Understanding OCPP Logs

With ChargePilot, your charging stations communicate with the ChargePilot controller via OCPP. There are predefined messages (actions) that are exchanged between the charging station and the ChargePilot controller. These include messages to authenticate a charging event, status and error messages, and reboots of a charging station.

It is possible to search multiple values via the search bar, e.g. Action, Charging Station ID, Status.

Below you will find more detailed information about the different log levels in ChargePilot and their contents.

OCPP Log Level

There are three different log levels in ChargePilot:

Minimal Logs, required for firmware updates (UpdateFirmware, BootNotification, FirmwareStatusNotification)
Info Log Level
Debug Log Level

By default, your site is at the Info Log level. This allows you to view relevant information and analysis about status changes, error messages and transactions at your location.

Info Log-Level

The following messages (actions) are included in the Info Log level:

	Message	Content according to OCPP 1.6
1	`Authorize`	Before the owner of an electric vehicle can start or stop charging, the Charge Point has to authorize the operation. The Charge Point SHALL only supply energy after authorization. When stopping a Transaction, the Charge Point SHALL only send an Authorize.req when the identifier used for stopping the transaction is different from the identifier that started the transaction.
2	`BootNotification`	After start-up, a Charge Point SHALL send a request to the Central System with information about its configuration (e.g. version, vendor, etc.). The Central System SHALL respond to indicate whether it will accept the Charge Point.
3	`FirmwareStatusNotification`	A Charge Point sends notifications to inform the Central System about the progress of the firmware update. The Charge Point SHALL send a FirmwareStatusNotification.req PDU for informing the Central System about the progress of the downloading and installation of a firmware update. The Charge Point SHALL only send the status Idle after receipt of a TriggerMessage for a Firmware Status Notification, when it is not busy downloading/installing firmware.
4	`StartTransaction`	The Charge Point SHALL send a StartTransaction.req PDU to the Central System to inform about a transaction that has been started. If this transaction ends a reservation (see Reserve Now operation), then the StartTransaction.req MUST contain the reservationId.
5	`StatusNotification`	A Charge Point sends a notification to the Central System to inform the Central System about a status change or an error within the Charge Point. The following table depicts changes from a previous status (left column) to a new status (upper row) upon which a Charge Point MAY send a StatusNotification.req PDU to the Central System.
6	`StopTransaction`	When a transaction is stopped, the Charge Point SHALL send a StopTransaction.req PDU, notifying to the Central System that the transaction has stopped.

Debug Log-Level

The following messages (actions) are included in the debug log level in addition to the info log level:

CancelReservation
CertificateSigned
ChangeAvailability
ChangeConfiguration
ClearCache
ClearChargingProfile
DataTransfer
DeleteCertificate
DiagnosticsStatusNotification
ExtendedTriggerMessage
FirmwareStatusNotification
GetCompositeSchedule

GetConfiguration
GetDiagnostics
GetInstalledCertificateIds
GetLocalListVersion
GetLog
Heartbeat
InstallCertificate
LogStatusNotification
MeterValues
RemoteStartTransaction
RemoteStopTransaction

ReserveNow
Reset
SecurityEventNotification
SendLocalList
SetChargingProfile
SignCertificate
SignedFirmwareStatusNotification
SignedUpdateFirmware
TriggerMessage
UnlockConnector
UpdateFirmware

Not every charging station supports all OCPP messages. However, some messages are mandatory for integration with ChargePilot. More information can be found here: OCPP "must"-requirements for charger integration in ChargePilot

Content of the OCPP messages

Each action consists of several values, which are explained in the table below:

	Value	Description
1	`action`	Type of message, e.g. “StatusNotification”
2	`connector_id`	charging point ID
3	`request`	Request. Depending on the action, the request contains different information.
4	`site_id`	ID of the site
5	`charger_id`	charging station ID
6	`response`	Response. Depending on the action, the response contains different information.
7	`datetime`	date and time of the OCPP message
8	`source`	Source: The source indicates where the message came from. "cp" means that the request was sent from the charging station to ChargePilot. "csms" (= charging station management system) means that the request was sent from the ChargePilot controller.

Detailed information about OCPP 1.6 actions can be found here: ocpp-1.6.pdf