JuiceBox 40 Wifi Disconnect

[redMachE22]

I am using Juicebox 40. I have been seeing more and more wifi disconnect. The good news is that it reconnect it self after awhile.
Does anyone know how to fix this or anyone have this problem? My wifi signal is extremely good so it is my my wifi issue on my end.

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[DonRon64]

I have an 'legacy' Juicebox 40pro that started with this problem about 6 months ago. My mesh wifi coverage is excellent in its location.

I've not troubleshot it much but the first time it occurred I had to go back through the wifi setup on the Juicebox to get it to connect again. Now I usually just power cycle it or ignore it and it'll 'self recover'.

I have wondered if it's related to 'fast roaming' on my mesh wifi as I've had some clients have problems connecting initially that don't support that protocol (802.11r). Once they connect they are not problematic like the Juicebox.

 

[redMachE22]

i read on reddit that Juicebox (mine is just purchase this month and still have this issue) is expect the 2.4 wifi band to be there always but my mesh wifi is auto 5/2.4 .... People are recommend setting the 2.4 static that is it not auto switching that my cause this issue.

 

[redMachE22]

I have an 'legacy' Juicebox 40pro that started with this problem about 6 months ago. My mesh wifi coverage is excellent in its location.

I've not troubleshot it much but the first time it occurred I had to go back through the wifi setup on the Juicebox to get it to connect again. Now I usually just power cycle it or ignore it and it'll 'self recover'.

I have wondered if it's related to 'fast roaming' on my mesh wifi as I've had some clients have problems connecting initially that don't support that protocol (802.11r). Once they connect they are not problematic like the Juicebox.

During charging, if the wifi is disconnected, the charging will stop (i confirmed this). The document said it will charge without wifi present .... Which is true?

The good news is when it reconnected, a new charge session will start. I have like 3 sessions for one night of charging ....

 

[awp0]

(Edit: please read the whole Reddit thread before doing this, it may not be the solution)

I just bought a used Juicebox Pro 40. I haven't really used it much, but in my research I came across lots of people complaining about wifi issues that actually turned out to be problems contacting to an older JuiceBox server. The solution for some people was to point it to the newer server.

Check out the top two replies here:


I plan to do this if I encounter similar problems after using mine. It seemed to connect to my home network okay, but I haven't used it much so far.

 

[redMachE22]

I just bought a used Juicebox Pro 40. I haven't really used it much, but in my research I came across lots of people complaining about wifi issues that actually turned out to be problems contacting to an older JuiceBox server. The solution for some people was to point it to the newer server.

Check out the top two replies here:


I plan to do this if I encounter similar problems after using mine. It seemed to connect to my home network okay, but I haven't used it much so far.

I read something similar to your point too. Do you know of a good and clear documentation to changing the server url?

 

[awp0]

I read something similar to your point too. Do you know of a good and clear documentation to changing the server url?

I'm sorry, I do not. And, maybe more importantly, I just noticed that the steps this user posted seem to result in a condition where you can connect to the Juicebox but not control it or update it (per his own follow-up post). Like "read only access". So maybe this is not the solution. Sorry.

 

[redMachE22]

I'm sorry, I do not. And, maybe more importantly, I just noticed that the steps this user posted seem to result in a condition where you can connect to the Juicebox but not control it or update it (per his own follow-up post). Like "read only access". So maybe this is not the solution. Sorry.

I see. Like I said, at least we can count on the fact that it auto reconnect and starting a new session if the old one was interrupted.

 

[DonRon64]

During charging, if the wifi is disconnected, the charging will stop (i confirmed this). The document said it will charge without wifi present .... Which is true?

The good news is when it reconnected, a new charge session will start. I have like 3 sessions for one night of charging ....

My JB40Pro still functions when not connected to WiFi - it just looses it's connection to the cloud, etc. and behaves (abet with prior configuration settings) as a 'dumb' EVSE. That said, I don't have any TOU schedules because my power utility company doesn't have any special rate to take advantage of. Mine is set to charge immediately upon connecting to the car and that works offline or not.

I just noticed mine has been offline for 2 days... went out to power cycle to see if it would recover and no joy.

 

[redMachE22]

My JB40Pro still functions when not connected to WiFi - it just looses it's connection to the cloud, etc. and behaves (abet with prior configuration settings) as a 'dumb' EVSE. That said, I don't have any TOU schedules because my power utility company doesn't have any special rate to take advantage of. Mine is set to charge immediately upon connecting to the car and that works offline or not.

I just noticed mine has been offline for 2 days... went out to power cycle to see if it would recover and no joy.

That is weird. My Mach E said 'Charging Paused' while the Juicebox said charging during the wifi disconnect. If it is charging, my Mach E would have said charging like it normally would. So what is going on here?

 

[DonRon64]

I just verified mine is connected to my WiFi but not connected to the cloud as it shows 'offline' in the app. Therefore I think mine may be affected by the backend cloud changes that have been mentioned. To be honest since mine is behaving as a 'dumb' EVSE I'm not sure how much effort I'll be putting into troubleshooting this problem.

Are you sure yours is disconnecting from your WiFi or if you are having the reported issues with the backend/cloud?

I have the version shown in this review. https://cleantechnica.com/2017/11/1...x-pro-40-evse-review-cleantechnica-exclusive/

There seems to be a number of versions with different OS's. This 'iFixit' article alludes to the differences. https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Getting+WiFi+working/139581

 

[awp0]

I just verified mine is connected to my WiFi but not connected to the cloud as it shows 'offline' in the app. Therefore I think mine may be affected by the backend cloud changes that have been mentioned. To be honest since mine is behaving as a 'dumb' EVSE I'm not sure how much effort I'll be putting into troubleshooting this problem.

