OVMS Installation

[FANGO]

edit: Well, the problem all along was I didn't have feature 14 1 set (Roadster 1.5). I'm dumb. Still have to get the app working but at least it's responding to texts now.

edit 2: Now I'm getting "GSM/GPRS: Not connected (0x0041)". I switched the switch away from the LEDs and reset the module twice. Changed the APN to att.mvno and the server address to 54.243.136.230

 

[tomsax]

FEATURE 14 1 doesn't matter for getting responses to text messages. In fact, I don't think it matters at all anymore, I'm pretty sure the firmware now detects V1.5 vs. 2.x from the VIN.

Which hardware version do you have?

Do you have solid cell reception where your car is? I'd recommend going somewhere you know has good visibility to cell towers.

Which cell service are you using? What version hardware are you using V1 (beige plastic box) or V2 (black metal box)?

What do you get back from these commands?

MODULE?
GPRS?
SERVER?

It should look like this:

Me: MODULE?

OVMS: 23:44:22
Module:
VehicleID:<your-vehicle-id>
Units:M
Notifications:SMSIP
VehicleType:TR

Me: GPRS?

OVMS: 23:44:52
GPRS:
APN:att.mvno
User:
Password:
GSM:AT&T
GPRS: OK
Server: Connected OK

Me: SERVER?

OVMS: 23:45:22
Server:
IP:54.243.136.230
Password:<your-password>
Paranoid:-

 

[FANGO]

Thanks! After seeing your responses and mine I figured out what the issue was. For some reason, all sorts of fields were filled in incorrectly. My password was in my vehicle ID part, my APN was my username, etc etc. No idea how it got this way in the first place. So upon going through the SERVER, MODULE and GPRS commands again to set everything properly using your examples and appendices to the setup guide, it finally responded to the app.

Odd that feature 14 1 wouldn't have changed anything, since it seemed to be the one command which made my car finally respond to my texts earlier today, which is what gave me the drive to finally make some progress on this thing since there was a light at the end of the tunnel. Maybe it was another issue, shrug.

Anyway looking forward to having this thing working now that I've got a smartphone and have gotten onto h2o's prepaid plan. Finally! Thanks again!

 

[AEdennis]

Congratulations FANGO. Welcome back to the OVMS enabled community

 

[supersnoop]

When the APN settings aren't correct, text message responses can be sporatic. The GPRS system seems to get stuck in a traffic loop and eat up all available resources. That's why there's a hard switch in the device to disable GPRS. I know mine went all haywire when I switched SIM cards; I had to disable GPRS before I could text the module to reset the APN.

 

[dpeilow]

Can I make a feature request please?

On the Android app could we have an estimated charge finishing time?

 

[AEdennis]

Can I make a feature request please?

On the Android app could we have an estimated charge finishing time?

That would be great for iOS as well. I have to send a STAT command via SMS to get that info when the car is charging.

 

[FANGO]

Or better yet a way to set start/finish charging times in the UI? I understand this is possible through texts (right?) but it would be cool to have it in the app.

 

[tomsax]

ACC Setup Instructions

Yes, you can set the start or finish charge time with text messages. It would be nice to have a way to do it through the smartphone apps, but I imagine the UI would be a non-trivial amount of work to do well. It's pretty easy to do with text messages and you probably only need to do it once per charging location (home and/or work).

First, set/confirm you have the right time zone set. With a live connection, tap the Settings Tab, tap the ">" button, tap Control, tap Parameters. Scroll down to the last item, #23 and set it to your time zone offset. PDT is -7:00, EDT is -4:00, etc. While you're in there, you can also set the cooldown temperature, in degrees C, with parameter #15. The default is 31 (about 88F). I have mine set to 27 (about 80F), which may be too low in hot climates. (Don't mess with items #16 through #19, that's where the ACC parameters are stored in a compressed, unreadable, format.) Tap the "<Control" button at the top to save the change.

To verify that your time zone is correct, text the STAT command to your car. If the time zone is set correctly, the first line of the reply will be the current local time in 24-hour format.

Note that OVMS doesn't know anything about daylight saving time, so you'll have to change the time zone setting when DST turns on or off. If you don't, your car will start charging an hour later in the fall or an hour earlier in the spring.

ACC has a lot of options, which are documented in the user manual, but you can probably get it all set up with just three commands. The first step is to establish a location. Park your car where you want ACC to be active and send this command:

ACC HERE

That should respond and tell you which slot (1 through 4) is now associated with your car's current location.

