[Paul_Moxhay]

I have ordered one of these from eBay...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/251288487170

It cost £7 incl delivery so if it doesn't work then not much lost

I want to try it out with the Leaf using the LeafSpy android app and if I can find an app for the Ampera then I would like to try it with that too. Does anyone know of an Android app for the Ampera?

I can't wait to find out the real state of my Leaf battery after 20K miles and 2.5 years. The dealer report is not detailed enough to give me any clue.

 

[Paul_Moxhay]

That looks exactly what I am after. Thx for that.

Now I just need a decent way to mount the phone in the car... any ideas? I would rather not drill or damage the dash. I was thinking of Brodit but I can't find a mount for the Ampera. Haven't yet looked for the Leaf.

 

[Paul_Moxhay]

I remember that thread now. I should have done a search on the forum... there is a lot of wisdom hidden away in here!!!

I shall look at this today

 

[Paul_Moxhay]

Thanks for than

I haven't decided to get the Brodit yet. It is not a cheap solution.

I'd also want the one that mounts on the left of the centre console anyway but I am not yet decided.

Thanks anyway.

 

[Paul_Moxhay]

ODB2 dongle arrived this morning.

Plugged in and loaded up the Leaf Spy app on my Android phone and it all worked straight out of the box. This is what the app is telling me about my Leaf battery...

Current total capacity: 60.88Ah
Health: 84.09%
Number of rapid charges: 143
Odo: 19668 miles
State of Charge (SOC) when fully charged: 94.8%

The pack voltage difference is 23mV min to max.

The display also shows when a shunt is active on one of the battery cell pairs. A shunt is when a small discharge load is applied to bring down the voltage for that pair. Interestingly I have a shunt indicated as permanently active on one of the cell pairs. Should I be concerned at this?

I am now trying to work out how to load up the Torque App with the PIDs to try it out on the Ampera. I am totally foxxed at the moment as to how to do that :-o

Update:
I have found how to add new PIDs to the Torque app so just need to bash them in and add them to the app display. It works with SOC% YAY!

 

[Paul_Moxhay]

Parax... what PIDs do you use?

I have set up SOC-R, SOC-U... what is the difference?

Also, Inst. P (kW), Fuel % seems to work too. That is all I have tried so far.

Great app tho. Paid for the Pro version as only £3.

 

[Paul_Moxhay]

Yup. It is working for a few things. State of charge, instantaneous power plus a few of the things that are on the car already such as power used this charge cycle, etc.

I haven't yet explored it properly as I only went out for 30 mins but for under £10 (£7 for the OBD2 dongle and £3 software) it is pretty good already and once set up properly could give me all the info I need when out and about.

I will hopefully do a blog on it tomorrow... hopefully ;-)

 

[Paul_Moxhay]

Got it thx.

I have been chatting to Neil Stratford (@neilstratford) on twitter and he is very skeptical of the figures shown on these apps. He is suggesting that without official confirmation from the manufacturers as to what the numbers mean on theCAN bus then we should not place any reliance at all on the numbers meaning what we think they mean. I am paraphrasing many tweets but I believe that is basically his position (I am hoping he will come over and join the chat here so we can flesh out this discussion further).

I agree with him that the figures involve a lot of guesswork. The manufacturers, especially Nissan, do not publish their CANbus protocols and so it is only by back-engineering and deducing the meanings of each code can these apps be developed. It is not scientific and it is very unofficial. However, I believe that it is possible to back-engineer pretty accurately through observation of the data and comparing it with the real world and that is pretty much what they have done. I accept that it won't stand up to scientific scrutiny but as a driver I don't need that. I just want an indication of what is happening. If the numbers suggest a battery capacity drop of 10.27% and it is actually 10.17% I really don't care. All I need is an indication that it is about 10%. If the figures they use to determine that are not 100% accurate then I really don't care. As long as the end result is a reasonable indication of the truth.

Neil seems to be suggesting that there is no evidence that the battery capacity drops people are seeing with these apps are realistic or at all accurate. Well, everything I have seen to date suggests that the figures are pretty accurate but I am not totally convinced they are 100% accurate. It does depend on the assumptions made by those that back-engineered the code. Having said that, I would imagine that much of the code would be pretty obvious and a sensible deduction could be made as to the meaning based on observation of the real world events.

So, whilst it is fun to play with these apps it is worth remembering that it is just there as a bit of fun and although the figures look sensible to me and I believe the figures to be accurate they could be completely twoddle!

Make up your own minds

 

[Paul_Moxhay]

proddick, thx for that. Would you say that the Brodit was worth it? I don't mind paying that for something I will probably use every day but not if I can get something almost as good much cheaper.

 

[Paul_Moxhay]

Sure... good tip about the tape and DSR (Distance Selling Rgulations for those wondering )

Thx

 

[Paul_Moxhay]

The one in the driver's side footwell is the one I used and it works fine. I just leave it connected all the time.