Minor wording changes request

[fhteagle]

I suggest some small changes to labels to make things more clear to inexperienced OpenEVSE users:

0. Change "Current Event" to say "Previous Event" or maybe "Activated/Disabled Since"? Similarly, "Next Event" could just say "Disables at 15:00" Done by changing to icon and "Timer!
1. "Manual" heading on home page, should be "Mode" (a manual selection of auto is nonsensical to me). Done, thank you!
2. "Auto-Release" label and its associated tooltip are not clear. What exactly does this do? Maybe "Return to Auto Mode after Unplug " or "Change Next Session to Auto Mode" ?
3. "Limit Current" to "Set Amps" or "Target Amps" ? Done, thanks
4. Consider changing "Charge Limit" to "Energy Limit"? Done, thanks
5. "Supervision" to "Safety" or "Sensors" ? (This has both "safety" information and "sensors" on this page, not sure of a word that means both of these. Maybe "Self-Checks"? "Monitoring"?)

[KipK]

About point 2, Auto-release will release or not the current override after vehicule disconnection.
This concerns those settings:

• state ( active | disabled )
• charge_current
• Time limit & charge limit ( when it will be done on the HTTP Api side )

We need to find how to display this clearly foor the user.
It can be confusing, as the Eco mode switch is not concerned, we should put it somewhere else to make this clear. If you have any suggestions.

0,1,3 & 4 are ok
About 5 Ill split some feature in the Config ( like Seucirty flags checkbox ), will see that later.

Thanks for your different inputs, this helps me.

[fhteagle]

Thanks for the wording fixes, I put a strike through the items that were done in the original post. The new GUI is a huge step forward in clarity compared to the old one. A few little wrinkles to adjust but your work is really paying off.

For 2: Clearest wording I can think of is "Revert to Auto on Disconnect?" with a No / Yes slider switch after it? Also, it might help to hide this line item if we are already on Mode: AUTO, since it will not do anything in that case, correct? Should we also hide this line if we are in Mode: OFF?

For 5: Maybe we should have two new sections under the Mode Section:

• This Session: Put the one time limits input boxes and anything else that affects only one session here?
• All Sessions: Gives the options that apply to all sessions, Eco, Shaper, etc. I still do not personally like the idea that Mode: ON would be modified by any automation, but if that is the way the OpenEVSE programming works now, we should at least make the GUI communicate this clearly.

The new sections are not a perfect solution, I will keep thinking about it for sure.

[KipK]

Ho I think I have something that looks clear for end user.

I've removed the scheduler icon in tags, and will keep the Robot one for everything that is not manual.

Then:

What do you think ?
This , we understand the robot Icon in the tags, and the tooltip display "Let OpenEVSE decide" or something like that

[fhteagle]

In general I like the robot head icon and it's ability to mark what is automated or automate-able. Wonder if we could have a similar icon for manually controlled things. Something like a lever or joystick icon?

I do not think the robot icon solves suggestion 2 though.

But for 5 having the icon switch between robot head and manual lever for each item that actually changes function between Mode: ON and Mode: AUTO could be very clear indeed.

[fhteagle]

Ooh further thought, can svelte put icons inside of the slider switches? Having each slider switch for Eco, Shaper, etc being a grey background lever icon for disabled and the blue background robot head for enabled would be very clear to the users.

[KipK]

about 2, the auto-release is for booth manual & auto so emphasing on Revert to Auto on disconnect, what happened to the max_current & limits settings that are not related to an Auto feature ?

The auto_release will release all of them at disconnect

[KipK]

Ooh further thought, can svelte put icons inside of the slider switches? Having each slider switch for Eco, Shaper, etc being a grey background lever icon for disabled and the blue background robot head for enabled would be very clear to the users.

Svelte has nothing to do with that :) this is lower level js fw. The rest is manually done by css/html/js and a ss fw.
What icon to display for Shaper then, it's not an Auto feature, manual override has no priority on it as it's a security feature.

[fhteagle]

"auto-release is for both manual & auto" .... yep, this is the confusing part. This is why I have been insisting so strongly for ON to mean ON and zero automation......... But your idea about robot icons for smart features + a separate icon for things only the user changes will help this greatly too.

Temporary icons for single session time and energy limits get a stopwatch looking icon? i.e. https://static.vecteezy.com/system/resources/previews/000/573/490/original/sign-of-stopwatch-icon-vector.jpg

Safety and Security features that are active during ON and AUTO get yet a different icon type? A key lock icon? Or a shield? i.e. https://cdn4.iconfinder.com/data/icons/security-15/24/Lock-1-512.png or https://clipground.com/images/shield-icon-clipart-3.jpg

[fhteagle]

Change "Auto-Release" to "Re-enable Smart Features on Disconnect"?

[KipK]

better yes, still not clear enough to me for the charge properties ( max_current, time_limit, charge_limit ).
They can be set while in Auto mode ( using this auto_release parameter too )

use cases in Auto mode:

• We are in Auto schedule mode, but we want the charge to be limited to 16A max for few charges .
• We want to time limit the charges of a public charger using OCPP . People have badges, but can only charge 2hour max.
  ( ok for this one, it will be better to have those settings in the config and survive reboot but it's not implemented yet, let's consider the EVSE never reboot ^^ )

Writing this making me think of an idea to handle the survive reboot without having to put everything in the config pages

If auto release is set to false , then save the actual claim properties on the eeprom to survive reboot.

