Vendor Dashboard for Tesla - the better app for your Tesla

[SG57]

@MMC- , excellent! The fast charging title indicator is also new. Curious if the HPWC counts as a fast charger (DC), if you have one mind plugging in and charging for a second to see what happens?

Also new is the real-time battery current power and rate. Nice to see it's calculating close to the actual experienced charge rate, however it may never be very too accurate due to the lack of precision in the streaming API's power field. I used @wk057 's watt-hour-per-mile values here: Calculate usable battery capacity based on rated miles values The only value I found was lacking was the Model S P100D's wH/mi rate, for now I've just projected what that value will be based on the Model X 100D to P100D difference in wH/mi.

 

[MMC-]

@MMC- , excellent! The fast charging title indicator is also new. Curious if the HPWC counts as a fast charger (DC), if you have one mind plugging in and charging for a second to see what happens?

Also new is the real-time battery current power and rate. Nice to see it's calculating close to the actual experienced charge rate, however it may never be very too accurate due to the lack of precision in the streaming API's power field. I used @wk057 's watt-hour-per-mile values here: Calculate usable battery capacity based on rated miles values The only value I found was lacking was the Model S P100D's wH/mi rate, for now I've just projected what that value will be based on the Model X 100D to P100D difference in wH/mi.

Well the HPWC DOES say "Fast Charging" but it should not as it's not a DC charger. The Amperage field is close, it shows 49 amps when it should show 48 in my case. The info you had in that field before (30/?? or in my case 48/48 since I only have a 48 amp ac charger in my S70D) would be correct on a AC (HPWC and J1772) charger. The Voltage and the Miles Per Hour fields are correct.

If you want more screen shots let me know.

Thanks!

 

[SG57]

@MMC- , interesting that the HPWC is a fast charger, but not DC.

The reason the value is slightly off is because I currently use an amperage calculation if charging DC, or the requested amperage if charging AC. Still, the value is accurate, just likely rounded 1 up over the requested amperage.

It shows fast charging because the API is returning that a fast charger is present. It's this flag that I use that to determine if it's AC or DC. I assumed all fast chargers were DC, apparently that's not the case. It may be tricky to fix this where some fast chargers are AC and some are DC. For now it should be fine, but I can treat the HPWC as a special AC fast charger case for now. Do we know of any other fast chargers that are AC?

 

[SG57]

Hey all,

Released a small update just now, 1.19.8, with some new additions.

-

Changelog

• Changed Smart Charging "Complete charging by X:XX" setting into an optional setting.
  
  When enabled (default), the behavior is as it has been this whole time attempting to complete charging at your desired time respecting your other settings..
  
  When disabled, Smart Charging will attempt to complete charging ASAP while still respecting your other settings (time restrictions, starting HVAC, etc.)
  
  
• Added model trim badging to UI
• Added "Trim Designer" easter egg to About information
• UI upgrades
• Quality of life improvements
• Bug fixes

-

Trim Designer

I figure with it being Easter Sunday, why not enable a silly thing I made to test out the rendering of different trim badges.

-

Coming Soon

I am putting time into Android Wear support, but I recently received an interesting email regarding a new Smart Charging option someone would love and I was curious to get others' opinions on the matter.

The new Smart Charging option would be a new charge restriction similar to the current time restrictions setting, but instead of restricting charging to a certain time period, you restrict charging to when the current price-per-kWh to charge is below a certain amount.

This would require some sort of provider that has this current price-per-kWh metric. The example I was given comes straight from a Chicago electric company that provide an API that gives the current (as of 5 minutes ago) price-per-kWh. This is a desirable new setting, especially if the power demand is so low the price actually goes negative. It'd be nice to make it applicable for everyone, expanding the list of supported electric providers, but also even support those who's electric companies don't provide this data. At worst, I could provide a manual price calendar where you enter in the data yourself.

Let me know your thoughts.

-

Thanks you all for your support!
Cheers

 

[scottf200]

The new Smart Charging option would be a new charge restriction similar to the current time restrictions setting, but instead of restricting charging to a certain time period, you restrict charging to when the current price-per-kWh to charge is below a certain amount.

