LeafDD - Dash Display for Leaf

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Morning,

Just checking on the status of the programmer and if it can be sent to me?

Thanks,

Bill
 
I'd like to be next on the list. I'm in Bellingham WA if anyone else around here would like to get the upgrade done.

Thanks.
 
I've finished with the programmer and I've had it for several weeks. If no one else needs it I will be sending it back to Greg in a few days.
 
Is the LEAF DD still being made ?

I had one years ago but never used it and sold it. I'd like to buy another. Is Greg still making them?

please email me if you have one for sale or Greg if you have a new one. The email on this account I don't monitor.

[email protected]

Thanks!!

Sal Cameli
 
*tosses hat into the ring*

I'd like one too! I can't ... really ... bring myself to sit and sift through 43 past pages of posts to see what's been the current status of things, but I want to get my hands on one of these.

Leaf Spy is super awesome and portable, but after having experienced a real, live-updating AVR-CAN based meter (volts/amps/gids switchable on a segment LED display), I have just got to get one of these! It's like a real-time multimeter... and it's engineer bliss.
 
Wellp, here we go, I got my LeafDD from ampitupco (thanks!) and I dug in, read every post of the past 43 pages over the past hour or so.

Wow. Lots of great info here. Sadly, SO VERY MUCH information lost by damn Imageshack and Photobucket swallowing nearly every single one of the images posted in this thread! So incredibly frustrating, this forum still doesn't offer image posting. Storage and bandwidth are virtually free these days, in the modern hosting market. At a minimum, they could hook an extension in here to integrate imgur posting... yeah, this is worth noting: if you're gonna share an image, use http://imgur.com - much less likely to be eaten by the vacuum of time.

Posts worth a highlight:
(GregH) The final countdown - notable that all the images are missing :cry: :cry:
GregH said:
Ok, the final dozen are being assembled over the next week (or two).. Two of them are already spoken for.
As I dive into this last batch I thought I'd share a few photos of how I put these things together just for the sake of historical documentation ;)

Start off with the 3D printed shells, the OBD2 Cables (which I clip and wrap the 12 unneeded conductors leaving the 4 I need (GND, 12V, EVCAN-H, EVCAN-L)), as well as the LeafDD PCBs hand soldered by my friend Vo for $10/pop (When she solders, it looks like a machine did it.. when I try SMT soldering it looks like a 12 year old did it).
mki3.jpg


Then the 4 wires are soldered in place and the cable is secured with two zip-ties. BTW, the unpopulated components were for digital lines and serial communication so that the LeafDD could be used as the front hub of a Chademo charger supplying all the signals to the Chademo connector while talking serially to a DC power supply... I just never tried it. That little regulator on the top left is what makes that corner get toasty warm.. If the temp sensor in the 8051 processor detects things getting too warm it will dim the display in software to prevent over heating.
m5gm.jpg


The boards are powered up by a female OBD2 cable supplying 12V and the Silicon Labs 8051 is flash programmed from my laptop. I also do a sanity check on the powered CANH and CANL to verify neither is grounded (Leaf doesn't like that!)
m3oy.jpg


Then I screw on the little nuts and bolts and add the standoffs and header for mounting the OLED board.
n9jn.jpg


And finally add the OLED, screw it in place and solder the 20 pin header on both sides. Power up and test. Ta Da! Then off to my Leaf for in-car testing, a serial number on the back, then packaging for shipping.
j8eb.jpg

(Stanton) 3G Modem upgrade causes LeafDD to mess up - cool, because my 2014 Leaf got the TCU upgrade, and my LeafDD got the upgrade as well! A perfect match. Good to call attention to it, as this is the firmware upgrade being ^^ referred to ^^ in all the above ^^ replies ^^ of the past ^^ few pages.
Stanton said:
Fellow LeafDD users: the developer (@GregH) has implemented a "fix" (v2.34) that corrects the charging/non-charging behavior "broken" by the 3G TCU/modem update. In addition, he has authorized me to offer the charging dongle/programmer and software to anyone else who wants to perform the update. Since I received the hardware from another forum member, I am willing to "pay it forward" and ship it to the next person...who can then continue the process. Eventually it needs to go back to Greg...who was kind enough to implement the fix.
If interested, please PM me with your email (software) and snail mail (hardware) addresses; since there could be multiple "takers", I will make a (single) post in this thread so everyone knows where it is.

(darelldd) Fuel cell utopia - emphasis mine. I love this!
darelldd said:
If they insist on only making a handful of cars, they're going to lose money. And honestly, that's what many car makers have WANTED to demonstrate over the years. Don't make us do this! We can't afford it! Leave us alone, and in 15 years or so, we'll have an affordable Fuel Cell car that will run on rainbows and the laughter of children!

