ZJ Beny EV charger review

Clean Transport Electric Vehicles
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FWIW, I’ve had a bit of a look inside the unit. The main board has three ZMPT voltage sensors, and both boards have the part number the manual gives for the 3-phase unit, even though I bought the single-phase unit. So I suspect the only difference between the two is the number of CT clamps they ship with them.

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Took the plunge and brought my sparky back to attach the included wires as per page 25 - it works perfectly!

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Thanks for letting us know. Any chance you could chase up my sparky? :wink:

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I finally had my Beny with (new) solar DLB installed yesterday, and thanks to the feedback here it all went smoothly. I have a couple of early observations.

First, I should say the sparky was nervous. He’d only done a couple of EV chargers, and the last one he’d done was a BMW-badged unit that he described as dip-switch hell, and he’d already been back three times because it had just stopped for no obvious reason. (BMW suggested he ring AGL for support…).

Anyway, it was connected up fairly quickly – there was a bit of fiddling because I have two inverters and limited switchboard space – and the sparky was quite relived when he flicked the switch and it all fired up fine.

A quick check showed the solar stuff working, although at this stage tariffs mean I’m unlikely to use it much. But it’s relatively cheap future-proofing, because electricity offers do change.

One tip: it doesn’t support 5GHz wifi, and I couldn’t get it to choose a 2.4GHz connection instead until I temporarily set my router to hide the 5GHz SSID. It was fine from then on.

The software isn’t great – a bit flakey, and not brilliantly designed – but it looks good enough. One thing I did notice is that there’s a new option called Charging Compatibility (this is app v8.20.0). Selecting it brings up an explanatory dialog, but unfortunately the text is truncated on my phone. I looked inside the app and the full version is:

There are a small number of car models on the market. If charging is not started for a long time after the charging pile is inserted, the vehicle will enter a dormant state, causing the charging pile to be unable to start charging.
After turning on the compatible charging mode, the charging pile will try to wake up the vehicle by changing the CP boot voltage to -12V before starting charging to solve similar problems.

I’m wondering if this the solution to the known issue with scheduled charging of BYD Atto 3s. I’ll give it a try when I get a chance.

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And alas, as expected, it is not.

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Thanks for sharing your experience with the ZJ Beny EV charger! As an automotive industry expert, I’m always interested in hearing about affordable and effective charging solutions. Here’s my take on your points:

Value: At $675 with a CT clamp and DLB box included, the ZJ Beny is indeed a compelling proposition. Compared to other smart chargers, it seems quite budget-friendly. This could be a great option for cost-conscious EV owners who still want smart features like load balancing.

Build Quality: It’s good to hear that the charger appears well-made. Durability and reliability are crucial for EV charging equipment, and it’s reassuring to know the ZJ Beny seems up to the task.

Load Balancing: The inclusion of a DLB box for basic load balancing is a bonus. This feature helps prevent overloading your household electrical system while charging your EV.

Solar Charging Feature: It’s understandable that the separate requirement for a Solar DLB box is frustrating. Ideally, both basic and solar-only load balancing could be handled by the standard DLB. This would simplify the setup and offer more flexibility for users who want to utilize solar power.

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Not by much, though. And it does provide extra information because of the extra CT(s).

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For those of you who have an OCPP version of the ZJ BENY (BCP-A2N-L) and use the OCPP integration in Home Assisant, are you having any issues?

I have it connected to Home Assistant OK, but as soon as I tell it to change the current, it starts giving errors, and then goes into an online/offline cycle every 20-25 seconds or so.

I ran the error through ChatGPT and it is saying that the unit is not providing valid JSON and is placing a extra comma in the wrong spot. Not sure what I can do here. Does this sound like it’s a firmware issue? It works ok with Charge HQ, so maybe they have a workaround, or it’s actually a completely different issue…

I’ve logged a ticket with the OCPP integration developer, but am keen to know if anyone has this combination working already.

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Hello,
I film this video to resolve the problem. Thanks
If you like give me a like please.

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ZJ BENY have a new beta firmware version (1.0.33) that resolves my issue:

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I got my ZJ Beny OCPP model installed the other day. Despite following all the guides I can find, I cannot get it into Wifi AP. I therefore can’t get it to join my network, or configure OCPP. So far it’s just a dumb charger :frowning:

The guides say it’s supposed to beep when you power it on, holding the reset button, after having pressed the emergency stop (before turning the power off?). It does not beep at all, and no wifi network appears. I hear a relay click, and the LED in the centre just flashes orange. What am I doing wrong?

It’s a single phase untethered model, BCP-B2N-L

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I just got a BCP-A2N-P and am having some hiccups getting it configured to use ocpp with ha like you have, can you possibly provide any pointers at all?

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yeah I don’t think the instructions match as I had the same issue

if you connect via bluetooth you can then go to device > setting > “Switch Remote Control Mode” and then configure ocpp to a server there. that has been the only way I can find to get wifi working

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Thanks for the reply :slight_smile:
I forgot to follow up here - the retailer sent me the wrong model, it wasn’t a proper OCPP version even though the box it was in says so. Once I got the replacement installed it all worked as expected!

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what model did you end up with, the BCP-B2N-L?

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@warkolm What issues are you coming up against?

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ok I got this sorted after a reset of the charging unit and the integration, I also ended up using ethernet not wifi

using the ocpp hacs integration and keeping the defaults for that during install (ie no ssl), I then configured the z-box app to tell the charger to point to HA using the below (and thanks to lbbrhzn for this pointer)

here’s a screenie of the most important part;
image

other than that, I again used the defaults that z-box presented and once that went through it started talking to HA without an issue!

next step is to automate it to soak up the excess sun juice :smiley:

1 Like
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Yes, but that’s also the model number of the first they sent me. It’s completely meaningless unfortunately wrt OCPP functionality. The two units they sent have completely different internals yet the same model number.

IMG_8159
IMG_81593024×4032 2.84 MB

IMG_8579
IMG_85793024×4032 2.48 MB

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Hello everyone.
For a month I’m trying to communicate Beny BCP-AT2N-L with ModBus using Node Red installed on Home Assistant.
I can easily get status of any address from the charger but I can not write anything. Even simple Stop charging does not work.
I have confirmed info that there are no safety switches or registers to set up.
Doe anyone has some experience with ModBus and would like to share or help me with?

P.S. I got my DLB box installed and it works quite ok, but it completely stops working after firmware upgrade. I have informed ZJ but got no reply so far.

Thanks
MB

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Does anyone have the pin-out of the RS485 connection between the DLB and EVSE?