Software Update

[91040]

A bird in the hand,,,

I push my range and have declining capacity. The meter is invaluable in projecting how long to charge and how far I can go.

I would advise anyone driving on the edge of the Leafs range to get a SOC meter. It is much better to actually see the battery SOC instead of "fuel bars" and the GOM. After getting mine, I never pay any attention to the bars/GOM at all.

I just with Phil would hurry up with his LeafScan. I'm having a hard time spending ~$200 for a GIDMeter with it coming out.

 

[TonyWilliams]

I agree with the above.

I'd go nuts without the Gidmeter. Get the LEAFscan, too, and sell which ever one you like least.

 

[Valdemar]

What's up with all these reports about range loss after software upgrade? I saw several posts in different threads about this issue lately. With my annual battery checkup looming I'm a bit worried I'll get software updated at the same time and that will the beginning of new issues. Is there a list of known software versions somewhere? Is the general consensus that the latest update is safe? I bought mine 09/2011 so it should already have the early update that affected GOM readings I think.

 

[Stoaty]

What's up with all these reports about range loss after software upgrade? I saw several posts in different threads about this issue lately.

Since all of those posts talked about the GOM and fuel bars, there isn't any evidence of actual range loss. We haven't had any such reports from anyone with a Gid-o-meter, since those people probably never pay attention to the Leaf-supplied numbers/bars.

 

[BlueSL]

A software update cannot delete range from your battery. It can only alter the way potential range is reported to you. There's nothing to fear but more accurate (unwelcome) information.

 

[Valdemar]

A software update cannot delete range from your battery. It can only alter the way potential range is reported to you. There's nothing to fear but more accurate (unwelcome) information.

There is one person who started to experience very unwelcome effects after an update, and not only in GOM reported numbers.

 

[ztanos]

There is one person who started to experience very unwelcome effects after an update, and not only in GOM reported numbers.

 

[Valdemar]

There is one person who started to experience very unwelcome effects after an update, and not only in GOM reported numbers.

At least one we know of....

 

[mynameisjim]

A software update cannot delete range from your battery. It can only alter the way potential range is reported to you. There's nothing to fear but more accurate (unwelcome) information.

I disagree. It is entirely possible that the amount of battery capacity available for our use could be altered by a software update. Nissan could decide that turtle should engage with a higher charge, or that 100% should be less. It's not likely, but your comment is too matter of fact.

 

[GotMyleaf]

After I was afflicted with the software update, I learned that I can only see my state of charge if I connect to a DC quick charger. Three bars is 35-40% SOC in my car now. I call Nissan every week now just tp tell them how it has impacted me.

 

[grommet]

How does it impact you? Get a GID meter if you are serious about knowing what's left in your battery and ignore the GOM and bars. I assume you are familiar with Tony's Range Charts? http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=101293" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

FYI: The LEAF lies to the CHAdeMO unit regarding SOC. For example, 80% as seen on the charger is about 70% in your LEAF. So, don't use it as a hard SOC meter.

 

[garygid]

The April 2011 update (I still don't have it) makes the original
12 bars into appropriately 13.5 bars, leaving the low 1.5 bars
hidden as a low-end reserve.

The LB and VLB warnings still happen at the same energy level,
but the LBW now happens near the low end of the last visible
bar, when it did happen near the top of the 2nd to last
visible bar (before that update).

Mostly, the visible gauges hide battery capacity loss until
about 15% is lost, then the top bar of the small Capacity Bar
gauge goes away.

 

[GotMyleaf]

How does it impact you? Get a GID meter if you are serious about knowing what's left in your battery and ignore the GOM and bars. I assume you are familiar with Tony's Range Charts? http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=101293" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

FYI: The LEAF lies to the CHAdeMO unit regarding SOC. For example, 80% as seen on the charger is about 70% in your LEAF. So, don't use it as a hard SOC meter.

Impact - I have customers about 50 miles from my home. Sometimes I need to visit two within a short period of time and/or on short notice. When that happens, I may or may not need a trip to the DCQC. I wasted time last week because I was unsure of my SOC and went out of my way to the DCQC just to find that I had about 40% charge which was different from the two bars the GOM displayed. 40% is what I expected with my experience with that trip and before the update, the GOM would have displayed four bars.

If the car does 'lie' to the CHAdeMO, it is telling the same lies while the GOM is on LSD. The kwh reported by the QC are consistant with what I got before the update for the same route but the GOM is waay off.

I may have to get a GID meter but I'm mad because everything was cool before some engineer (who probably drives an Altima) decided that the last 50% of the stored charge should be a mystery to LEAF drivers.

 

[TomT]

I guarantee it was marketing/corporate, not engineering...

I may have to get a GID meter but I'm mad because everything was cool before some engineer (who probably drives an Altima) decided that the last 50% of the stored charge should be a mystery to LEAF drivers.