Next, with the car still in the chosen location, set options using the ACC PARAMS command. For example, I have our car set to cool down whenever it's plugged in with the battery pack hot then delay charging so that will will be done around 7 am, limiting current to 32A and charging in Standard mode. All of that can be set with one command:

ACC PARAMS COOLDOWN CHARGEBY 07:00 LIMIT 32 MODE STA

After ACC is configured for a given location, it has to be enabled. This command will enable the car's current location:

ACC ENABLE.

That's it. You're all set up. A few things that may be of use later...

To disable ACC at the car's current location, so you can do a manual charge for example, send

ACC DISABLE

To disable COOLDOWN:

ACC PARAMS NOCOOLDOWN

To disable the CHARGEBY:

ACC PARAMS CHARGEPLUGIN

The full Roadster manual is here:

https://github.com/openvehicles/Open-Vehicle-Monitoring-System/raw/master/docs/OVMS_UserGuide_TeslaRoadster.pdf

 

[jnordeng]

Is there a similar function for heating the battery in the winter?

 

[dsm363]

Is there a similar function for heating the battery in the winter?

I believe only charging at a lower level like 12A is the thing to do there.

 

[AEdennis]

Is there a similar function for heating the battery in the winter?

I don't believe so. There's no "pre-conditioning" on the Roadster, per se.

 

[tomsax]

Is there a similar function for heating the battery in the winter?

That's an interesting idea. OVMS does not have a specific battery heating option.

Most Roadster owners haven't seen this, but if the battery is too cold, it has to be heated before charging starts. For driving, if the battery is too cold, power is limited and regen is disabled until the battery warms up.

I've only seen the cold battery behavior once with our car, which spends most of its time in moderate Seattle. Even at its coldest, our garage stays well above freezing.

If you set up ACC to do a CHARGEBY close to your departure time, your battery will presumably be warm enough for your drive. Would that do what you want?

 

[jnordeng]

I think the car will heat the battery if it's too cold. I left my car pluged in when I was away for e few weeks and got these messages on my phone "Standard - Charrging, Heating 236V/0A Full: 14 mins....."
I will try CHARGEBY ca 20mins before i leave in the morning and see if the car regens when i drive.

 

[tomsax]

I think the car will heat the battery if it's too cold. I left my car pluged in when I was away for e few weeks and got these messages on my phone "Standard - Charrging, Heating 236V/0A Full: 14 mins....."
I will try CHARGEBY ca 20mins before i leave in the morning and see if the car regens when i drive.

I recommend setting the CHARGEBY time to be 30 minutes before departure. Sometimes a standard mode charge will run 30 minutes longer than expected, perhaps because the car is balancing the pack. I wouldn't expect the battery to cool off much in 30 minutes.

The charge time predictor doesn't take into account the time needed to heat up the pack before charging can start. I don't have enough data to be able to do that. If that's making the CHARGEBY scheme unreliable for you, perhaps you could share log data with me so I can improve the algorithm.

 

[markwj]

The logs I saw when developing the support for 'heating' state showed about 30mins of heating before charging started. I don't think a HEATUP function, comparable to COOLDOWN, makes much sense. Perhaps best just to leave a 30-60 minute buffer on the chargeby parameter.

 

[jnordeng]

I pluged in the car today and it took about an hour to heat from 0 to 10C (32 to 50F) and then it started standard charging. I'm trying to use ACC and "charge-at-time" one hour before I leave in the morning. The only problem now is that I can't get ACC to work. The only response I get when I try to set it up is a message from OVMS saying a SMS is received, no SMS. If I send STAT I receive a SMS response, so OVMS should be set up correct.

 

[AEdennis]

I pluged in the car today and it took about an hour to heat from 0 to 10C (32 to 50F) and then it started standard charging. I'm trying to use ACC and "charge-at-time" one hour before I leave in the morning. The only problem now is that I can't get ACC to work. The only response I get when I try to set it up is a message from OVMS saying a SMS is received, no SMS. If I send STAT I receive a SMS response, so OVMS should be set up correct.

Do you have the latest firmware of OVMS loaded on the box?

 

[jnordeng]

My OVMS is version 2.6.5 so it should be good.

 

[supersnoop]

My OVMS is version 2.6.5 so it should be good.

No, it's not. You need the Tesla-specific firmware loaded in order to use COOLDOWN or ACC. The OVMS does not come with that firmware loaded; you have to load it yourself. I know because I had the same problem.