Using clone ELM327 Bluetooth OBDII adapter with Leaf

[surfingslovak]

for curiosity sake, I have 30,000km (18600mi) on a Nov 2011 Leaf and Cap is 97.3%
Is that good? I dunno. I was hoping for 98+

That's very good, Joel, congrats. Likely comes courtesy of that hot Canadian climate, eh? Please keep us posted about your progress with the EV CAN mod. And out of curiosity, what are the daily highs in your local neighborhood these days? Still below 25ºC, right?

 

[JPWhite]

I ordered this unit
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004B0C1N...iveASIN=B004B0C1NE&adid=0RDTP96V3T4CKKMYMT5D&
PLX Kiwi seem to get good reviews. If its no good it can go back

Unit came in this evening. I'll see how reliable it is on tomorrow mornings commute. On a short run only 60% connection success, Hmmm..... Somewhat disappointed, may point the finger at the phone and some sort of Gingerbread BT bug. Have poor connection statistics on my Droid3 as well.

The Kiwi has a hard wired 6ft cable, so for permanent mounting my right angled cable will come out or I'll have 6ft of cable to hang myself with in the cabin. I hate too much cable slack. I'll use it for a few days to see if it's worth the $99 vs a $14 clone. The clone came with a bootleg copy of Torque as well :twisted:

Hate to say it, but the clone indicator lights are more meaningful, the Kiwi just has a blue link light, less distracting I suppose. The Kiwi transceiver is much smaller than the clone, so will be less obtrusive when mounted permanently. The good feature is that it has a switch to turn it off for permanent mounting.

This ELM unit reports V1.3 as the chip version. Pairing with the phone went well with just one false start. It seems to have a genuine MAC address as well.

 

[DeaneG]

...Here is a screenshot of the Regen/Braking screen. It is a stacked bar graph where mechanical (red) braking on top and regen (green) on the bottom.

While driving, it would seem to be much easier to use if a screen just displayed the percentage of braking that is regenerative, in big numbers. That, along with estimated remaining range, are probably the only two things I'd ever reference while under way.

EDIT: once I had finished a trip, I'd be interested in how much of my total braking was regenerative during that trip.

 

[Turbo3]

While I appreciate the battery cell graphics, Battery Temp is most important to me. I understand display real estate is tight, but I would really value having the average of the 4 temperature readings displayed in a large type on the "driving" screen. Perhaps this is already available.

Yes, it is so important to me that I requested that Screen 2 (Voltage Histogram) be switchable to a graphical display of the 4 battery temperature sensors (and that those bars be color coded). Jim hasn't responded to that request yet (not that I am complaining, he seems to be very busy working on this fabulous app). He is currently working on getting regen/total braking displayed on a new screen 4. That is of mild interest to me (at best), but perhaps his new technique can be extended to other items of interest. I don't even know enough about it to have an educated opinion.

 

[RuneW]

I have 30,000km (18600mi) on a Nov 2011 Leaf and Cap is 97.3%
Is that good? I dunno. I was hoping for 98+

I have a CAP of only 92.93% and I think this is quite disappointing considering that:

- The car is only a year old
- I have driven only 11.000 km
- I have fast charged only 2 times
- I'm charging to 80% most of the time (charging to 100% biweekly to balance the cells)
- I have only gotten low battery warning 3 times in total
- I have never experienced to very low battery or turtle
- I live in Norway with an ideal climate for batteries (or so they say)

But I'm bit unsure about how to read this CAP value. Is it dependent on the battery temperature? Will it rise if the battery temperature is more ideal?

 

[jclemens]

I have 30,000km (18600mi) on a Nov 2011 Leaf and Cap is 97.3%
Is that good? I dunno. I was hoping for 98+

I have a CAP of only 92.93% and I think this is quite disappointing considering that:

- The car is only a year old
- I have driven only 11.000 km
- I have fast charged only 2 times
- I'm charging to 80% most of the time (charging to 100% biweekly to balance the cells)
- I have only gotten low battery warning 3 times in total
- I have never experienced to very low battery or turtle
- I live in Norway with an ideal climate for batteries (or so they say)

But I'm bit unsure about how to read this CAP value. Is it dependent on the battery temperature? Will it rise if the battery temperature is more ideal?

