User Guide
This page will be filled up with guidelines on how to use and configure CanZE …
Hardware
ELM327
For any information about the ELM327, please take a look at the corresponding hardware page.
Getting to the SAE J1962 (“OBD-II”) port
For the Fluence Z.E.
The SAE J1962 connector is hidden in front of the gear selector, just above the USB plug. The bezel can be removed with a bent piece of metal, we recommend using a metal cover from a PC’s expansion ports. Be careful! You can feel, that the bezel is 3 mm thick, and there is a 3 mm wall behind the bezel – get the metal tool in between the two plastic parts and pull strongly. Again be careful where your elbows go when the bezel suddenly releases.
Pictures of bezel removal are here
Video in Spanish of entering the plug “munchas force!”
For the Zoe
The connector is located under the bottom of the area where the lighter is located. The best way to pop that bottom up is using a small, sharp screwdriver and stick it in the soft rubber edge of the bottom panel, preferably on the aft side so any dent is not visible. Just pull it up gently.
Charging
Rationale
The charging screen offers some insight in the charging process. This is a text screen as it is intended to be used while parked and charging.
Information
- The following fields that are displayed in addition to the car’s dash:
Maximum power the charger is able to supply (Available Charging Power kW). - Maximum charging power that is accepted by the battery (Max Battery charge/regen kW). If the charger is capable of supplying more than this value, you might want to consider ending the session. The value is mainly influenced by the SOC (when above roughly 70%), very high and very low temperatures.
- Battery power (positive when charging).
- The state of charge and state of health, both in percentages of the battery.
A more technical version of the charging screen is available through in the “Technical” submenu.
Driving
Rationale
The driving screen provides extra information while driving. Important information is showed graphically or in huge typeset. Warning: in many countries it is not allowed to hold a device in your hand while driving. Use a suitable mount when you intent to use this screen while driving.
Information
The driving screen provides the following information.
- The pedal position and torque applied. Torque corresponds to the force the motor needs to apply. Note that this is not equivalent to power. Power is a product of torque and RPM (force and speed). Both are displayed as bar graphs occupying the width of the screen, and ranging from green to red.
- The real speed. This is uncorrected speed. A car is, by most national laws, required to never indicate less than the real speed. Warning: a safety margin is applied by the manufacturers, to avoid disputes over speeding tickets. This correction is not applied to this display. Use at you own risk.
- Distance to destination can be entered tapping this line. You can also use the distance doubled for a round trip. It will be updated during the trip.
- Distance available at destination is the remaining distance in the battery as reported by the car, minus the remaining distance to destination.
- SOC in percentage. This can be useful to see if the return trip can be made without charging.
- Maximum charge/regenerate power of the traction battery. The higher, the faster you can charge and the better you can regenerate while braking.
- Friction braking. This is unit-less red progress bar showing a product of the speed and the pressure in the friction brake system, so showing roughly the power loss during braking.
Firmware
Rationale
Firmware downloading is advised by Renault to the dealer when they check in your car, however, it is not certain that the dealer actually applies those updates. The Firmware screen allows a quick overview of the software version loaded in all computers in your car.
Information
Simply start this screen and CanZE will continuously query all 16 known ECUs for their software version. It will also display if that version is newer or older than a reference version (per car type, per ECU) that we keep updated in CanZE. Please report any newer loads (yours>ref in the screen) to us so we can update the reference. Ask your dealer to update to the latest version if CanZE indicates an older firmware version than the reference (yours<ref in the screen).
Braking
Rationale
Many people try to extend range by avoiding friction braking, but the car doesn’t really indicate when friction braking kicks in. Reality is that friction braking starts very early when pushing the braking pedal, but luckily only very mildly. This screen displays the various braking parameters.
Information
The screen is simplified to only three progress bars
- Requested torque is the sum of automatic coasting electric braking when letting go of the accelerator pedal and the requested torque by actually pushing the braking pedal
- Applied electrical torque is the total braking torque applied by the motor, leading to regeneration of energy to the battery
- Applied friction torque is the difference between the first two values. Note that this is a calculated bar. We have learned that the ESC actually works this way, but have not found a field in the data confirming this value.
Heatmaps
Rationale
A heat map is a color representation of many values. It is intended to quickly see values that wander away from a mean value. Cell voltage of all 96 cells in the battery should be roughly the same (within millivolts). Temperature of the cell compartments should not deviate more than 2 degrees centigrade.
Under normal circumstances, voltage differences accumulate and the Battery Management System is constantly evening those differences out by monitoring each cell and loading them slightly different. Temperature differences even out by themselves.
Information
The voltage and temperature heat maps simply state the those values in a square. The square is colored relative to the square’s value, compared to the mean of all values. The neutral color is grey, with a gravity to blue for lower values and to pink for higher values. In essence, you should see a grey, or almost grey map. If certain cells or compartments stick out consistently, there is something wrong.
An algorithm published by Nissan is also applied to the cell voltage values. If a cell sticks out bright red, it can be considered damaged.
You should not use the voltage heat map while driving, as the varying load will induce small but very noticeable and fast voltage changes. As not all voltages are queried at the same instant, this will give erratic color maps.
Tyres
If your car is equipped with TPMS (mandatory as of September 2015 in Europe), this screen will show you the state of the tyre and and the pressure. To use it you should be driving for a couple of minutes as that will make the sensors in your tyres send out their measurements.
If the state is shown OK but all tyre pressures are 0, you probably have no TPMS equipped car, or the wheels do not have TPMS sensors.
The Tyres screen is still in the experimental section.