Within the Zaptec Portal, you have the ability to configure your installation and chargers to interact with an OCPP server.
Once the installation has been created by the installer or user with Service level permission in our Portal, it is quite straightforward to redirect authentication and communication to an external OCPP server.
This can be done by logging into the Zaptec Portal and navigating to an installation you have owner or service permissions on.
Steps to Connect Via OCPP
Navigate to the Authentication tab of your Installation
This screen is where you can select between alternative methods of communication.
The default method of authentication is using our Native Authentication, which references the permissions assigned on the Installation or Chargers within the Zaptec Portal.
If you wish to use an external OCPP server to authenticate, this can be done by selecting OCPP-J 1.6 authentication
From here you you will get access to the available parameters for OCPP.
Enter your server URL at a minimum and hit save.
Parameters
URL
The websocket URL used by chargers for connecting to the OCPP cloud.
The following token {deviceId} can be used.
{deviceId} will be replaced with the charger’s device Id (serial no.) when connecting.
Example:
For charger ZCS000143, ws://ocpp.example.com/devices/{deviceId} will at runtime be expanded to ws://ocpp.example.com/devices/ZCS000143.
Initial device password
For large installations it may not be practical to manually set external password on each charging station. The initial password is a common password used by all charging stations in the installation, and allows the OCPP cloud to remotely set a new password after the initial connection. This process is described in chapter 6.2.2. Charge point authentication of the OCPP-J 1.6 specification.
Default id tag
ID tag used in StartTransaction when authentication is disabled for all devices in this installation.
Note: If no default id tag is provided, an empty string is used.
Charger Level Configuration
When OCPP is enabled for the installation, the following configuration options are enabled for each charge point (depending on your permission level)
You can direct traffic over OCPP to unique custom URLS on each charger using the Charger OCPP settings.
To access these settings, click on the charger you wish to configure and navigate to the bottom of its settings tab.
URL
Used when the device serial no. cannot be used when connecting to the OCPP cloud. Specify the full URL the charge point will use when connecting.
Password
The password used when connecting the charging station to OCPP
Default id tag
ID tag used in StartTransaction when authentication is disabled.
Send WebSocket Pint (30s)
By default, WebSocket ping is disabled from charger. If connecting to an OCPP cloud that does not provide WebSocket ping functionality, charger ping should be enabled through setting OCPP configuration key WebSocketPingInterval to a value greater than 0 (ping interval in seconds).
Enable verbose OCPP logging (24 hours)
Used to include MeterValues and Heartbeat to the OCPP logs for 24 hours
Your Installation authentication type must be OCPP before you can access these settings.
For full outline of the OCPP supported messages in our cloud solution, please click here