RuneW, your image is not loading here.
I think you might be right about battery temp effecting CAP, last night my battery was about 13~14C, and I had 97.35CAP, this morning, the battery temp was about 10C, and the CAP when down to 97.12

That's very good, Joel, congrats. Likely comes courtesy of that hot Canadian climate, eh? Please keep us posted about your progress with the EV CAN mod. And out of curiosity, what are the daily highs in your local neighborhood these days? Still below 25ºC, right?

You are right, we are still below 25C around here, but we did have a couple warm days that may have hit 26ish for a couple hours, but the last week or has come back down, normal spring time weather.

Is there a thread we can discuss this data? I know we want to focus on the android app in this thread.
I hope the log file will include the ambient temperature so we can see if there is a correlation to anything.

 

[garygid]

Please discuss the data from the LEAF Battery app in this new thread:
http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=44&t=12789" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[Stoaty]

Very very nice, but a question and a comment:

--How do I switch to this screen when it is available in a release?

--I would much rather see the Y-axis displayed as whole numbers (what do I care if something is off half a degree) so it is easy to eyeball the approximate difference based on a fixed scale. The half degree lines are too much information for this particular use; makes it harder to tell at a glance (say, while you are driving) how much the temps vary. Also, I think that the total number of degrees displayed on the Y-axis should be fixed (it may already be) with say 5 or 6 degree spread so I can tell at a glance by the relative heights how much variability there is.

 

[JPWhite]

Very very nice, but a question and a comment:

--How do I switch to this screen when it is available in a release?

--I would much rather see the Y-axis displayed as whole numbers (what do I care if something is off half a degree) so it is easy to eyeball the approximate difference based on a fixed scale. The half degree lines are too much information for this particular use; makes it harder to tell at a glance (say, while you are driving) how much the temps vary. Also, I think that the total number of degrees displayed on the Y-axis should be fixed (it may already be) with say 5 or 6 degree spread so I can tell at a glance by the relative heights how much variability there is.

Is there anyway to squeeze the difference between high and low readings somewhere on that display? Maybe replace the high/low readings next to the 12v battery voltage? The graph tells me max/min already the difference needs to be calculated, not by my brain please Not even sure you need to say 'sensors 1 2 3 4" anymore, you have sensors in the graph title, it's clear there are 4.

 

[vrwl]

Very very nice, but a question and a comment:

--How do I switch to this screen when it is available in a release?

--I would much rather see the Y-axis displayed as whole numbers (what do I care if something is off half a degree) so it is easy to eyeball the approximate difference based on a fixed scale. The half degree lines are too much information for this particular use; makes it harder to tell at a glance (say, while you are driving) how much the temps vary. Also, I think that the total number of degrees displayed on the Y-axis should be fixed (it may already be) with say 5 or 6 degree spread so I can tell at a glance by the relative heights how much variability there is.

Or if you're going to show half degree increments, at do it with standard ".00" and ".50" breaks. The ".26" and ".76" is somewhat confusing to look at.

 

[garygid]

Nice Temperature screen.
Maybe the 5th screen?

Tic marks at xx.0 and xx.5 degrees only, with Labels on the xx.0 degree tics only,
shown just as xx (72, 73, etc.) would probably be sufficient,
and substantially easier to read.

A "fixed" axis showing about a 20 degree F range (10 degree C)
would make it easier to see at a glance (without reading
any numbers). The axis could change the range or start point
only when necessary to keep the displayed data on the screen.

 

[Turbo3]

Tap screen 2 (histogram) to toggle between the two screens.

 

[Stoaty]

Is there anyway to squeeze the difference between high and low readings somewhere on that display? The graph tells me max/min already the difference needs to be calculated, not by my brain please Not even sure you need to say 'sensors 1 2 3 4" anymore, you have sensors in the graph title, it's clear there are 4.

Agree. Replace the Sensors 1 2 3 4 with some useful information. Would like to see the difference between min and max on this screen also. Gary, we don't want a 5th screen, too hard to switch. The toggle between voltage histogram and temp bar chart is much more useful. Hopefully the app will remember which screen I am on of the two between restarts. I will probably keep the temp screen on most of the time. Marks in between are OK for 0.5 degrees, but Y-axis should only show whole numbers for simplicity. I would say 10 degrees F. max span for Y-axis. If temps are more than 4-5 degrees different you probably have a serious problem.

 

[ralphmc]

Is there anyway to squeeze the difference between high and low readings somewhere on that display? The graph tells me max/min already the difference needs to be calculated, not by my brain please Not even sure you need to say 'sensors 1 2 3 4" anymore, you have sensors in the graph title, it's clear there are 4.