Or a new config section for this with ( more work on firmware side ) :

• Default Open EVSE state: what state if no state claim is running Active / Disabled
• Default Charge Properties: set default values for Max_current, Time_limit, Charge_Limit for each new charge
• Checkboxes : Display settings on main page: to choose what property we want settable on the main page ( Max_current, Time_limit, Charge_Limit, Auto_Release, Divert, Shaper )
• Checkbox: Allow User to override default settings on Main page ( considering we'll implemente different accounts for guest / user / admin in fw ) : use the defaults properties as max limits are user can get higher ( perhaps one checkbox per properties or one main setting for all )
  This makes a lot of new setting to add in ESP firmware. I'm not fan of the bitshifts and eeprom based settings so not sure when it will be done.
  I'd prefer we have a json based config on spiffs, would be far more flexible and quicker to work with.

[fhteagle]

I like the hand icon for manually controlled items. Good choice! Place this icon next to everything that is completely manually controlled, like "Set Amps"?

As to the rest of the ideas in your last comment, maybe that needs split into a different issue and/or discussed back in OpenEVSE/openevse_esp32_firmware#401 instead? I was trying to keep it to easy glitches and small changes in the issue set here.................................................

[KipK]

About wordings, we should rename the Shaper to something more clear, security oriented ( its new icon with the building and shield fits well to the idea )
Do you have any suggestions ?

Power Shield, Capacity Shield, Current Watchdog, ...

[KipK]

Also Divert mode , dunno if it's only personnal, but feels to me the most unclear term we could have :)

[fhteagle]

Agreed the labels for these could be better.

Some ideas:

• Peak shaving
• Grid reduction
• Service protect
• Import restrict

Or any combination of the above really. "Reduce Import" might be the most unified with the rest of our terminology so far.

For Eco / Divert / Solar use:

• Self-consume
• Charge from solar
• Store Solar
• PV to EV
• Reduce Export

I think I like the last one the best, as a home might have wind or microhydro generation going, not just solar..........

[KipK]

combination off Restrict Import / Reduce Export sounds good too

[KipK]

thinking about it, reduce Export has no sense for off-grid setup
Also Import / Export terms seems logical for we nerdos, but what about the main users. :)

[fhteagle]

Those are decent points. Though technically reducing export to the fixed storage battery or domestic hot water energy is applicable to off grid also :)

Not sure we can capture every possible setup with the terms, but yes let's try.

some other combinations:

• Consume renewable
• Follow solar
• Energy harvest
• Track generation
• Target PV

[fhteagle]

With the red circle and slash status icon, change the tooltip from "Disabled" to "OpenEVSE Disabled" ?

[fhteagle]

Things are looking pretty good! All set on these suggestions, except for number 2 about "Auto-Release". What about "Clear charge settings on disconnect" as its label?

Your current tooltip for this toggle includes the words "plugued off", which probably should be changed to "unplugged".

As to marking what would get cleared with this toggle enabled, I have a few thoughts:

• Put a marker like asterisk, underline, color box, or some other mark that is only shown when the auto-release toggle is on?
• Break the Charge box up into sections for things that get affected by auto-release and those that do not?

Long term I think there are more backend changes to be made to align with use cases that I will work on. But for this round of GUI improvements I think one of the above suggestions would probably be enough. Thoughts?

[KipK]

What about "Clear charge settings on disconnect" as its label?

Because it's far too long for mobile display. Needs something less verbose.

[fhteagle]

True true. "Clear on disconnect" is a good compromise though!

Since you are iconifying much of the rest of the UI, what about turning this into a few icons, such as an "unplug", an arrow, then "recycle" symbols?

[KipK]

I wonder if we should keep this auto-release feature on UI display anyway.
As it doesn't survive reboot is there really any interest but confusion?

[jeremypoulter]

IMHO I don't see a need for it, I think we should add a config var for the on/auto/off switch, in the settings you should have the soft max current setting, but the ones in the main page of the UI should just be temporary for the session so they work well with other controls.

[fhteagle]

Just noticed that the tooltip changes to interpret the position of the auto-release toggle more clearly. Nice touch!

I am in favor of removing "auto-release" on this version of the UI, but it is not a strong preference either way. The difficulty we had in coming up with a good label for it tells me the feature needs some re-design. Will be happy to help refine the one-time charge settings concept to something more user-friendly in future work, but I do not think it should delay unveil of the new UI. I like how it is looking so far!

[KipK]

I have removed the auto release switch for now.

[KipK]

What about "Unballasting" | "Unballaster" to replace "Current Shaper" ? Does it has sense in english ?

Here in France, we use the litteral traduction "Délestage" for exactly this purpose.

[fhteagle]

Unballasting does not have much meaning to this native Americanglish speaker, no.

[fhteagle]

"Grid Service Limit" ? "Grid Amps Limit"?

Not as elegant as "Shaper", but maybe more informative....

[fhteagle]

More options:

"Grid Max Amps"
"Grid Power Limit"
"Grid Current Target"