Tracking charging station usage & health

2Shae

So we are considering buying a new leaf but one of the things i have seen in this form is users complaining about fast chargers being out of order or constantly in use.

I have not found any website that tracks the health / usage of the Irish charging stations. If this doesn't exist I think I will take this on as a project. Ive pulled apart the android and IOS apps and figured out what is being pulled to check the stations so it would be easy enough to pull this every 5 minutes, save to a DB and graph it.

So before I take this on. Just confirming that no one has found an existing service / site that tracks this?

Also for daily users of the existing ecar connect app. do you find that the charger status is up to date? aka when it says chargers are available / free that it is actually true?

slave1

Good idea, unfortunately your app won't tell you when there's an ICE car parked there, as we're on the cusp of an EV purchase I've been keeping an eye and there's ICE cars parked there I'd guesstimate 10%-15% of the time

2Shae

This could be a better way of dealing with the ICRers - http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/sneaky-phone-app-pays-10-9747652

It hurts my soul to link to the mirror but the idea would work!

Calahonda52

what do you mean by health and usage?
I have the esb android app and it tells me that for example, right now, the two in Clontarf Dart station are out of service, others near by are occupied, others are available and so on.
Yes no intel on ICE parking.
I understand the Dart ones are off line because they took a sickie last week and no premium payments for them working on a Sunday so they wont work

unkel

How up to date is the ESB app? Updated every 5 minutes? Did anyone test this themselves?

Calahonda52

unkel wrote: »

How up to date is the ESB app? Updated every 5 minutes? Did anyone test this themselves?

Don't know, will try it when next out

KCross

2Shae wrote: »

So before I take this on. Just confirming that no one has found an existing service / site that tracks this?

I'd say that would be a first in Ireland. The eCars map was only recently enough(last 6-12 months?) updated to show whether a charger is in use or not so there hasnt been much time to develop an app to harvest the data like you suggest. Its a good idea.

My own anecdotal evidence is that the network is alot more reliable recently. If you went back 12 months ago there was consistently 10% or more of the rapids out of service. Over the last few months I've only ever seen 2 or 3 out of service at any one time so I think its better but maybe others will disagree.

What type of graphs would you propose showing? Is it reliability data and "busy time" data?

2Shae wrote: »

Also for daily users of the existing ecar connect app. do you find that the charger status is up to date? aka when it says chargers are available / free that it is actually true?

I'd say its moderately accurate. I've checked the map a few times when I was on a rapid and sometimes it updated within a few minutes but it can be out by as much as 15-20mins which somewhat defeats the purpose of it as a charge is typically only 20-30mins so the app being 15-20mins delayed is a waste of time.

eCars did request reliability feedback on it so they might be working on improving it.

cros13

2Shae wrote: »

So before I take this on. Just confirming that no one has found an existing service / site that tracks this?

Openchargemap is the place to feed the data. Several 3rd party apps use it as the primary data source.

2Shae

Interesting point about Openchargemap. I can definately look to feed some details into that. However there is definately a need for more information that is not displayed on that site. graphs to show usage history etc.

For anyone going fast charging today please try and figure out how long from the point of using the charger to the charge map being up to date showing usage (quit and reopen the app as it seems to hold cache rather than checking for updates each time you press a map point)

KCross

2Shae wrote: »

For anyone going fast charging today please try and figure out how long from the point of using the charger to the charge map being up to date showing usage (quit and reopen the app as it seems to hold cache rather than checking for updates each time you press a map point)

As I said, I did that in the last month or so and it's not consistent. Sometimes it's updated within a few mins other times not.

2Shae

@KCross, Thats a pitty. Do any of the ESB Ecar staff ever read this forum? A rest API with some kind of lastupdatestatus would be great.

I got some progress on this.
Here is the output of the script I made to parse the esb status page https://paste.ee/p/60P4g. Next task will be to run this every hour so I can compare the output and make sure it doesnt break.

It includes every charger in the network that is monitor-able (aka an esb owned point)

KCross

2Shae wrote: »

@KCross, Thats a pitty. Do any of the ESB Ecar staff ever read this forum? A rest API with some kind of lastupdatestatus would be great.

Don't expect any help from eCars. I don't think usage and reliability graphs are something they would want available to everyone!

What use case are you trying to solve?

Apart from providing usage and reliability data what else could you provide? The reason I ask is that I, and presumably others, would like to see those graphs but it would likely just be a cursory look rather than something that would be used daily. I think most people would still use the eCars app first and foremost.

Just wondering if you have a bigger plan?

2Shae

@KCross

Im a big fan of big data to allow for things like probability statistics. I care less about an initial goal right now and more about getting enough data to be able to find cool usecases.

Some off the top of my head examples

• It would be cool to have enough data to be able to give likely hood of available chargers nearby at any given time
• calculate out of service % over weeks / months
• show under utilised chargers
• push the data to other services like openchargemap
• provide data to users

DrPhilG

The availability function of the app is (in my limited experience/experimentation) usually about 15-20 minutes behind time.

2Shae

Thats disappointing to hear.

Here is the code I have been working on incase anyone wants to get involved. https://github.com/ITJamie/Ruby-ESB-ECars-Station-Parser/blob/master/test.rb

KCross

2Shae wrote: »

Thats disappointing to hear.

