OVMS Installation

[markwj]

Thanks. I decided to try the CAN write function today and went into the iPhone app, Any suggestions to get OVMS to obey commands?

Long, pedantic, version:
On the App, go to Control/Features and set feature #15 "CAN Write" to 1. Click away on the form, and it will be saved.
Go back to the Control tab, then back into Control/Features and ensure the feature #15 "Can Write" is 1.
Then, go to Control tab and click "Reset OVMS Module".
Wait a minute or so, for the modem to reset itself.
After that, HOME then restart the app and ensure it is connected ok. Everything should be ok by then.

Short version: Control/Features #15=>1, Control/Reset, wait 1 minute, play.

Looking at the logs on the server, I can't see a "Reset OVMS Module" issued for your car, but I can see the setting of feature #15=>1, so I suspect it is just the reset missing (which you can find on the Control page of the iPhone App).

Regards, Mark,

 

[JoshG]

Thanks to Mark and Bennett, I'm up and running finally. It was a defective module. Mark sent a new one and as soon as I swapped the SIM and clipped the module in, it booted normally and I could immediately register the module. Up and running with SMS and GPRS... no issues.

Very much appreciate all the hard work and help rendered by Bennett late one evening at his home, swapping units, antennae, SIMs, until we realized that for certain it was a bad OVMS module.
Hopefully mine was the only one.

Mark - let me know if you want this bad unit sent back for some diagnostics or for discussing with your manufacturer.

now - who do I lobby to get an image of a Fusion Red with carbon fiber package as one of the car images built into the iOS app!? :smile:
--josh

I'm really frustrated... spent all day trying to get my unit to work.
I can't even get it to reply to the REGISTER OVMS command.

Sim is good - put it in my phone and that phone can receive and send SMS messages just fine.

Put it in the OVMS unit, plug it into car, antenna mounted. OVMS boots exactly as it's supposed to - RED light comes on, blinks.... about 30 seconds later GREEN light is blinking... then a minute later the Green goes solid on. Then it's RED off, GREEN on, as specified in the manual.
Send it "REGISTER OVMS" (all caps), and nothing. never replies. unplugged unit, plugged it back in, waited for proper boot sequence, back to no-RED, solid-GREEN. send it command again... nothing.

Did I miss some step or am i doing something wrong?!

Thanks to anyone who can help... I've posted over at the OVMS board and PM'd Mark but not heard anything and I'm about at my limit here. If anyone has any ideas to help me I'd really appreciate it. wife about to kill me for spending an entire day on this. :crying:

 

[JoshG]

Thanks to Mark and Bennett, I'm up and running finally. It was a defective module. Mark sent a new one and as soon as I swapped the SIM and clipped the module in, it booted normally and I could immediately register the module. Up and running with SMS and GPRS... no issues.

Very much appreciate all the hard work and help rendered by Bennett late one evening at his home, swapping units, antennae, SIMs, until we realized that for certain it was a bad OVMS module.
Hopefully mine was the only one.

Mark - let me know if you want this bad unit sent back for some diagnostics or for discussing with your manufacturer.

now - who do I lobby to get an image of a Fusion Red with carbon fiber package as one of the car images built into the iOS app!? :smile:
--josh

I'm really frustrated... spent all day trying to get my unit to work.
I can't even get it to reply to the REGISTER OVMS command.

Sim is good - put it in my phone and that phone can receive and send SMS messages just fine.

Put it in the OVMS unit, plug it into car, antenna mounted. OVMS boots exactly as it's supposed to - RED light comes on, blinks.... about 30 seconds later GREEN light is blinking... then a minute later the Green goes solid on. Then it's RED off, GREEN on, as specified in the manual.
Send it "REGISTER OVMS" (all caps), and nothing. never replies. unplugged unit, plugged it back in, waited for proper boot sequence, back to no-RED, solid-GREEN. send it command again... nothing.

Did I miss some step or am i doing something wrong?!

Thanks to anyone who can help... I've posted over at the OVMS board and PM'd Mark but not heard anything and I'm about at my limit here. If anyone has any ideas to help me I'd really appreciate it. wife about to kill me for spending an entire day on this. :crying:

 

[markwj]

now - who do I lobby to get an image of a Fusion Red with carbon fiber package as one of the car images built into the iOS app!?

