OVMS Installation

[slcasner]

What is the cost for text messages on GeoSIM?

Each SMS message costs $0.17, so that would be the disadvantage for GeoSIM if you use the text commands frequently. I have not used any texts on my account subsequent to the initial configuration, hence my comment about the charges only totaling one or two bucks per month.

[Until recently the AT&T plan I had selected for my iPhone charged $0.25 per SMS because I don't use the phone for calls often enough to justify an unlimited plan, and I had no intention to use SMS, as a matter of principle. The incremental cost for the carrier to transmit an SMS message is nearly zero, so it has been a pure profit service for the carriers. I had SMS blocked on my phone because the only messages I received were spam, so when smorgasbord was helping me do the OVMS installation we had to use his phone temporarily.]

 

[dsm363]

I haven't used GeoSIM, but I'm very happy with H2O Wireless. Even with a fair amount of texting during my trip to TMC Connect, $10 lasted the full 90 days. I like to use the CTP text command to get charge time estimates when I travel more that a couple hundred miles, which is admittedly pretty rare.

What is the cost for text messages on GeoSIM?

I'll have to check. I never use texts so only need the data which is cheap I believe.

 

[Stuart]

Cathy found you can order H20 SIMs from Amazon for $0.01 with free shipping. Really, one penny and no shipping!

After almost three months of light usage, my H20 SIM has now used just $2 of the initial $10 credit. The 90 days was likely to expire long before the $10 initial credit was used up. I added another $10, and was pleasantly surprised that it added another 90 days to the previous expiration date, rather than setting a new expiration date of 90 days from today. I was expecting to lose some of my 90 days each time I added new credit if I did it sooner than waiting for exactly 90 days, but that appears not to be the case, at least this time.

 

[dsm363]

After almost three months of light usage, my H20 SIM has now used just $2 of the initial $10 credit. The 90 days was likely to expire long before the $10 initial credit was used up. I added another $10, and was pleasantly surprised that it added another 90 days to the previous expiration date, rather than setting a new expiration date of 90 days from today. I was expecting to lose some of my 90 days each time I added new credit if I did it sooner than waiting for exactly 90 days, but that appears not to be the case, at least this time.

That's awesome. ATT simply starts the clock from when you add money.

Just ordered the GeoSIM. Will see how that goes.

 

[FANGO]

Well, I ordered the pickit2 in an attempt to upgrade my OVMS' firmware, and it flat out doesn't work. I plug it in and nothing happens except the power LED lights up. The computer doesn't recognize it, either through VMWare or Bootcamp. I even checked the USB devices control panel and it didn't show up on there.

One thing I've noted is that my OVMS doesn't actually have 6 pins, it has 5. The 5th looks like it was never there, not that it's broken off or anything. Here are pictures, front and reverse:

Seems like the 6th pin just was never soldered in at all. The module worked, though, when I had a working SIM in it. Haven't refilled the SIM in forever since I was finding it to be of moderate usefulness, since I didn't know about the charge limit setting/cooldown features and whatnot, and because AT&T is a hassle (will go with h2o if I get it working again). As far as I know, it came with just 5 pins to begin with. Don't remember breaking anything off, anyway, and haven't touched the thing in a year or so since I installed it in the first place.

Any ideas?

edit: nevermind, problem solved, device came with a bad USB cable

 

[jaanton]

My pickit2 programmer was defective. The software did have a self test which also indicated a fault. I reported that back to the seller and they shipped me a new programmer, no questions. The delay was the only annoying thing. So try the self tests. My failure, I'm working from memory here, was that some pin didn't reach programming level voltage. Replacement programmer works fine.

On your other matter... I just switched to H2O from ATT Gophone. Not too painful. Got a Sim for $0.01 from Amazon USANYSIM and activated it with the $10 plan at that USANYSIM website. A little confusing but got it done. $93 dollars of ATT accumulated credit will expire end of today. Good bye ATT.

Well, I ordered the pickit2 in an attempt to upgrade my OVMS' firmware, and it flat out doesn't work. I plug it in and nothing happens except the power LED lights up. The computer doesn't recognize it, either through VMWare or Bootcamp. I even checked the USB devices control panel and it didn't show up on there.
...
Any ideas?

