What SOC% does each bar on Leaf dash represent ?

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evnow

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Apr 22, 2010
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Update : This SOC% corresponding to various bars in the Leaf dash is with the new firmware - based on this thread.

LeafSOC2.png


From various discussion in this thread, I've made a spread sheet that shows what lit bars showing available battery charge i.e. SOC (state of charge) really mean. When certain # is bars are lit, it doesn't mean a particualr SOC %, but a range. The range of SOC % that lit bars represent change depending on whether the car is being charged or being driven (i.e. discharged.)

Note : The below SOC% corresponding to various bars in the Leaf dash is with the old firmware.

The actual capacity shown is rounded up and assumes usable battery capacity of 24kwh. Carwings is an estimate - needs to be confirmed. Post here if you can confirm any of the carwings numbers.



The following images are from the user manual, thanks to AndyH.

bg7.jpg


bg6.jpg


12 - Driving Range Display
13 - Battery Available Charge Gauge (Fuel Gauge)
14 - Battery Capacity Level Gauge (Battery Condition/Total Capacity Gauge)
 
An 8% variance could be eight miles or more depending, not exactly a useful scale. If one was not watching and the bar just shifted one would not know if the bar were about to go down any minute or had just gone down making the estimation even more difficult. This to me is not enough information and further shows how the addition of a 0-100% SOC would have been more useful on many levels, one knows were the level is exactly and can see small changes in real time which can be quite useful. I bet even the average consumer will soon catch on to this in many cases.
 
EVDRIVER said:
This to me is not enough information and further shows how the addition of a 0-100% SOC would have been more useful on many levels, one knows were the level is exactly and can see small changes in real time which can be quite useful. I bet even the average consumer will soon catch on to this in many cases.
I don't think there is much debate about whether SOC% would be better than big grain bars. No doubt knowing SOC as best as BMS knows it is good. But my argument is that, that should not replace the range shown. The algo to calculate range should become better.
 
evnow said:
EVDRIVER said:
This to me is not enough information and further shows how the addition of a 0-100% SOC would have been more useful on many levels, one knows were the level is exactly and can see small changes in real time which can be quite useful. I bet even the average consumer will soon catch on to this in many cases.
I don't think there is much debate about whether SOC% would be better than big grain bars. No doubt knowing SOC as best as BMS knows it is good. But my argument is that, that should not replace the range shown. The algo to calculate range should become better.


It has never been easy to do this in an EV as you mention which is why the SOC can be a second and sometimes more accurate tool for the novice. I hope they make some software revision so we can see the SOC/ KW usage on the NAV, much cleaner and easier then adding a display. Perhaps in the corner some place so it is visible on multiple screens.
 
I went through the log from the highway drive (see http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=2794). The 10 mile drive was actually almost 15 miles according to google. It resulted in a 20 meg data file which I just processed..

I started out with a 100% charge and 12 SOC bars. Using the newly found SOC value on the CAN bus, here is what I found:

bar 12 turned off at 92.3%
Bar 11 turned off at 84.4%
Bar 10 turned off at 76.1%

That's all I discharged during this log, but seems to match up very nicely with the evnow's information in the OP. I think it's pretty safe to say the chart is accurate.
 
Nice work guys!

It would be interesting to learn if the car had any way to measure the amount of power being used by the motor - rather then just the state of charge of the battery. Yes - you would think there is a direct correlation between the two, but with the wild swings in SOC we've seen reported, it would be interesting if there was any data being recorded on the "consumption" side rather then just looking at the "supply side" so that we would have another method for judging how much range is left in the pack.
 
turbo2ltr said:
bar 12 turned off at 92.3%
Bar 11 turned off at 84.4%
Bar 10 turned off at 76.1%

That's all I discharged during this log, but seems to match up very nicely with the evnow's information in the OP. I think it's pretty safe to say the chart is accurate.
Cool. Can you also checkout the charging side (i'm less sure of that).
 
evnow said:
LakeLeaf said:
... but with the wild swings in SOC we've seen reported....
Do you mean the wild swings in Range ... ?