Are you sure yours is disconnecting from your WiFi or if you are having the reported issues with the backend/cloud?

I have the version shown in this review. https://cleantechnica.com/2017/11/1...x-pro-40-evse-review-cleantechnica-exclusive/

There seems to be a number of versions with different OS's. This 'iFixit' article alludes to the differences. https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Getting+WiFi+working/139581

That article is very good IMHO. It helped me confirm that the used Juicebox 40 I purchased appears to be running the newer ZAP firmware but still has the web-based wifi network selection option. If I understand correctly I might lose this web-based feature if I upgrade the firmware.

I used it for the first time yesterday to charge my MME at my parents house from a dryer outlet. I was able to join my parents wifi (using we-based 10.10.10.1 address), reduce the max amperage from the app to 24A (for this 30A circuit), and successfully complete a 10 hour charging session. I turned on push notifications for any events where it goes offline, and that only fired when I unplugged the JuiceBox from the wall this morning. Small data point, but just thought I'd share. I've found myself fairly impressed with it so far.

 

[redMachE22]

I just verified mine is connected to my WiFi but not connected to the cloud as it shows 'offline' in the app. Therefore I think mine may be affected by the backend cloud changes that have been mentioned. To be honest since mine is behaving as a 'dumb' EVSE I'm not sure how much effort I'll be putting into troubleshooting this problem.

Are you sure yours is disconnecting from your WiFi or if you are having the reported issues with the backend/cloud?

I have the version shown in this review. https://cleantechnica.com/2017/11/1...x-pro-40-evse-review-cleantechnica-exclusive/

There seems to be a number of versions with different OS's. This 'iFixit' article alludes to the differences. https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Getting+WiFi+working/139581

My charger is https://www.costco.com/juicebox-40-...with-nema,-20-ft-cable.product.100574926.html.
The App said, "Offline". The Fordpass charging said, 'Charging Paused'.

 

[DonRon64]

My charger is https://www.costco.com/juicebox-40-amp-electric-vehicle-charging-station-with-nema,-20-ft-cable.product.100574926.html.
The App said, "Offline". The Fordpass charging said, 'Charging Paused'.

Understood. I think you may have a faulty EVSE if loosing WiFi causes it to stop charging. I'd suspect that dropping WiFi is only part of the issue. My suggestion is that you should reach out to enelx support to see if they can assist.

 

[Mach-e-in-MI]

I too have been struggling with wifi that is up and down more than a toilet seat at a public rest stop! So frustrated... I have wasted hours configuring/re-configuring testing network connections to no avail.

I have a JB 40 plug-in I bought through Costco.

There is no doubt that it's the JB that is dropping the connection and re-connecting sometimes several times a day.

Initially, I thought it was a problem with my primary wifi router so I connected the JB directly to the wifi AP in my telco's home internet router and found the same behavior. 100%

I too had issues with failed charge sessions 2 nights in a row last week. The charge logs on the JB showed multiple short session (2-5 min) and then finally it's stopped charging at 3AM well short of the 80% target. My wife was pretty frazzled when she left for work at 6AM to find it hadn't fully charged.

So I am seeing the same behavior. While it should continue the charge session when it disconnects, at some point, I wonder if the JB is programmed to just stop future sessions once it's tried to re-start x amount of times?

Tonight I wasted another 1.5 hours trying to get it re-connected to my main home router. I re-booted, then connected directly to the JB during setup mode, it showed me the wifi networks - picked mine but I went one step further -went into advanced mode and switched to assigning my JB a static IP to simplify things -avoiding DHCP processes.

Since then, the JB has failed to connect to my home network -but worse - I have tried at least a dozen times with power cycling to get back to setup mode, but the darn thing goes from the Yellow LEDs (boot-up) and then right into a solid purple light (means ready to charge not connected to wifi).

For the life of me, I cannot get it to go back into setup mode where I can direct connect to the device to re-config it.

I am a network/systems engineer by trade and I don't think I have ever seen such a poorly designed piece of technology. I cannot find a hard reset button nor any kind of combination to force it back to factory default unconfigured state. Even a $20 Amazon Echo has a button sequence to reset the device....

Did setting a static IP lock me out of any future re-conigurations? It seems ridiculous.

I will call Enel tomorrow to troubleshoot and report back if there is some other trick to get this thing back to unconfigured.

If they can't give me a reasonable explanation, I am going to return it to Costco.

I really like the JB when it works. I may chock this up to my unit having a hardware issue and order another one from Costco to give it another try.

PS: I also experienced some very odd behavior when it was working with TOU settings in Ford Pass and in the JB. It stopped charging when it shouldn't and wouldn't charge when it should... Long story -I will save for a different post...

UPDATE 9/22/22
-have not had a chance to contact JB to log a call.
-at 12:50AM last night (about 30 min after my last power cycle try) the JB came back online with a random DHCP provided IP address -even though I hard coded the JB with a static IP - this falls into the WTF category...
-Went offline again later in the day
-8 more power cycles - lucked out - got back into setup mode (yellow light -purple light -then flashing blue)... used the Juice config android app - no idea what happened, but it failed to configure

-hours later, another 6 power cycles - back into setup mode (same light pattern - never goes yellow the into setup..) - Basically just re-configured the wifi settings and left it to DHCP.
-my router log shows it simply going into a loop of connecting to the router and then leaving seconds later.

I will hedge my bets it will come back in an stay for a while before the whole pattern repeats itself. Sheesh...

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