Are you Happy with your Zappi

eagerv

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117748131#Comment_117748131

Normally they are very quick, well less than a week in our case. But it was 18 months ago when I am sure they were a lot quieter.

As mentioned above, well worth giving them a call, they are very approachable and helpful.

RobAMerc

So, 10 mins after i posted this i got a mail to state my mprn was wrong. I called them with ther correct one. I got the offer 5 mins later.

Thanks all for the help.

Zappi in the post! ( sort of )

slave1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117748131#Comment_117748131

About a week for me

Seriously lads, does it not bother that your Zappy could be defective ?

RobAMerc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117750306#Comment_117750306

I dont think I understand the issue mad_Lad, nor do I understand the potential fallout. Maybe if you explain it I ( we ) would care.

An electrical appliance interfering with my AM radio isnt an issue for me ( or is it and I dont know ? )

please inform

KCross

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117750306#Comment_117750306

Nobody cares about your hobby mad_lad! 😀

particularly when you said LED bulbs had the same issue! 😉

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117750502#Comment_117750502

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117750458#Comment_117750458

Not caring about something can have implications for others and could fall back on you in the end, for instance if you don't care that your appi could be interfering with some other electronic device down the road, neighbour etc and wouldn't be willing to try resolve it with the manufacturer because you don't care about the effects to someone else then this person being effected probably won't care about making you resolve it through COMREG. If it's their internet, then their ISP will do this on their behalf, if it's a mad lad on a radio I have to do this myself or if an Neighbour is trying to listen to BBc R4 on Longwave it doesn't matter but it would matter if it effected you in some way or another, for instance you'd be pretty p1ssed if your internet kept dropping out......

My licence means I'm authorised to use certain parts of this "protected" radio spectrum.

Well for starters having the zappi in the condition it currently is in my installation is illegal under local, Eu and international law because the Radio spectrum is protected legally and nothing is allowed to interfere with it because there's so much that use the radio spectrum other than than millions of mad_Lads talking on a radio.

Internet connections can be knocked out due to this noise carried from source back to the grid and picked up by other modems power supplies.

And yes, LED light bulbs can be a huge source of noise. stick to philips and osram and other quality brands and stay away from no name brands which can also cause a strobing effect which can have other implications even if you don't see it.

from comreg

https://www.comreg.ie/industry/radio-spectrum/spectrum-compliance/radio-interference/

General Public

Where a member of the public believes that their, broadband or mobile phone service is experiencing radio interference this should be reported to the service provider. If the service provider determines that an external interference issue is occurring, it will contact Spectrum Intelligence and Investigations directly by submitting a case of suspected interference. In such cases Spectrum Intelligence and Investigations can only deal with the network operator and updates cannot be provided to third parties or members of the public.

Where a member of the public is experiencing disruption to Saorview or satellite television reception, a television reception system installer should check the installation for faults. System faults such as damaged cables & aerials are common sources of disruption to reception. Should it be determined that the disruption is caused by external interference, this should then be reported to Spectrum Intelligence and Investigations directly by submitting a case of suspected interference as per process outlined above.

Examples of Type B cases could include:

• Instances where a radio link is experiencing harmful interference such that it cannot operate as licensed;
• Harmful interference to a base station on a mobile network such that a single sector of the base station has to be turned off; and
• Harmful interference to a base station such that there is a degradation in the quality of service being provided to the end users.

slave1

Does the Zappi not use proprietary element of the Radio spectrum?

"I dont think I understand the issue mad_Lad, nor do I understand the potential fallout. Maybe if you explain it I ( we ) would care.

An electrical appliance interfering with my AM radio isnt an issue for me ( or is it and I dont know ? )

please inform"

Different types of modern electronic equipment today can emit much higher levels of interference than others and can cause issues for other people which can have implications for you if this interference is traced back to your home which isn't too difficult to track down with the equipment COMREG have. Someone's internet can suffer drop-outs caused by their modems power supply picking this interference up from a device in your home and if in a built up area this can have a much greater impact all because of a bad quality LED light bulb, Laptop power supply, Tv etc, this list is long and growing as people import more and more electronic junk from china directly and even resellers here in Europe. Stick to quality brands and even then it's not guaranteed there won't be issues.

Not knowing a device is causing interference is not an excuse, it's up to you and your installer to make sure the device meets regulations and in my case the Zappi on paper does meet all these requirements except in reality it does not as I proved to myenergi which they claimed they couldn't replicate but I seriously doubt I am the only one with such noise coming from my zappi.

I have to admit that I was quite shocked that the zappi emitted this level of noise. we'll see if they fix it.