 

[FANGO]

My pickit2 programmer was defective. The software did have a self test which also indicated a fault. I reported that back to the seller and they shipped me a new programmer, no questions. The delay was the only annoying thing. So try the self tests. My failure, I'm working from memory here, was that some pin didn't reach programming level voltage. Replacement programmer works fine.

On your other matter... I just switched to H2O from ATT Gophone. Not too painful. Got a Sim for $0.01 from Amazon USANYSIM and activated it with the $10 plan at that USANYSIM website. A little confusing but got it done. $93 dollars of ATT accumulated credit will expire end of today. Good bye ATT.

It seems like it wasn't a defective pickit unit, but a defective USB cable. I tried using another one I had laying around and it seems to be working. It's giving me a "voltage error" of some sort but all the numbers show up and seem to work properly, so I'm gonna go for it and see what happens.

 

[supersnoop]

Has anyone activated an h2o SIM lately? My AT&T balance expired today and I just got an h2o SIM from Amazone for a penny, but I cannot get the form on their website to activate the card. The form never populates the "Choose City" selection.

 

[jaanton]

I got past that, but then needed an airtime PIN and online chatted with support who said I had to buy a refill from a retailer. Such a waste. In the end, I activated online via USANYSIM.com although it took overnight. I suspect they are just an online store that takes the orders then someone manually activates the sim from a supply of refill cards. Kind of cheesy. I think H2O must be protecting their retailers.

Has anyone activated an h2o SIM lately? My AT&T balance expired today and I just got an h2o SIM from Amazone for a penny, but I cannot get the form on their website to activate the card. The form never populates the "Choose City" selection.

 

[jeremyz]

I activated an H20 Wireless SIM about 3 months ago. I succesfully activated the SIM with a phone. I couldn't get the SIM to work in my OVMS (I just got the OVMS and have never tried it with another carrier; I'm not saying that H20 Wireless doesn't work with OVMS). I just got the pickit2 and reflashed my OVMS with the Roadster firmware. Hopefully, I'll have some time to get it to work this weekend.

 

[dsm363]

Got my new GeoSIM card but am having trouble setting it up.

I've registered and activated the SIM from GeoSIM's website and SIM is in OVMS module. I've gone to open vehicles and updated the server to the new tmc.openvehicles.com server and new passwords for module and server.

When I try to send a text to the UK cell number I was given to REGISTER OVMS it bounces back as invalid number. I also can't get the iPhone app to connect.

I'm reading through the good Roadster manual online but any tips would be great. I know it is simply a setting error on my part. Thanks.


Do I need 011 in front of the 44 then UK phone number?

 

[Roadrunner13]

Do I need 011 in front of the 44 then UK phone number?

From North America, yes, you need both 011 and 44 in front of UK numbers.

 

[dsm363]

From North America, yes, you need both 011 and 44 in front of UK numbers.

Thanks. When I send SERVER? To the number with 011 44 in front it bounces back. Maybe I don't have it set up properly still.

 

[wiztecy]

Did you first set the "profile" to US/North America on your SIM with an unlocked phone?

 

[dsm363]

Did you first set the "profile" to US/North America on your SIM with an unlocked phone?

I didn't. My iPhone is unlocked so will see if I can do that although I think the 5S uses the micro SIM and GeoSIM uses the normal SIM card size. Thanks.

 

[dsm363]

If I can find an unlocked phone that takes a full SIM card, what step do I need to do? Reading through Roadster OVMS manual on website.