Here is the code I have been working on incase anyone wants to get involved. https://github.com/ITJamie/Ruby-ESB-ECars-Station-Parser/blob/master/test.rb

I like your call out to the ESB on their kml file. Cant say they'll oblige though!


While the consistency of the "occupied" data isnt great I think it is still worthwhile harvesting the data. I havent ever seen it completely ignore a charge so you still get to "see" that the charger was used just that the "time in use" might be shorter than the reality. Its still useful to see that the charger was used "for some time" in that 30min period.

So, maybe initially, you will have to change the granularity of your data to allow for that consistency issue. Hopefully they will address it. They did ask for feedback on the data.


The reliability data(out of service chargers) is reasonably accurate so again its worth harvesting that. I believe they are generally reliant on users to tell them that a charger is out of service and then they update the map if a remote reset doesnt resolve it. Really what you are looking for here is not a charger out of service for a few mins or hours.... its when a charger is out of service for days/weeks that you want to pick up and the map will give you that.

ED E

Do we know if the CPs are managed over GSM or looped into the ESB monitoring network?

KCross

ED E wrote: »

Do we know if the CPs are managed over GSM or looped into the ESB monitoring network?

I think they are GSM.

cros13

Yup, GSM.

Another issue you are going to have is an inability to differentiate between charging sessions. One vehicle charging and another starting inside a couple of minutes is going to be indistinguishable.

Calahonda52

Another little wrinkle: went down to Malahide Dart station which has two charging points: App showed 1 free, 1 occupied. Its an untethered station
However what was parked in the second bay was a Volvo T8, [ a plug-in hybrid it seems ] plugged in but not actually charging!
Plug in point is in front of passenger side mirror.

Staying with imports: saw a BMW 330e plugged into one of the untethered points in Malahide Village. Plug in point is in front of passenger side mirror but lower down than on T8.


Went to Swords for a look see: 2 available as per app, one occupied by an ICE.


Went to Topaz beside the M50/M1 junction: triple play tethered: but only two marked parking bays, its p;possible to park on other side of the marked bays, will be posting some pictures elsewhere later and will strike a link in here.

pwurple

2Shea, do the fast chargers make up part of your commute?

I have not used them much in my two years of ownership, and hence do not complain about them.

76544567

Was at a fcp the other day and it said it was occupied when I got there. I plugged in for 20 mins. The minute I plugged in I refreshed the app. It said it was unoccupied. I refreshed again a few times and even after I had finished and it said unoccupied the whole time

2Shae

interesting guys. thank you all for checking

One thing ive noticed is when i check the last modified date when i pull down the file i sometimes get files that were last created over 24 hours ago. if i do a loop and keep pulling it eventually gives one that it says was created within the last 2-3 minutes. Part of me is wondering are there are few servers behind a load balancer and depending on your luck you ether get a recent set of information or unlucky and get an older set of information.

I work as a DevOps SRE and have been dealing with work nightmares for the last 48 hours. Hopefully will get some time to do some more coding at the weekend.

Im determined to learn Ruby on Rails and this will be my project to do so (ex php / mysql dev)

As for the question about my commute. Its my partner who would be using the car primarily for commuting from swords to south dublin (Daily M50 Parking lot). We are in a 2nd story apartment though so public charging stations will be a must for us as daily home charging will not be easily achieved (parking war in our estate)

KCross

2Shae wrote: »

As for the question about my commute. Its my partner who would be using the car primarily for commuting from swords to south dublin (Daily M50 Parking lot). We are in a 2nd story apartment though so public charging stations will be a must for us as daily home charging will not be easily achieved (parking war in our estate)

Are you prepared to pay for charging when that comes in (maybe later this year) and are you prepared for the chargers to be ICE'd and queuing etc.

Relying on the public infrastructure on a daily basis could be very frustrating and time consuming.

slave1

KCross wrote: »

Relying on the public infrastructure on a daily basis could be very frustrating and time consuming.

+1, we're only buying an EV because it fits her driving pattern and can be managed with home charging 99% of the time.
To start off EV ownership with reliance on public infrastructure is somewhere we'd never go...

Calahonda52

Update on Malahide Station charge points.

App showed 1 available: same as yesterday.
Drove in, two Leaves plugged in, the same one as day showing it not charging: [C3THZ-A ]
Called ESB who say its showing as being available so I wonder is there some issue with it as its the same one as yesterday, perhaps a coincident that the two owners didn't charge on [C3THZ-A ].

asabater

Hi folks,

Any update on this? Does anyone knows if the app is more realiable these days? What happen with the project that was proposed initially?

zilog_jones

PlugShare seems popular for this. People can report in with various types of issues.

irishgrover

there are a couple of options

1. www.cpinfo.ie - will give you real time (or near realtime) information on all esb chargers

2. there is a Slack group that have various motorway routes that publish usage / availability data on chargers alone the subscribed to route.

3. Plug share as mentioned above - does not provide real time data but does allow users to provide feedback

4. Zapmaps - Does provide realtime usage data and also allows user feedback

Personally, of all options I tend to use zapmaps as my default go to app. If I want to look at the history of a specific charger I use cpinfo. If I am going on an unfamiliar route and am planning it I will also tend to use cpinfo to see how stable or otherwise my targeted charger is.