Which OBD2?

[Pittisi]

has someone already tested this OBD2 adapter. ELM327 mini. Which good (cheap) one can you recommend?

 

[Dr Dave]

This is one quite a number of us use, Vgate from Amazon. Works well with my phone, as you can see from the data screen shot.
I have tried the ELM327 mini, but cannot get it to work on the ZS EV.

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[Pittisi]

Very good thank you . Which phone do you use? What software do you use with the device and what data can you get then?

 

[Lobogris]

This is one quite a number of us use, Vgate from Amazon. Works well with my phone, as you can see from the data screen shot.
I have tried the ELM327 mini, but cannot get it to work on the ZS EV.

View attachment 4543View attachment 4544i

Which app do you use with it? Can you leave in permanently connected or do you need to unplug it after each use?

 

[Dr Dave]

Which app do you use with it? Can you leave in permanently connected or do you need to unplug it after each. Pittisi said 'Which phone do you use?

I use a Xiaomi Mi Note 10 phone (which has a great 108mp camera).

Here is the link to the app on this forum.


Project OBD2 - Mobile App v1.2.1/

You can get BMS version, cell max and Min voltages etc.I do not leave it permanently connected.

 

[Lobogris]

This is one quite a number of us use, Vgate from Amazon. Works well with my phone, as you can see from the data screen shot.
I have tried the ELM327 mini, but cannot get it to work on the ZS EV.

View attachment 4543View attachment 4544i

Does this device show correct SOC? I just got it a few days back and after a full charge when the car shows charge completed, it always shows around 92%. However as the battery goes down a bit, it seems to get closer to what is shown by the car at the time of charging.

 

[Dr Dave]

Does this device show correct SOC? I just got it a few days back and after a full charge when the car shows charge completed, it always shows around 92%. However as the battery goes down a bit, it seems to get closer to what is shown by the car at the time of charging.

The maximum soc with the latest BMS 0210622EU1,is 93.1%, which is correct, it is not good for a battery to be charged to 100% and is thus protected (The cars display, when you open a door when charging and being fully charged, will show 100% but the battery is only actually charged to 93% (it's software maximum set point, as indicated using an OBD device). 93% is the start point of the upper buffer and is the reason you get regen even from a fully charged battery as there is 7% available to store electricity. See my post #2 and you can see the readings taken when my car was fully charged and soh 100%. You should get similar readings my car has done 8,500 miles.

 

[Lobogris]

The maximum soc with the latest BMS 0210622EU1,is 93.1%, which is correct, it is not good for a battery to be charged to 100% and is thus protected.. This is the start point of the upper buffer and is the reason you get regen even from a fully charged battery. See my post #2 and you can see the readings taken when my car was fully charged and soh 100%. You should get similar readings my car has done 8,500 miles.

Thanks for the response. So that would mean a usable capacity of around 41.5 Kw. Then why is the usable capacity quoted at 42.5? These are my figures from right now as per the app. I wish we could tweak this to show 100% at the top of the buffer to help us understand battery usage.

 

[Dr Dave]

Thanks for the response. So that would mean a usable capacity of around 41.5 Kw. Then why is the usable capacity quoted at 42.5? These are my figures from right now as per the app. I wish we could tweak this to show 100% at the top of the buffer to help us understand battery usage.

Probably calculated from the original BMS which has a higher soc. In the real work 1 kWh is negligible temperature has a much greater effect on range.

 

[Gomev]

The maximum soc with the latest BMS 0210622EU1,is 93.1%, which is correct, it is not good for a battery to be charged to 100% and is thus protected (The cars display, when you open a door when charging and being fully charged, will show 100% but the battery is only actually charged to 93% (it's software maximum set point, as indicated using an OBD device). 93% is the start point of the upper buffer and is the reason you get regen even from a fully charged battery as there is 7% available to store electricity. See my post #2 and you can see the readings taken when my car was fully charged and soh 100%. You should get similar readings my car has done 8,500 miles.

Note though that @Lobogris is in India so the BMS version may be different.

 

[Dr Dave]

Note though that @Lobogris is in India so the BMS version may be different.

