Hyundai/Kia Powertrain Analysis

User An-IONIQ of the hybridlife.org French forum, has written a deep analysis of the Hyundai/Kia powertrain, using Hybrid Assistant as a measurement tool.
Here is the original work, while an Italian translation, with additional comments courtesy of team member Gabriele, is available on Hybrid Synergy Forum

Hybrid Assistant usage in high school

We just received an interesting email, from France, about an unexpected usage of Hybrid Assistant: thank you Antony.

My name is Anthony Berçon, I’m a technical trainer in a french high school specialized in car repairing. I’d like to share my experience about Hybrid Assistant, and my way to use it.

First of all, it’s a powerful and compact app to get data about hybrid powertrain. Usually we use a professional tool like a Sun PDL 5500 to collect and export data, to be analyzed with MS Excel.

HA makes the same thing and its data collection has enough precision for our usage.

At this moment, with my students, I'm working on the regenerative brake, and the relationship between SOC battery, regenerative brake and battery temperature. With the help of the HA staff, it was easy to export data and make some charts to explain that relationship. 

My next step will be to create exercises about potential energy, kinetic energy, negative acceleration and SOC. I’ll use it to help students understand how Toyota hybrid works.

Here are some examples of HA usage in my teaching:

Graph 1 explains the relationship between vehicle speed and regenerative/mechanic brake system.

Graph 2 shows partitioning of braking torque between the 2 braking systems.

The next 2 graphs show battery temperature being influenced by regenerative brake.

More on Android Head units

Head Units are Android-based devices that can be installed in the car dashboard, usually in place of the car builtin infotainment module.

Since their Bluetooth module is primarily intended for hands-free usage, sometimes it's quite difficult to use a Bluetooth OBD adapter with them: in such case and USB adapter may solve the issue.
While we do not officially supports head units, we are happy to report user success stories.

Marijan Pribek wrote us:

My experience with connecting OBDLink LX and SX to HYBRID ASSISTANT
My car is a Toyota Yaris HYBRID, 2016, EU edition. Android HU is Pumpkin CN01
One month ago I bought an OBDLink LX and tried to connect to the Hybrid assistant app but no avail.
On the advice of the HA team returned from the LX (BT) device and purchased the OBDlink SX (USB).

Today I finally received my OBDLink SX. I connected it to the free USB on the HU port and after selecting the USB connection in the OBDLink application it worked from the first. The connection is very stable and the connection is very fast.

Unlike a Bluetoooth device, this is a big difference - a positive one.
Connecting an SX device to a HYBRID ASSISTANT application is very easy. Everything works smoothly and without error.
Tested on Chinese HU: Pumpkin CN01 and Xtrons 708L, no problem.

In my experience, the OBDLink SX (USB) device is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED for use in the Android HU and HYBRID ASSISTANT app.
I hope someone will use this information.

Thank you Marijan

Toyota Corolla

Toyota Corolla (1.8L and 2.0L version) is now recognized by the latest version of Hybrid Assistant.

Android Head Unit pairing trick

Android Head Units use a different Bluetooth module from standard phones, so using a Bluetooth OBD adapter may be tricky.

An USB OBD Adapter like the OBDLink SX may be a better solution.

We do not directly support running Hybrid Assistant on Android Head Units, but we are happy to report success from our users.

Oliver S. writes us about a trick he used to overcome a pairing problem on his unit:

If HA hangs during initialization and you cannot select a Bluetooth device because the “button” is not responding, it is probably due to HA not getting the correct data from the Bluetooth
stack in your device.

To lift this issue follow these steps:

1.      Connect from a different device (e.g. mobile phone) to your OBD adapter
2.      Quit HA on the non-working device.
3.      Copy file hybridassistant.db from the working device (located in internal storage/_hybridassistant/) to your  non-working device, overwriting the existing hybridassistant.db 
4.      Restart HA
5.      Now everything should work. If not continue reading:
6.      Sometimes HA now stops at this point
and the OBD adapter needs an additional push: 
a.      Start “Torque” (free on Playstore) and wait until it connects.
b.      Quit Torque (or don’t, does not matter) and start HA

If you have read up to number 6, steps a) and b) must most likely be
performed on this unit once per driving session if you wish to use HA.


Thank you, Oliver

Gear Assistant

Differently from Toyota and Lexus cars, which have a PSD, Hyundai and Kia have a gearbox.
The gear panel of the new version of Hybrid Assistant, shows the selected gear and a color evaluation of the current efficiency.

The colors of the gear indicator show how you are using battery power in EV mode. It is useful after a pulse with ICE when you maintain constant speed in EV mode.

Try to keep green for low battery drain. 

If yellow appears, speed is increasing and you are slightly discharging the battery more than expected to have a good distance in EV. 

If red appears you are really asking too much battery power and you have to turn on ICE with a short but strong pressure on accelerator, or to decrease speed. 

When ICE is turned on you have always white color. When the battery is recharging (i.e. during regenerative braking) you always have green color.

kWh is the new Litre

As the automotive world is moving towards electrification, measuring consumption in Litres won't have any meaning anymore.
To ease transition, and familiarize yourself with the new unit, Hybrid Assistant can now show average kWh/100km consumption and total kWh over the trip.
This is available on EV cars and Toyota/Lexus cars.
Other models will account only for the energy coming from the HV battery, excluding the petrol engine.

Con la progressiva elettrificazione del mondo dell'automobile, la misura del consumo basato sui litri non avrà più senso.
Per semplificare la transizione, ed abituarsi a ragionare con le nuove unità, Hybrid Assistant mostra ora anche il consumo medio in kWh/100km e il totale di kWh consumati durante il viaggio.
Il dato è disponibile per le auto interamente elettriche e per gli ibridi Toyota/Lexus.
Il conteggio negli altri modelli comprende solo l'energia in arrivo dalla batteria HV, escludendo il motore a benzina.