Did you check the voltage of the 12v battery when UVO was saying caution?

 

A good question but no. I do not think I have the means to do that. As far as I could see SoulEVspy does not have 12volt battery voltages and I do not have a volt meter. On the other hand I have never known my intelligent battery charger to stop charging before the battery has reached full voltage.

 

It’s just that measuring the voltage is more indicative than measuring the Ah and is likely what the app is monitoring.

How did you measure the Ah you put in, by the way, and given that the battery would be taking maybe 2 or 3 amps as it got close to charged, that must have taken quite some time anyway?

As for the app not picking up the recharged condition until you next went out for a drive, that doesn’t surprise me, mine often loses contact with the car.

In general and IME, because it’s so easy to damage an AGM battery by letting the voltage fall I think these reporting systems err on the cautious side. You’ll get a low warning we’ll before the battery drops to 12v in most cases, and a short drive will top it up.

 

It’s just that measuring the voltage is more indicative than measuring the Ah and is likely what the app is monitoring.

How did you measure the Ah you put in, by the way, and given that the battery would be taking maybe 2 or 3 amps as it got close to charged, that must have taken quite some time anyway?

As for the app not picking up the recharged condition until you next went out for a drive, that doesn’t surprise me, mine often loses contact with the car.

In general and IME, because it’s so easy to damage an AGM battery by letting the voltage fall I think these reporting systems err on the cautious side. You’ll get a low warning we’ll before the battery drops to 12v in most cases, and a short drive will top it up.

Thanks very much for your full reply.
The ampere hours were estimated from the fact that the charger was charging at 2 amps and took less than 4 hours to be fully charged - at least as far as the charger was concerned.
As far as I know the UVO app had fully contacted with the car - it showed changes in the traction battery accurately but still showed the 12 volt as "caution".
I thought my 12volt was doing fine - but I will now have to watch it a bit!

 

Did you charge the battery using the -ve terminal on the body or directly across the battery terminals?

 

Thanks for the question.
I charged it (as suggested in the charger instructions) with the negative connector connected to part of the car's metalwork. The charger checked the connection and said it was OK.

 

I would think 4 hours at 2A probably does simply indicate a lowish state of charge.

I haven’t had this issue with the Niro but my XF, if stood for more than a couple of weeks will give me low battery warning. Always starts easily enough and after a 15 min or so run, will be fine for another week or so. If I put my smart charger on it will take 3-4 hours to show all green.

I’ve checked the battery voltage at the time I’m getting the message and it’s been around 12.3/12.4v, which indicates it’s about 25% discharged.

That’s just to illustrate that the voltage doesn’t need to fall too far to trigger a warning, though an AGM battery is considered as fully discharged at anything much below 12v of course.

 

In answer to one of the original questions yes there is a warning message in red.
My reference is Bluelink for my Ioniq but the apps appear to be the same .
I had a yellow 12v battery warning before putting the car on a 6hr 7kw charge. As the 12v battery charges when the car is charged I expected the 12v icon in the app to turn green when I checked during the charge but it didn't. Refreshing the app did not change the state. It didn't turn green until the car was switched on so looks like everything is refreshed when the app queries the car.

 

My UVO app is reporting Normal for the 12v battery which seems to be ok. I remember Andrew Till had a major battery fail in one of his videos so I bought a cheap little gizmo from Amazon which plugs into the 12v point on the E Niro and it gives an illuminated display of the battery's voltage and two USB sockets. Seems to work for about £4. Probably OBD would give a more reliable reading but haven't gone down that route yet.

 

What's the gizmo?

 

Interestingly I have a Power Monitor 2 (PM2) that reports 98% at the moment @ 12.72V. But the incar OBD2 reports Mid 80%

 

It's a Dual USB Car Charger - Jebsens Car Voltage Meter Car Charger with Two USB Ports, 4.8A / 24W, LED Display Built-in Safety Protection Fast Charging Comp

 

Those are ok, but trouble is the car has to be on in order to power on the power socket. So the Voltage then displayed is changed due to charging (Or discharging in Accessory mode) current. You don’t ever see the natural, at rest, no load battery Voltage. A far better 12V monitor gizmo is one of these. I can’t praise it enough!....