RobAMerc

Ok. Point well made MadLad. I do have one question though is this a potential issue with all home chargers and am i likely to fall foul of this if i buy another brand ?

Also how long before comreg investigate, i know as government agencies go, they are quite effective and efficient.

Btw i flew model aircraft for years and know the effects of radio noise and interference ( although most was casued by other modelers kit ).

KCross

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117751087#Comment_117751087

I wont argue with you on it from a technical standpoint. What you've said about the regs is true.

However, I think you might be over egging it a bit. All you have at the moment is one Zappi that potentially has an issue. Whether it affects all Zappi's and whether people should be worried is a bit premature, imo.

I have no issues with my own. No internet concerns with me or my neighbours.

As a matter of interest I took a look at the Zappi internet forum and there was a guy on there who is an amateur radio enthusiast like yourself and he looked at several charge points and came to the conclusion that the Zappi was one of the better ones from a filtering and components perspective and he also has no interference issues with his.

https://myenergi.info/viewtopic.php?p=26916#p26916

It could simply be that you have a faulty one or a bad batch... who knows. Lets see what your replacement unit does before we go calling in the EU! ;)

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117751472#Comment_117751472

Every electronic device has the "potential" to cause harmful emissions and it's really up to the person buying the equipment to do their research, that's all you can do really. Buy quality and keep well away from no brand and cheap aftermarket replacements they are usually junk and if imported from unknown sources can be a potential fire or shock hazard or both because if manufacturers of cheap Chinese junk are omitting components that stop or greatly reduce interference then it doesn't say much for their products, there's lots of great quality stuff coming from China too but you're better to buy branded stuff from E.U suppliers. Replace laptop power supplies and phone chargers with originals. If stuff is much cheaper than the original then it's cheap for a reason. Keep away from No name LED lights in woodies and Ikea, stick to Philips and Osram.

COMREG aren't going to come knocking at your door unless you have a suspect device in your house that is causing interference so not something to be worried about, if they did come knocking you'll have the opportunity to fix the problem.

My old ABL unit installed by the ESB in 2015 emitted a noise at certain frequencies which was tolerable but only when plugged into the car, the Zappy causes really bad interference powered on, car connected or not so there is the potential that there are many Zappis causing serious emissions if there are several nearby.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117752197#Comment_117752197

Ah no not going to contact any regulatory body at this time as long as they fix the issue and can tell me they will issue a recall for any zappis effected they will know themselves.

See as I said earlier, the specs on paper are all good and legit and of course the prototype passes all tests then that applies to all charge points of that model after because it's designed properly, then production comes and some change to the circuit design ends up causing some issue like this.

For safety zappi is one of the best and it's a really good charge point, I am really happy with it apart from having the RF issue which I hope they will resolve, I'm still waiting for the test charge point.

More and more these issues are cropping up, Solar PV installations are causing more issues and One brand of inverters that I know of has been banned in Germany.

Anyway, I'm doing them a really big favour but I can't compliment Barrow Automation and FAAC enough for their amazing service and speedy replacement of my Mothers Electric Gate control board.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117751122#Comment_117751122

it does, it probably uses 2.4 Ghz to connect to it's hub but I can't confirm what frequencies it actually uses, I never looked into it as that's not causing me any issues.

graememk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117754706#Comment_117754706

If its the same type of noise that comes from cheap power supplies, it could be the power supply for the low voltage boards in the zappi.

I would agree, always use good chargers, - not for noise, but for the fire risk. Think Dublin fire brigade done a campaign to stop people charging stuff at night because of so many catching fire. -it was always the cheap knock off ones

The hub works on 868 and 915mhz - so I'm gonna guess the harvi works on them frequencies either.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117756364#Comment_117756364

yes it would be the power supply for the low voltage boards, switch mode power supply without proper filtering and/or poor design.

daheff

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117730158#Comment_117730158

Agreed. Very happy

Also to note the Zappi 2 can lock a cable in, turning an untethered into a tethered unit.

Philburns

I'm very happy with my Zappi 2!

I was having some problems with my broadband connection dropping off recently, which lead me to this thread. But after moving my telephone and cables and broadband router well away from my solar inverter I seem to have solved my problem.

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117754706#Comment_117754706

868MHz or 915MHz

https://myenergi.com/hub-status-lights/

My Ireland you're supposed to use 868MHz but there's nothing that stops you from switching to the other frequency

To answer the OP#s question, I've both an EO Mini (2018 model) and a Zappi v2. Both are great, it took a little while to get the load balancing working on the Zappi but now I can charge both cars in parallel

The EO Mini is pretty robust seeing as it survived being torn off the wall by my wife catching the charging cable under her car

So I'd say it's really down to personal preferences

slave1

A charge point that has continual updated firmware is a huge positive for me. Who knows what issues may arise in the future with newer EVs.

