LEAFStat iPhone/iPad app to monitor battery status etc.

[hawkeye1824]

Thanks DM33!!

So if I understand correctly, I get one of these things (OBDii WiFi), and it appears to matter which one, I can connect to my Leaf more easily than the Nissan app that sends messages to the car, and then informs me once information has been updated?

Is it worth it, in anyone's humble opinion?

[dm33]

Thanks DM33!!

So if I understand correctly, I get one of these things (OBDii WiFi), and it appears to matter which one, I can connect to my Leaf more easily than the Nissan app that sends messages to the car, and then informs me once information has been updated?

Is it worth it, in anyone's humble opinion?

Its intended for a different purpose than the Nissan app.

The Nissan app uses Carwings to send messages to the car via a cellular connection. You can be anywhere in the world and communicate with the car. It lets you turn AC on. It reports the state of charge represented in the number of bars like in the car.

LEAFstat connects directly to the car and obtains information that is not displayed otherwise. It is not displayed on the dashboard, its not displayed via Carwings. The information is mostly fields that have been discovered by this community regarding the battery, including an indication of state of health, % of original capacity, battery temperature and tire pressure.

[hawkeye1824]

Ahhhhhh... Thanks!!

[mwalsh]

Actually, it's an ODBII transmitter, which transmits it's data over WiFi. Plugs into the ODBII connector on your car.

http://www.amazon.com/ELM327-WIFI-OBD-A ... B00AQ99UQ0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Not to be confused with exactly the same item, but which transmits over Bluetooth!

Weird. I'm missing a whole bunch of responses in this thread from this question being asked and me responding. Don't know why. Sorry for duplicating previous effort!

[Nubo]

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HVV60HI/ref ... 00_TE_item" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;. Fulfilled by Amazon. It's already shipped.

On those rare occasions when I don't drive the car for more than 3 days, I can just disconnect it.

I can confirm this unit seems to work with Leaf Stat.

The tall units do protrude into the leg space a bit. I can live with it but an unfamiliar driver could snag it. Might be best to get a cable or a low profile unit in such cases.

[Nubo]

I was just about to also. But... "shipping speed: 17 to 28 business days"?

Uh, no.

update: I figured having a switch wasn't as big a deal as waiting a month and a half for the slow boat from "Jeff-Store". So I'll be trying out this one:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HVV60HI/ref ... 00_TE_item" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;. Fulfilled by Amazon. It's already shipped.

On those rare occasions when I don't drive the car for more than 3 days, I can just disconnect it.

Got the unit yesterday, and it seems to work fine with the app.

2 concerns:

- This is one of the "tall" units, which means it sticks down noticeably into the footwell area. I haven't bumped it and don't think it will be a problem for me, but if someone were to drive who is unaware of the dongle, it could potentially be a problem. Might be better to run this off a cable, or get one of the low-profile units.

- Still not sure of the power consumption. The device does get noticeably warm. It was even warm this morning, though not as much as when I was actively using it with the car on. Warmer than I'd expect for dissipating less than one watt, so I'm going to have to measure the current drain and see if the .75 watts specification is accurate.

All in all I'm leaning towards a low-profile unit with a switch as being the better solution here.
But this gets me playing. It may well be that I only want the info occasionally or for taking extended range trips.

[Nubo]

Suggestion for the app:

I find that I'd like to be able to look at the display at some point after the drive, to see the last-obtained values.

Unfortunately, being off the OBDII network, the app immediately throws up the big white dialog to tell you you're not connected. This obscures most of the display. "Retry" makes it go away briefly, but doing this repeatedly is awkward.

It would help to have an option to dismiss the dialog and be able to view the previous display values, with perhaps an "offline" status indicator and "reconnect" button. Alternatively (don't know if this is possible), if the offline dialogue box had some transparency, one could see the old values without any further programming changes.

I might have a long trip coming up soon, and I don't do Android so I'm very happy to have this app. Thanks!

[QueenBee]

I have a splitter and couldn't get it to work while LEAFSpy was also running.

Can you rename SOH to HX as the number you are reporting isn't exactly know. There is a better number that matches the AHr which LEAFSpy calls SOH.

Anyone taken their adapter apart to look at rewiring to only come on with the car? I had my Bluetooth dongle updated like that.

Look forward to testing new features!

[garygid]

True battery SOC (State of Charge) goes from 0% (totally drained) to 100%
(totally stuffed). However, like in real life, being totally drained or stuffed is
usually stressful, even damaging. So, in designing a battery power system,
the bottom 5% or more, and the top 5% or more are engineered to be forbidden
(possible or likely damage) zones, leaving an "available" capacity of 90% or less.

Not wanting to confuse owners and drivers with the facts, the car often reports
this available energy or capacity as 0 to 100, like fullness of a gas tank.

However, many USA drivers are accustomed to reading Empty as "down to the reserve",
and not "the car is now stopping". So, another "state of fullness" number is usually
actually shown on the dash as something like a "fuel gauge", going from 0 to 100 or
Empty to Full, but so far the EVs tend to not indicate the "below empty" range, like
some traditional gas gauges do (the indicator needle moving below E).

There is one further significant complication. A typical gas tank does not change
in size, so tank fullness also indicates the quantity of fuel. However, with typical
EV battery pack systems, the capacity of the pack can decrease over time, so that
the "Full" condition gradually represents less available fuel, thus a decreasing range.

GIDs, found in the LEAF, appears to be a value that represents the amount of usable
energy or fuel, and most of the SOC-derived numbers are just tank/battery fullness
numbers designed to make the driver/owner feel better.

That said, all of these numbers are estimates, and these estimates are subject to
re-calculation at any time, as conditions permit or require, like as temperature
changes, or the cells in the pack get near empty, or near full.

Yes, it is a slightly new, but facinating, ballgame.

[sulfate125]

Ordered the OBDii interface from Jeff Store last week. It arrived within a week but they shipped the unit with the bluetooth interface, so it will need to be returned. Jeff store sent me a non-prepaid shipping label. Not expensive to return, but I should not have to pay for this. So far not happy with Jeff store.