Servicing & Troubleshooting
- The contact person for operators is the respective charging station manufacturer. They need the diagnostic file and the additional information described in the introduction. Charging station manufacturers can contact Bender Tech Support.
- Get in touch with your support agent for guidance on your technical errors. The agent will inform you on which logging configuration to set for your case.
1. Introduction
Complex technical systems can sometimes enter unexpected and undesirable states. Some of these issues can be resolved by repeating the customer interaction or by restarting one or more parts of the system. If a problem occurs more frequently, the manufacturers of the respective system components can often provide further assistance.
The manufacturer will analyze and evaluate the configuration and state of the system, as well as its interaction with other third-party components. Diagnostic data, which shows the current or recently past operational state, can aid in this analysis.
The diagnostic file of the charge controller is usually the most relevant data source. In many cases, additional information is helpful to obtain a complete picture of the situation.
Relevant questions:
- What error pattern does the user or technician on-site observe? Error pattern means: What is the deviation of the actual behavior from the expected behavior?
- What is the status of the device's display elements (display messages, blinking behavior of the HMI and the charge controller)?
- Which vehicle (type, model year) was being charged when the problem occurred?
- Are there any information or diagnostic data available from other system components, such as the backend or energy manager / DLM master?
- For complex systems and load management issues: Is there documentation of the entire system, including wiring diagrams?
2. Diagnostics Files
Diagnostics files (Log Files) are computer-generated data files that record usage patterns, activities, and operations in systems, applications, servers, or network devices. They serve as the primary data source for network observability, offering insights into performance and resource optimization.
2.1. Download
2.1.1. Download Diagnostics files via OCPP
You have the option to download the diagnostic files via OCPP. For information regarding this process, please contact your backend provider.
When the charging station is setup as double charging station, the diagnostics file for the slave controller is to be found under home/charge/temp within the diagnostics file of the master controller.
2.1.2. Download Diagnostics files via the WebUI
For double charging stations to have do download the diagnostics files for both master and slave separately.
- This operation may take a few minutes depending on the size of the logs.
- Don't refresh or leave the page until the download is completed.
2.1.3. Download Diagnostics files via USB
2.1.3.1. Prerequisites
- You will need an empty USB stick that is formatted with the Windows FAT32 file system. Most USB sticks come pre-formatted this way
- You will need a password file on your USB stick to ensure only authorized personnel can access the controller’s USB function. Place the file in the root directory and name it “USB_PASSWORD.” It should contain the operator password in plain text. If unchanged, the password is
yellow_zone
.s To create the file, open Windows Notepad, enter the password, and save it as “USB_PASSWORD” without the “.txt” extension - Login onto the Dashboard. Under SYSTEM>USB Security turn on
USB Field Engineer
andUSB script execution
2.1.3.2. Setup
1. Create the FIELD_ENGINEER file
- Preparation: Insert an empty USB stick into your computer.
- Open Notepad: Open the Windows Notepad application.
- Save As: Click on Save As in the empty file
- Enter Filename: In the pop-up window, enter the filename
FIELD_ENGINEER
. - Remove File Extension: Ensure that no file extension such as
.txt
is added.
2. Insert the USB stick into the controller
- Insert USB Stick: Insert the USB stick into the controller of the charging point.
- Wait: The controller will write all log files, status, and configuration information to the USB stick. This process can take up to two minutes.
- Completion Indicator: The process is complete when the green, red and blue LED are changing rapidly (CC612: Ready LED blinking green every 30 seconds).
- Remove USB Stick: Remove the USB stick from the controller.
3. Locate log and configuration files on the USB stick
- Find Folder: On the USB stick, locate a folder that starts with
cp-
. - Persistency Folder: Inside this folder, there is a folder named
persistency
. - Open Files: The files within this folder contain the configuration parameters.
4. Review configuration parameters
- Open with text editor: Open the file with your text editor of choice
- Parameters and Versioning: The first line of each file shows the parameter setting, and the second line contains a code that describes the versioning of the configuration parameter.
- If you are working with a Master/Slave Setup, the file contains another zip file called
connector2
that provides all the information for the Slave controller.
2.2. Diagnostics files content
The diagnostics file is a zip file that needs to be extracted. The diagnostics file then presents the following structure. 2
2.3. Adjust Diagnostics Settings
The Log Level
determines the amount of information provided by the logs.
2.3.1. Log level by component
In addition to the Log Level
, you can change the Log Level by component
to suit your logging needs.
The diagnostics files are rotating. The higher the log level is, the faster is the rotating. The log levels also have a different reach providing more information. See the Config UI > DOCUMENTATION page for an extensive list of component names. The possible log level are:
2.3.1.1. Setting the Log Level by component via OCPP
This parameter allows to set different log levels for different software components. The string consists of a comma separated list of component names and component log levels. When setting the log level by component via OCPP the string itself always stays the same.
BACKEND=TRACE,RCMB=VDBG
The command for setting the log level by component may change depending on the backend provider. For example, the string to set log level TRACE for the BACKEND component and VDBG for the RCMB component may look like so:
loglevelcomponents:BACKEND=TRACE,RCMB=VDBG
2.3.1.2. Setting the Log Level by component via the WebUI
- Log in to the Config UI using the Operator Login Credentials
- Under SYSTEM > General set the
Log Level by component
- At the bottom of the Config UI, click , then click to apply the changes
2.3.2. Log encryption
See here.
2.3.3. Loggable components
3. Diagnostics
Errors can be diagnosed using the LED on the HMI HMI (RFID105/110/117) as well as through the Configuration Interface of the Charge Controller:
- Log in to the Config UI using the Operator Login Credentials.
- Under DOCUMENTATION > Errors you'll find the list of possible
Error activation messages
.
Error activation message is the message that is sent when the error occurred. Error resolution message (if any) is sent when the error is corrected.
3.1. tcpdump
tcpdump is a powerful command-line-based network diagnostic tool used to monitor and analyze network traffic. It captures data packets transmitted over a network.
Under SYSTEM > General you can select the type of network interface from which you want to capture packet data to a file. Choose Any
to listen on all network interfaces.
Execute the tcdump:
- Under SYSTEM > General
Start tcpdump run
click onStart
- To
Stop tcpdump run
click onStop
- We advise you to set a specific network interface to prevent any unwanted information.
- The tcpdump is not being stopped be a fort restart.