Lucid Combined Home Charging System Installation tips!

[borski]

If only we lived in a world where this kind of coil was possible <3

 

[Dark_Energy]

My EVSE makes a fairly loud click when I plug in to the vehicle. It sounds a switch or contact is being flipped. Is this common? I'm familiar with the car making a bunch of noises but I wasn't ready when the wall unit starts off with a loud pop.

 

[bikeriderbryan]

My EVSE makes a fairly loud click when I plug in to the vehicle. It sounds a switch or contact is being flipped. Is this common? I'm familiar with the car making a bunch of noises but I wasn't ready when the wall unit starts off with a loud pop.

Mine does the same. I know of another person who has the charger and it does this as well. I assume this is normal.

 

[DeaneG]

My EVSE makes a fairly loud click when I plug in to the vehicle. It sounds a switch or contact is being flipped. Is this common? I'm familiar with the car making a bunch of noises but I wasn't ready when the wall unit starts off with a loud pop.

Yes. All EVSEs contain a beefy relay ("contactor") that clacks on after the EVSE recognizes that it is connected to a car and may begin delivering power. When the car is disconnected or there is a fault condition, the contactor is de-energized, cutting off power to the EVSE's connector handle.

 

[Electrified]

Love the new charger, it works like a charm!

Thanks for the great communication and shipping @Viktor VonDoom

 

[Crdgk]

I just had the Lucid Home Charger installed. I have read a lot of comments how it is not easy to connect the unit to the wifi. I am able to connect to it initially and set the WIFI SSID and password, but then it never connects. But looking at the website it looks like a very basic web portal. Is there any benefit of having access to the unit via internet or just using the charging options from the car and app is enough? Any advice?

Lessons from my experience installing yesterday. My electrician confirmed need for compression fittings IF DOING 80 Amp which I am. He felt unnecessary if doing 40amp install. He has done 3 Lucid and has done Ford, GM, and Tesla. Says will overheat if not compression fittings at higher amperage.

The network connectivity definitely leaves something to be desired. I learned the following. I am/was a software engineer and this was not simple.
First, the directions do work the first time IF you realize that when you reboot you will lose access to setup (unless you do below). In my case, additionally, the charger did NOT reboot despite the setup saying it would. I only learned that when talking to support. I had to manually use circuit breaker after every change. Support said he has only seen this once. But if you don't realize it, then all the settings you change are NOT STORED which was happening to me. Lucid presets the network to 192.168.0.2 so if you have a different network (like me) set to 192.168.1.x (my case), it wont connect. EVERY time you turn off/on circuit breaker, the charger will go back to broadcasting 192.168.5.1 regardless of connectivity to your home network. Then you connect to it through xx.5.1 IP and get into setup. You CANNOT get to software through the new IP address on your network. But when you get it to connect to your network and reset it, the charger will BOTH connect to your network and broadcast on xxx.5.1 (for the 15min or so) so you can get back into setup. In setup, it will show you that it is connected to your home network even while you are in setup through xxx.5.1. I have never seen a setup like this but hopefully this can help others.

Others have talked about checking the IP address in setup to match on your network. But that means going back into setup after connecting. I found it easier to copy down the Mac address and finding that on my network. Then I bound the IP address with DHCP server so I know what IP address it always is.

 

[pjdcorp]

Lessons from my experience installing yesterday. My electrician confirmed need for compression fittings IF DOING 80 Amp which I am. He felt unnecessary if doing 40amp install. He has done 3 Lucid and has done Ford, GM, and Tesla. Says will overheat if not compression fittings at higher amperage.

The network connectivity definitely leaves something to be desired. I learned the following. I am/was a software engineer and this was not simple.
First, the directions do work the first time IF you realize that when you reboot you will lose access to setup (unless you do below). In my case, additionally, the charger did NOT reboot despite the setup saying it would. I only learned that when talking to support. I had to manually use circuit breaker after every change. Support said he has only seen this once. But if you don't realize it, then all the settings you change are NOT STORED which was happening to me. Lucid presets the network to 192.168.0.2 so if you have a different network (like me) set to 192.168.1.x (my case), it wont connect. EVERY time you turn off/on circuit breaker, the charger will go back to broadcasting 192.168.5.1 regardless of connectivity to your home network. Then you connect to it through xx.5.1 IP and get into setup. You CANNOT get to software through the new IP address on your network. But when you get it to connect to your network and reset it, the charger will BOTH connect to your network and broadcast on xxx.5.1 (for the 15min or so) so you can get back into setup. In setup, it will show you that it is connected to your home network even while you are in setup through xxx.5.1. I have never seen a setup like this but hopefully this can help others.

Others have talked about checking the IP address in setup to match on your network. But that means going back into setup after connecting. I found it easier to copy down the Mac address and finding that on my network. Then I bound the IP address with DHCP server so I know what IP address it always is.

Thank you. I'm a technological Luddite and can use all the help I can get.