This would require some sort of provider that has this current price-per-kWh metric. The example I was given comes straight from a Chicago electric company that provide an API that gives the current (as of 5 minutes ago) price-per-kWh. This is a desirable new setting, especially if the power demand is so low the price actually goes negative. It'd be nice to make it applicable for everyone, expanding the list of supported electric providers, but also even support those who's electric companies don't provide this data. At worst, I could provide a manual price calendar where you enter in the data yourself.

Let me know your thoughts.

ComEd is my provider. They have a 'live prices' page: Live Prices | ComEd's Hourly Pricing Program which I used to set my "Charge by 5:00 am" time with a range of 9pm-5am. Usually I charge well after midnight based on what Smart Charging calculates but after a road trip or long day it may start before midnight. If you ever decide to implement that I would be willing to help test it. Not sure it makes a lot of sense for your entire customer base unless several utilities from your customers base provide that API type of data. They other annoying thing for you is certainly they all have their own API interface. Sounds like a major pain for you and you may want to spend your resources on more general stuff for your base. I say that even tho I could take advantage of it. Your "Charge by x:xx xm" option works well since most probably have access to the hourly/tier pricing times and cost.

i.imgur.com/RDeO3Rj.jpg

 

[scottf200]

The new Smart Charging option would be a new charge restriction similar to the current time restrictions setting, but instead of restricting charging to a certain time period, you restrict charging to when the current price-per-kWh to charge is below a certain amount.

This would require some sort of provider that has this current price-per-kWh metric. The example I was given comes straight from a Chicago electric company that provide an API that gives the current (as of 5 minutes ago) price-per-kWh. This is a

Perhaps consider a more generic implementation like GM did. Page 119 here:
https://my.chevrolet.com/content/da...uals/2016/Chevrolet/Volt/2k16volt1stPrint.pdf

<snip>
Charge Rate Preference Selection From the main charging screen,
touch Charge Rate Information and then touch Charge Rate Preference

Touch one of the following options to select the Charge Rate
Preference:
. Charge during Peak, Mid-Peak, and Off-Peak Rates: The vehicle can charge during any rate period to satisfy the next planned departure time. However, it will select when to charge to minimize the total cost of the charge.
. Charge during Mid-Peak and Off-Peak Rates: The vehicle will charge during Off-Peak and/or Mid-Peak rate periods only and will select when to charge to minimize the total cost of the charge.
. Charge during Off-Peak Rates:The vehicle will only chargeduring Off-Peak rate periods.

Charging begins at the start time and is complete by the departure time only if sufficient time is allowed after the charge cord is plugged in. For example, if the vehicle is plugged in for only one hour prior to the departure time, and the battery is completely discharged, the vehicle will not be fully charged by the departure time regardless of the rate selection.

Also, if the selected electric rate settings result in a very long charge completion time, the vehicle will start charging immediately upon plug-in. For example, if the electric rate table is set up with all Peak rates and the rate preference is to charge during Off-Peak rates only, then the vehicle will start charging immediately upon plug-in.

Electric Rate Plan Selection Electric rates, or cost per unit, may vary based on time, weekday / weekend, and season. During the day when the demand for electricity is high, the rates are usually higher and are called Peak rates. At night when the demand for electricity is low, the rates are usually lower and are called Off-Peak rates. In some areas, a Mid-Peak rate is offered.

Contact the utility company to obtain the rate schedule for your area. The summer and winter start dates must be established to use a summer / winter schedule.

From the Charge Rate Information screen, touch Electric Rate Schedule.
<snip>
Summer/Winter Schedule Start Date Entering To toggle between a yearly schedule or a summer/winter schedule, touch Rate Schedule Type.
<snip>

The car has it's own interface to the above which is what the manual shows.
Here is a little what the browser interface looks like (myvolt.com)
i.imgur.com/r2mAqYJ.jpg

i.imgur.com/Qu273RL.jpg

i.imgur.com/kVRRU7E.jpg

i.imgur.com/DIYPI7p.jpg

i.imgur.com/7aZT0Oz.jpg

 

[baxster]

@SG57 great job!! Thanks for implementing the new charge features. Some great suggestions coming from others as well.

 

[BerTX]

Coming Soon

Automatic Behaviors

​

Future versions will have more conditions than just time, like checking vehicle status or the weather (automatically close sun roof if the weather has precipitation for example).​

I just purchased the app -- sorry I had quit following back when a subscription was required and just yesterday revisited and saw that had changed. THANKS! I wish there was some way to let everyone know.