Alloy wheels? Hard or soft top? Accents or no accents? Left or right drive? ;-)

I had this exact same discussion with the graphics and UI designer (Felix). In the end, we chose some nice new images in a new version of the iOS App that is going through Apple approval now. The new fusion red image looks like this:

Long-term, we realise we'll never satisfy everyone, so what we're planning on doing is letting you upload your own images (choose from camera roll). It shouldn't be too hard, but needs a database schema change, and I just haven't had time to work on the upgrade scripts for it. It'll happen...

 

[tennis_trs]

... The new fusion red image looks like this:
...
Long-term...we're planning on doing is letting you upload your own images...

That's almost perfect ... make it a 2.0 Sport and put black wheels on it until the upgrade, please.

 

[dsm363]

Alloy wheels? Hard or soft top? Accents or no accents? Left or right drive? ;-)

I had this exact same discussion with the graphics and UI designer (Felix). In the end, we chose some nice new images in a new version of the iOS App that is going through Apple approval now. The new fusion red image looks like this:

Long-term, we realise we'll never satisfy everyone, so what we're planning on doing is letting you upload your own images (choose from camera roll). It shouldn't be too hard, but needs a database schema change, and I just haven't had time to work on the upgrade scripts for it. It'll happen...

That does look great. Black wheels would be great too but I understand there are too many combinations to fit everyone's car. This really is a great project you guys are running so thanks again.

 

[JoshG]

Alloy wheels? Hard or soft top? Accents or no accents? Left or right drive? ;-)

I had this exact same discussion with the graphics and UI designer (Felix). In the end, we chose some nice new images in a new version of the iOS App that is going through Apple approval now. The new fusion red image looks like this:

View attachment 6115

Long-term, we realise we'll never satisfy everyone, so what we're planning on doing is letting you upload your own images (choose from camera roll). It shouldn't be too hard, but needs a database schema change, and I just haven't had time to work on the upgrade scripts for it. It'll happen...

Looks great! (agree black wheels would be better) but of course you'll never please everyone. Uploads could work.

One other bigger problem with picking fusion red is that on the 2nd page where you see the top view of the car, the red "door open" or trunk open is pretty indistinguishable from the regular red body. At least to my eyes.

Any way to better show a door or trunk open?

 

[Mitrovic]

And what will be new on the upgrade?

 

[markwj]

And what will be new on the upgrade?

Current change log for new iOS App:

WHAT'S NEW
v1.2.8 UI enhancements (20120515)
- Retina vehicle images
- Current weather situation indicator
- Location vehicle animations
- Location lock-to-my-car feature
- Location Groups support
- UI revamp
- App version shown in vehicle info display
- Move Control button to car detail screen
- Move Info button to car selection screen
- Move GSM signal bars to car selection screen
- Show car direction on location map
- Support display and control of a timer-delayed charge
- Use pump status for temp stale
- Charge port animations
- Stale indicators for ambient, pem, motor, battery and tpms
- Various minor bug-fixes and stability enhancements
- Cache weather icon
- Auto-reconnect 10 seconds after server disconnect
- Tidy up parameter naming
- Support MMI/USSD codes from iOS App
- "Imperial" Temperature display in iOS App
- Minor layout revisions
- Bring iPad version up to same level as iPhone

Probably another week or so before it makes it live.

 

[DrComputer]

And the new Driod version is coming when??

 

[markwj]

And the new Driod version is coming when??

I maintain the iOS App, not Android, so can't commit there.

I realize that there are layout problems on some of the newer hi-res Android devices. Given the hundreds of different resolutions, and multiple old versions of the O/S, out there, I'm not surprised, and this is an issue all Android developers are facing. In this respect, iOS is easier with only 2 resolutions to support across the hundred+ million devices out there.

It'll come, but I can't commit for the other hobbyists out there doing this for free in their leisure time.

 

[Timothy]

Short version: Control/Features #15=>1, Control/Reset, wait 1 minute, play.

Regards, Mark,

Before I did anything you mentioned above, if the car was plugged in I could start and stop the charge with the CAN write controls. I would get a text message not when the charging ended but when the charging cable was disconnected--not every time but most times. No message to the iPhone app, though. When I tried to lock the car remotely and put in the password, it would say it worked, but it never did.

As you mentioned I had already set feature #15=>1. I then did a Control/Reset--took about 6 minutes to reconnect. Everything was exactly the same as before.

Should I just wait until the next upgrade to see how things change? Is there supposed to be a message at the end of charge or just when the cord is disconnected?

Even without upgrades, this app is really cool. Thanks for all your work on it. Looks like I'm a non-techy guy trying to dabble in a techy world, so thanks for putting up with me!

