Aftermarket charge to 80%, opinions wanted!

[LeftieBiker]

One last suggestion/lobbying effort. Make the lowest limit 70% rather than 75%, if that isn't too difficult. It will matter in hot weather.

[DaveinOlyWA]

I don't see why anyone would go thru all this w/o a "long term storage" setting around 50%?

[Titanium48]

If the SOC or capacity bars are to be used as indicators, it makes sense to stick with the corresponding charge levels - 100, 92, 83, 75, 67, 58, 50.

If settings are cycled by holding down a button, every additional setting will add about 5 seconds to the loop. There is thus a trade off between convenience for people who may need to regularly change the setting, and including lower settings that would be used only occasionally for long term storage.

Things might get more convenient if the cruise cancel button was used to enter the menu and of the +/- button pairs were used to select the charge level. Not sure how much more complicated that makes the coding though.

[DougWantsALeaf]

I would say for v1, just keep it to 80% to keep it simple. You can get creative from there.

Think we could adopt the change without invalidating our warranty?

[lorenfb]

Think we could adopt the change without invalidating our warranty?

Yes, that's a key question. Non-factory type of re-flashing of any ECU/module provides Nissan/dealers a basis to void warranties.
Most ICEV OEMs voided engine warranties when the engine ECUs were re-flashed, e.g. for "performance".

[LeftieBiker]

If the SOC or capacity bars are to be used as indicators, it makes sense to stick with the corresponding charge levels - 100, 92, 83, 75, 67, 58, 50.

67% would be great. That would add 5 seconds to the programming time, right?

[coulomb]

67% would be great. That would add 5 seconds to the programming time, right?

It only takes a second to get into the "set max charge bars" mode. It seems to me that you'd show 12 bars, then 11, etc changing every second or so. You let the button go when the desired number of bars are showing. So adding another level is only one more second, and only if you need to go that far. Of course, if you overshoot, then you have to go "round the loop" again, for another 6 seconds or so.

[Titanium48]

5 seconds is probably a bit longer than necessary, but a one second cycle time would be too fast for many people to reliably choose the option they wanted. The cycle time may need to get longer if there is any processing or other lag time inherent in the implementation though.

[LeftieBiker]

5 seconds is probably a bit longer than necessary, but a one second cycle time would be too fast for many people to reliably choose the option they wanted. The cycle time may need to get longer if there is any processing or other lag time inherent in the implementation though.

How hard would it be to make this a default setting that you change only when needed, instead of every time you want less than 100%? You'd only need to go into the menu to change the default. Also, could you get the Timer Override button to also override the default limit? That way you could set a default of, say, 75%, and when you wanted a full charge just press the override button...

I'll bet that you're regretting asking for input, eh?

[Lothsahn]

Wow, thanks for all the feedback! And yeah, this is mainly for the 30/40/62kWh upgrades, that you really want to protect your battery after investing in a costly battery upgrade. This should be especially beneficial for the 40kWh pack that charges to 4.20V per cell, which is quite high SOC (compared to 4.13V on 24kWh packs).

For the initial version, I'll add 4 different charge settings, (75, 84, 92, 100). I personally feel that if you go lower than this you'll risk limiting your use of the car.

I'll try to use the cruise control cancel button, and this menu is accessed by holding it for longer than 1second. Then depending on how long you hold the button, you'll set the max charge %.
I'll use the capacity bars to temporarily show the max charging %, I'll post a video when I have it working.

Thanks for all the feedback and great ideas!

Dala,

I agree that there should be a setting far lower than 75%. If I had a 40 kWh pack, I'd charge to 60% all the time.

I have a 2011 and I set the car to an 80% charge in the charge timers menu. Every time I charge, the car stops at 80% SOC. If I want more for the next day, I hit the charge timer override button (that illuminates the middle light on the dash), and the car will charge to 100%. This is extremely easy to use and I love it.

You could set the charge timer override somehow (possibly by holding the charge timer override button) and having the SOC bars indicate as proposed by other forums. I like the proposal of using 100, 92, 83, 75, 67, 58, 50. Then the mux canbus would then remember that setting and always charge to that percent. You'd do this once and forget about it.

When you were going on a long trip and need a full charge, you would simply hit the charge timer override button until the middle light came on. Then, for the next charge only, it would charge to 100%.

Note: Keep in mind I sometimes have to hit the charge timer override button multiple times before the middle indicator light comes on. So you would have to read the state of that light, NOT the press of the button, for the override.

I'll make a video of this and post it to youtube so you can see my process. Unfortunately, I'm out of town, so it'll take me about a week to get it uploaded.