Multiple chargers

[Ols12]

I have two chargers connected in slave mode, but only one of them is showing up in home assistant. Assuming this project support multiple chargers like the original, how would I go about adding the second one?

[jnicolson]

Hi there - I actually haven't tested this at all with 2 wall connectors (I only have one). This was not a port of the origina TWC Manager so it doesn't have all the same functionality - it took inspiration from that project but didn't use any of their code so it doesn't support multiple wall connectors.

The basics should be in place, it should in theory recognise multiple connectors and build them into an array of connectors but it doesn't know what to do about that - a quick look shows it will just send the same current to all of them rather than splitting it.

ESPHome components can't (well shouldn't) create sensors which aren't defined in the yaml so in order to support multiple they would either need to be defined one each in the yaml so that they could be exposed individually to home assistant or the controller would need to understand how to split up the current. The latter probably isn't too difficult to implement but I'd have no way of testing as I only have 1 wall connector (and 1 EV to plug into it). I'd happily accept tested pull requests though! The relevant lines which set the current being sent to each wall connector are

esphome-twc-controller/components/twc-controller/twc_protocol.cpp

Lines 292 to 297 in 724b8d7

	if (current_changed_) {
	uint16_t encodedMax = available_current_ * 100;
	heartbeat.state = 0x09; // Limit power to the value from the next two bytes
	// current * 100 (to get it to a whole number)
	heartbeat.max_current = htons(encodedMax);

[Ols12]

thank you for your prompt reply @jnicolson. I did not have to much time this weekend, but I had a chance to test some more and take a quick look at the code. I can confirm that both TWC receive the same max current, when both are in slave. From the code I understood that it implements passive mode, so I guess the correct use in this setup would be to have one TWC as slave and one as master? The sensors defined in the yaml changes depending on the order in which the TWC are connected. I did not have a chance to attempt a yaml with an array of connectors... I need to get my head around the core concepts here, if I find the time there might be a PR.

[jnicolson]

Hi,

It would depend if you want to control the connectors or just monitor how much power they're outputting. If you're looking to monitor them you would set it to passive mode and then have one as the primary and the other connectors as secondary, however as you pointed out it would still only show one of the connectors in Home Assistant so it would need changes to the code.

If you were looking to control them both it would need more changes to the code to both show both in Home Assistant as well as split the current between them.

I'd say either way it's going to take a bit of work and unfortunately as I only have 1 wall connector (and 1 EV) it's not something i'll have any way of developing or testing easily. Another solution might be to control each one independantly and then work out the split of current using home assistant or however else you want to control the ESPHome devices.