Battery % w/o Nissan Connect

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tanyaviola

New member
Joined
Aug 2, 2017
Messages
4
Location
Western Massachusetts
I just got a new Leaf and have now charged it twice when in town (we do not have a home charger yet). Is there any way to see what the % of battery you have without being in the car? I know you can do all that if you have NissanConnect, which did not come with this car. I watch the Chargepoint app and I can see approx how many miles it's adding, but it would be nice to see when it hits 80% or so and I can "stop" the charging from the app. Otherwise it's just a guess.

Not a huge deal, but I'm just wondering if there's an app that can connect to the car without Nissan's Connection?

PS- we were told it's not a good idea to charge the battery beyond 80%. Is that a good tip? Obviously, if we need to go on a long trip, we'll want to charge to 100%, but that's rare.

Thanks,
T.
 
tanyaviola said:
I just got a new Leaf and have now charged it twice when in town (we do not have a home charger yet). Is there any way to see what the % of battery you have without being in the car? I know you can do all that if you have NissanConnect, which did not come with this car. I watch the Chargepoint app and I can see approx how many miles it's adding, but it would be nice to see when it hits 80% or so and I can "stop" the charging from the app. Otherwise it's just a guess.

Not a huge deal, but I'm just wondering if there's an app that can connect to the car without Nissan's Connection?

PS- we were told it's not a good idea to charge the battery beyond 80%. Is that a good tip? Obviously, if we need to go on a long trip, we'll want to charge to 100%, but that's rare.

Thanks,
T.

Good morning. Maybe I am not understanding but don't all Leafs have the ability to connect to Nissan Connect? It it not just an APP??

If you have a Juice Box EVSE you can also stop and start charging.
 
Regarding Leaf Spy, the bluetooth ODB2 connector in my Leaf is strong enough that I can sit inside my living room and watch Leaf Spy while my car charges, so assuming it's less than 20 feet from where you charge your car, you probably can do similarly. What would be really cool is if you could configure Leaf Spy to send text messages to a given phone when certain conditions were met...
 
webeleafowners said:
Good morning. Maybe I am not understanding but don't all Leafs have the ability to connect to Nissan Connect? It it not just an APP??

Only the SV and SL trims have any sort of remote access. The S trim does not have the ability to use Nissan Connect.

I second the suggestion to use an OBDII dongle. You can use LEAF Spy to monitor it on your phone, or you could try to set something up that talks to the dongle through bluetooth and would either alert you or remotely stop charging via your EVSE. If you have programming experience you could use something like a Raspberry Pi 3 or Pi Zero W for that. I want to do that one of these days but haven't spent the time trying to learn how to interface with the CAN bus over bluetooth.
 
Don't worry about charging to just 80%. Just drive the car and enjoy.

You might want to update your profile to indicate where you are located and put the details of your LEAF in your signature. By "new LEAF" I assume you mean a new 2017 S with a 30kWh battery.
 
Sorry...yes, I've got a 2017 Leaf (model S). I don't really need to see what percentage the battery is at while I'm at home. Will LeafSpy work if I'm using a public charging station and I'm several blocks away waiting? That's what I'm interested in.

Thanks for the recommendations!
T.
 
A) Don't be paranoid, statistics have shown that charging to 100% has no perceptible impact on battery health compared to charging to 80%. Just charge the car and drive it!

B) Leaf Spy and the bluetooth dongle with not work when the car is switched off and charging nor will it work beyond maybe 25ft.

C) Buy a drone and fly to your car and look at the 3 blue dash lights to see how much has been charged there's no other option on an S model.
 
I’ve also wondered about this myself as I have a 2015 Leaf S model. I love the car, no issues, but would like remote access. Has anyone researched if you can switch out the factory S trim radio and climate control for the touch screen SV/SL radio? I consider myself a shade tree mechanic and have read where the hook ups are already there. But never done any real digging yet.
 
Gregoryestes said:
I’ve also wondered about this myself as I have a 2015 Leaf S model. I love the car, no issues, but would like remote access. Has anyone researched if you can switch out the factory S trim radio and climate control for the touch screen SV/SL radio? I consider myself a shade tree mechanic and have read where the hook ups are already there. But never done any real digging yet.


Interesting thought.
 
tanyaviola said:
I just got a new Leaf and have now charged it twice when in town (we do not have a home charger yet). Is there any way to see what the % of battery you have without being in the car? I know you can do all that if you have NissanConnect, which did not come with this car. I watch the Chargepoint app and I can see approx how many miles it's adding, but it would be nice to see when it hits 80% or so and I can "stop" the charging from the app. Otherwise it's just a guess.

Not a huge deal, but I'm just wondering if there's an app that can connect to the car without Nissan's Connection?

PS- we were told it's not a good idea to charge the battery beyond 80%. Is that a good tip? Obviously, if we need to go on a long trip, we'll want to charge to 100%, but that's rare.

Thanks,
T.

