Using clone ELM327 Bluetooth OBDII adapter with Leaf

[garygid]

This feature:

Settings screen allows selection of Miles/kWh or Watts/Mile or (if metric selected Watts/km)

should say Watt-hours (Wh), not Watts, in the /Mile and /km designations.

 

[vsiev]

Thanks Stoaty for putting a manual together. Now I know which ones are actual values and calculated values.

Anyone know what it means when the bar is red in the graph? Does it mean there is a problem with that particular cell?

 

[LEAFfan]

The red means shunts are balancing your cells, but the shunts seem to be in the wrong places as they are supposed to lower the voltages of the highest cells.

 

[garygid]

The red means shunts are balancing your cells, but the shunts seem to be in the wrong places as they are supposed to lower the voltages of the highest cells.

Perhaps:
The red color (a user selectable color) on a cell-pair's voltage bar
is meant to indicate that the Shunt on that cell is On, slowly
discharging that cell-pair, thus trying to better equalize the
highest (or higher) voltage cells with the other cells in the Battery Pack.

However, since one would expect that the highest-voltage cells
should be On, and the lowest voltage cells should be Off, it
appears that we do not have the correct interpretation
of these presumed "Shunt" bits in the LEAF's data.

More investigation would seem to be needed.

 

[garygid]

In the WiKi, the Ah is described as Amp-hours remaining
in the Pack, implying that this number would decrease as we
drive the car.

However this number appears to be the car's estimate
of the Ah that could be stored in the Battery Pack if the
pack was "full", right?

Thus, we think that this Ah number, divided
by our guess at what Ah a new pack "should" hold, gives us
an indication of the remaining battery capacity.
Of course, our guess at the full capacity value is... a guess.

Thus, the Capacity percentage shown is only a guesstimate.

 

[garygid]

Nice descriptions of the various parts of the Screen images
in the WiKi, that will help a lot of people.

Perhaps move the wiki link in this thread's first post
up to the top of the post, so that it is easier for users
to find?

Perhaps move the link to the latest version of the app
up to the top as well, for the same reason?

 

[Stoaty]

In the WiKi, the Ah is described as Amp-hours remaining
in the Pack, implying that this number would decrease as we
drive the car.

Gary, I just checked it, looks correct to me. Have another look at it, perhaps you were seeing something that isn't there.

 

[garygid]

The feature of having the latest data persist is great.

It helped give a much more meaningful demonstration
at our Gathering yesterday, and at least three of the 13
present will be jumping on the LEAF Battery App band-wagon.

Several wanted to see it work in the car, and several
others had seen it work previously.

One person tried a "spare" (pre-configured and tested)
setup that I had with me in their LEAF, and took it home!

After the meeting, I helped another person get the app set
up on their phone, and tested in their car. The one difficulty
doing the setup "in the wild" is getting Internet access
to download the app. Not all phones have cell data access.

 

[DanBaldwin]

Stoaty;
I'm using an HTC Vivid phone, and it works fine, so you can add that to the wiki if you like.
I too bought one of the larger bluetooth elm327 adapters from Newlaunch on Ebay, and it does not seem to work. I'm not sure if I'll try to find the unsoldered lead, or just send it back.

 

[garygid]

Gary, I just checked it, looks correct to me.
Have another look at it, perhaps you were seeing something that isn't there.

Yes, perhaps a mirage, because it seems to be Ok now,
you sneaky guy!

But I faintly detect that the new mirage is slightly
more red than the older oasis colors.

You might want to number each of these short descriptions,
to make it easy for others to add a more complete text
explanation below the picture.

Do you still need pictures of the Settings?

 

[Stoaty]

Stoaty;
I'm using an HTC Vivid phone, and it works fine, so you can add that to the wiki if you like.
I too bought one of the larger bluetooth elm327 adapters from Newlaunch on Ebay, and it does not seem to work. I'm not sure if I'll try to find the unsoldered lead, or just send it back.

Thanks. Added phone to Wiki, and a note in the ELM327 section that two users reported Newlaunch ELM327 scanners did not work.

 

[Stoaty]

You might want to number each of these short descriptions,
to make it easy for others to add a more complete text
explanation below the picture.

I thought about that, but since images are already up there I will just let others add more detailed descriptions below the images.

Do you still need pictures of the Settings?

No, 91040 put up some nice screen shots, which I am breaking into manageable sections. The first one is up on the Wiki.

However, what I do need is some info on the Logging Section. I haven't used it yet, and need to know:

1) What is "CP" logging? Don't know what the CP stands for?
2) What info is logged?
3) Where is the log file stored?
4) Is it a problem if you don't have a micro SD card in your phone (I don't yet)?
5) I assume Enable GPS adds GPS info to the log?
6) What is "Force logging" there for? When would you need to use it?

If I get answers to these questions, I will create the next part of the Settings Screen manual on the Wiki. Otherwise, I will be forced to figure them out myself.

 

[edatoakrun]

I drove my usual range/capacity test rout yesterday with the app running most of the way, with a few frustrations, and leading to severl questions.

I'm still having issues establishing and maintaining a connection. I'm thinking of buying another ELM327and giving that a try.

What procedure should restore connectivity if you lose it while driving?

Could the irritating "connected/ disconnected from phone event" pop up I get on my energy screen every ~30 seconds be indicative of this ELM327 connectivity problem?

How can I make it go away?

What is going on with all the red I saw on the screen all day yesterday??