Great to know Z constantly eliminating bugs and sorting car chatter issues

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117803064#Comment_117803064

I had an issue with Load balancing when I got my Zappi a few months ago. After some discussions with MyEnergi they told me to update the firmware, simple thankfully due to having an internet connection. Load balancing is sorted now 😁

Good support and frequent updates are a definite plus

Nedved85

So I have had a Zappi for some time now.

Originally had a Zappi V1 - It had some water ingress due to a poor design (imo) of the cover, and goosed the charger.

MyEnergi replaced with a V2 no problem and paid to have it installed again.

For the past few months the Harvi I have is not reporting back to the Zappi what the house is using.

I just tried to sort it out this morning - removed the harvi from the Zappi, tried to re pair with the zappi - no good.

Now I am looking through manuals etc on the web to try and resolve, next stop MyEnergi support (which is good to be fair).

However I am growing tired of having to maintain this kit myself (especially a Hub, Zappi & harvi setup), it is most certainly not plug and play and if you don't have the time or inclination to maintain it, I would just steer clear.

Rant over :)

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117810039#Comment_117810039

I had issues getting the Hub an Zappi paired, had to keep cycling the channels until I found one that worked

Even so, it seemed to take a few goes to get them paired

Nedved85

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117810039#Comment_117810039

Just an update on this - Troubleshooted the issue with MyEnergi - After a few emails it looked like there was a hardware fault with the Harvi. Replacement posted out, hooked up now and looks to be all ok again.

MyEnergi support is great. I just wish the config requirements were a bit more plug and play.

I got a new Zappy sent out with 3 pin plug for me to test while electrician was present ( while video recording ) and the same issue.

So electrician installed the Pulsar Plus by wallbox and the difference is night and day, the Wall box has aMmeanwell power supply which are a known high quality manufacturer of Power supplies.

Response from one of the head chaps in Zappy to the electrician which I saw by email was that they have all the certs to prove it can't be the zappy despite clear video evidence to the contrary they still will not admit their Zappy charger is emitting electronic crap and are blaming my house/wiring etc, basically they say the cause is on my site.

Worse again is the failure to admit their charge point has a serious issue when on video with both charge points, the zappy causing interference and the wallbox not.

I have a good mind to report to Comreg and OFCOM.

daheff

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117974809#Comment_117974809

If you are that sure then why not report it? You seem to have enough evidence to prove your point.

Fingleberries

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117980959#Comment_117980959

I agree. With detailed evidence, you should go ahead and report it.

Yeah I really should especially since they're not willing to see if they can fix the issue, they know themselves it's their Zappy but are hiding behind the certs.

kesey

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117982361#Comment_117982361

https://myenergi.info/viewtopic.php?p=26916#p26916

The reply, by G6EJD, to that post suggests possible causes of interference other than the Zappi. I've no doubt that if you feel you have proof that the Zappi is causing a problem then myenergi would appreciate getting it from you, so that they could sort any possible problem.

"Things to note:

1. All products have to achieve type approval and pass EMI/RFI (Electromagnetic Interference/Radio Frequency Interference) testing to be sold.

2. Being; amongst other things, a Radio Amateur, I’m acutely ‘in-tune’ with anything that creates interference and my radios would easily pick up any interference, but I receive nothing from my Zappi whilst it’s charging my vehicles.

3. Before purchasing my installation, I studied as many interior pictures of both the Zappi and Eddi as I could to see how much line filtering they employ and saw enough to determine they were the products for me, they adhere to good design principles.

4. At very close range; just a few metres, you cannot escape some electrical noise, but this diminishes quickly with distance, this is why your external FM antenna whilst providing a strong signal to your FM receiver means that the wanted signal is far greater than any interference.

5. Modern receiver designs (eg car radios) have a digital front-end that almost invariably never have filters fitted because they use a technique called direct digital synthesis - it means they receive all signals equally well and it’s only the DDS/Fast Fourier Transform performance that separates poor from good designs and interference or no interference."

The certifications a product receives are only to the actual product tested which might even be a post production model which could have a different circuit design.

CE markings are meaningless.

The noise off the Zappy is also inductive and this means it is transmitted over it's power lead and back to the grid.

There is no doubt in my mind that it interferes badly with MW band and to a lesser extent the 160m Amateur band, if I turn the power on to the charge point and the noise appears and it goes away when the charge point is off it doesn't take a genius to work out that the charge points is at fault.