Carwings oddities, interesting tidbits, and problems

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eeman said:
How does one connect to the carwings data center from a pc.
First the long way:
1) Go to the Nissan owners page https://www.nissanusa.com/owners/vehicles
2) Click Leaf Status
3) Click Launch CARWINGS (at the bottom)

Now the short way:
https://zeroemission.nissan-carwings.com
 
patrick0101 said:
eeman said:
How does one connect to the carwings data center from a pc.
Now the short way:
https://zeroemission.nissan-carwings.com
Tried the short way, but neither the Nissan portal ID / password works or the ID / password for Carwings that was entered into the Leaf.
Tried the create account, but its only location option is Japan and agreement is in Japanese.
When I backed out of the create account back to the short cut, it gave a warning box that "To use CARWINGS Service, you need to register your User ID from the vehicle Navigation System."
Is there some option screen on the Leaf where the User ID has to be registered, other than the initial entry of the Carwings ID / password, to get the short cut to work?
 
What was really strange was that when I backed up into the Carwings portal from the create an account site, it actually showed the Carwings data for my vehicle even though I had not managed to properly log into the direct Carwings portal.
Had the same data I got when I went into Carwings the long way through the owners portal.

Has anyone noticed the Carwings initially failing to show the last trip on a day until the next day rolls around?
I've only used it couple days now, but the first day the Carwings information showed up with the last trip of that day missing. Today that last trip on day one is showing up. But the last trip I made today isn't in the list?
 
my issues with the Carwings iphone application to date:
-the mileage guestimator on the phone does not match up with the dash when I start up the car. I've noticed this on a full charge. Typically Carwings shows maybe 10-20 miles less than the car does when I turn it on.
-Also, the hours to charge is goofy. I've noticed this also when the charge is complete. It will still show some hours left to complete the charge even though the graph shows a complete charge. If I toggle between normal and trickle on the main display, it then magically zeros out the hours left to charge.

While I can see this system has plenty of room for improvement, I'm still happy enough to see the progress of the charging without having to get in the car, especially if the car and I are at some distance.

I would think though that these bugs would be of high priority for Nissan to fix, it's this kind of stuff that keeps people on the fence when they find it on forums when they are checking to see user experience before buying.

The utter lack of charging station information is probably the biggest beef I have so far. I went to Olympia the other week and could hardly see any charging stations even though people were telling me where they new a few had been put in. This really needs to change. new station information is really going to be critical for folks taking their car for any kind of extended trip... once this information is reliable, the 70ish mile range (with comfortable cushion) could double, maybe more in a given day.

G
 
The most annoying thing for me with the iPhone app is the timeout/log-back-in behavior.

Once I am logged in, I can send requests periodically and things work OK (albeit slowly), but if I don't use it for a while (say wait a day), then when I try to check status it says my session timed out and it has to log back in again. But it takes me to a screen that asks me to change my password. I have to go "back" a page and start the login process again before I can send another update request. This multi-step process to get logged in again is annoying since I have to do it almost every time I use the app (since I am not using it constantly every day.)

Couldn't they make it try to automatically log back in using your cached password instead of prompting every time?
 
rawhog said:
What pisses me off is that when I ask for an update, I get a rapid respons e that says status was updated. But, When I go to the home screen nothing has changed. I have to leave the app, remove it from the multi tasking tray, restart the app, then it will show the updated status.

???

I don't have that problem. When I ask for an update it says the request was sent. Then I click the home button and wait a while for it to get the response. The home page will show the old (stale) bar graph until the update response comes back then it refreshes with the new info. No need to exit and restart the app.
 
TEG said:
The most annoying thing for me with the iPhone app is the timeout/log-back-in behavior.

Once I am logged in, I can send requests periodically and things work OK (albeit slowly), but if I don't use it for a while (say wait a day), then when I try to check status it says my session timed out and it has to log back in again. But it takes me to a screen that asks me to change my password. I have to go "back" a page and start the login process again before I can send another update request. This multi-step process to get logged in again is annoying since I have to do it almost every time I use the app (since I am not using it constantly every day.)

Couldn't they make it try to automatically log back in using your cached password instead of prompting every time?

It would be nice if the time out/log out function could be user determined. I'd leave it to several days for the reason you mention. Also, I'd like to just tap on the app and have it automatically go through the steps needed to update the charging status and simply display it when it has come up. having to check OK several times is time consuming and I have no need to view the old status before seeing the new. I have to admit I probably check it more than necessary out of curiosity some times, but still, it should be a fluid process.

g
 
TEG said:
The most annoying thing for me with the iPhone app is the timeout/log-back-in behavior.
The website times out to. I have the "remember me" option selected, yet it seems to log me out several times per day. Also, Chrome does not remember/auto-populate the password field. They seem to have blocked that browser feature. Please stop making me waste time logging in repeatedly.
 
We have no smartphone yet, so are using the PC version of Carwings. It worked the day after we brought the car home. Since then (a week ago), when I press the Refresh button, it pops up an error box that says
  • vehicle status: request failed
    [our car name] detected a problem and was unable to update the
    vehicle status Please try your request again.
I have not noticed any error messages in the car displays. Any ideas on what's happening?
 