The times are changing fast now though. The options today are astonishing, and what's coming in the next few years? Awesome. It's been a long, hard haul. But here we are.

This was definitely a fun thread to go over.

I should first note that my interest in the LeafDD came - after years of living with Leaf Spy (back when it was called the Leaf Battery App, or what-was-it?, and was downloaded as an APK) - when I saw a real Gid Meter (the one with the 7-segment serial display) in action, driving with it for 2 weeks. The real-time updates from that display were just fascinating. Leaf Spy is great for an occasional snapshot, but the limitations of Bluetooth are awful! LeafDD and other hard-wired displays give so much more of a geek's play tool, showing real-time amps/volts, and leveraging your engineering mental toolkit, you can see so much more stuff in the car than with the snail's-pace update of Leaf Spy.

I've now got to find a good place to stick my LeafDD - since I have a phone/tablet mount right above the center vents, I'll probably either go with the overhead option (if it fits ergonomics well enough) or off to the side between the rounded part of the dash and the squared center area. Lots of silicone sealant/hot glue will be involved, because that 3D printed enclosure does _sooo_ not hold the LeafDD in place nicely ;) But it makes a great housing anyway! So it just needs a little touch-up adhesive action...

Also noticed 2 other quirks: severe burn-in, which is really noticeable when the screen goes solid-on* ... which itself is noticeable by the second quirk: the screen going all whacky when you touch the display pins on the back of the board, seems to flip different modes randomly like inverted-color, solid-on, flip, etc. I think some of those pins might be floating, missing pull-down resistors, that's what causes the craziness. And maybe even the "gibberish screen" issue mentioned by jjeff earlier.
* - I can really tell the screens the LeafDD used to stay on. ;) A blur of Gid digits and temperature figures, with *C and the screen dividers burned in solidly. They still work, though. But that's one of the downsides of OLED displays... keep the same segments lit up for too long, and they dim lower than the rest, creating burn-in. Oh well. In operation, it's not terribly noticeable, so no real complaints there.

Probably my first mod is going to be replacing the 3.3v linear (!!!) regulator (!?!?!) with a simple 12v-to-3.3v buck DC-DC. That'll probably make it much more likely to survive the summer months and keep on kicking for years to come. :ugeek: Bleeding off nearly 10 volts is a huge ask for a tiny regulator like that!
 
FalconFour said:
Also noticed 2 other quirks: severe burn-in, which is really noticeable when the screen goes solid-on* ... which itself is noticeable by the second quirk: the screen going all whacky when you touch the display pins on the back of the board, seems to flip different modes randomly like inverted-color, solid-on, flip, etc. I think some of those pins might be floating, missing pull-down resistors, that's what causes the craziness. And maybe even the "gibberish screen" issue mentioned by jjeff earlier.
The gibberish I saw earlier has gone away and knock on wood the LeafDD has been working fine ever since :)
I didn't do anything, it just went away by itself. It's basically mounted permanently(using a suction cup cell phone holder to a plastic disc glued to the dash) and the wiring runs under the steering wheel neatly up to the DD. I kind of like when the car is charging I can instantly look at the DD(as it turns on when ever charging, even with the car off) and tell the SOC, much more precise than the 3 blinking LEDs.
Good luck with your DD, a cool little device.
 
With some help from Greg, I put together this explainer for the page 2 display of the LeafDD - the big jumble of numbers page. :)

L0KQbJW.jpg

(if the above image dies: it's a photo of the LeafDD with elements labeled A through J roughly clockwise from the top-center "S" value as item A, moving right, down the side, across the bottom, up to "H" in the center as item H, across the 4 left temperature values, then back down ending at "C" as item J)
  • SOC% (S) (static) - This is the 4-decimal-precision raw state-of-charge value. At least in my 2014 Leaf, though, this is only updated back on the Page 1 display (big numbers).
  • Gids (live) - self explanatory ;) The customary, proprietary unit of measurement of "how much energy is left in the battery". Good for range calculation.
  • Voltage (live) - the voltage of the battery pack.
  • Amperage (live) - amps going into/out of the battery.
  • EVSE Amps (live?) - seems to only work on 2011-2012 Leafs - but this should show the amperage of the connected charging station.
  • EVSE Volts (live?)- same as with amps, this should show voltage of the connected station.
  • 12V Voltage (live) - this is the voltage of the 12V system. The 12V battery charges at 14.4v, and is "idle" at around 13v (neither consumed nor charged).
  • Hx (H) (static?) - This is the infamous Hx. Not a representation of capacity, but - at least in my personal observation - seems to be more reflective of battery resistance/performance. Lower Hx = worse regen performance, higher heat production when charging/driving. Lots of discussions on this!
  • Temps (static) - These are the 4 temperature sensors (3 in 2013+) of the battery, displayed in Celsius.
  • Capacity (C) (static?) - This is the battery capacity in amp-hours (Ah). To calculate degradation, consider a new Leaf is around 66Ah, so divide (capacity)/66 to get a decimal percentage of new capacity (multiply by 100 to get percentage).
  • (Dots in the corner) - Indication of LeafDD firmware version
Static = values only update when display is switched to other screens for a few seconds. Live = values update in real-time.
Still not quite known: the hex(?) value in the lower-right corner