 

[JohnGarziglia]

Automatic Location-Based Garage Door Opening is Amazing Feature of OVMS

Here's the procedure:

1. You need V2 of the OVMS hardware. V1 is a whiteish plastic box with a built-in cable, V2 is a black metal box with a separate DB9 connected cable.
2. You need the Tesla-specific firmware. The best place to get the latest version is: http://www.idleloop.com/tesla/ovms/. Note this site also has pictures of the boxes and instructions for upgrading the firmware.
3. Once you have the box up and running in your car, and can communicate to it via SMS (Text message) and your smartphone (although smartphone isn't technically necessary), you can program Geo-fenced Homelink via ACC (Advanced Charge Control), which can only be done via SMS.
4. If you only want the Geo-fenced Homelink feature, the following sequence will work:
   • Park the car near the garage or gate you want automatically opened.
   • Send this text message (just what's inside the quotes) to the car: "ACC HERE"
   • You should get a text message back from the car telling you what ACC slot you just created. I'm going to assume it's ACC slot #2 for example purposes, but you'll probably get back slot #1. At this point you can move the car if you want.
   • Assuming you want the car's first slot for Homelink to be activated, send this text message to the car: "ACC PARAMS 2 HOMELINK 1"
   • You should get a text message back from the car identifying the ACC slot and the parameters set. For instance: "ACC #2 39.123456 -125.98765 Disabled Homelink #1"
   • Send this text message to the car: "ACC ENABLE 2"
   • You should get a text message back: "ACC enabled"
   • If you want to confirm everything send "ACC STAT" to the car
   Remember in the above examples we were using ACC slot #2, but you're probably going to use ACC slot #1. I used that to differentiate between ACC slots in OVMS versus HOMELINK slots in the car.
   
   And you'll need to program HOMELINK in the car normally via the Roadster's VDS. You should be sure that works manually before trying OVMS's geo-fenced features.
5. Now drive away from your house - say a block or more, then come back home and viola! gate/garage will open!
   

While everything in OVMS is amazing, the ability of the car to automatically open one's own garage door when arriving home is possibly the most useful feature of all! A big thank you to the volunteers who have worked on this project.

Just amazing ... I now turn into my driveway and my garage door is automatically opening. No more poking at the small screen to try to hit the right icon at the right time when the sun is in my face or I have my sunglasses on!

Thank you!

 

[wiztecy]

If I can find an unlocked phone that takes a full SIM card, what step do I need to do? Reading through Roadster OVMS manual on website.

I'm stuck at this step also with my GeoSIM.

 

[dsm363]

Here's the procedure:

1. You need V2 of the OVMS hardware. V1 is a whiteish plastic box with a built-in cable, V2 is a black metal box with a separate DB9 connected cable.
2. You need the Tesla-specific firmware. The best place to get the latest version is: http://www.idleloop.com/tesla/ovms/. Note this site also has pictures of the boxes and instructions for upgrading the firmware.
3. Once you have the box up and running in your car, and can communicate to it via SMS (Text message) and your smartphone (although smartphone isn't technically necessary), you can program Geo-fenced Homelink via ACC (Advanced Charge Control), which can only be done via SMS.
4. If you only want the Geo-fenced Homelink feature, the following sequence will work:
   • Park the car near the garage or gate you want automatically opened.
   • Send this text message (just what's inside the quotes) to the car: "ACC HERE"
   • You should get a text message back from the car telling you what ACC slot you just created. I'm going to assume it's ACC slot #2 for example purposes, but you'll probably get back slot #1. At this point you can move the car if you want.
   • Assuming you want the car's first slot for Homelink to be activated, send this text message to the car: "ACC PARAMS 2 HOMELINK 1"
   • You should get a text message back from the car identifying the ACC slot and the parameters set. For instance: "ACC #2 39.123456 -125.98765 Disabled Homelink #1"
   • Send this text message to the car: "ACC ENABLE 2"
   • You should get a text message back: "ACC enabled"
   • If you want to confirm everything send "ACC STAT" to the car
   Remember in the above examples we were using ACC slot #2, but you're probably going to use ACC slot #1. I used that to differentiate between ACC slots in OVMS versus HOMELINK slots in the car.
   
   And you'll need to program HOMELINK in the car normally via the Roadster's VDS. You should be sure that works manually before trying OVMS's geo-fenced features.
5. Now drive away from your house - say a block or more, then come back home and viola! gate/garage will open!
   

Why do you need V2 of hardware?

 

[JohnGarziglia]

Why do you need V2 of hardware?

I do not think that V1 can accommodate the firmware needed for the ACC commands. I recall reading that somewhere.