Aftermarket charge to 80%, opinions wanted!

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Dala

Well-known member
Leaf Supporting Member
Joined
Oct 28, 2018
Messages
464
Location
Finland
Hi forum,
I'm working on adding 80% charging (or any wanted % really) to any 2013-2019 Leaf, with the magic that is the Muxsan CAN bridge. The rough code is ready, but I need to decide on what button on the Nissan Leaf (that is available on the EV-CANbus!) should activate this mode.

Here are a few suggestions
-SteeringWheelButtons, ECO?
-Last used shifter position before charging
-ClimateControlButtonPress
-Fanspeed
-HVAC setting (recirculating/fresh air/defrost) (face/feet/defrost)
-Rear defrost ON

Which one would you want to use as a secondary trigger for charging to 80%? Remember that quick double tapping is also possible! Very thankful for suggestions!

EDIT: Oh, and would any feedback that the 80% max is on be wanted? Like it dropping all the capacity bars or something?
 
What about using the cruise control button, with the command being recognized as only toggling 80% mode if the button is pressed with the car not moving?
 
A display to indicate which mode has been chosen would be very helpful if the mode is toggled by a button press. Maybe have the top SOC indicator bar flash a few times when 100% is selected, and the 9th bar flash a few times when 80% is selected? If a display is difficult to implement, the position of a physical switch might be a better selector than a button.

Any idea how well this will integrate with the charging and climate control timers?
 
Charging to 80% is simple for me:

Time (hrs) ~= (80% - SOC) X 40 kWh / 5 kW
Time (hrs) ~= (80% - SOC) X 8 hrs

Example for SOC = 20%, Time ~ 5 hrs

Notes:
1. 40 kWh Leaf
2. My L2 ~ = 5 kW

For me, it's not critical to charge to exactly 80%. Obviously over time as degradation occurs, the 80% will increase.
 
You beat me too it :) I had the same thought, using the muxsan CANBUS MITM bridge this way and selling it as an aftermarket product.

Fortunately, I have a 2013 LEAF and so I don't need 80% charging.

I think this will sell very well, as the muxsan CANBUS bridge looks like it's easy to install and your plan for activating the feature using an existing button is smart.

Good luck!
 
webeleafowners said:
How about to the left of the steering wheel where the original 80 percent button was. Down by the heated steering wheel switch is.
What original button are you talking about?

'11 and '12 folks had to enable 80% via timers. '13 folks could but also could via an added menu option on the nav system on '13 and '14 SV/SL. Not sure about '13 S method... it's probably thru the tiny dash display on the 2 buttons on the left.)
 
cwerdna said:
webeleafowners said:
How about to the left of the steering wheel where the original 80 percent button was. Down by the heated steering wheel switch is.
What original button are you talking about?

'11 and '12 folks had to enable 80% via timers. '13 folks could but also could via an added menu option on the nav system on '13 and '14 SV/SL. Not sure about '13 S method... it's probably thru the tiny dash display on the 2 buttons on the left.)
Correct, to set the 80% mode you need to use those 2 buttons, they stay at whatever you've set them to.
 
cwerdna said:
webeleafowners said:
How about to the left of the steering wheel where the original 80 percent button was. Down by the heated steering wheel switch is.
What original button are you talking about?

'11 and '12 folks had to enable 80% via timers. '13 folks could but also could via an added menu option on the nav system on '13 and '14 SV/SL. Not sure about '13 S method... it's probably thru the tiny dash display on the 2 buttons on the left.)

I did not know that. I though there was an 80 percent button. Maybe I made that up in my head...out of strong wishful thinking. :).

It would be handy. We tend to use the timers a lot right now.
 
TBH; Having 80% on the 24 kwh was understandable but was more needed on the 30 kwh. But 40 kwh and up? Need custom charge settings. I wouldn't do 80% setting. I can do better manually. Need AT LEAST 2 other settings. How about 65%? That would still be well more than double what I would normally. :roll: :lol:
 
If a single fuel bar can be illuminated or flashed as an indicator, it might make sense to have 100%, 92%, 83%, 75% and 67% charge settings that could be toggled through.
 
Titanium48 said:
If a single fuel bar can be illuminated or flashed as an indicator, it might make sense to have 100%, 92%, 83%, 75% and 67% charge settings that could be toggled through.

That would work, although replacing 67% with ~60% would be desirable.
 
Or you could just use the next bar down for a 58% setting. I'm not sure why you would want to charge a car that gets used regularly to less than 2/3 though. You are significantly reducing your margin for unexpected trips, and there isn't much additional improvement to battery life to be made, is there?
 
Titanium48 said:
Or you could just use the next bar down for a 58% setting. I'm not sure why you would want to charge a car that gets used regularly to less than 2/3 though. You are significantly reducing your margin for unexpected trips, and there isn't much additional improvement to battery life to be made, is there?

Lithium batteries are happier in the middle SOC range than the upper. I typically charge my 40kwh Leaf to 60-80%, but don't recharge again until it's below 50%. 70 miles of range available is what I had with my previous Leaf at 100% charge.
 
Titanium48 said:
Or you could just use the next bar down for a 58% setting. I'm not sure why you would want to charge a car that gets used regularly to less than 2/3 though. You are significantly reducing your margin for unexpected trips, and there isn't much additional improvement to battery life to be made, is there?

Actually VERY shallow cycling does prove to work better. The vaunted Prius pack was diff chemistry but mechanics are similar. That pack cycled from 40 to 80% as much as several dozen times a day.

Li voltage is different so it prefers 50%. So 40-60% is good. I tend to run between 25 to 70%. Is it limiting? I don't really see that. The range covers my entire commute for my 4 day work week. Roughly 110 miles. In fact, I just did this this week, starting at 71% and ending at 22% during colder than normal weather so I even used heat. It worked. For the most part, I am only QCing twice a week.

Now it will change when my free charging runs out but not dramatically so. I plan to likely charge to around 65% for the start of the work week then plug in for 85 minutes every morning. I should end the week around 40%.

This allows plenty of cushion for random side trips if needed. I look at the 25% lower end of my SOC range as all buffer. That's another 65-70 miles added to whatever my SOC happens to be. For longer trips than that, they would be known in advance.

Having looked at unexpected trips I have done and there are several but in town stuff. Picking up kid from school, etc. Small stuff. Seatac is the only destination that comes to mind having had to pick someone up last minute twice this past Summer but they now have DCFC in the cellphone lot so I only need the 52 miles of range it takes to get there. I am more than covered.
 
I can see how the lower settings could be more useful on the 40 and 62 kWh cars. I couldn't see using anything below about 75% on a 24 or 30 kWh car though, unless I wasn't going to be driving it for a week or more.
 
Titanium48 said:
I can see how the lower settings could be more useful on the 40 and 62 kWh cars. I couldn't see using anything below about 75% on a 24 or 30 kWh car though, unless I wasn't going to be driving it for a week or more.

Well, I guess you just justified something. :cool:
 
I suppose if implementing multiple charge level settings and clear indications is not significantly more difficult than just an 80% setting it would make sense to have settings down to 50%.
 
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!
 
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