Hope this helps some users - and of course, also hope that the image stays up for a while! ;)
 
Thanks :)
I printed out your post, will be handy to keep in my '12 as I always have to think what all the "big jumble of numbers" means :lol:
 
Well I did some testing and yes indeed, E is the maximum output of the EVSE, not what it's currently putting out or even the maximum of your car's charger, but EVSE max(at EVSE output voltage). I tested my 60a Juicebox and indeed it went up to 54a(not sure why not 60a) but until 54a it would increment one amp for each push of the button on my JB, of course my '12 would max out at 16a draw on my JB's display. Note D amperage on the LeafDD isn't the 120 or even 240v amps draw but rather the HV amps output to the battery(HV being voltage C). So D will always be a fair amount less than the current draw from the wall.
Oh and you can get rid of your ? mark after AMPS and VOLTS, they are indeed live :)
Edit:
Per this thread's OP-

"In V1.1.x the two numbers on the bottom right are just bytes from the passive CAN data I was interested in.. The first from 0x5fe to tell drive from charge mode and the 2nd is byte 7 from 0x5bf from the 2011/12 on board charger showing power (used to control an additional Brusa charger for those playing with that).
The top right corner has dots showing the version number."
 
Amps and volts from EVSE are reported live? So if you use the JB's remote and use the "OutC-" button to reduce the amperage, the limit gets shown on the Page 2 numbers display right away?

I'm the JuiceBox whisperer... ;) I helped design the newer JBs and am the last guy standing in support of the old ones, so I can almost definitely help explain why it's saying 53 :) Unless it's hard-wired, you don't want to exceed 40 amps anyway (on a 14-50 outlet)! The "60" was just a unit maximum rating slapped on the label, but all JBs were built-to-order with cables usually rated for 32 amps. They usually started off set at 30 amps. :geek:

edit: Ohhh, I mis-read. Weird, it has no hard-coded limitations to stick at 54A - the hard-coded limitation is at 60A. The trimpot on the board (which usually sets the current limit) gets an override from the remote/LCD control when the remote receiver/LCD is present. So that shouldn't matter. The only other thing would be WiFi control, and those old PUs don't usually hook nicely up to WiFi... so I'm guessing that shouldn't be the issue. May be good for a ULF firmware/WiFi upgrade, though...
 
FalconFour said:
Amps and volts from EVSE are reported live? So if you use the JB's remote and use the "OutC-" button to reduce the amperage, the limit gets shown on the Page 2 numbers display right away?

I'm the JuiceBox whisperer... ;) I helped design the newer JBs and am the last guy standing in support of the old ones, so I can almost definitely help explain why it's saying 53 :) Unless it's hard-wired, you don't want to exceed 40 amps anyway (on a 14-50 outlet)! The "60" was just a unit maximum rating slapped on the label, but all JBs were built-to-order with cables usually rated for 32 amps. They usually started off set at 30 amps. :geek:
Yes to your first question, also the HV amp draw (D) changes right away.
I love my Juicebox Premium, my first L2 EVSE! It's built like a tank and has never given me a problem, only drawback is it's quite heavy and bulky for a portable EVSE(which was a main reason for buying it years ago). My(factory built) JB has a 14-50 plug but funny thing is it has a molded plug but only has 10 gauge wire, that and the metric equivalent of 10 gauge for it's orange J1772 cable! I always thought it was a lawsuit waiting to happen(if it indeed could put out more than 30a)......back then(as I'm sure you are well aware) JB seemed to be a more seat of the pants company, more designed for techies like myself and other members on MNL than Joe Six Pack :D Up until now I wasn't sure if JB limited the actual output current of my EVSE to 32a(max for it's J1772 cable) or not. Like I thought they did not and just rely on the user(myself) to not exceed the maximum of either my circuit, J1772 cable or input cable. Personally I like being in control and not having the JB nanny me, of course lawyers don't see it that way :lol:
My JB Premium has all options except WiFi which I was not interested in, I much prefer my little RF remote to having to use my cell phone.
I'll probably never exceed 30a with my JB(I'd have to replace both power cable and J1772 cable) so it doesn't really hurt it stops incrementing at 54a, just was surprised it did as the big sticker said 60, again not that I'd even use 1/2 that.


