Leaf Spy and Leaf Spy Pro

[Turbo3]

Couple of questions I can't answer by ploughing through forum pages, grateful if someone could help out......
1) What is the history of gids? Is a gid a value that comes out of the Leaf CAN or did Garry invent it? Why not just use kwh?
2) Why is is possible for a CAN OBD dongle to drain the 12v aux battery? Why doesn't the DC-DC aux charger notice the drop in the AUX batt & start charging it from the traction pack?

1) While analyzing EV-CAN traces Garry Giddings found a field in one of the CAN messages that seemed to track with HV Battery energy. He was the first to find it so it was named after him. Nissan considers the field to me in 80 whr units. But this is not the same as usable energy so 77.5 whr is used by Leaf Spy. Gids is easier to keep track of since it ranges from 4 to around 281. We don't have the precision to say 2345 whr or 19,879 whr so we use the units Nissan uses. The battery is not like a gas tank with an absolute amount of energy. The amount of usable energy in the battery goes up and down for other reasons besides driving the Leaf (temperature). What advantage is there in using kwh?

2)I don't think Nissan planned for such a large vampire load on the 12 v battery. The service manual says the 12 volt battery will charge for 5 minutes when vehicle power is not turned ON for a set period of time (120 hours). I think this feature is disable while the charge cord is plugged in. Which means if you go on vacation don't leave your Leaf plugged in or your 12 v battery is likely to be dead.

(Others are free to correct/add additional information)

 

[Turbo3]

What is the most reliable/compatible bluetooth/OBDII/canbus adapter for Leaf Spy? The cheapest compatible adapter for the I-Miev (CanIon) is $80-$90 (OBD Link MX). Any idea why?

Thanks,

J

To answer your second question, I-Miev (CanIon) software requires more filters than a standard (cheap) ELM has which is exactly ONE. The expensive ones are usually based on the STN1110 chip (or at least their extended command set).

I helped someone who was trying to use an STN1110 to link to a Leaf and much to my surprise it did not work. Their flow control was broken and did not work. I reported this to the company who confirmed their bug and they came out with new firmware to fix it.

 

[EV4Taos]

What is the most reliable/compatible bluetooth/OBDII/canbus adapter for Leaf Spy? The cheapest compatible adapter for the I-Miev (CanIon) is $80-$90 (OBD Link MX). Any idea why?

Thanks,

J

To answer your second question, I-Miev (CanIon) software requires more filters than a standard (cheap) ELM has which is exactly ONE. The expensive ones are usually based on the STN1110 chip (or at least their extended command set).

I help someone who was trying to use an STN1110 to link to a Leaf and much to my surprise it did not work. Their flow control was broken and did not work. I reported this to the company who confirmed their bug and they came out with new firmware to fix it.

Wow thanks! Very helpful. Do you have a favorite ELM device for Leaf Spy?

 

[Turbo3]

I use only the "mini" versions a little over 1" tall.

 

[Turbo3]

I mentioned previously that this had become my screen of choice, 95% of the time, when driving the Leaf. It was nice seeing the red/green bars (in v0.29.20) while braking - it was a good aid in learning how quickly one could decelerate while still regenerating power, and not have the mechanical brake kick in. While cruising, I also found the motor amp plot interesting to look at, as it slowly rolled out over time.

With 0.29.21, although the real power motor power is displayed, I find I really miss the red/green bars. I know I can switch to the alternate Braking screen and get them there. But when cruising. the red/green braking historical plots are (imho) not really interesting to look at because they're static and they're concatenations of disjointed braking episodes which don't have much meaning to me as I drive down the road.

In my ideal world, I'd love to have the old Motor Amp and Accelerator screen restored as a 3rd choice of available experimental screen.

Finally, I noticed that the Settings->Braking->Change Window Size value still only effects the Braking screen, and not the Motor Power And Accelerator screen. Was this by choice? Was there a reason that the Motor Power screen history is not similarly adjustable, or perhaps tied to the same setting?

Oh, and I forgot to mention that I turned ELM trace on when I view the Motor Power and Accelerator screen back in 0.29.20. I found that it significantly reduced the number of times the app hanged for me when viewing those experimental screens.

Good new for you . The next version of Leaf Spy Pro will add back in the option to display Braking on the Motor Power screen.

