It is possible for a Schneider Electric EVLink to fail to connect to the ev.energy server if its system clock is incorrect. When the charger connects it uses a secure SSL connection, and will verify that our server’s SSL certificate is valid. SSL certificates are only valid for a specific date range, and if the Schneider’s system clock is outside that range then the connection won’t work.
Schneiders contain a small battery that lets them remember the system time, but if they are unpowered for too long then this battery could run out. The chargers have a web admin portal installed on them that the installer can access by plugging their laptop into the charger’s internal Ethernet port.
Here’s the web admin page that shows the charger’s system time:
This system time will be updated from ev.energy’s server if the charger manages to connect. The charger refers to the ev.energy server as the “Supervision” server, and the installer will only be able to update the system time if “supervision” is temporarily turned off.
Turn off supervision and reboot the charger. (The screen where the charger can be switched from “Supervision” to “Standalone” is shown below.)
Once supervision is turned off, visit the Date and Time page again and update the system clock to be correct, save and reboot again. After rebooting, check the charger has remembered the new system date.
Re-enable “Supervision” on the main General Settings page and reboot a final time.
Note that:
This should rarely happen - the Schneider’s internal battery should enable it to retain the correct system date.
Schneider EVLinks have the ability to find out the correct date automatically using their internet connection (via NTP). We haven’t yet been able to test that this happens when Supervision is enabled.