Anyway, my requested feature is a little obscure, perhaps, but maybe useful for others as well. You have Automatic Behaviors and I assume you are working on the weather component, but probably mostly for precipitation and maybe temperature, but I'd like to request a predicted SUN event in there if possible.

I have solar power at home, and while it used to be great, my provider recently decided to become solar-unfriendly and stopped doing net metering. Now it is to my advantage to concentrate loads during the day while I'm producing excess power.

With Smart Charging, I can set the car to charge only in daytime hours just fine. However, that also starts charging if it is cloudy outside, and I have no excess juice to run it.

Also, on a separate item, it would be nice to be able to set the charge amps -- I assume it isn't in the API or you would already have implemented it.

Love the app, and glad I could get it. Planning to use camper mode this week!

 

[Jonas_man]

@MMC- , interesting that the HPWC is a fast charger, but not DC.

The reason the value is slightly off is because I currently use an amperage calculation if charging DC, or the requested amperage if charging AC. Still, the value is accurate, just likely rounded 1 up over the requested amperage.

It shows fast charging because the API is returning that a fast charger is present. It's this flag that I use that to determine if it's AC or DC. I assumed all fast chargers were DC, apparently that's not the case. It may be tricky to fix this where some fast chargers are AC and some are DC. For now it should be fine, but I can treat the HPWC as a special AC fast charger case for now. Do we know of any other fast chargers that are AC?

The api gives you the amps even in DC charging. Why do you calculate?

 

[SG57]

@scottf200 , so instead of a target price value threshold, instead you can categorize what constitutes low (off-peak), middle, and high and specify what categories your location should charge at. I'll look into this some more.

@baxster , thanks for your support!

@BerTX , thanks for the kind words! Unfortunately the API does not support setting the charge amperage, likely because that would involve exposing the car's stored charging location information something they haven't done yet.

I definitely want to add weather as a component to Automatic Behaviors, it would support temperature and weather condition (precipitation, cloudy, sunny, etc). I'm looking into weather data providers, unfortunately this is a service with an operating cost based on usage so I've been cautious.

@Jonas_man , the API previously had a field, battery_current, that was in amps, but as of the new car firmware 8.1 that's been removed. You can calculate the current amperage when charging using the current voltage and the charger power fields.

Still, when AC charging for amperage I currently show the current request over the request max, so I don't even show the current amperage which I think sucks and should be incorporated into the UI somehow.

 

[Jonas_man]

@scottf200 , so instead of a target price value threshold, instead you can categorize what constitutes low (off-peak), middle, and high and specify what categories your location should charge at. I'll look into this some more.

@baxster , thanks for your support!

@BerTX , thanks for the kind words! Unfortunately the API does not support setting the charge amperage, likely because that would involve exposing the car's stored charging location information something they haven't done yet.

I definitely want to add weather as a component to Automatic Behaviors, it would support temperature and weather condition (precipitation, cloudy, sunny, etc). I'm looking into weather data providers, unfortunately this is a service with an operating cost based on usage so I've been cautious.

@Jonas_man , the API previously had a field, battery_current, that was in amps, but as of the new car firmware 8.1 that's been removed. You can calculate the current amperage when charging using the current voltage and the charger power fields.

Still, when AC charging for amperage I currently show the current request over the request max, so I don't even show the current amperage which I think sucks and should be incorporated into the UI somehow.

Ok . Havent check the api since 8.0. I installed 8.1 on my car. I will check that. One of my apps needs that field

 

[BerTX]

I'm using Smart Charging to allow my car to charge only during the day. I wanted to stop the charging, so I went into the app and stopped the charge. I went back and looked later and it was charging again. I guess Smart Charge started it back up, even though I told it to stop?

Seems like it should know that I shut it down, since I did it with the app, and not re-start.

 

[scottf200]

@scottf200 , so instead of a target price value threshold, instead you can categorize what constitutes low (off-peak), middle, and high and specify what categories your location should charge at. I'll look into this some more.

