OBD Play: an iPhone app for viewing Mach-E trips and charging data

[Jiji]

You had the red MME? I had some of those dust mats / inserts from AOSK I meant to give you if you had wanted. I forgot to even offer.

Yes, we met early on then didn’t seem to bump into each other. But I had a 4 yr old that bored quickly.

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[mkhuffman]

How long have you had the car and how many miles on it?

I have to double check mine but I think it was 97% SOH with almost 13k miles and 1 year of ownership

26,258 miles. Have owned the car for 1 year, 4 months. The battery SoH started dropping last summer, so after about 8 months of ownership and around 10,000 miles (rough estimate). You may see yours continue to drop now also.

 

[mkhuffman]

SoC displayed has integer resolution and is the value you see in the instrument panel, there is another SoC PID that has 0.5 resolLutron. I suppose that 99% could be 99.5% or 98.5% depending on how afore rounds it.

I can make a shameless plug on tracking your SoH:

I would love to be able to track the SoH but I don't have an iPhone. Android man here.

 

[Mach-Lee]

Last Spring I was able to measure over 90 kWh EtE, but that was when the battery SoH was close to 100%.

Now that the battery SoH is 92%, I get around 84 kWh EtE. Maybe your battery SoH is lower than mine?

I don’t think it’s a difference in battery health so much as a change in the capacity algorithm in the newer BECM software. Seems to report less kWh available than earlier software. I don’t have concrete data, just a hunch.

 

[Jiji]

I would love to be able to track the SoH but I don't have an iPhone. Android man here.

I wish I could help but I am in the opposite position. I think there are development tools (Kotlin is one)that help address both platforms but I wanted to learn Swift (Android uses Java) the SwiftUI framework, especially now they added Charts.

These apps are not that big if someone wished to move them to Android, it just won’t be me.

 

[Jiji]

I would love to be able to track the SoH but I don't have an iPhone. Android man here.

Actually an old iPad or iPod Touch could be used if you wanted to record charging at home using just WiFi or if you subscribe to Ford’s (or is it AT&T?) vehicle WiFi plan they should work for recording trips.

 

[kindofblue]

thanks for doing this Rick. I am looking forward to seeing how much efficiency I can squeeze out of the MME and compare it to my i4 40eDrive with more precision.

 

[mkhuffman]

I don’t think it’s a difference in battery health so much as a change in the capacity algorithm in the newer BECM software. Seems to report less kWh available than earlier software. I don’t have concrete data, just a hunch.

The EtE tracks perfectly with SoH. If I divide the warm battery EtE by 91 kWh, I get the same % as shown by the SoH.

 

[mkhuffman]

Actually an old iPad or iPod Touch could be used if you wanted to record charging at home using just WiFi or if you subscribe to Ford’s (or is it AT&T?) vehicle WiFi plan they should work for recording trips.

I do have the Ford mobile WiFi plan, and may have an old Apple device around somewhere. I will check it out ...

 

[astrorob]

by the way, what would happen if you used an old iPod to collect the data but it had no internet connection? will the collection app queue all the samples such that when you get back to home or wherever there is wifi, it could all be uploaded to the database in one go?

 

[Jiji]

I do have the Ford mobile WiFi plan, and may have an old Apple device around somewhere. I will check it out ...

Just not too old, if it isn’t getting iOS 16 then it isn’t supported.

 

[Jiji]

by the way, what would happen if you used an old iPod to collect the data but it had no internet connection? will the collection app queue all the samples such that when you get back to home or wherever there is wifi, it could all be uploaded to the database in one go?

Interesting question, today I was out recording a trip and had no cell service so the record app hung testing for the cloud database (something I need to correct by timing out and just starting).

The database client is supposed to handle connection dropouts so the big question is will it cache an entire trip/charge session when no connection is available and get it sent when an internet connection is restored.

it is something I‘ll need to try out and see what happens But this is on the record side and not on the play side.

 

[astrorob]

if it were possible to queue all the data in the absence of an internet connection it will make it a heck of a lot easier to collect the data. means you don't need the car hotspot and could potentially use a old phone with no service or an old iPad. looks like exactly 0 iPods are compatible with ios16.

overall, in some places (like where i live) it's a pretty bad idea to leave a powered-up device inside a car, since thieves are known to use BT/BLE scanners to try to find laptops and cellphones in locked cars. on the other hand the MME is bristling with BT radios so maybe they wouldn't notice an ipad/iphone or perhaps they'd just break in anyway since the car's BT might look like something to steal to them.

point being anyway it would be less of a loss to lose something like an older iPad vs. an iPhone. regardless they'd probably smash your window if they did find it, and repairing that is probably on par with the cost of an iPhone. so maybe overall leaving a logging device in he car is a no-go for some people.

 

[Jiji]

if it were possible to queue all the data in the absence of an internet connection it will make it a heck of a lot easier to collect the data. means you don't need the car hotspot and could potentially use a old phone with no service or an old iPad. looks like exactly 0 iPods are compatible with ios16.

I'll note this and see what can be done but I think that some of the APIs used require iOS 16 so very old devices unable to update to iOS 16 aren't going to be supported. I think the recently discontinued iPod Touch would qualify though.

overall, in some places (like where i live) it's a pretty bad idea to leave a powered-up device inside a car, since thieves are known to use BT/BLE scanners to try to find laptops and cellphones in locked cars. on the other hand the MME is bristling with BT radios so maybe they wouldn't notice an ipad/iphone or perhaps they'd just break in anyway since the car's BT might look like something to steal to them.

point being anyway it would be less of a loss to lose something like an older iPad vs. an iPhone. regardless they'd probably smash your window if they did find it, and repairing that is probably on par with the cost of an iPhone. so maybe overall leaving a logging device in he car is a no-go for some people.

Since I use my phone and take it with me when parked this is not really an issue except when charging on a trip and I were to walk away to grab a bite or hit the head. But the BT range is pretty good it can be left out-of-sight in the glove box or center console, certainly doesn't have to be visible.

We will see how this turns out but fir now I have bigger fish to fry.

 

[mdolan92869]

I checked my iPod touch 7 (the last one made) and it has iOS 15.7.? Looking online shows iOS 15 as the last supported version for it. So, sadly, it doesn’t look like it‘ll work with them.

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