API reference

Onboarding stations

Onboarding is how a station gets from newly installed to live and charging. Along the way it gains an EVSE Controller record, connects to the platform over OCPP, is configured, and is attached to an owner who prices it. That work usually follows installation, but the record can also be prepared in advance, ready for the moment the station connects.

The lifecycle

A station's operational status has two levels: a master status the platform derives, and provider-defined statuses layered on top.

The master status is set from the station's own configuration:

  • Onboarding: its connectors and OCPP settings are being configured. When that is done, the station progresses to Activation.
  • Activation: an Account, a Location, a billing plan and pricing are set. When those are in place, it progresses to Live.
  • Live: the station is operational and its subscription billing is running.

Two more master statuses come later: out of service, when a station is temporarily down but still billed, and archived, when it is retired. Managing stations covers both.

A provider can also define statuses of its own and set them by hand, to match the way it works. A not-yet-live station might be tracked through in manufacture, in dispatch, on site and installed. Each of these maps onto a master status.

The usual path: commission, then activate

An installer puts the station in the ground, wires it in and commissions it. For the station to reach the platform its OCPP connection must point there, which the manufacturer usually preconfigures; where they have not, the installer sets it. On the first connection the platform creates the EVSE Controller record, in Onboarding.

The installer then runs the auto-configuration wizard, which applies the station's OCPP settings by itself (connector count, websocket and connection, heartbeat, transactions, metering, vendor-specific options and local authorisation). The one manual step is confirming the physical connectors, their socket type and power rating. The station then progresses to Activation.

The customer then activates the station from the dashboard. They find it by OCPP identity or serial number and set its Account, Location, billing plan and pricing. With those in place, the station goes Live.

Pre-registration and bulk

You can register a station before its hardware arrives. Create the record with its OCPP identity and configuration ahead of time, one unit at a time through the EVSE Controllers API, or a whole batch through a CSV import (also how an existing fleet is migrated, see data migration). A pre-registered station is already configured and priced, so on its first connection it goes straight to Live, with no setup left to do.

What a station needs to charge

A station can take a charge once it:

  • belongs to an Account,
  • sits at a Location,
  • has a billing plan, set as part of customer onboarding,
  • is priced, through a tariff, an access group, or public free charging,
  • and is Live.

Roaming is not set on the station. Whether it is on the roaming network, and whether it is public or private there, comes from its Location.