Since I am still testing this feature out you need to enable it on the Debug panel of the Settings menu. The new option replaces the now discontinued "AltGids" option and is named "Brake & Motor Combined". Just check it and the Red and Green bars will replace the Blue Accelerator bar when braking.

This next version also has several fixes for the hangs that sometimes occur when exiting the Brake/Motor screen to one of the other screens.

I will be doing my final testing tonight and if all goes well it will be released to the test group tonight as well.

 

[jaimev]

I mentioned previously that this had become my screen of choice, 95% of the time, when driving the Leaf. It was nice seeing the red/green bars (in v0.29.20) while braking - it was a good aid in learning how quickly one could decelerate while still regenerating power, and not have the mechanical brake kick in. ....

Good new for you . The next version of Leaf Spy Pro will add back in the option to display Braking on the Motor Power screen.

Great! Looking forward to using that feature again.

 

[Turbo3]

Leaf Spy Pro version 0.31.32 just uploaded to Google for the tester group.

Improvements to the Brake/Motor screens. See built-in change log for details.

 

[Turbo3]

I also want to make another request to Turbo3 to have the Wh display able to show the calculated charging rate based on the Wh count changing.
--G

I would like this too. Would be particularly useful to monitor when doing DCQC to know when to switch to L2.

As it turns out I added reading this data in directly from the Leaf with the last release. However, the charging power is not currently displayed on any screen it is only logged to the log file in the last column. Works for L1/L2 and much to my surprise even QC. I just noticed the QC data a few minutes ago when I was reviewing someones logs for the Hackathon.

I will add this information into the Energy Usage display. It will show up on the top bar used to show motor power/regen. I will look like regen. That is the bar will grow from the right side moving to the left with increased charge power. The number on the right will be the same units as used for the motor which is 100w. So a 6.6 Kw charge will show as the number 66. A 50Kw charge would read 500.

 

[Turbo3]

I also want to make another request to Turbo3 to have the Wh display able to show the calculated charging rate based on the Wh count changing.
--G

I would like this too. Would be particularly useful to monitor when doing DCQC to know when to switch to L2.

As it turns out I added reading this data in directly from the Leaf with the last release. However, the charging power is not currently displayed on any screen it is only logged to the log file in the last column. Works for L1/L2 and much to my surprise even QC. I just noticed the QC data a few minutes ago when I was reviewing someones logs for the Hackathon.

I will add this information into the Energy Usage display. It will show up on the top bar used to show motor power/regen. I will look like regen. That is the bar will grow from the right side moving to the left with increased charge power. The number on the right will be the same units as used for the motor which is 100w. So a 6.6 Kw charge will show as the number 66. A 50Kw charge would read 500.

 

[Turbo3]

I also want to make another request to Turbo3 to have the Wh display able to show the calculated charging rate based on the Wh count changing.
--G

I would like this too. Would be particularly useful to monitor when doing DCQC to know when to switch to L2.

As it turns out I added reading this data in directly from the Leaf with the last release. However, the charging power is not currently displayed on any screen it is only logged to the log file in the last column. Works for L1/L2 and much to my surprise even QC. I just noticed the QC data a few minutes ago when I was reviewing someones logs for the Hackathon.

I will add this information into the Energy Usage display. It will show up on the top bar used to show motor power/regen. I will look like regen. That is the bar will grow from the right side moving to the left with increased charge power. The number on the right will be the same units as used for the motor which is 100w. So a 6.6 Kw charge will show as the number 66. A 50Kw charge would read 500.

 

[Turbo3]

New feature coming in next release has a graph of Quick Charging. Red line is SOC % (y-scale 50 = 100%) and magenta = Gids % where 281 gids=100%.

This is a live graph while charging.

The first QC ended a little over 80% (40 on y-scale). The second QC ended at a little over 90% SOC (45 on the y-scale).

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

New feature coming in next release has a graph of Quick Charging. Red line is SOC % (y-scale 50 = 100%) and magenta = Gids % where 281 gids=100%.

This is a live graph while charging.

The first QC ended a little over 80% (40 on y-scale). The second QC ended at a little over 90% SOC (45 on the y-scale).

nice! wondering about one thing. LEAF Spy does not stay connected for me when the car is off and charging. i am thinking i am pretty sure it was supposed to right?

any setting I should look at? this has been an issue from several previous versions and kept forgetting to ask about it.