Yes - wild swings in projected range. If the SOC reports are really accurate, then probably a better way for an experienced driver to figure out how much further the car can go then the projected range. Otherwise - if there is also information about how much power the motor is using (which may be something that is sensored in the car) would be another way. On a lot of hybrids - the power flow in and out of the pack is something there are sensors for. Assume the Leaf is the same, ....
 
The NAV displays energy usage information, but Coulomb counting (keeping track of of energy in and out of the pack) is no easy task. Besides, the BMS is already doing it to come up with the SOC so there's no reason to do it yourself. SOC is the 'holy grail" of the pack. There is nothing we could do better than the BMS is already doing to come up with the SOC.

The range varies not because of the SOC, but because the VMC is predicting range based on 1: the SOC and 2: your previous consumption rate (which is dictated by your driving conditions). So while the range may be swinging, the SOC is more of a true measure of capacity remaining. For some people this number would better give them a more consistent value to base range on instead of trying to "reverse engineer" what the VMC is trying to predict.
 
Does the miles per kWh "meter" (on one of the "Nav" screen displays)
show essentially a real-time value, or just a long-term average that is
essentially useless for maximizing for the "present" driving conditions?
 
evnow said:
Cool. Can you also checkout the charging side (i'm less sure of that).

I don't see why it would be different other than the hysteresis that's built into the gauge. But I can check it out once I add filtering and logging to my custom program or the file would be HUGE. I can't charge it nearly as fast as I can discharge it so I'd have to leave it logging for several hours.
 
OK - trying to understand some of the inner workings a bit more.

So have you been able to figure out - when the car takes a particular action - e.g. going into turtle mode - does it do it based on the actual SOC number, or based on the projected range number?

The later would seem to explain some of the outlier reports we've read, but it also seems to be a strange way to take action.
 
Tonight I went down to 1.9% SOC.

My math was slightly off due to a full scale error. Two days in a row the car was charged to what I now calculate as 100.0%.


Bar 12 turned off at 92.6%
Bar 11 turned off at 84.3%
Bar 10 turned off at 76.5%
Bar 9 turned off at 68.3%
Bar 8 turned off at 60.4%
Bar 7 turned off at 52.2%
Bar 6 turned off at 44.4%
Bar 5 turned off at 30.2%
Bar 4 turned off at 28.4%
Bar 3 turned off at 20.1%
Bar 2 turned off at 12.3%
Bar 1 turned off at 4.1%

There seems to be an anomaly with when bar 5 turned off. Gonna have to check that one again. It wasn't done in one trip so maybe I screwed something up.

I'm currently logging a 1% to 100% charge and will report back. I can tell you the first bar comes on at 8.2%
 
Here's what was logged while charging.

Bar 1 turned on at 8.1%
Bar 2 turned on at 16.2%
Bar 3 turned on at 24.7%
Bar 4 turned on at 32.8%
Bar 5 turned on at 41.0%
Bar 6 turned on at 49.4%
Bar 7 turned on at 57.6%
Bar 8 turned on at 65.7%
Bar 9 turned on at 73.8%
Bar 10 turned on at 81.9%
Bar 11 turned on at 90.4%
Bar 12 turned on at 98.5%
 
turbo2ltr said:
Here's what was logged while charging.

Bar 1 turned on at 8.1%
Bar 2 turned on at 16.2%
Bar 3 turned on at 24.7%
Bar 4 turned on at 32.8%
Bar 5 turned on at 41.0%
Bar 6 turned on at 49.4%
Bar 7 turned on at 57.6%
Bar 8 turned on at 65.7%
Bar 9 turned on at 73.8%
Bar 10 turned on at 81.9%
Bar 11 turned on at 90.4%
Bar 12 turned on at 98.5%
So, while the majority of us here do agree that an SOC meter would be far more valuable as an "am I gonna get home" gauge, perhaps we can at least look at the bar-o-meter like this, (he said, trying to put a positive spin on it):

Hop in your ICE'er in the morning, see the fuel level meter is pointing to about 5:00, think "dang, I'd better stop by the local petrol pump on my way to work."

Jump in your spiffy new LEAF, see just a couple of bars lit up, think "dang, I'd better plug this puppy in for a while and go back to bed."

Sure seems to me like it occupies a lot of dashboard real estate and Nissan sales hype for such a limited amount of (useful) information.
 
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