Shell recharge API interface

[rgroothuis]

Hi All,

Through the Shell Recharge portal I'm able to check the status of my car charging. I was wondering if there is an API available to control the charging of the car. What I want to achieve is to adjust the charging power of the car depending on the power generated by the solar panels.
Any idea if such an API is available?

Or maybe there is already a Domoticz plugin for the Shell Recharge API, I would love to know this as well, I was not able to find it.

[psubiaco]

Hi.
Do you mean Shell Recharge app/card to charge the EV at the public charging station?
Do you want to set the max charging current at the public charging station, or at your house through a wallbox?

[rgroothuis]

Hi.
Do you mean Shell Recharge app/card to charge the EV at the public charging station?
Do you want to set the max charging current at the public charging station, or at your house through a wallbox?

Good question, there are public charing stations as well indeed covered by Shell Recharge. No, in my case it is a private owned charing station connected to the wall in my garage. And indeed I want to control the current based on the solar panel power generation.

Previously the charging devices was delivered by New Motion, but Shell has taken over that company and now it is Shell Recharge.

Screenshot 2023-08-13 at 17.01.59.png (67.28 KiB) Viewed 4059 times

[psubiaco]

I didn't know that Shell offers wallbox and private charging solutions.
To control the charging current (power) maybe you can do by using the API, but I'm not sure it's a good idea: often there is a limit on the API calls per day.
As the PV power and house consumption varies very often, to use all energy from PV you have to adjust the charging current (power) every 6 seconds.
For example the EVSE module DomBusEVSE , which works with Domoticz, reads power every 3 seconds and update the charging current (power) as soon as it needs.
In your case you have to read the grid power every 5-6 seconds and if it changes, you have to update it on the Shell cloud so it will send data to your wallbox. It's better to communicate directly with the wallbox to minimize the lag and have a good tracking of the solar power.
https://www.domoticz.com/wiki/Electric_ ... g_Domoticz

[rgroothuis]

Thanks for the feedback. There are still a lot of question marks and a lot of unkowns

This is what I found: https://github.com/dgthomson/nodered-shellrecharge this means there is something possible. Question is what and how?!

[rgroothuis]

Oh wauw. And that link leads me to the Shell API document:

https://developer.shell.com/api-catalog ... tart-guide

The challenge still is you only can start and stop the charging session, it is not possible to manage the amount of current which is going through. Charging at a low current when there is less solar power and at a high current when there is more solas power would be way better compared to an on/off situation.

[psubiaco]

Question: from the shell recharge app, can you modify the charging power? If the answer is "yes", you should do the same by an automation.
You can also use Node-RED instead of Domoticz, to create an automation to do that.
If the previous answer is "no", maybe it's possible to do what you need, maybe you cannot.

[rgroothuis]

Question: from the shell recharge app, can you modify the charging power? If the answer is "yes", you should do the same by an automation.
You can also use Node-RED instead of Domoticz, to create an automation to do that.
If the previous answer is "no", maybe it's possible to do what you need, maybe you cannot.

Good question again, to be honest I don't know yet because for some reason the App is not connected to the charging device yet. I just got a another car and need to get the charging device connected again. From what I can see sofar in the App I believe it is not possible. It is possible to start and stop sessions.

This guy has done the job, charging the car only on solar power. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2A_J2Hq6-c But he has the Tesla charging device and in that device it is possible to control the current. Together with a Raspberry Pi is is checking to solar power and adjusting the current to the car accordingly. This would be my goal using the New Motion/Shell Recharge device.

[FireWizard]

Hi @rgroothuis,

Yes, Google might be your friend sometimes .

I found the json file as well, and loaded the subflow in my test system.
It looks okay and usable with Domoticz.

However, I do not use Shell Recharge, so I cannot test.

Unfortunately, the Shell API does not offer much functionality, only Start/Stop and Status information.

Smart Charging is difficult in this case. You might want to use the data from your Smart meter in such a way that, when the Smart meter is sufficient negative, you start charging and when it becomes less negative or even positive, that you stop charging. But that might result in, that the charger toggles. If that is a good idea, I do not know.

But at least, data to Domoticz is possible.

Regards

[rgroothuis]

Thanks for checking and thanks for the feedback. I was expecting it indeed that it is not possible to control the charging current. I guess I’ve to look for another charging device. Switch on and off all the time is not good for the device but I guess also not good for the car, so this is not an option.

Anyway, I’m not familiar how to use that json file in Domoticz. Are you able to get me up to speed on this. Having the data in Domoticz would be great for monitoring purposes.

[FireWizard]

Hello @rgroothuis,

You asked:

Are you able to get me up to speed on this

I think, that is possible, but I need some information from you.

1. Do you have Node-RED installed?

If so, on what device? Raspberry? Linux? Windows?

If not, on what device do you intend to install it.
For installation. see: https://nodered.org/docs/getting-started/local
If, you intend to install it on a Raspberry Pi, go to:
https://nodered.org/docs/getting-started/raspberrypi

Recommended NodeJS version is 18, as version 16 will reach EOL next month.