Auto Battery Monitor BM2 Bluetooth 4.0 12V Device Car: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics

Auto Battery Monitor BM2 Bluetooth 4.0 12V Device Car: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics

www.amazon.co.uk

Fit and forget. Then read last month of battery Voltage graphs etc, whenever you want. I can read mine from inside the house (just). No need to open the car.

Peter

 

@prawlin Would you mind sharing the details of how you managed to fit your BM2 device please? I tried to fit mine, but couldn't find a way to then close the cover over the positive terminal. I don't particularly want to start cutting the cover, and don't particularly want to leave it flapping about. Many thanks.

 

I snipped the plastic cover of the positive terminal. Just enough to allow the wire to exit.

Peter

 

I've had a problem with my 12v recently. I do have a dashcam permanently live, so do use a relatively lot of power. I'm nearly always showing the Red Warning on the Uvo app.

Last Week, after 2 Days of no use, I had a totally flat 12v battery, so I charged for 12 Hours with the intelligent charger until it showed full. The next Day I did a short journey and after that, the app showed Green for the 12V. By the next Day, the 12v was showing Red Warning again. By the following Day, I went to activate the pre-heat and the app showed totally flat batteries (it shows the main as flat when the 12V is flat), however the pre-heat had started and the Green light for charging 12v was flashing.

It seems with the relatively short journeys and a lot of 12v use with the dark Afternoons, the car isn't charging the 12v enough. I've started using the pre-heat several times a Day as it seems to charge the 12v when in use.

 

There's another long thread here with more info on when the 12v battery charges. Perhaps you need to change to a deep cycle battery, that might help a bit.

You are new to the thread, do you have the battery maintence mode (battery saver) enabled? (I may have the words wrong after all the hand wringing there has been on this subject).

Greg

 

Set the car to utility mode as described in another thread, it'll do a proper job of charging the battery.

That being said, user @prawlin has done some research into how the 12v is maintained and the process looked quite airtight. The fact your battery gives a warning may mean that either 12v maintenance is not enabled / not working properly, or your 12v battery is at the end of its tether.

 

So, clearly he leaves the cam on all the time, so would you recommend utility mode whenever leaving the car for any length of time?

Greg

 

I think it's better than using the preheat since it draws less power from the high voltage battery.

That being said, leaving a dashcam running 24*7 on the 12v battery is asking for trouble, so I'd think of an alternative power source or a cam with a built-in backup battery.

 

I agree, it's a big ask from a vehicle designed to save power. A 12 volt gel cell, about 7 amp hours, and swap it when it goes out.

Greg

 

@lincsat leaving a dashcam recording 24/7 is way too much load, unless you’re driving several hours literally every day. Even then it’s not recommended IMHO.

I suggest change the dashcam setup to be powered only when the car is on. As has been said it’s way too much to ask from the car.
Then run the car in Utility mode for several hours to (hopefully) recover the 12V battery SOC (longer the better).
Also as has been said, ensure you have the battery saver+ feature turned on. That nicely tops up the auxiliary battery for 20 minutes every day.
Finally, avoid like the plague the accessory mode which occurs if turning on the car but without pressing the brake pedal. That mode is a real auxiliary battery killer.

HTH

Peter

 

There are power banks to supply power to a dashcam for 48 hours uninterrupted, and they can be recharged through the 12v outlet in the car which powers off afther the car is shut down. That way you don't put a strain on the 12V battery and will be able to run the dashcam non-stop. If you get a dashcam with movement detection, then you'd probably be able to run it for a lot of days before the power bank dies.

 

I did discuss the dashcam connection with the dealer before purchase of the car, the documentation suggested that the 12v battery would be topped up from the HV battery "as required" so I decided to have it permanently live rather than on accessory or use a power manager.

I do have "winter mode" enabled, is that the "battery saver+ " feature that's mentioned. I have noted that when pregeat is on, the Green light flashes to indicate 12v battery charging. When I select Utility mode, that light does not flash.

 

The dealers haven’t got a clue frankly. Please believe this forum before believing them! There is much more accurate information available on here.