Oh not sure if you noticed as I updated it after I originally posted it, but I did add a bit more to the end of my post before this one, explaining a few more of your questions about the LeafDD screen.
 
FalconFour said:
With some help from Greg, I put together this explainer for the page 2 display of the LeafDD - the big jumble of numbers page. :)

L0KQbJW.jpg

(if the above image dies: it's a photo of the LeafDD with elements labeled A through J roughly clockwise from the top-center "S" value as item A, moving right, down the side, across the bottom, up to "H" in the center as item H, across the 4 left temperature values, then back down ending at "C" as item J)
  • SOC% (S) (static) - This is the 4-decimal-precision raw state-of-charge value. At least in my 2014 Leaf, though, this is only updated back on the Page 1 display (big numbers).
  • Gids (live) - self explanatory ;) The customary, proprietary unit of measurement of "how much energy is left in the battery". Good for range calculation.
  • Voltage (live) - the voltage of the battery pack.
  • Amperage (live) - amps going into/out of the battery.
  • EVSE Amps (live?) - seems to only work on 2011-2012 Leafs - but this should show the amperage of the connected charging station.
  • EVSE Volts (live?)- same as with amps, this should show voltage of the connected station.
  • 12V Voltage (live) - this is the voltage of the 12V system. The 12V battery charges at 14.4v, and is "idle" at around 13v (neither consumed nor charged).
  • Hx (H) (static?) - This is the infamous Hx. Not a representation of capacity, but - at least in my personal observation - seems to be more reflective of battery resistance/performance. Lower Hx = worse regen performance, higher heat production when charging/driving. Lots of discussions on this!
  • Temps (static) - These are the 4 temperature sensors (3 in 2013+) of the battery, displayed in Celsius.
  • Capacity (C) (static?) - This is the battery capacity in amp-hours (Ah). To calculate degradation, consider a new Leaf is around 66Ah, so divide (capacity)/66 to get a decimal percentage of new capacity (multiply by 100 to get percentage).
  • (Dots in the corner) - Indication of LeafDD firmware version
Static = values only update when display is switched to other screens for a few seconds. Live = values update in real-time.
Still not quite known: the hex(?) value in the lower-right corner

Hope this helps some users - and of course, also hope that the image stays up for a while! ;)

You forgot to mention the battery internal resistance measurement which appears when a hard acceleration occurs from
a stop, which replaces the "G" for a one time display.
 
^^^ interesting, I haven't noticed that. How hard and for how long do you have to push on the accelerator to get that number to appear? Also how long does it display after it appears? I take it a higher internal resistance is worse than a lower one, what is a typical number and what number might mean a battery is getting weaker? My '12 is down to 9 bars and only has a capacity of 47 and Hx around 51, I'd imagine it's internal resistance would be quite a bit higher than a Leaf with a good battery.
 
jjeff said:
^^^ interesting, I haven't noticed that. How hard and for how long do you have to push on the accelerator to get that number to appear? Also how long does it display after it appears? I take it a higher internal resistance is worse than a lower one, what is a typical number and what number might mean a battery is getting weaker? My '12 is down to 9 bars and only has a capacity of 47 and Hx around 51, I'd imagine it's internal resistance would be quite a bit higher than a Leaf with a good battery.

1. It takes about 10 seconds for it to sample the data.
2. It stays as long as you stay on that screen. Once the screen is changed, It will not be shown the next time that screen is displayed.
3. Yes, just like a lead-acid battery, a higher the resistance indicates aging and more heat developing as a function of load or charging.
4. The output resistance does change over time. I'll post my data taken over the last 3 years later today.
 
It looks for sustained low current (usually at a stop light.. in this condition it will put a single dot (5 pixels if I recall) on the first page somewhere) then if it sees max or near max current soon after (like a hard acceleration) it will sample the voltage and compare to rest voltage scaling by delta current. If it captures an impedance this way the single dot becomes two dots. At any point with the two dots (preferably when not driving) you can go to page 2 and see the impedance as well as pack temp and SOC at the time of the sample.

(This is only on later versions of LeafDD. Forget the version number..)
 
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