Does CarWings Sleep?

[rhumbliner]

I had to leave my 2014 Leaf parked for about a month but figured I could monitor the SOC remotely using my CarWings app on my iPhone. worked great for about two weeks and then no response. no matter what time of day and I tried almost every day for the rest of the month.

when I finally got home the SOC was 72% (down from 80%) and the 12v battery was reading 12.3v. in other words, everything was fine. so now the question is, why did CarWings stop responding? CarWings is working fine now, but that's after I've driven the car.

any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

 

[UBUYGAS]

Do you have the little solar panel?

 

[rhumbliner]

sorry, neglected to add this is a Leaf SV. no solar panel and it was parked in my solar-resistant garage.

 

[UBUYGAS]

I think that's the problem. The 12V battery went below a certain level and it turned off carwings.

 

[rhumbliner]

that seems odd. doesn't the Li-ion battery pack keep the 12v-battery charged?

 

[JeremyW]

The little solar panel does almost nothing, it's about 5 watts.

I believe carwings does shut off after about two weeks of inactivity.

The DC/DC does charge the 12V for like a whopping 5 minutes every 5 days.

You should store your car at 50% or so in the future (but probably didn't do much by storing it higher) and put the 12v on a trickle charger.

 

[GerryAZ]

There is no need to add a separate 12-volt trickle charger because the DC-DC converter charges the 12-volt battery every 5 days. I frequently leave my 2011 parked at about 60% SOC for as much as 3 weeks at a time without issue. CarWings does go dormant after 2 weeks.

Gerry

 

[JeremyW]

In my professional opinion it does not charge the 12v adequately. I monitor the 12 V battery using my CANary and the dc/dc converter does not run to a high enough voltage to charge the battery completely. I see around 12.8-12.7 V when the car is in run mode which does not even qualify as "float" voltage. I haven't captured a 5 day session where the dc/dc comes back on, but it only runs for 5 minutes as stated in the service manual. 5 minutes at even 14.1 volts will do almost nothing to combat sulfation of a partially charged battery.

Problems with the 12v battery are usually masked until the battery has very little capacity because it does not have a high starting load like turning over an engine.

 

[Nekota]

In my professional opinion it does not charge the 12v adequately. I monitor the 12 V battery using my CANary and the dc/dc converter does not run to a high enough voltage to charge the battery completely. I see around 12.8-12.7 V when the car is in run mode which does not even qualify as "float" voltage. I haven't captured a 5 day session where the dc/dc comes back on, but it only runs for 5 minutes as stated in the service manual. 5 minutes at even 14.1 volts will do almost nothing to combat sulfation of a partially charged battery.

Problems with the 12v battery are usually masked until the battery has very little capacity because it does not have a high starting load like turning over an engine.

I have a 2011 LEAF and have monitored the 12V battery for many months with readings every minute. The voltage I measure during charging is 14.35 volts and for the 'float' is 13.1 volts. The resting voltage of my 40 month old battery is 12.35 volts at night and 12.45 to 12.60 volts during the day. The increase during the day is likely from the solar panels 5 watt output which is 400 mA and not insignificant.

I use one of these data loggers and excel to do the plotting and graphical analysis.

http://www.mccdaq.com/usb-data-acquisition/USB-503.aspx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The battery life is about 2 years with constant 1 minute data logging. Which reminds me I need to go get the device out of the car and download the data.

 

[epirali]

I had to leave my 2014 Leaf parked for about a month but figured I could monitor the SOC remotely using my CarWings app on my iPhone. worked great for about two weeks and then no response. no matter what time of day and I tried almost every day for the rest of the month.

when I finally got home the SOC was 72% (down from 80%) and the 12v battery was reading 12.3v. in other words, everything was fine. so now the question is, why did CarWings stop responding? CarWings is working fine now, but that's after I've driven the car.

any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

I had the same thing, if the car isn't turned on it seems to stop checking in and responding. I had someone just "start" the car for a few minutes and then I had communications again.

 

[JeremyW]

The resting voltage of my 40 month old battery is 12.35 volts at night and 12.45 to 12.60 volts during the day

Again, that's too low. Your 12V is sitting around 75% SOC. Resting voltage with no load should be 12.6-12.7 volts. Do download those logs... charge or float voltages are not maintained for very long after starting the car.

 

[Nekota]

It may well be too low for "No Load" but that's not what I am reporting. I see higher voltages that what you claimed and see the charge voltage at 14 volts and float voltage at 13.1 volts when ever the car is on. I have posted both graphs and data logs before and it's a pain to do on this forum so once is enough. Search and you can find both graphs and data from two years ago and the results remain the same today. I do wish the forum was easier to use to share data and graphical results.

And the OP question does carwings sleep answer is yes but I always am using my LEAF so I have not observed sleep. I can see when carwings telecom is activated as it pulls the voltage down from the increased load.

The resting voltage of my 40 month old battery is 12.35 volts at night and 12.45 to 12.60 volts during the day

Again, that's too low. Your 12V is sitting around 75% SOC. Resting voltage with no load should be 12.6-12.7 volts. Do download those logs... charge or float voltages are not maintained for very long after starting the car.

 

[rhumbliner]

thanks to all who replied. i guess the consensus is "yes, CarWings does go dormant after 2 weeks and it's not related to a voltage drop in the 12v battery". i've not found that anywhere in the owners manual so the next time i visit my dealer i'll ask around and see if they've heard anything.

 

[Nekota]

I found it in my 2011 Nissan Owners manual (at page 233 of 354 online pdf) and I quote :

"Communication becomes unavailable when
the vehicle is not used for two weeks or
more. When the power switch is placed in
the ON position, communication with the
NISSAN CARWINGS Data Center can be
restored."

thanks to all who replied. i guess the consensus is "yes, CarWings does go dormant after 2 weeks and it's not related to a voltage drop in the 12v battery". i've not found that anywhere in the owners manual so the next time i visit my dealer i'll ask around and see if they've heard anything.

 

[rhumbliner]

I totally missed that paragraph. it's in my owner's manual, too. page 4-22.

 

[UBUYGAS]

It makes good sense, why communicate with an abandoned car.

I found it in my 2011 Nissan Owners manual (at page 233 of 354 online pdf) and I quote :

"Communication becomes unavailable when
the vehicle is not used for two weeks or
more. When the power switch is placed in
the ON position, communication with the
NISSAN CARWINGS Data Center can be
restored."

thanks to all who replied. i guess the consensus is "yes, CarWings does go dormant after 2 weeks and it's not related to a voltage drop in the 12v battery". i've not found that anywhere in the owners manual so the next time i visit my dealer i'll ask around and see if they've heard anything.