OBD 2 Dongle + iPhone + ABRP

Andrew Sinclair

Andrew Sinclair

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Does anyone have any OBD dongle recommendations based on recent experience using the dongle with an iPhone (in my case 7 Plus) along with the ABRP application?

ADVThanksANCE

To explore how the ABRP + iPhone + OBD 2 work together I bought a NEXAS NexLink Bluetooth 5.0 OBDII Scanner and tried it out. It worked reasonably well but the High Voltage (HV) traction battery State of Charge (SoC) reported by the OBD 2 started to diverge from the SoC reported by the vehicle on the dashboard; the SoC reported by the vehicle being lower than that reported by the OBD 2 scanner. It left me wondering whether there is some sort of factor applied to the SoC reported by the car so that it is lower than the 'real' SoC to minimise the occurrence of battery exhaustion.

The main reason that the NEXAS NexLink isn't the right device is that it isn't Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) and leaving it connected overnight significantly drained my 12v vehicle battery.

I am now going to try those that are mentioned on the ABRP page here.
 
Andrew Sinclair said:
It worked reasonably well but the High Voltage (HV) traction battery State of Charge (SoC) reported by the OBD 2 started to diverge from the SoC reported by the vehicle on the dashboard; the SoC reported by the vehicle being lower than that reported by the OBD 2 scanner. It left me wondering whether there is some sort of factor applied to the SoC reported by the car so that it is lower than the 'real' SoC to minimise the occurrence of battery exhaustion.
Click to expand...
I just put it down to the buffer and I think it reads the real soc probably the same when the car says 5% it will possibly give you a higher reading?

Andrew Sinclair said:
The main reason that the NEXAS NexLink isn't the right device is that it isn't Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) and leaving it connected overnight significantly drained my 12v vehicle
Click to expand...
I don't think it the Bluetooth dongles fault as the cars OBD2 port actually stays live I did leave my Nexus plugged in 3days and car went in to ready ok
 
Thanks @N2STY

I am interested in the buffer theory, I’ll investigate that further. Do you think that it may be related to a conscious design so the car under reports thus encouraging earlier rather than later recharging?

Regarding the dongle running the 12v battery down, I agree it isn’t the fault of the dongle. The problem is, as far as I understand, that the dongle isn’t designed according to the BLE protocol so will remain powered when connected and thus use more power. I have order a dongle which adheres to the BLE to see what the difference is.

Interesting to hear that your Nexus did not affect your vehicle after leaving in connected for three days. My battery voltage when down from 14.1 v to 13.0 v overnight and hence got me thinking 🤔
 
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Andrew Sinclair said:
Interesting to hear that your Nexus did not affect your vehicle after leaving in connected for three days. My battery voltage when down from 14.1 v to 13.0 v overnight and hence got me thinking 🤔
Click to expand...
12.6v is considered a full healthy battery at rest
Screenshot_20230301-082652.png
 
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Andrew Sinclair said:
I am interested in the buffer theory, I’ll investigate that further. Do you think that it may be related to a conscious design so the car under reports thus encouraging earlier rather than later recharging?
Click to expand...
I think the buffer is there like all EVs as cells don't like sitting at 100%. A battery that stays 97% will have a much longer life even more so at 80to90% same at the lower end you get Less degradation if the battery don't get to low 30% is considered the healthiest but 20% is also expected but 10% will probably speedup the degradation and 0% is a big no-no so I imagine there's a small buffer at the bottom but is not taken into calculation of usable battery as you can keep driving after you hit 0%
Officially Long Range has a total capacity of 72.6 kWh. The usable capacity is estimated at 68.3 kWh. I'm sure that's allowing for the top buffer
 
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N2STY said:
12.6v is considered a full healthy battery at rest View attachment 15560
Click to expand...
Great information thanks very much 👍

N2STY said:
I think the buffer is there like all EVs as cells don't like sitting at 100%. A battery that stays 97% will have a much longer life even more so at 80to90% same at the lower end you get Less degradation if the battery don't get to low 30% is considered the healthiest but 20% is also expected but 10% will probably speedup the degradation and 0% is a big no-no so I imagine there's a small buffer at the bottom but is not taken into calculation of usable battery as you can keep driving after you hit 0%
Officially Long Range has a total capacity of 72.6 kWh. The usable capacity is estimated at 68.3 kWh. I'm sure that's allowing for the top buffer
Click to expand...
Again, great information thanks. So then SoC as reported by the vehicle is ‘calibrated’ and the dongle is reporting raw data.
 
I tried the Vgate iCar Pro BLE 4.0 today and again it worked well directly with the ABRP without any third-party app and it goes into sleep mode when the EV is switched off. The trouble is it doesn't wake up when you turn the EV back on.

I understand the Vgate vLinker MC+ does wake up correctly with EVs. I have ordered one of those to try tomorrow.
 
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It definitely adds up doesn't it
Out of interest does this mean you can now see state of health on Apple phone?
 
A 12v lead acid battery when fully charged is usually over 13v and 13.5 volts is common.
 
Having worked on car heating systems for years, I would disagree. Lead acid car batteries when fully charged are over 13v, 13.5 quite normal.
 
The only time I see voltage like that is when just charged or AMG a healthy 12V car lead battery is around 12.6v at rest I have seen lead sealed batteries sit at around 13v and AMG sit just a bit higher
Screenshot_20230302-102006.png
Screenshot_20230302-104811.png
 
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It is a pointless point.
If the battery is being charged it will read about 15V, ie when car is in use.
If it is sitting there it can read anything from 12.5 to 13.5.
In practise, we always used 13v as the norm.
 
At no point was we talking about charging we was talking about a battery that has been left all night with a constant draw from Bluetooth device the op was worried that battery dropped to 13v I was reassuring them that 12.6v is still considered a good full battery

As for charging at 15v that's a bit old school alternators are regulated nowadays 13.8v to 14.1v
 
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N2STY said:
It definitely adds up doesn't it
Out of interest does this mean you can now see state of health on Apple phone?
Click to expand...
Yes, I believe so (see attached image). The ODB 2 dongle I used is the vLinker MC + which of the three I have teared seems to be the best.
6707269D-2B05-4B83-A566-08C38A37DF09.jpeg


It’s been a fun little experiment and I’ll keep
the vLinker MC+ and use it to feed the ABRP app for long journeys
 
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Andrew Sinclair said:
Yes, I believe so (see attached image). The ODB 2 dongle I used is the vLinker MC + which of the three I have teared seems to be the best.
View attachment 15599

It’s been a fun little experiment and I’ll keep
the vLinker MC+ and use it to feed the ABRP app for long journeys
Click to expand...
I can't see SOH on there
The 4.9% degradation is manual input under settings then vehicle
 
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