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Polaris Express Docs

Operator onboarding

This runbook is for the first operator setting up Polaris Express. Use it once, on the day you log into a fresh deployment, to register your first charger, activate your first EV card, and confirm the dashboard is reporting live signal from your fleet. After this, the dashboard at /admin becomes your daily war-room.

Prerequisites

Section titled “Prerequisites”
  • An admin account with permission to access /admin (created via BetterAuth — see your deployment setup).
  • A SteVe instance reachable from Polaris Express, with credentials configured.
  • At least one physical charge point ready to register (you’ll need its chargeBoxId).
  • One blank RFID/NFC card to use as your first EV card.

Procedure

Section titled “Procedure”

  1. Sign in to the admin console

    Navigate to /admin in your browser. BetterAuth will redirect you to the sign-in flow if you’re not authenticated. Once signed in, you land on the ExpressCharge dashboard.

  2. Confirm you see the first-run welcome

    On a brand-new deployment, the dashboard shows a Welcome to ExpressCharge banner above the main card. This banner appears only when no chargers have ever been seen and no sync runs have completed yet. If you see it, you’re in the right place.

    If you don’t see the welcome banner, the system already has fleet history — skip ahead to Verify to confirm everything is healthy.

  3. Register your first charge point in SteVe

    Polaris Express does not register chargers directly. Open your SteVe instance and add a new charge point with the chargeBoxId printed on the unit. Configure the charger to point its OCPP endpoint at SteVe.

    Once the charger boots and sends its first BootNotification, SteVe will record it. The next sync run pulls that record into Polaris Express.

  4. Activate your first EV card

    From the welcome banner, click Register an EV card. This takes you to /tags/new. Tap or scan the blank card when prompted and give it a label you’ll recognize.

    The card is now an idTag in SteVe and an EV card in Polaris Express.

  5. Link the EV card to a Lago customer

    Billing only flows once an EV card is mapped to a Lago customer. From the EV card detail page, use the customer picker to attach the card to an existing Lago customer, or create one inline.

  6. Pin the dashboard

    Bookmark /admin. The four section cards — Live now, Active sync run / Sync schedule, Health, and This week — are designed to fit the viewport without scrolling on large screens. This is your daily check-in surface.

Verify

Section titled “Verify”

Return to /admin and confirm each section reports real data:

  • Header strip shows your charger’s online/total count, the next scheduled sync run, and any unread alerts.
  • Live now lists active sessions. Empty is fine if no one is charging yet — it just means the dashboard is connected and waiting.
  • Active sync run or Sync schedule shows the current Adaptive Cadence tier. If a sync is in flight, the card shows a BorderBeam and live segment progress.
  • Health rolls up operational warnings. A green/empty Health card on a fresh deployment is expected. It auto-revalidates every 30 seconds, so leave the page open to watch it.
  • This week shows kWh delivered, sync runs, EV cards activated, and completed reservations over the last 7 days. On day one, expect zeros or near-zeros — these tiles will populate as your fleet operates.

Once your first charger appears in the online count and your EV card shows up in the EV Cards section of the admin nav, onboarding is complete.

If something goes wrong

Section titled “If something goes wrong”

Audit and reversibility

Section titled “Audit and reversibility”

Operator onboarding itself is non-destructive — registering chargers and activating cards are additive operations.

  • EV card activation is recorded in the audit log under the card’s Public ID. To retire a card, disable it from the EV card detail page; the card remains in history for billing reconciliation.
  • Charger registration lives in SteVe. To remove a charger, delete it in SteVe; the next sync run will mark it as gone in Polaris Express.
  • Lago customer mappings can be re-pointed at any time from the EV card detail page. The previous mapping is preserved in the audit log.
Section titled “Related”