EV-OLUTION

Adding ESP8266 to DIY Arduino EVSE/Charging point

This is update to my already existing DIY Arduino based EVSE project. If you haven't heard about it, please visit DIY Arduino based EVSE project first. This update allows user to get some parameters and readings from EVSE, and also protect it from unauthorized use. This is done by using cheap Lolin V3 board (ESP8266 based), MaQiaTTo broker and a "MQTT Dash" App for Android smartphones. Although it's very straight forward project, it still requires some knowledge of how to setup everything properly. So I made a quick video of how to do that. Sorry for video and sound quality, I did it in a hurry. If you can't see my video below, that means you haven't accepted cookies on my website. Go to you browser settings, clear cache, reload my page and this time accept cookies when asked by popup window. Or follow this link: http://www.youtube.com/embed/3gsv9lBetgs .

ESP8266 firmware is open source, so you can modify it in Arduino IDE. Make sure you update your Arduino IDE with ESP8266 library which you can find here > https://github.com/esp8266/Arduino . Otherwise you will get errors while trying to compile it. How to update it easy way, I showed in my video.

Below you can find two files. One is for your Pro Mini board, another for Lolin V3 board. Pro Mini board must still be programed using Xloader. Lolin board must be programed using Arduino IDE. If you bought DIY EVSE PCB from us, then use Pro mini files from > here <.

Lolin V3 (ESP8266) board firmware:

Pro Mini board firmware (beta version):

Because this project is completely free and made to be used only for personal needs, I did some limitations to make sure it would be less attractive for people who try to use such projects for gaining profit. There were already few cases, where I could clearly see that there were some intentions to use it for other purposes and not just as a personal project. That's not how things work with my project. So please, no more emails asking to remove text with my website address from display, share my Pro Mini firmware in compiler format or asking to alter Pro mini file so it can be used with LEDs instead of display ;)
There is one option for real developers. You can now buy my PCB and I will email you a bare minimum code needed to run Arduino Pro Mini as an EVSE. But this is not the firmware you see here, that's a complete minimalistic code, which would need further developing.

There are couple limitations implemented on serial communication between Arduino and ESP8266. First of all, as you already noticed from my video, there is a delay on MQTT Dash App. This is because I implemented these delays on Pro mini firmware. Second thing, at the beginning of this project update I also included maximum set amps data on serial communication and ability to change maximum set amps on MQTT Dash App, but quickly realized how vulnerable this project becomes. So for now I disabled that function. The only way to tell what set maximum amps are is by looking to EVSE display and changing it on EVSE itself.

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