Using clone ELM327 Bluetooth OBDII adapter with Leaf

[FalconFour]

Ahhh... it sounds like a firmware bug in the VCM then - I hadn't noticed the clicking before, and mine was doing it while charging. I'll keep an ear on it and see if it keeps up with further use.

Big concern is that I don't feel like I can comfortably keep the app running while I'm watching it from upstairs... sometimes I leave the app open for hours so I can glance over at it (like tonight, trying to cool the battery). I guess there's not much you can do if there's no way to see if commands are triggering the relay from the programming side...

[kevinleaf]

Off-topic question: can I log data while charging? Does the car have to be "on" to do this?
I am still having problems with my car charging stopping prematurely on ChargePoint at the full 6.3 kW rate (MY13) and I'd like to go to nissan with exactly what is going on when this failure occurs.

[Turbo3]

As long as you have not modified your ELM to be powered only when the Leaf is on it should work.

[kevinleaf]

I tried and the app won't connect properly when the car is off. I see the lights blinking quickly on my ELM327 so it is still getting power and communicating in some way. I tried to get logs but it didn't seem to capture right. I'll try again later.

[Turbo3]

If the car is off then one or more of the three green dash status lights needs to be on/flashing for the app to get data from the Leaf.

(I meant Blue not green)

[kevinleaf]

"three green dash status lights" ?
So the car has to be at least in the aux position? Where the radio / nav would be on but the car not ready to drive?

Is there additional charging related data that might be available on the bus that you are not currently collecting? Perhaps temperature of the PDC, current levels etc?

Aside question: I thought it would be cool to see how much regen happened over the course of a trip. Basically see how much energy consumed vs how much was generated by regen. Any idea how we might do this? I'm trying to get to the bottom of why my car uses so much less energy on my way to work than it does on the way home. Regen quantities might be a hint, but at least would be interesting...

[Turbo3]

(Sorry I meant Blue)

The three blue status lights have nothing to do with aux mode. They are charge status lights that come on when you plug in the charge cable, when charging or for 15 minutes after a charge. Those are the times the EV CAN bus is active and the app can read data from it.

The difference in energy use is most likely due to elevation change. I live on a hill so I always see more energy used coming home than going out.

[kevinleaf]

Ah, I do see by my logs that my house is at around 498 feet and work is at -63 according to the GPS. The direction that is downhill I normally use 30% of battery and the other direction uses 50% of battery.

This is totally clear and nice looking on my Leaf Log viewer, which unfortunately is still not ready for prime time. PM me for a link.

[rubear]

Warning:
The original ELM 327 draws 50 mA even when the car is turned off. this is 100x the maximum "dark" current for a device in the car.
This is 1.2 AH per 24 hours. I left my car sitting for a week and it killed the battery. Note that the leaf battery is pretty small.

[Turbo3]

Dark current in the Leaf is spec'ed to be 50 ma or less from the 12v battery. So keeping an ELM plugged in with a 50ma draw at least doubles the dark current. So not a good idea to leave plugged in if you are not going to drive your Leaf for a while.

Not sure where you are getting the 100 times number from. Can you provide a link? Or is this just some general rule of thumb someone has come up with. But yes placing a device that which only increases dark current by 1% is better then using one that increases it by 100%.