into anything useful)

it is without a shadow of a doubt the most unreliable bit of tech I have at home and I do wish I could exchange it for something else. If I had bought this from Amazon it would have gone back long ago.

There is always a sense of relief when I go to my car and it is charged to the point I can go to and from work.
 
#26 ·
@kbfern thanks for your reply. The notional 14p bit matches what I am seeing, which leads to question why they have the opportunity to enter different tariff amounts.

Now you are rock solid on your wifi, if you go in to the settings on the app and choose 'network'>'current network status' can you do it over WiFi or does it look for a Bluetooth connection?
I have to go via bluetooth, it then confirms the network details and it is connected.

Am I suffering from 'soon to be resolved' WiFi issues or is this just how it works?

@Bluekia thanks for your update. It is disappointing when things go so wrong and you end up wiht a piece of kit that can't even manage the basics. DO you still have any contact from their main man?
 
#27 ·
Apart from him commenting on this thread. No.

I still have had several email requests ignored. But I have only sent the last one in early last week and someone did get back to me. But with Easter and such getting in the way I was not expecting a response yet.

however it is a follow on from a previously ignored ticket.

I don’t have faith that this will see me past 3 years so I am resigning myself to buy another.

I have just come to terms with periodically checking the app and rebooting the Hypervolt if the app does not respond. The only thing I am thankful for is that when the Hypervolt does fail the timed charge and on demand charge still works.

I don’t believe they will fix it which makes any enhancements/extra features pointless.
 
#29 ·
Sorry to hear you guys are having trouble. As much as I'd love to be smug arse with my Zappi (having never needed to be rebooted once since Nov install), I really don't like to see people let down by technology. As much as people love to throw 'AI', 'machine learning', 'real-time', and whatever buzzwords are in fashion, first and foremost it needs to be reliable, the basic premise of an EVSE is so simple. No point having bells and whistles when they don't ring! Maybe its my finance background (very strict QA and uptimes working on payment APIs) but I just don't see the point in adding half the features on offer if the basics don't work properly. I sincerely hope they sort it out for you guys and get you real working solutions.
 
#32 ·
The problem, as far as I understand it, is due to a switch to using Rasperry Pi 4 rather than RPi3 and the change of WiFi drivers.
I've been having this problem and I've been getting great support from Hypervolt (thanks Alex).
 
#33 · (Edited)
Got my HV installed yesterday. We chose it because of the slimness of the casing and cable management meaning a neat solution that would work well with the limited space around our car. That aspect of it is good. Customer support has been responsive, so far.

Everything else is pretty rubbish. App feels like a beta product. Wi-Fi connectivity is hopeless.

If you get one of these installed I would absolutely insist on hardwired Ethernet connection.

Can’t believe this thing cost nearly £700 🤣🤣🤣
 
#35 ·
Yes that's the worrying thing if Hypervolt go tit's up anytime are we screwed to be able to charge the car. Mine is in charge and go mode so I assume it will still function as a dumb charger like it did while mine was falling off the wi-fi all the time till that was fixed last Friday by using the powerline adapter,
 
#37 ·
@Bill N Is the firmware update one that they are sending for your specific problem or are you talking about receiving universal 'over the air' updates?

I tried to phone them earlier as based on what others have said there is obviously a wifi issue wiht mine (searches for bluetooth when attempting to check the wifi connection) and had to leave a message.

Once they get around to dealing wiht you, are thye fairly attentive or do you have to keep pushing?

Phil
 
#38 ·
Specific problem I and others are having with mesh networks.

The bluetooth when searching for Wi-Fi is just how the apps works at the moment - I’ve told them it’s a bit silly other than for the initial connection.

Pretty attentive - best bet is to contact them via WhatsApp. I’m also expecting a call any minute
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#39 ·
By way of an update - the 2nd update they pushed to my HV yesterday seems to have done the trick. Hopefully I’m not jinxing it, but it’s been online now for nearly 24 hours and responds instantly to any setting changes made in the app.

Good customer service so far - quite startup in the way they go about it, but effective (so far 🤞)

Now, provided it remains stable, just looking forward to some more features and improvements.
 
#41 ·
How do you get the wi-fi in your house, direct from the router or via a mesh type system? if the later you may need a Powerline fix like they sent me. It only uses 2.4Ghz same as the Pi, since installing that last Friday my HV wi-fi has been rock solid. I spoke with Amy she sorted me a free Powerline wi-fi extender it seems the HV won't play nice with some wi-fi systems.
 
#43 ·
A powerline adapter is a poor work around that may not be all that reliable either, I detailed the problem and a more accurate workaround in this thread including why a powerline may also fail


In this post I refer to a powerline adaptor as an extender

 
#46 ·
In that case then god knows what's wrong with it. Fortunately can't see me ever using mine on scheduled charging so as long as it is dumb but still can charge I am not that bothered other than for the folks that do want to use that facility.

These so called smart chargers are not that smart in reality as quite a few smart chargers seem to have their issues. There is a lot to be said for a dumb charger that works by simply flicking a switch or pressing a button to turn on and off. However the government are making those illegal in the summer I hear.
 
#47 ·
Mines been ok since a power cycle this morning so it’s definitely much better than it was when first installed a few days ago. Have just test rebooting the mesh system to check it would reconnect okay and it did so that’s positive.

I quite like the schedule feature because it effectively locks the charger when my car isn’t in the drive - but having it unlocked is probably not much of an issue in reality.
 
#50 ·
Having similar problems as everyone with my HV that was installed at the end of March. They have arrange a company to visit next week to swap the SD card, I’m guessing this will be a firmware update.

Mine is on the edge of my Wi-Fi signal so I had put the drop outs down to this and have ordered some Ethernet cable to hard wire it as well.
 
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