Please note my reply was specifically in respect of BMS 0210622EU1 as stated in the first line of my response.
I have no knowledge of the operating system used in India. However given his max voltage (in his screenshot) is 448.76 it would appear his BMS has similar characteristics to the UK one.

Edit: in fact his car is a UK one, imported from the UK as a demo vehicle.

 

[Lobogris]

Please note my reply was specifically in respect of BMS 0210622EU1 as stated in the first line of my response.
I have no knowledge of the operating system used in India.

True. However my car is a UK version which is different from the Indian version. It was imported directly from UK as a demo vehicle. So it lacks certain features that the Indian version has like battery percentage display, connected app etc just like the UK version. I do have the ADAS systems like adaptive cruise control, lane guidance etc but unfortunately they are not enabled. I am trying to see if there is a way of flashing the UK update for me in order to enable these features and get the outside temperature reading.

 

[Dr Dave]

My understanding is that the only way to flash or update the operating system is to have a MG dealership attach their computer which connects to the servers in China and updates the cars software. It is unlikely, at present, anyone besides MG, has the ability to re-flash the code and not possibly 'brick' the car.

 

[Lobogris]

My understanding is that the only way to flash or update the operating system is to have a MG dealership attach their computer which connects to the servers in China and updates the cars software. It is unlikely, at present, anyone besides MG, has the ability to re-flash the code and not possibly 'brick' the car.

Will have to drive my car to the UK then.
I have tried to convince MG here and they said they are checking it. Their computer does have the option to select UK at the start but they refuse to do it claiming that MG won't send them any non India updates. It should be possible to hack it somehow like we can do with VCDS in Volkswagen group vehicles.

 

[Dr Dave]

Will have to drive my car to the UK then.
I have tried to convince MG here and they said they are checking it. Their computer does have the option to select UK at the start but they refuse to do it claiming that MG won't send them any non India updates. It should be possible to hack it somehow like we can do with VCDS in Volkswagen group vehicles.

Good luck with any hacking attempt, you will invalidate any warranty.

 

[Gomev]

Which app do you use with it? Can you leave in permanently connected or do you need to unplug it after each use?

I found the Project OBD2 - Mobile App v1.2.1/ one to be unstable on my phone unfortunately as this is the most popular.
I now use 'Car Scanner ELM OBD2' app which works great on mine for the everyday stuff SOC, cell voltages, charging speed etc, but does not provide the software version names.

 

[Lobogris]

Depending on which phone you use I found the Project OBD2 - Mobile App v1.2.1/ one to be unstable on my phone.
I now use 'Car Scanner ELM OBD2' app which works great on mine.

Thanks. Project OBD app is sort of working fine for me. I have also downloaded the Car Scanner and it works but I am yet to fully check its details.

 

[Gomev]

Thanks. Project OBD app is sort of working fine for me. I have also downloaded the Car Scanner and it works but I am yet to fully check its details.

You can create your own dashboard page on the Car Scanner app, selecting what you want to see and how you want to see it. If you wanted to leave the dongle attached you could just have the SOC showing fullscreen whilst travelling.
Not sure if you can do that on the other, hopefully you can, as I never managed to get it to display for long enough on my incompatible phone.

 

[Lobogris]

You can create your own dashboard page on the Car Scanner app, selecting what you want to see and how you want to see it. If you wanted to leave the dongle attached you could just have the SOC showing fullscreen whilst travelling.
Not sure if you can do that on the other, hopefully you can, as I never managed to get it to display for long enough on my incompatible phone.

Yes. I look forward to trying out the Car Scanner app in detail. I am able to use the other app on a continuous basis as well. Have you had any issues with leaving the OBD dongle connected? I have found that if I leave it connected and then come back after a few hours, the device loses connection and has to be removed and reconnected.

 

[Gomev]

Yes. I look forward to trying out the Car Scanner app in detail. I am able to use the other app on a continuous basis as well. Have you had any issues with leaving the OBD dongle connected? I have found that if I leave it connected and then come back after a few hours, the device loses connection and has to be removed and reconnected.

The vehicle has to be 'on' for it to pick up the ECU data.