 

[DeaneG]

FWIW, I re-discovered yesterday that the LCHCS still can't connect to wifi on a 192.168.1.x subnet - the default subnet used by most home routers right out of the box. This is even with the firmware update my LCHCS received shortly after I installed it two years ago. There appears to be some kind of conflict with a hard-coded IP address in the LCHCS's firmware, and this bug hasn't been fixed over those two years.

If your main home wifi uses the standard 192.168.1.x subnet address range, my advice would be to install the LCHCS on your guest wifi network, which will likely be using 192.168.2.x. This will work fine, though you'll need to connect your phone or laptop to your guest network should you ever want to visit the LCHCS's home page for some reason.

Currently there's no reason to connect the LCHCS to wifi except to receive OTA firmware updates, should one happen again.

 

[Bobby]

I'm glad I ran an ethernet line to it when it was being installed.

 

[Crdgk]

FWIW, I re-discovered yesterday that the LCHCS still can't connect to wifi on a 192.168.1.x subnet - the default subnet used by most home routers right out of the box. This is even with the firmware update my LCHCS received shortly after I installed it two years ago. There appears to be some kind of conflict with a hard-coded IP address in the LCHCS's firmware, and this bug hasn't been fixed over those two years.

If your main home wifi uses the standard 192.168.1.x subnet address range, my advice would be to install the LCHCS on your guest wifi network, which will likely be using 192.168.2.x. This will work fine, though you'll need to connect your phone or laptop to your guest network should you ever want to visit the LCHCS's home page for some reason.

Currently there's no reason to connect the LCHCS to wifi except to receive OTA firmware updates, should one happen again.

Mine works fine on a 192.168.1.x home network. I even have it as a static ip. I have a long post how to set it up earlier in this thread. It is confusing in that all the setup has to be on 10.0.0.1 in first 10-15min after a restart but even then you can see it on the xx.1.xx network despite connecting on 10.0.0.1. Make sure you reboot after changes - for me that required resetting with the circuit breaker - though it shouldn’t. Double check that your changes were saved when it starts up after a reboot again using 10.0.0.1 - not your home ip address.

I agree that there is little reason to connect after the firmware upgrade (which mine didn’t need as it was put in last month).

Ethernet wired is a real pain with this unless you do it during install. It is really meant for enterprise installs if you read the manual. The plug is buried in the device, not easily accessible on the exterior like most IoT. Yes, it can be done but they dont make it simple. And it isn’t really necessary vs WiFi.

 

[DeaneG]

Mine works fine on a 192.168.1.x home network. I even have it as a static ip. I have a long post how to set it up earlier in this thread. It is confusing in that all the setup has to be on 10.0.0.1 in first 10-15min after a restart but even then you can see it on the xx.1.xx network despite connecting on 10.0.0.1...

?? The instructions say to access teh LCHCS at 192.168.5.1 after a restart, which I did with success only after I'd disabled my home wifi at 192.168.1.x that it had been connecting to.
The LCHCS's ethernet interface is hardwired to start at 192.168.1.10.

 

[Crdgk]

Ohhhh. You are right about setup address. I am working on some other linux stuff and got my wires/addresses crossed!

But otherwise it all worked as I said. You dont have to disable anything. But you cant see anything with the 192.168.1.xx which is prob why its confusing. but you can see it online if you use your router ip list. And you can see it online from the setup 192.158.5.1 web site. It will list the correct 192.168.1.xx and give you a signal strength.

you can see it here using my ASUS router software ip list. I have it set as a static ip address. Note it only works on 2.4G I am pretty sure.

 

[DeaneG]

Ohhhh. You are right about setup address. I am working on some other linux stuff and got my wires/addresses crossed!

But otherwise it all worked as I said. You dont have to disable anything. But you cant see anything with the 192.168.1.xx which is prob why its confusing. but you can see it online if you use your router ip list. And you can see it online from the setup 192.158.5.1 web site. It will list the correct 192.168.1.xx and give you a signal strength.

The LCHCS always appeared correctly in my router's client list on 192.168.1.xxx. I just couldn't enter its IP address in a browser window and get a home page in return.

While the LCHCS was connected to my home network at 192.168.1.XXX, I also couldn't connect to it on its setup SSID after power cycling. Only by turning off my home wifi could I connect to it at 192.168.5.1 after power cycling, and it worked perfectly and instantly. I've done this a dozen times at least, and had phone phone and laptop properly connected to the setup SSID. There appears to be something in the LCHCS's wifi TCP-IP stack that breaks when it is connected to a 192.168.1.x subnet. Once disconnected, it works fine.

 

[dscafetta]

I requested a 100 amp breaker and copper cable to support an 80 amp load for the LCHCS. I explained how it will be bi-directional and will actually ask for the whole 80 amps. He thinks he's an expert because he's done the little pussy chargers for a Prius. Did not check as the company is well known in the county. Inspector did not even look, just saw the company sticker and signed off. After reading here I decided I needed to check. He put in 4 AWG. Now I have to set the DIP switches to cripple the Lucid Home Charger. Never trust a pro guys. None of them.

Is bi-directional finally available?

 

[Sandvinsd]

Is bi-directional finally available?

No