The car only charges the 12V battery for 20 minutes a day whilst parked.. That is unlikely to be anywhere near enough to compensate for your 24/7 dashcam drain. The car does not 'charge the 12V as needed' you just get 20 minutes a day whilst parked if it needs more than that to compensate for your dashcam draw, then tough. That’s all you get!

No, winter mode is referring to the traction battery automatic heating system (Leave it on always anyway, it will only activate when things get really cold or as needed whilst charging)
Battery saver+ is the setting that enables the automatic daily 20 minute top up charge whilst parked. It is located in the cluster menu settings next to the speedo. It defaults to on so unless somebody changed it, it should be on anyway.

Selecting Preheat just to charge the 12V battery is ludicrous as it uses significant energy preheating. Only a fraction of the energy consumed is reaching the aux battery. If all you want to do is charge the 12V battery, please use Utility mode as it will be much more energy efficient and will also make a much better job of charging up the 12V battery (continuous 14.7V CV charging. Set heater, lights audio etc etc to off unless you need them on). There will be no flashing green light but I guarantee you it is charging the 12V battery as fast as is technically possible, by any means!

Peter

 

I don't doubt the dealer got it wrong but in fairness, that's how I read the brochure as well. I use the pre-heat (at low temp) as that can be activated from the app with the doors locked. AIUI, Utility mode can only be selected from within the vehicle and the doors cannot be locked whilst keeping it active.

 

Yes you have to be in the car to start utility mode. But then you can leave the car.
The doors can be locked/unlocked whilst in Utility mode if needed by using the UVO app.
Anyway, even if left unlocked, nobody can drive the car away from Utility mode unless they have the Fob to enable restarting the car for driving.

Peter

 

Further note @lincsat
Please understand I’m not suggesting you use Utility mode as an actual solution to your present scenario, it is just a great and convenient way to recover the battery from a low SOC situation as and when needed, or to give it a periodic maintenance top up.

As I said up front, the only real solution is to stop running the dashcam 24/7 from your car battery. If you repeatedly discharge it, in this way the Aux battery will soon become seriously and permanently degraded (if it hasn’t already! Lead acid car batteries have a quite limited cycle life. They are designed to be maintained at or near full SOC always).
As that possible damage would be obviously caused by your added accessory (dashcam) it is very unlikely to be covered by the makers warranty when it comes to the crunch.

Peter

 

Having checked the manual again, it does suggest that Battery saver + will keep the 12v topped up, not just 20 mins a Day

The Aux. Battery Saver+ is a function that monitors the charging status of the 12 V auxiliary battery. If the auxiliary battery level is low, the main high voltage battery charges the auxiliary battery.

Util mode does activate the heater, displays, lights etc, so in my case the start aircon (at a low temp) should do the same job without having the displays illuminated. It's not convenient now to change the dashcam connection or add an extra battery at this time

It does state that the battery saver is only active for 20 minutes when the power switch is on and the HV battery charger is connected. Hopefully Kia will update the software to do what is implied in the manual ie without the 20 minute Daily limit when there is no charger connected..

 

Yes I noticed the twin wires when I extended mine and also added an in line 250mA fuse some time ago (before I got this car). I have no explanation why it is so as the logger operating current is extremely low. Maybe the makers just had some surplus cable like that in stock to use up
I added the fuse just as a precaution. Connecting an unknown internal construction device straight across a car battery, just seemed wrong. Probably totally unnecessary, but I did it anyway.

Peter

 

12v went flat recharged it, now on UVO app the information about state of 12v has disappeared. Deleted
App off phone and reinstalled app, but still details of battery missing. Has anyone come across this.
Thank you in advance of replies.

 

Have you taken the car for a run, I've found that it takes some time to register a change in 12v battery status.

 

I wonder if you have used an external 12V charger then maybe the cars 12V BMS will now be confused and it may take some time to recalibrate/resync itself again. I expect it will reappear sooner or later.

Did you connect your charger straight onto both the battery terminals, or did you connect the charger negative clip to the car body earth point?

Peter

 

I connected negative to car body. Thanks for reply Pete.