So you got 30 kwh LEAF? Congrats! As far as best charging practices. In your area, its Winter and range is reduced due to several factors NOT including heat and defrost. So even if bundling up, your LEAF won't go as far. Some tips

http://daveinolywa.blogspot.com/2016/12/winter-time-leafing-aka-how-i-get-100.html

So the concern over charging to full or something less is heat related. So my advice; charge to 100% overnight in Winter for all days you plan to drive the next day. The flakiness of Winter Weather means your range could be anywhere from 60 to 100 miles no matter how efficiently you drive. So better to be prepared. There is very little downside to a fuller charge when the temps are low.

In Summer; its a different story. A GREATLY DEBATED subject is at what temperature you need to be concerned with.

**all that follows is my opinion based on nothing but 7 years of casual observation involving my 3 LEAFs and hundreds of other user reported experiences from all over the United States**

Your main concern should be "time" that your LEAF is at high state of charge (SOC) when its warm out. By warm, I mean your concerns should start as low as 80º. The best rule to follow is to maintain the lowest possible SOC that will cover your needs with a buffer. So you need 50 miles? Add 20% and charge to that level. What that level is is something you need to determine for yourself. Everyone's driving performance, conditions and terrain is different.

This also does not mean that you shouldn't charge to 100% in Summer. That is perfectly fine. What isn't fine is letting the car sit for 2 hours before you run that charge down. Now, a lot of people think that level 2 charging is ok as long as you leave right away when the charge is complete. Now, if this is your only choice, then do it. Remember; your transportation needs are #1 over all else.

But if you have to use normal charging during the day, park in the shade if you can. Start the charge a few hours before you leave for the day.

But if you can (or are willing) the best option is to stop and grab 15 mins or 20 or whatever at a fast charger instead. This reduces time at high SOC simply because you have less time ramping up your SOC and as soon as you get there, you are running it back down when you drive off.

**edit**

Sorry got so sidetracked that I forgot to answer your question. On the Driver display, you can toggle the info and see estimated charge times based on various speeds

120 volts level 1
3.6 KW Level 2
6 KW level 2

Use the time shown to set your charge time.

For example; you have 6 KW charger and time to 100% says 2 hours 30 mins. Keep in mind, it will not take that long to charge to full. Your Battery management system (BMS) charges to a certain voltage then goes into balancing mode where cells are equalized. So take the time displayed and subtract a percentage. I would start with 30 % (sorry, I don't do this so have no experience to pass on)

Then the next morning, determine whether the charge level is too hot, too cold or "just right" and adjust the percentage taken from the charge time accordingly.

I will actually be testing this to see if results are consistent. now that its cold enough to charge at home. (due to heat, I did not use level 2 charging at my house for more than one hour all Summer long. This was my effort to keep my SOC as low as possible when it was "home for the night" )
 
DaveinOlyWA said:
Your main concern should be "time" that your LEAF is at high state of charge (SOC) when its warm out. By warm, I mean your concerns should start as low as 80º.

Western MA, like around Holyoke, has nightly lows of 60F in June/July/August, so if you are leaving for work in the morning, I don’t think you need to worry about being 100% charged for several hours in the morning.

That said, I also have an S, and if you set the “charge ending time” to be about 3 hours later than you actually plan to drive off, then the car should only be around 80% charged when you depart (# of hours depends on your own charger’s KW).
 
Western MA, like around Holyoke, has nightly lows of 60F in June/July/August, so if you are leaving for work in the morning, I don’t think you need to worry about being 100% charged for several hours in the morning.

That's probably our average low too, but that doesn't mean we don't get pack-damaging nights in the upper sixties to mid seventies often enough to be a problem. I've found that above 64F or so the pack doesn't cool very quickly.
 
specialgreen said:
DaveinOlyWA said:
Your main concern should be "time" that your LEAF is at high state of charge (SOC) when its warm out. By warm, I mean your concerns should start as low as 80º.

Western MA, like around Holyoke, has nightly lows of 60F in June/July/August, so if you are leaving for work in the morning, I don’t think you need to worry about being 100% charged for several hours in the morning.

That said, I also have an S, and if you set the “charge ending time” to be about 3 hours later than you actually plan to drive off, then the car should only be around 80% charged when you depart (# of hours depends on your own charger’s KW).

I have been experimenting with using the estimated time to charge and setting the timer so that it will be around 80% charge at a time where you can manually stop it. So far, the results have been quite predictable and with 6 kw charging, most of the time the charge doesn't start till very late.

Yeah, I know is a bit of o hokey work around but actually not all that bad. Simply set the end time to be a few hours than you get up. Still working with it but would like to say " if time to charge is XX, simply subtract Y from XX and use that as your end time on charger timer and unplug the car at ZZ time.
 
specialgreen said:
DaveinOlyWA said:
Your main concern should be "time" that your LEAF is at high state of charge (SOC) when its warm out. By warm, I mean your concerns should start as low as 80º.

Western MA, like around Holyoke, has nightly lows of 60F in June/July/August, so if you are leaving for work in the morning, I don’t think you need to worry about being 100% charged for several hours in the morning.

That said, I also have an S, and if you set the “charge ending time” to be about 3 hours later than you actually plan to drive off, then the car should only be around 80% charged when you depart (# of hours depends on your own charger’s KW).

this is what i am seeing. Noticed if I set my end time to two hours before leaving, I leave with a full charge. :roll: Great job of estimating Nissan.
 
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