This shot was taken a few hundred yards into the trip:



This one was taken ~108.7 miles later, ~30 Wh (~2.7 miles and ~200 ft of descent) past the VLBW:



In contrast, this is the shot I took earlier in the afternoon, at "80%" charge, and before I downloaded the 22t update:

 

[Stoaty]

Feature request: I would like to see two additions in the DTE kWh reserved dropdown - 2 kWh (VLBW) and 4 kWh (LBW). Hopefully they would also be marked in the dropdown menu as LBW and VLBW (although don't have to be marked that way when shown on the settings screen.

 

[QueenBee]

I can't wait to get my ELM327 and scrounge up an newer android phone! Thanks for everyones work on this.

Could someone point me to where there is more information/discussion about the AHr and Capacity percent numbers? I'm curious how this percent compares to a 100% charge GID/281 percent. Some local LEAFs are reporting 101.5%

It would be a big effort but it would be really great if we started centrally documenting and standardizing all of various readings and assumptions so that we all are using them the same to avoid confusion between people and applications.

 

[Turbo3]

Current work has shifted to the next generation of app that can listen to select messages. Here is a screenshot of screen 4. Version should be 0.23e for experimental. The dot field (lower left) is too short so takes two lines.

The bars monitor Regen braking and Target braking values in message ID 0x1CB. These are just test screens not the final layout. Final will be like TickTocks stacked blocks but I would need to code that. These are just standard progress bars so one line of code to produce each. At the moment I have not added the code to get back out of listen mode so once you go to screen 4 you no longer get any battery/SOC... updates. Since it is Mother's day I may not get back to coding today.

Seems like Target should always be >= Regen but here it is not. This should be all regen. I know Target is the right field because parked it goes up and down as you press on the brake. Car does not need to be on for Target to update. Almost real time updates. Just a little delay but should be good enough to guide you in trying to keep it mostly regen.

 

[Turbo3]

1) What is "CP" logging? Don't know what the CP stands for?
2) What info is logged?
3) Where is the log file stored?
4) Is it a problem if you don't have a micro SD card in your phone (I don't yet)?
5) I assume Enable GPS adds GPS info to the log?
6) What is "Force logging" there for? When would you need to use it?

1) CP=Cell Pair
2) Look at first line in CSV file over 100 items
3) LEAF_BAT_CAN folder
4) No it will write it to internal memory
5) Enables app to receive GPS location from phone. There is always a GPS field in the CSV file it will just be blank if no GPS location available.
6) Logging normally happens at the interval selected (2 sec to 1 hour) when valid CP data is available. But you can force one entry into the CSV file by pressing this button. Does not matter if CP Logging is On or OFF. It will force one entry the next time valid CP data is available from the Leaf. So you can press this button before connected and it will log one entry when it does connect and gets valid CP data. The # Log Entries is the total number of entries made into the CSV log file since the app was started. Each time you start the app the number will reset to 0. It is not the number of entries in the Log file.

 

[surfingslovak]

It would be a big effort but it would be really great if we started centrally documenting and standardizing all of various readings and assumptions so that we all are using them the same to avoid confusion between people and applications.

Yes, I noticed that Jim's app was put to good use at the Woodinville gathering the other day. Great photos in your Facebook group! Many thanks to Stoaty, Vicki and Gary for the great documentation on the Wiki. Speaking of which, the Wiki contains many of the core assumptions and our understanding of the inner workings of the battery pack and other subsystems. If could only get better, and I hope to have some time to help improve it.

On a related note, I would have a feature request to make also: could the energy economy figure next to the DTE use round instead of square brackets? I think the app would look more polished if this was changed. Also, given the level of interest, the relative low cost and the proliferation of smart phones, how would you feel about expanding the scope of this project im the future?

Since many of the phones might have a data connection, perhaps it would make sense to allow online storage and tracking of some of this information. This could happen in real-time or whenever the device connects to the Internet over WiFi. Although it's probably a bit too ambitious in the near term, I was always hoping to see something akin to voltstats.net for the LEAF.

 

[Stoaty]

1) What is "CP" logging? Don't know what the CP stands for?

1) CP=Cell Pair
2) Logging normally happens at the interval selected (2 sec to 1 hour) when valid CP data is available. But you can force one entry into the CSV file by pressing this button. Does not matter if CP Logging is On or OFF. It will force one entry the next time valid CP data is available from the Leaf. So you can press this button before connected and it will log one entry when it does connect and gets valid CP data. The # Log Entries is the total number of entries made into the CSV log file since the app was started. Each time you start the app the number will reset to 0. It is not the number of entries in the Log file.

Thanks. I will add to Wiki documentation. One comment: it sounds like the name "CP logging" isn't entirely accurate if all sorts of other stuff is logged besides the CP data. I am assuming (hoping) that temperature sensor data is in the log file. Perhaps I don't understand this, or maybe the name should be changed to "Data Logging"?

 

[DeaneG]

If "Target" is the instantaneous amount of braking attempted, and "Regen" is the amount of instantaneous regenerative braking, then I'd be really interested in the percentage of regenerative braking I achieved on a trip (Integral of Regen over the trip divided by the Integral of Target over the trip); or at least the instantaneous percentage (Regen/Target). To get the integrals, it's probably enough to read Target and Regen values once a second or so, and add any nonzero read values to their respective accumulations.

I understand that Ford's EV displays something like this.