Agree. Replace the Sensors 1 2 3 4 with some useful information. Would like to see the difference between min and max on this screen also. Gary, we don't want a 5th screen, too hard to switch. The toggle between voltage histogram and temp bar chart is much more useful. Hopefully the app will remember which screen I am on of the two between restarts. I will probably keep the temp screen on most of the time. Marks in between are OK for 0.5 degrees, but Y-axis should only show whole numbers for simplicity. I would say 10 degrees F. max span for Y-axis. If temps are more than 4-5 degrees different you probably have a serious problem.

May I add a potential - "trend" arrow - like up when the temp is rising say in 2-3 min interval (or what ever works) and down arrow if it has dropped since last.

I have noticed that while the other 3 values stay more steady - one the #3 seems to be always the first one to change -

And I wonder if since different users / people have different screens they prefer, have an option in the setting to set the sequence of screen 1 -3 - 4 -2 or so, and even maybe let the app cycle through them in user specifiable increments - so they can do more driving then looking and sliding (of the road of course not :-0 )

Ralph

 

[JPWhite]

I have noticed that while the other 3 values stay more steady - one the #3 seems to be always the first one to change -

Ralph

I've noticed a wider spread when first starting up after being at rest for a while. Once the vehicle is driven the sensors are typically within 1 degree of each other.

Does anyone know where each of the sensors are located?

 

[Stoaty]

I've noticed a wider spread when first starting up after being at rest for a while. Once the vehicle is driven the sensors are typically within 1 degree of each other.

I have notice just the opposite. When my Leaf sat for quite a while the temp sensors were within 0.2 degrees of each other (and exactly matched the ambient temperature). Maybe you didn't wait long enough (or I waited too long)?

 

[JPWhite]

I have notice just the opposite. When my Leaf sat for quite a while the temp sensors were within 0.2 degrees of each other (and exactly matched the ambient temperature). Maybe you didn't wait long enough (or I waited too long)?

Interesting. I fully expected my pack to be at ambient temp this morning, and was surprised to see it close to the temp it was when I got home last night. Parked at 5pm with the pack at about 84F. Charged to 80% from 9pm-12pm, pack was about 83F at that time. Climate timer came on 30 minutes prior to departure. Garage temp was 68F this morning, pack temp varied from 78-81F. I find it odd the pack would be 10 degrees above ambient first thing in the morning.

On the drive in this morning it dropped 1 degree to to 80F.

 

[Stoaty]

Interesting. I fully expected my pack to be at ambient temp this morning, and was surprised to see it close to the temp it was when I got home last night. Parked at 5pm with the pack at about 84F. Charged to 80% from 9pm-12pm, pack was about 83F at that time. Climate timer came on 30 minutes prior to departure. Garage temp was 68F this morning, pack temp varied from 78-81F. I find it odd the pack would be 10 degrees above ambient first thing in the morning.

It does seem a bit high, but what was the ambient temp overnight where car was parked. In other words, was it fairly warm and then cooled to 68 degrees the last couple of hours? Also, my rough guess is that the time constant (time to go 68% of the way from pack temp toward ambient) is about 12 hours, perhaps a bit more.

 

[JPWhite]

It does seem a bit high, but what was the ambient temp overnight where car was parked. In other words, was it fairly warm and then cooled to 68 degrees the last couple of hours? Also, my rough guess is that the time constant (time to go 68% of the way from pack temp toward ambient) is about 12 hours, perhaps a bit more.

It was 73 at 9pm last night, so yeah it didn't cool much. We are having a summer like temps for the latter half of this week. These observations make me question my recent practice of waiting until 9pm before charging. The pack only cooled by 1 degree from 5pm to 9pm, then the 3 hour charge would have kept the temp up until midnight. That only gives it 6 hours to assume room temp before I'm off on the treadmill again. Maybe I'm better off charging from 6pm-9pm (as was my practice last year), then park the vehicle outside where it will get the benefit of cooling air movement vs the stagnant air in the garage.

 

[Turbo3]

Here is the final layout for the Regen/Braking screen. This is just test data since the Leaf is out.

Here is the final layout for the temperature screen. Scale always covers 10 degrees (5 for C).

Y-axis is fixed unless a sensor would go off screen. You can force an origin recalculate by going to Settings selecting the opposite units then exit which will reset the Y-axis to its default value then go back to Setting to select original Units. Highest temp will always show even if lowest goes off the bottom.

Once the Leaf is back and I verify that things are working and then release version 0.23x for testing.