z-cam
Joined 11 years ago
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33
Submissions
26
Member since
Jun 14
Recent submissions
Comment · 4 years ago
Comment · 4 years ago
1) There's an open protocol called the Open Charge Point Protocol (OCPP). It's been adopted by all of the top hardware manufacturers (ABB, Siemens, Schneider Electric, Eaton, Delta, Phihong, etc.). So long as a charger complies with OCPP, it will work with our cloud.
There are still holdouts that do not use the protocol or make it difficult to access within their firmware, like ChargePoint and Tesla.
Just like any industry, "hardware agnostic" does not mean "any hardware". But our platform does work with 4 out of 5 of the most sold EV charging brands in the world!
More on OCPP here: https://www.chargelab.co/industry-advocacy/ocpp
2) We're focused on North America right now. We have ambitions to serve other markets, but it's really tricky to hop the Atlantic. Language, GDPR, and other things make it tricky to enter new markets. We're also only running on one cloud region now (us-east-1). As we scale we'll naturally run instances on different cloud instances, but haven't done so yet.
3) We would provide the technology to enable this, but might not create it ourselves. Our customers (all the emerging charging networks) will have much stronger opinions on whether they want to create a subscription with each other or not.
Great questions!
Comment · 4 years ago
EV charging is similar to many other infrastructure businesses. The companies that install, own, and operate EV chargers don't build the actual EV charging hardware and software.
If you were to compare it to the petrol industry, Shell builds gas stations, but the less-known Gilbarco Veeder-Root builds the actual gas pumps and POS software.
What's different in EV charging is that almost anywhere can be a refuelling station -- grocery stores, office buildings, condos, apartments, even single-family homes.
With some many use cases, it's impossible to build a comprehensive product to serve every niche. At ChargeLab we focus on the core needs of the industry, like hardware-agnostic device connectivity, device monitoring, reporting, power management, and payments. Then we provide a public API to enable others to build niche-specific solutions on top of our platform: a unique fleet scheduling tool, an integration with existing petrol loyalty programs, or just a custom interface for your apartment building.
Comment · 4 years ago
ChargeLab co-founder here!
Let me know if you have any questions about our vision for open EV charging infrastructure.
Comment · 5 years ago
Alpha user here, AMA!
Comment · 6 years ago
>Can we please just get a state government to start installing charging stations in all public lots so these charging companies have to give up their dreams of being a monopoly?
Completely agree that the "sign up and use our app" approach is insufferable. But asking your state to build all the infrastructure doesn't solve the problem. Your state is not going to (a) manufacture charging stations or (b) build the software/payment interfaces needed to manage them. What you're proposing would have the gov sole-source from one of these "apps". Instead of letting the the market determine who can build the best user experience, you would be giving one company (probably ChargePoint) a government-granted monopoly.
Comment · 6 years ago
ChargeLab | Team Lead | Toronto, ON | ONSITE (WFH for now) | FULL-TIME
ChargeLab (https://www.chargelab.co/) is the Android of EV charging: we make hardware-agnostic software for managing networks of EV chargers. I'm the founder & CEO.
We're hiring a team lead to manage and scale up our existing team of 7 developers (local & remote). You should be full-stack but most comfortable with back-end (Spring Boot, Java, Hibernate, jOOQ, AWS).
Competitive salary + 1–5% equity.
We interviewed with YC in Mountain View twice before raising funding from VCs & Angels and focusing on building our company in Toronto.
My email: [email protected]
Comment · 6 years ago
Thanks... you've probably got lots on your plate right now will keep an eye on Visual One! If there is enough demand I'm sure you'll invest more in the firmware retrofit, or maybe I'll buy some of your cameras
Comment · 6 years ago
Can I hook up my existing Wyze cams or install your firmware on them?
Comment · 6 years ago
ChargeLab | Team Lead | Toronto, ON | ONSITE | FULL-TIME
ChargeLab (https://www.chargelab.co/) is the Android of EV charging: we make hardware-agnostic software for managing networks of EV chargers. I'm the founder & CEO.
We're hiring a team lead to manage and scale up our existing team of 5 developers (local & remote). You should be full-stack but most comfortable with back-end (Spring Boot, Java, Hibernate, jOOQ, AWS).
Competitive salary + 1–5% equity.
We interviewed with YC in Mountain View twice before raising funding from VCs & Angels and focusing on building our company in Toronto.
My email: [email protected]
Comment · 6 years ago
503
Comment · 6 years ago
I never thought I would learn so much about Tin
Comment · 7 years ago
Agreed
Plug and Charge is exciting, but there's many limitations. Mostly comes down to vehicle manufacturers and charger manufacturers. On both sides, there are many that don't support ISO 15118 yet.
ChargePoint's security concerns about ISO 15118 published a few years ago were also valid (https://www.chargepoint.com/files/15118whitepaper.pdf). A man-in-the-middle attack is possible with the current version of the ISO 15118.