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

How does it impact you? Get a GID meter if you are serious about knowing what's left in your battery and ignore the GOM and bars. I assume you are familiar with Tony's Range Charts? http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=101293" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

FYI: The LEAF lies to the CHAdeMO unit regarding SOC. For example, 80% as seen on the charger is about 70% in your LEAF. So, don't use it as a hard SOC meter.

Impact - I have customers about 50 miles from my home. Sometimes I need to visit two within a short period of time and/or on short notice. When that happens, I may or may not need a trip to the DCQC. I wasted time last week because I was unsure of my SOC and went out of my way to the DCQC just to find that I had about 40% charge which was different from the two bars the GOM displayed. 40% is what I expected with my experience with that trip and before the update, the GOM would have displayed four bars.

If the car does 'lie' to the CHAdeMO, it is telling the same lies while the GOM is on LSD. The kwh reported by the QC are consistant with what I got before the update for the same route but the GOM is waay off.

I may have to get a GID meter but I'm mad because everything was cool before some engineer (who probably drives an Altima) decided that the last 50% of the stored charge should be a mystery to LEAF drivers.

still a lot of speculation over why chademo does not report "real" SOC but guessing it takes initial reading from pack then calculates SOC based on power going in ignoring losses to the battery from heat, etc?

either way; i see a 7-11% difference and one thing i noticed is that the higher the SOC (also means the greater amount of heat generated) charge, the greater the difference.

the 7% difference was from yesterday when i needed boost but did not have a lot of time, so charged from 14% and only added 8 Kwh and had to go. only got about 50% SOC but Chademo said 57%. closest yet.

compare that to my highest ever charge on chademo on Friday where it over ran the normal stopping point of 89% and i turned it off manually when it was at 97%. in car it was just under 86%. Friday temps were probably less than 4-5 degrees cooler

 

[garygid]

The Chademo charger has no idea what size or type of battery
pack it might be charging. So, it cannot calculate an SOC.

It does get a "value" from the car, which rises as charging
continues, and rises slower and slower.

I presume that this value is some sort of "progress" indication,
and is used by the Chademo charger as some indication of
charging progress, but with sometimes misleading labeling.

 

[Stanton]

FWIW, I received ALL software updates a couple of weeks ago when I went in for my 1 year battery check and have noticed very little (if any) change in my GOM (or other) behavior. So either:

1) my car was further along (last Fall) on updates than others, or
2) some cars/dealers are not properly applying updates

Either way, I would expect such drastic behavior as described by the OP to be some other problem--requiring a return to the dealer--that may be incidental to software updates.

 

[mwalsh]

As expected, when I went in to get my annual battery check this year, I was pretty much forced into the "hidden bars" update. I did tell the service adviser that I didn't want it, but you know how it goes...not communicated to the service tech. Can't say that I'm happy with the new results - having it take me 6 bars to get to the office today instead of 4 is pretty unnerving. Yes, even though I know I've still got 6 showing and 1.5-2 hidden below that. I thought I'd be OK with it, but after two years of driving with "old bars" I'm pretty much not.

Add to my angst was a very low gid reading this morning - just 222/79%/392v. And I'm now sitting in the office with 125/44.4%/373.5v to get home. That's at least 20 gids/10% lower than I'm used to having at this stage in the day, though only ~3v down from normal. Unless I get a bump while the car is sitting recovering (which has happened before on an "anomalous low gid" day), it's going to be cutting things tighter than I'm comfortable with for getting home.

But it's hard to know if this is going to be my future so far as gids are concerned. I sure hope not, obvioulsy, but this is only the second day with the new Battery Control Module fitted, and yesterday I could tell the car's systems were having a hard time accurately computing what was in the pack during the first 30 minutes of driving. I'm thinking my pack needs a good balancing event before I can draw any conclusions, which is why I'm resisting the urge to go out and put some charge into the car now - I want to get home tonight with as little remaining charge as possible, so I can get a good, full charge (and hopefully a balancing) tonight.

Edit: I chickened out. I went out to my car to take a look and I'd actually dropped another bar, for 7 used to cover the 31 miles, with 124 gids/44.1% remaining. So since it typically takes me ~90 gids/30% for the journey home, I decided to just trickle charge for a couple of hours and give myself a bit more margin.

 

[TomT]

My experience was that it took a few charge cycles after the software update, with one to 100%, before the system again reached equilibrium... I also saw some odd numbers at first but it quickly returned to normal (other than the different GOM and bar performance, of course).

Add to my angst was a very low gid reading this morning - just 222/79%/392v. And I'm now sitting in the office with 125/44.4%/373.5v to get home. That's at least 20 gids/10% lower than I'm used to having at this stage in the day, though only ~3v down from normal. Unless I get a bump while the car is sitting recovering (which has happened before on an "anomalous low gid" day), it's going to be cutting things tighter than I'm comfortable with for getting home.

 

[mwalsh]

That was certainly my hope. Thanks for the reassurance!

My experience was that it took a few charge cycles after the software update, with one to 100%, before the system again reached equilibrium... I also saw some odd numbers at first but it quickly returned to normal (other than the different GOM and bar performance, of course).