It is not something that I need. What you are doing works fine for me. I was just sharing what GM did as a more generic solution and I'm sure they had dozens of design sessions on it. It seems reasonable/flexible although a little complicated. I know from presentations or interviews that they have talked with 100s of utilities to find commonalities. They said there were over 300 unique utilities across the USA. IL has multiple I know depending on where you live.

 

[SG57]

@BerTX , that's a fair scenario, let's see what I can do.

So smart charging was in session when you manually stopped charging from within the app. Smart charging decided next time it checked in on your vehicle since it's in the middle of a session and it's not complete that it should keep start charging again.

I think it's reasonable to put a "Stop Charging" action button in the smart charging notification that will allow you to prematurely end an in-progress smart charging session. It would stop the active charge, but also this wouldn't turn off all smart charging locations (that button already exists), instead it would behave as if the session ended and recalculate its scheduled times for the future, next session.

I'll whip this up real fast.

 

[BerTX]

I can't seem to get Cabin Temperature Protection to work, so I must not be understanding how it works.

I have the range to maintain temp at maximum (59-83), car set to always connected, and phone on. Temperature climbs steadily up to 102° and a/c does not come on. What am I missing?

 

[SG57]

@BerTX , apologies but I've had it on my list to improve the implementation of Cabin Temperature Protection for awhile now. As is, what you're experiencing is likely an artifact (read: problem) introduced from the many iterations and improvements made to the background services over the course of developing smart charging and later re-implementing Camper Mode.

I am happy to fix it up ASAP, but I'd like your guys' input if you'd be so kind to come to the ideal implementation as there is a tricky situation I'm not sure how to handle.

If you ignore the fact it might not be working at the moment, the current implementation of cabin temperature protection works as follows:

• Every 3 minutes check the vehicle's climate state's inside temperature, then...
  • If the inside temp is not provided due to temperature sensors being off, we start the HVAC. This is required to wake up the temperature sensors in order to get an inside temperature reading, it cannot be avoided unfortunately.
    
    
  • If the inside temp is within range of the min and max temperature settings, do nothing.
    
    
  • If the inside temp is out of range of the min and max temperature settings, then...
    • Calculate the target temperature
      • If we need heating, the target temp is the min temp setting + 3.0* C
        (we move this up a bit because the HVAC is not that precise and we should avoid edge cases)
      • If we need cooling, the target temp is the max temp setting - 3.0* C.
    • If the HVAC temperatures are not already set to the target temperature, then set the HVAC temperatures to the target temperature.
      
      
    • If the HVAC is not already started, then start the HVAC

That's it. Does that seem acceptable? I feel like the frequency should be longer, maybe 7.5 minutes instead?

As for the tricky situation, I used to actually stop the HVAC when the inside temp is within range of the min and max temperature settings. The problem I ran into was the HVAC was constantly starting and stopping every 3 minutes because when it's 100 degrees out, 3 minutes will heat the car higher than 3* C. So the HVAC would start to cool the car down, then shut off just to have the car's temperature rise outside the range again and start up again in 3 minutes. Is this frequent starting and stopping and temperature fluctuating acceptable?

I removed this because the way I figured, if the ambient temperatures outside are causing the inside temperatures to reside outside the min and max temperature settings, then the HVAC simply needs to run at all times if you want to keep the temperatures within range.

Anyway, your thoughts would be appreciated. I'll fix the service to actually work again in the meantime.

 

[BerTX]

@BerTX , apologies but I've had it on my list to improve the implementation of Cabin Temperature Protection for awhile now. As is, what you're experiencing is likely an artifact (read: problem) introduced from the many iterations and improvements made to the background services over the course of developing smart charging and later re-implementing Camper Mode.

I am happy to fix it up ASAP, but I'd like your guys' input if you'd be so kind to come to the ideal implementation as there is a tricky situation I'm not sure how to handle.

If you ignore the fact it might not be working at the moment, the current implementation of cabin temperature protection works as follows:

• Every 3 minutes check the vehicle's climate state's inside temperature, then...
  • If the inside temp is not provided due to temperature sensors being off, we start the HVAC. This is required to wake up the temperature sensors in order to get an inside temperature reading, it cannot be avoided unfortunately.
    
    
  • If the inside temp is within range of the min and max temperature settings, do nothing.
    