 

[Turbo3]

nice! wondering about one thing. LEAF Spy does not stay connected for me when the car is off and charging. i am thinking i am pretty sure it was supposed to right?

any setting I should look at? this has been an issue from several previous versions and kept forgetting to ask about it.

As long as you are using a standard ELM that is always powered not one that has been modified to only be powered on when the Leaf is on it should work.

Today I was testing the QC graph with the Leaf off and it worked fine once the charging started (as indicated by the loud clunk of the main relay). Until a charge starts Leaf Spy will cycle every 5 seconds waiting for the Leaf to respond.

Send me an ELM trace and I will look it over.

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

nice! wondering about one thing. LEAF Spy does not stay connected for me when the car is off and charging. i am thinking i am pretty sure it was supposed to right?

any setting I should look at? this has been an issue from several previous versions and kept forgetting to ask about it.

As long as you are using a standard ELM that is always powered not one that has been modified to only be powered on when the Leaf is on it should work.

Today I was testing the QC graph with the Leaf off and it worked fine once the charging started (as indicated by the loud clunk of the main relay). Until a charge starts Leaf Spy will cycle every 5 seconds waiting for the Leaf to respond.

Send me an ELM trace and I will look it over.

well have to say, i have no idea what kind of ELM i have. but then again, this could be the reason i was not having any of the battery issues a few others were having. i never unplug it except to perform occasional resets

 

[Turbo3]

If you have an ELM that is always powered on then with the Leaf off and Leaf Spy running you should see an LED on the ELM flash every 5 seconds or so. Leaf Spy should also get to state 14 with the Leaf off. If it is always looking for ELM then the ELM is probably powered off.

 

[essaunders]

My current 'cheap android' device (a Kyocera Event) was stolen from my garage this past weekend. It appears I can replace it for ~$30, but was wondering if anyone has found a better option for a Leaf Spy display? Also, (at risk of being told to 'read the thread') has the 'clicking relay' problem (where the LEAF clicks when the leaf spy is left running while car is off) been solved?

thanks

(just found the phone for $20 on Radio Shack...) http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=19874856

 

[Turbo3]

My current 'cheap android' device (a Kyocera Event) was stolen from my garage this past weekend. It appears I can replace it for ~$30, but was wondering if anyone has found a better option for a Leaf Spy display? Also, (at risk of being told to 'read the thread') has the 'clicking relay' problem (where the LEAF clicks when the leaf spy is left running while car is off) been solved?

thanks

(just found the phone for $20 on Radio Shack...) http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=19874856

The rapid clicking is fixed on latest versions of Leaf Spy and Leaf Spy Pro.

 

[TimLee]

The rapid clicking is fixed on latest versions of Leaf Spy and Leaf Spy Pro.

Is that on just the test version 0.31.32?
Relay was still clicking while using LEAF Spy Pro 0.31.31 with 30 second logging a couple hours ago.

 

[Turbo3]

The rapid clicking is fixed on latest versions of Leaf Spy and Leaf Spy Pro.

Is that on just the test version 0.31.32?
Relay was still clicking while using LEAF Spy Pro 0.31.31 with 30 second logging a couple hours ago.

It is only the continuous rapid clicking that was fixed.

When the Leaf has been off for 15 minutes and you start up the app it will try to connect for 10 seconds at 1/2 second intervals then switch to once every 5 seconds. Each time it tries to connect you will get a click. That can not be avoid.

What was changed was the very fast loop where it would try to connect immediately after a failure resulting in a very noticeable rapid clicking sound as this would happen many times a second.

The change went in when background logging as added (Leaf Spy Pro 0.29.21)

 

[TimLee]

This was fairly rapid clicking while the car was charging.
LEAF Spy Pro 0.31.31 had been running with car in Ready. Turned LEAF off without shutting down LEAF Spy Pro, plugged in, pushed over ride button to charge to 100%.
LEAF Spy Pro did reestablish connection and there was no clicking.
But couple hours later when LEAF was approaching fully charged but was still charging the relay was fast clicking. Note 3 was plugged in to the LEAF 12V outlet.