Regards

[rgroothuis]

Thanks for your feedback and support. Domoticz is running on a Raspberry Pi. I just have installed a version of Domoticz within a docker on my Synology NAS. So the NAS will be my test environment to test new things. There is no NodeJS installed yet. This is something I will do next and should be easy to do. I will check the links provided.

Main interesting questions would be:
- How did you obtain the json file linked to the New Motion API?
- How do you use that json file within the NodeJS environment?
- How is Domoticz linked to the NodeJS environment?

I will do some reading about NodeJS as well, this will take some time

Thanks again.

[FireWizard]

Hello @rgroothuis,

You said:

I just have installed a version of Domoticz within a docker on my Synology NAS. So the NAS will be my test environment to test new things. There is no NodeJS installed yet. This is something I will do next and should be easy to do. I will check the links provided.

Be aware that installing NodeJS is not sufficient, as you will need Node-RED.

See: https://nodered.org/, where you will read "The light-weight runtime is built on Node.js"
As you have decided to use your Synology NAS as test environment, you may want to look at:
https://mariushosting.com/how-to-instal ... ology-nas/

You asked also several other things:

How did you obtain the json file linked to the New Motion API?

Answer:

If you go to https://github.com/dgthomson/nodered-shellrecharge, you will find at the bottom a file, called sr-2-20.json version 2.20 (2023-06-24).
This is the latest (newest) available version of the flow and I assume the best one.

Click on this file and the file opens. The file consists of 7177 lines!
You can copy the RAW file, but I simply selected everything with clicking randomly on a line and then click <CTRL>-A.
Everything is selected and then I copied it to the clipboard (<CTRL>-C) and imported the data in Node RED from the clipboard (<CTRL>-V)
Or use simple the right-mouse-click. See: https://nodered.org/docs/user-guide/edi ... ort-export.

How do you use that json file within the NodeJS environment?

I did not use it yet, I only looked to it. You will import a so called sub-flow.
That flow itself is quite large.
If you can import that sub-flow as well, you can test it with your charger and dependent on the result, we can send the correct data to Domoticz.
I do not own a Shell Recharge charger, so I cannot test it.

How is Domoticz linked to the NodeJS environment?

For linking Node-RED andDomoticz, you have 2 options:
1. Using http
2. Using MQTT, but this requires a MQTT server (broker). Mosquitto is recommended.

For installation, see: https://mariushosting.com/how-to-instal ... ology-nas/

I will do some reading about NodeJS as well, this will take some time

Take your time and start at: https://nodered.org/docs/getting-started/
And take some time to watch some videos, as a starter see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AR432bguOY

Regards

[rgroothuis]

Thanks FireWizard, this is a very extensive and useful explanation. I'm going to take a look at it and give it some tries. Looks like a challenging task Thanks.

[FireWizard]

@rgroothuis,

If you can get communication with your charger, you will see it is an easy job.

But install first Node-RED, and preferable Mosquitto on your NAS.

Let me know, if you have installed Node-RED and the sub-flow.

Regards

[Henry]

Sorry to reopen this old thread but I have a Shell Recharge charger and want to start charging my car when the electricity price is below a certain threshold and stop if its above this. I have Node-Red working on my Pi and can start/stop/poll the charger through my browser. Question now is how I make this work so I can controll this with Domoticz.
Any help would be appreciated.

[FireWizard]

Hello @Henry,

Sorry for my relatively late response, but I have been on holiday for the last week.

I never made such a flow, so it is not a simple copy/paste.

However, the author of the subflow: https://github.com/dgthomson/nodered-shellrecharge indicates that a problem with version 4.0.0 exists and I use on all my instances version 4.0.3. So, I do not know if I will be touched by that issue. It looks to me that it is caused in the subflow.

Question now is how I make this work so I can controll this with Domoticz.

The big question is, how do you receive

the electricity price is below a certain threshold and stop if its above this

?

Who is your Energy provider? Do you use "Enever"?

Regards

[Henry]

Hello @FireWizzard,

No problem that your response took some time, I'm working on integrating my weather station in Domoticz so I'm not out of work
I do use Enever and I have the Node-Red subflow running on my Pi.
I can start/stop/poll the charger in Node-Red but I don't know how to get this flow integrated in Domoticz.

Kind regards

[FireWizard]

Hi @Henry,

Please send me your flow, so that I can take a look.

Regards

[FireWizard]

Hello @Henry,

You wrote:

I have the Node-Red subflow running on my Pi.

I have been able to install that subflow as well and it gives me output, but, of course, not the correct information.

Are you able to send me the output (the contents of the 2 debug nodes) in case you insert the various Äctions" with the "Inject" node.

In that case I will construct a simulation, so I can test.

I do use Enever

I have read that Enever does not allow to use more than 1 access token.
So we cannot use the stream independently in Domoticz and at the same time in Node-RED.
So I think the data from the (working) Domoticz device should be send to Node-RED by MQTT.

I can start/stop/poll the charger in Node-Red but I don't know how to get this flow integrated in Domoticz.

Do you want virtual switches in Domoticz in order to control the start/stop/poll functions? So 3 different switches?
Any indications, such as Status information?

Let me know.

Regards