    
  • If the inside temp is out of range of the min and max temperature settings, then...
    • Calculate the target temperature
      • If we need heating, the target temp is the min temp setting + 3.0* C
        (we move this up a bit because the HVAC is not that precise and we should avoid edge cases)
      • If we need cooling, the target temp is the max temp setting - 3.0* C.
    • If the HVAC temperatures are not already set to the target temperature, then set the HVAC temperatures to the target temperature.
      
      
    • If the HVAC is not already started, then start the HVAC

That's it. Does that seem acceptable? I feel like the frequency should be longer, maybe 7.5 minutes instead?

As for the tricky situation, I used to actually stop the HVAC when the inside temp is within range of the min and max temperature settings. The problem I ran into was the HVAC was constantly starting and stopping every 3 minutes because when it's 100 degrees out, 3 minutes will heat the car higher than 3* C. So the HVAC would start to cool the car down, then shut off just to have the car's temperature rise outside the range again and start up again in 3 minutes. Is this frequent starting and stopping and temperature fluctuating acceptable?

I removed this because the way I figured, if the ambient temperatures outside are causing the inside temperatures to reside outside the min and max temperature settings, then the HVAC simply needs to run at all times if you want to keep the temperatures within range.

Anyway, your thoughts would be appreciated. I'll fix the service to actually work again in the meantime.

If you are checking and adjusting every x-minutes, then why the need to adjust the temperature setting at all? Why not just turn it on, check at the next cycle, and then turn it off if you are inside the temp range. That way you are not limited to the setting range of the climate control on the car.

I can see this approach causing a problem if cell service is lost, but does that happen often? Does the car suddenly lose service that it previously had while parked?

I guess my biggest issue with the design of the CTP is the limitation on the setting range. It can really use a lot of range trying to hold the car at 83° in the summer sun in Texas. The next thing I don't like is getting in the car and having to adjust the temperature setting back down because you have set it up to 78°.

 

[SG57]

@BerTX , if your vehicle or your device lose internet connectivity (or Tesla's servers are having problems) then they have no means of communicating, but the car's connection and Tesla's servers are pretty reliable assuming you don't box the car up in lead.

If I don't set the temperature then if your temperature setting is at 71 F and your max temperature setting is 70 F, the car will never get lower than 71 F meaning it will never get within range keeping the HVAC on. A solution could be to only set the temperature if the currently set temperature is not within the min max temp range. So if your range is 65F to 75F and your current temp setting is 71 F, then it won't be adjusted so you don't need to adjust it down from 80 F yourself later.

The temperature range right now is currently the range of temperatures available by your HVAC. I could remove this limit and let you specify any temperature range you'd like, however if you set a temp range of 40 F to 50 F and the HVAC only goes as low as 60 F, then your cabin temp will never get within range. A solution could be to limit your max range to the lowest temperature supported by your HVAC, and vice versa with the min range, this ensures the range always overlaps the HVAC's supported range.

If running the HVAC continuously is out of the question, then we must throttle it on and off as the temperatures fluctuate in and out of your desired range, agreed? So if you set your cabin temp range 60F to 90F (outside HVAC support), and the inside temp is currently 100 F with your current temp setting at 72F, we'd start the HVAC because it needs to cool down, and we wouldn't set your temperature because it's within your range. Check back in 5 minutes, see if the car has cooled down to within range <90F, if so turn off the HVAC, check back in 5 minutes, repeat. For the 5 minutes the HVAC is now off, the inside temp is expected to rise again back up out of range towards 90F, is this acceptable?

 

[scottf200]

<snip>
Check back in 5 minutes, see if the car has cooled down to within range <90F, if so turn off the HVAC, check back in 5 minutes, repeat. For the 5 minutes the HVAC is now off, the inside temp is expected to rise again back up out of range towards 90F, is this acceptable?

I don't think I currently have a use for this feature but just a suggestion. You mentioned 3, 5, and 7.5 minute intervals. Have you considered a slider or input of this interval amount to let the user decide. TX or AZ may be different than IL or MT (sunny days, max temps, etc). Perhaps from 3 to 30 minutes or something. Just a thought.

 

[Mattzilla]

Smart charging keeps unticking itself and saying the car isn't plugged in, even though it clearly is. I'm worried it won't work to have my car range charged in the morning when I wake up for a long journey so I'm doing it the old fashioned way tonight.

Anyone else have this issue?