 

[markwj]

Before I did anything you mentioned above, if the car was plugged in I could start and stop the charge with the CAN write controls. I would get a text message not when the charging ended but when the charging cable was disconnected--not every time but most times.

Ok, so if you can start/stop charge from the app then can write must be ok.

Is it a 4 digit pin, or bigger? Have you tried the same pin in the car to enable/disable valet mode on the VDS?

Should I just wait until the next upgrade to see how things change? Is there supposed to be a message at the end of charge or just when the cord is disconnected?

Message is currently when charging is interrupted. Unplugging. Stopping from the app or VDS in the car won't raise a message. We are, however, considering whether to change the notify on all stop events.

 

[vfx]

I had this exact same discussion with the graphics and UI designer (Felix). In the end, we chose some nice new images in a new version of the iOS App that is going through Apple approval now. The new fusion red image looks like this:

Current change log for new iOS App:....

With so many variations why not have a "kit" for owner car building in the form of a Photoshop or Gimp layered file. (SByer knows this best) You have two car images 1.5 and 2.5 with different wheels and three tops (though "no top" would cover everyone). A different mask for each CF bit (not sure you can tell black from actual CF on my phone)

The Tesla paint colors (15? 19? of them) are pretty well covered but 7% of Roasters are custom colored so tweaking is necessary.

This PS/Gimp file could be made available to owners or friends of owners for customization and sent back as a flat JPG.

 

[Timothy]

Ok, so if you can start/stop charge from the app then can write must be ok.

Is it a 4 digit pin, or bigger? Have you tried the same pin in the car to enable/disable valet mode on the VDS?



Message is currently when charging is interrupted. Unplugging. Stopping from the app or VDS in the car won't raise a message. We are, however, considering whether to change the notify on all stop events.

I had tried that pin before and it didn't work (maybe I misentered it?) and tried again--works! Can lock and unlock the car remotely. When I disconnect I get a message on the SMS--am I supposed to get one on the OVMS as well?

 

[markwj]

I had tried that pin before and it didn't work (maybe I misentered it?) and tried again--works! Can lock and unlock the car remotely. When I disconnect I get a message on the SMS--am I supposed to get one on the OVMS as well?

If you have notifications set to SMSIP then you will get them by both SMS and IP.

 

[Mitrovic]

How many installed so far?

And again, thank you!

 

[znino]

Just completed my installation. Went without a hitch. Just followed the detailed installation guide and no problem. I placed the antenna on the flat part behind the passenger headrest (right next to window and speaker). The wire was easily tucked under the plastic sill (didn't even need to take off the sill cover. The wire is so small you can just push it under every few inches and it vanishes from sight). I have been using it all day with no problems and all seems to work fine. Thanks to Mark for answering the couple of questions I had.

I live in Canada so anyone who is in Canada and needs a data plan, here is what I found that works and is cheapest. Rogers is the carrier and they have what is called a Flex data plan for tablets. You get a sim and activated it from them ($35) and then take the monthly flex plan which costs only $5 for 10GB. If you go over 10GB for any month, they bump you up to the next level which is $17 for 250GB. I do not think I will even get close to 10 GB judging from what data has been used in 24 hours so it looks like this will cost me $5 a month. Pretty cheap!

The settings for rogers data to work with this plan and OVMS module are:

APN: INTERNET.COM
USERNAME: WAPUSER1
PASSWORD: WAP

 

[markwj]

Probably worth pointing out here the recommendations as part of the FCC certification for the GSM module:

Output power listed is conducted. This device is to be used in mobile or fixed applications only. For other antenna(s) not described in this filing the antenna gain including cable loss must not exceed 7.3 dBi in the 850 MHz Cellular band and 12.7 dBi in the PCS 1900 MHz band, for the purpose of satisfying the requirements of 2.1043 and 2.1091. The antenna used for this transmitter must be installed to provide a separation distance of at least 20 cm from all persons, and must not be co-located or operating in conjunction with other antennas or transmitters within a host device, except in accordance with FCC multi- transmitter product procedures. Compliance of this device in all final product configurations is the responsibility of the Grantee. OEM integrators and end-users must be provided with specific information required to satisfy RF exposure compliance for all final host devices and installations.

The recommendation of 20cm from all persons should be fine for installations in the windshield / rear window, but please take care with installations near the passenger.

 

[markwj]

How many installed so far?

The initial run was a little over 100 modules, and those have all gone.