This happened to me (three times). I found that my carwings password had changed. I went to the Nissan Owners portal, registered the new password and re-entered the password in the car... Problem fixed....again... :?
 
Well, I must be dense. I cannot get it to work.

  • On my PC, I went into Carwings and changed my password.
    I went to my car and changed the Carwings password there.
    Car tried to connect, couldn't, told me I had to establish an account.
    So I changed it back to the original one. It connected.
    I went back to the PC and changed my password to the original one.
    I tried to connect to the car, and got that same message.
    Blather, rinse, repeat.

PC and car have same user name and password. What else does it take to make it work? Persistence? Wait a few days?
 
OldCoot said:
We have no smartphone yet, so are using the PC version of Carwings. It worked the day after we brought the car home. Since then (a week ago), when I press the Refresh button, it pops up an error box that says
  • vehicle status: request failed
    [our car name] detected a problem and was unable to update the
    vehicle status Please try your request again.
I have not noticed any error messages in the car displays. Any ideas on what's happening?


I"m getting the exact same message, haven't been able to get an update for days. I"ll try and update the password... I wish this AP weren't so high maintenance! I would think that if it were a password related issue it would state that the password and username don't match up rather than giving me try the request again... I figured it was a server issue and just kept giving it more time. So far, carwings is a bit of a PITA!

I'm contacting the help line now and will report back after the call. ooops, that will have to wait till monday when they are open again...

how do you reset the password on the iPhone ap... I'm not finding it for some reason?

g
 
This thread seems to be the most appropriate place I can find to post about a Carwings oddity/problem I experienced for the first time last night. Here's what happened:

As usual, we put the car in the garage and plugged it into the Blink about 5:30PM yesterday, not expecting we would use it again for anything that evening. We have a timer set in the Leaf to charge to 80% starting at midnight, ending at 5:00AM, to take advantage of super off-peak rates. No timer set on the Blink at all. This has worked perfectly for us for months. When I plugged it in, I heard the usual startup clunk of the Blink relay, and the 3 blue lights on the dash did their little blinking dance, lighting in sequence, which told me it was ready to charge when the timer kicked in at midnight--all as usual--so I shut the garage door and put Leaf matters out of my mind for the day.

The weird stuff started this morning when I checked my email. I had four Carwings notifications in my inbox. The first was sent at 8:39PM and said "Charging Started." I had never received a "charging started" notification EVER before, and I could not understand why it had been sent at that time, 3 hours after I had plugged the car in but still 3.5 hours before charging was supposed to start, according to the timer settings. The next message was from 8:42PM and said "Status Updated." This was bizarre, as I usually only get these notices if I have logged into Carwings and checked the status. I don't have a smartphone, and only do this from my PC, and I had not even had my PC on at 8:30 that evening! The 3rd message was sent at 1:40AM this morning, and said "Charging Complete," and the Leaf was at 12 of 12 bars. I couldn't understand that, as the timer was set for 80% and these messages usually say 10 of 12 bars. The fourth message said the same thing, but was sent at 3:45AM (basically a duplicate of the previous "12 of 12 bars" message at 1:40AM).

I was confused about what happened, so went out to the garage and checked the car. It was indeed charged to 100%, even though I had never asked it to do that. I checked the timer settings and they were just as always--charge to 80% at midnight 7 days a week.

I called Carwings support and they have no explanation for what happened. They said it sounded like I had logged onto Carwings at 8:30PM on 6:21 and clicked the "start charging" link. I assured them I hadn't done that. Their speculation was that it was just a software anomaly, then.

What I am wondering is if there is any chance of "crosstalk" in the telematics--that is, would it be possible that someone else sending a signal to their car to start charging could somehow get relayed incorrectly to my car? I have received a few "status updated" messages in the past 3 months when I had NOT logged on and checked the Leaf's status myself, and I always wondered why, but wrote it off to occasional "hiccups" in Carwings. I had NEVER received any "Plugged In" or "Charging Started" notifications before, even though I have my account configured to send emails for those events. This was the first "Charging Started" message ever, as I said above. Just an odd coincidence? The Carwings support guy said that there are still known issues with people receiving notifications correctly that they are working on to correct, but denied any known issues with their system last night that could have caused my issues. He suggested closing my account and assigning a new PIN and password in case someone else was accessing my account. I declined, as I can't believe there is any incentive for a hacker to break into and mess with my account. What for? I think it is far more likely that messages are sometimes being routed incorrectly between the web interface and the car's telematics and/or the owner's email account. I am going to just wait and see if this is a fluke or continues happening on a regular basis.

I thought I would post here, though, to see if anyone else is experiencing any similar oddities with Carwings notifications, status updating, or unintended "Charging Started" episodes. I know you people with smartphones and mobile apps have bigger fish to fry with your apps, etc., but having my car charge to 100% when I didn't ask it to, and at the wrong time besides, is an issue for me.

TT
 
Nothing is absolute but considering how the telematics works, I'd say the chances are pretty close to nil...

ttweed said:
What I am wondering is if there is any chance of "crosstalk" in the telematics--that is, would it be possible that someone else sending a signal to their car to start charging could somehow get relayed incorrectly to my car?
 
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