smartphone app enhancements

[sandy91pugh]

I'm glad it was helpful. Thanks for sharing such a great post!

 

[brettcgb]

Does turning "Climate" ON also terminate "Charging"?

No it doesn't. If the battery is charging heavily, it will reduce the charging rate.

If the car is plugged in but not charging, turning on climate control starts climate control and resumes battery charging (if below 100%)

 

[brettcgb]

So far I find the LEAF App one of the features that helped me manage charging and made driving an EV easier the most. However I agree it's far from perfect. The good news is that it's "just software" and we can expect improvement in the future. For me those improvements should be :

1) Login timeout managed in the background. It's anoying that the app asks for login again every couple hours and makes you redo any command you wanted to do. The option to remember my login info is there. I don't understan why I have to tap "enter" twice each time I need to use the App.

2) Automatic status updates... Based on the current behavior, "Real time" status does not seem possible but an automatic refresh every 1 hour or so would be nice.

3) Information about the charging timer in the App. I would like the App to tell me: Car is plugged, charging will start at 12:30am.

4) Stopping the charge from the App. I'm on the fence with this one. Unless you accidentally start charging during peak hours and you're not where your car is I don't see why stoping the charge from the App is necessary. On the other hand, accidentally stopping could cause trouble.

5) GPS location. I know Carwings is not Lo Jack but adding this to this App would be SO easy and could be so helpful in case of a theft that I wish they would add this.

I agree with most of this. Unfortunately "it's "just software" and we can expect improvement" doesn't mean it will happen (it frequently doesn't).

I'm not happy with the time the app takes to do anything.

What I think is happening

1) When the App starts, it shows "verifying user information" while pinging a server with ID/Password.
2) The server responds with last known vehicle state, while pinging the vehicle.
3) App requires user action to update display.
4) The vehicle responds to server with its current state.
5) Server updates App.
6) App requires user action to update display.

Speed up this process

7) The app should display the last known state (stored on phone with date/time) instead of showing "verifying user information" while waiting for an update from the server.
8) The vehicle should automatically report some events to the server, and becomes the last known state on the server. Such events would include:
* Unexpected charge stop event when driver is not nearby (no key fob activity within 3 minutes of event). The server would immediately relay these to the driver via SMS/e-mail.
* All charge events to server only. Includes start charge (with SOC), stop charge (with SOC). Include states of windows and locks.
9) The App updates display without requiring user action.

When the vehicle responds to a ping or command, it also reports: State of charge, doors (all closed / something open), windows (all closed / something open), locks (all locked / something open).

Things I'd like to see

10) Lock doors and hatchback remotely.
11) One button exit from smart phone app.
12) Start charge to 80%.
13) Phone interfaces directly with vehicle using Bluetooth.
14) Report GPS position. I'm on the fence on this. Alternatively, some sort of compass heading to vehicle could be helpful in large parking lots.

 

[turbo2ltr]

I would like a "one touch" widget to start climate control from a smartphone. (I have a Droid, but I would trade it for an iphone for this one simple capability). Also, starting the app should automatically request charge status. The software is all there, but the Carwings software has some huge usability problems. I have already made a one touch icon for my mac to do these things, but I have no idea how to program a phone. Anyone know how?

This may or may not be too much for you depending on whether your statement of programming a phone is beyond your know-how. This will require you setting up a web server to process and forward your requests to CARWINGS, but it does allow for one-touch commands:

https://github.com/gboudreau/LEAF_Carwings_EasyAccess

I agree wholeheartedly with you on starting the "app" should automatically request status. Once I'm able to finally do some more work on this stuff, the "app" I'm working on (I don't think an app is necessary, it's just going to be a web page, but like the method above, this too allows for a single click to perform common functions) will automatically refresh status upon loading if a programmed time limit has expired (15 minutes for example) since it last requested status from the car.

I've got two applications in mind: one is a non-smartphone web based version of the CARWINGS app, and the second is a web site for my car that displays the charge status at the top. What I have in mind there is to display a QR-code on my dash/windshield that directs someone to the car's website where it will give them stats about the car (including the current charging status). This could come in handy, for example, if another EV owner pulled up to a public charging station I am charging at and I left instructions to wait for a particular SOC%. They could easily get it by accessing the car's web site.

Check out http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=3326&start=23" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; if you haven't

You can pass your credentials in the url (read the rest of that thread) and basically have two click access.

 

[lpickup]

Check out http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=3326&start=23" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; if you haven't

You can pass your credentials in the url (read the rest of that thread) and basically have two click access.

Yes, I use this all the time (until I get off my butt and do some work on my "replacement").

It just falls short in 3 areas:
1) It's got a fairly wide "status box" at the bottom which displays a summary of communications with the car. Because it's so wide, the page starts very zoomed out on my phone, so my first "click" or two is to zoom in to the parts of page I want to be able to click (Update Status, Start HVAC, Stop HVAC).
2) Even zoomed in the links are pretty close together and I frequently click the wrong one. I'd really like to see a better laid out graphical page with buttons that are hard to hit by accident.
3) What I'd really like to see the page do is this: automatically do the equivalent of "Get Status" every time it's loaded--I do think that requesting status from the CARWINGS server is quick and should not slow down the initial load; second, if it's been more than 15 minutes since the status was last requested, do an automatic "Update Status" and update the screen asynchronously when the result is ready.

 

[merizena]

How can I connect the 3.5mm output on my smartphone to a phone line input? I want to be able to listen to music from my smartphone on a wireless headset at work. The headset is designed for use with a telephone, and requires a typical phone line input (not sure what these plugs are called). I have checked radio shack and other locations for a cable or combination of cables that would accomplish this, but have not had any luck. Please help!! Thanks!
___________________________
market samurai ~ marketsamurai ~ marketsamurai.com

 

[TimeHorse]

How can I connect the 3.5mm output on my smartphone to a phone line input? I want to be able to listen to music from my smartphone on a wireless headset at work. The headset is designed for use with a telephone, and requires a typical phone line input (not sure what these plugs are called). I have checked radio shack and other locations for a cable or combination of cables that would accomplish this, but have not had any luck. Please help!! Thanks!

Hmm. Well, first of all, my general reply to this thread is it was a ripoff when I bought it for $10 but now it's free :roll: and we should do better (and the screen is broken and unsupported on my iPhone 3G) but there's always this: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/greencharge/id480215136?mt=8

As for your specific request, the RJ-11 connection IIRC has 2 handshake signals (RTS & CTS IIRC) and the TX and RX lines. There's no ground. The 8th inch Stereo jack, on the other hand, is Left, Right, Ground. So the main thing is to connect the LEFT to the TX line and I think connect RTS-CTS, leaving Right, Ground and RX unconnected. But this wouldn't be stereo and if you wanted to mix these, you could combine the signal from the Left and Right channels but I don't think this would be good for your smartphone as it would cause cross-talk between the channels.

OTOH, if you're talking about hands-free headphones with a mike, then your 8th inch has 3 bars: Left, Right, Mike, Ground, IIRC and the iPhone 8th inch jack supports this. In this case, obviously you just connect RC to Mike and leave Right open as the phone is only using Left anyway.

Hope that helps but anyone more experienced with these things please feel free to step in!