2016/12/18

New Release

Hybrid Assistant and Hybrid Reporter have been updated to support voltage and current readings for Prius 4 and C-HR.
Not all the features of Hybrid Assistant are currently available for Prius 4 and C-HR: they may eventually be in the future.



Automatically correct speed

The new version of Hybrid Assistant has an option to automatically correct indicated speed to GPS.
The factor can be estimated only it the car is running at a constant speed higher than 50 km/h for at least 10 seconds.
When selected, the speed correction factor field will be grayed out and, at the end of a trip, it will show the estimated correction.


2016/12/11

PDF User Guide in English-Francais-Italiano, English-Chinese, English-Spanish-Catalan

It is now available a PDF version of the User Guide.

There are three versions of the guide,
 - English, Francais, Italiano
 - English, 中文 (Chinese)
 - English, Español, Català

it is applicable to Hybrid Assistant version up to release V72

User Guide EN-FR-IT

User Guide EN-Chinese

User Guide EN-SP-CAT




2016/12/10

New Release

New release for Hybrid Reporter


  • Fix load scale
  • RPM chart
  • Instant consumption chart
  • Option to delete reports at exit
  • Fix negative ambient temperature chart
  • RPM Chart

    The RPM chart shows petrol engine RPM with load and ignition timing

    Instant Fuel Consumption

    The Instant Fuel Consumption chart shows fuel consumption in L/100km along with speed

    BSFC Trend

    See how BSFC is getting better over time, with steady speed and high engine temperature:

    2016/12/09

    New Release

    New Hybrid Assistant release:
    • A disclaimer about driving safety is shown at startup after every upgrade
    • New Prius3 Plugin SOC color scale
    • New Prius3 Plugin excessive ev evaluation
    • GPS speed is shown in optional panel (tap speed indicator to open)
    • Estimate of speed correction factor is shown along GPS speed
    • Autoenable Bluetooth
    • Increased precision of ICE kW display
    • Fuel usage in mL is displayed by tapping fuel panel
    • Fix for temperature drop after S2
    • Collection of basic info for Prius 4 and C-HR


    2016/12/08

    GPS Speed and Correction Factor

    GPS speed has been added to the option panel that opens by tapping the speed indicator.
    Be aware that GPS speed is only available if GPS is enabled on your phone, and the displayed value has a delay of about 2 seconds to the actual car speed.

    The same panel displays the speed correction factor.
    You can enter this factor in the settings screen, so the speed displayed on screen will match actual speed.
    Speed factor can be correctly estimated only if you proceed at a constant speed higher than 50 km/h for more than 10 seconds



    Fuel mL

    Real die hards of fuel economy can now see real time fuel usage in mL by tapping the fuel usage panel

    Drive Safely

    Hybrid Assistant may look like a game, but driving is not.
    You can put yourself and others at serious risk.
    You are now required to read and accept a disclaimer when you start Hybrid Assistant.
    It will be shown once every upgrade.


    Automatic activation of Bluetooth

    If you're using a Bluetooth interface, you can allow Hybrid Assistant to enable Bluetooth at start, and, if it did, disable it at the exit.
    Note: the options are available only if Bluetooth connection mode is selected.



    2016/12/04

    About

    You can check the running version of Hybrid Reporter by selecting About from the menu on main screen.


    A changelog with lastest additions is present, along with links to full documentation.


    Load and Timing

    The new version of Hybrid Reported adds chart for Engine Load and Ignition Timing


    New Release

    New release available for Hybrid Reporter

    • Improved HV fitness chart
    • Engine Load and Timing chart
    • Fix vertical scale


    2016/11/27

    New Release

    HV Fan auto activation
    Screen brightness changes according to ambient light
    Initial SOC added to the battery panel
    New look for the EV Summary
    Fuel tank level is updated more frequently
    Prius+ speed is more accurate
    About screen added in settings


    Auto Fan

    HV cooling fan can be automatically controlled by Hybrid Assistant
    Here's the effect of setting fan activation at 36.
    Fan will start if temperature is 36 or higher, and will stop at 2 degrees below the specified level (34 in this case)

    Option is available in the settings screen



    Brightness

    Checking the Automatically reduce brightness option in the setting screen will cause the screen to change backlight level according to ambient light.
    This may be useful while driving at night.
    Option will be grayed out if the phone doesn't have any light sensor.


    2016/11/22

    New Release

    Hybrid Assistant
    New features:

    • Tapping the fuel consumption indicator will switch from L/100km to km/L
    • Fuel chart added
    • Added speed correction factor to settings screen
    • MG Temperature
    • Some minor layout changes
    • Added optional panel with temperature of MG, inverters and HV
    • Speed for Lexus NX300 should be more accurate
    • Added fuel tank level to fuel detail panel
    • Speed indicator now changes color according to speed trend:
    Green: speed is increasing
    White: speed is constant
    Yellow: speed is decreasing

    Fixes:
    • Fix for wrong ambient temperature
    • Fixed S2 detection
    • Fix for wrong Auris MY name
    • Fix for Auris MY10 brakes detection
    • Fix for Prius 3 Plugin battery level color


    Hybrid Reporter
    • Added MG, ambient and inhaling temperature to the Temperature stats

    12V Auxiliary Battery Measurement

    The new version of Hybrid Assistant checks Auxiliary Battery Voltage while the car is off.
    Be sure to use an high quality OBD adapter to have a reliable reading.


    Fuel Chart

    The Fuel Chart shows real time instant and average fuel consumption.
    Values are shown in L/100km

    The Fuel Chart is available in 2 versions:
    • Standard
    • High Precision
    Standard chart has a refresh rate of 1 second and a longer timeframe is displayed on screen

    High Precision chart has the highest refresh rate permitted by your OBD adapter: it can be as fast as 5 times a second, but an high performance adapter and phone are mandatory for proficient use.
    High Precision chart also uses colors to highlight ascending and descending trends in fuel usage.

    You can open the Fuel Chart by tapping the EV icon.
    Tapping anywhere into the chart will close it, and performing a long tap will switch between Standard and High Precision.


    A) Instant consumption: the bar size changes to display fuel usage in L/100km. Bar color changes according to usage trend: green if instant consumption is less than the previous reading, orange if not.

    B) History area: this area keep history of fuel usage. A vertical mark is drawn every minute, with a thicker one every 5

    C) A green area shows decreasing fuel usage

    D) An orange area shows increasing fuel usage

    E) Average fuel usage over the whole trip is also plotted: red when increasing, green when decreasing

    2016/11/21

    Temperature Chart

    The new version of Hybrid Reporter adds several temperature related entries to the Powertrain temperature chart:

    Engine coolant temperature: coolant of the petrol engine
    Inverter temperature: highest temperature among all car inverters
    Battery temperature: highest temperature among all temperature sensors of the HV battery
    Battery inhaling temperature: temperature inside the car, you can't expect the HV temperature to go below this
    MotorGenerator temperature: highest temperature among all electric motors
    External temperature: temperature outside the car


    2016/11/10

    New Hybrid Assistant Release

    New options available in the settings screen
    Selecting autoclose will cause Hybrid Assistant to exit automatically when powering off the car
    You can set a maximum number of trips to keep for reporting
    Inverter temperature indicator won't change color anymore
    Fix for "database must by updated" error



    New Hybrid Reporter Release

    New Report Settings screen:
    You can choose a range for charts and set fuel price for calc of trip cost


    2016/11/06

    New Release

    Lots of new charts for Hybrid Reporter

    Average fuel consumption at each given speed
    Average value is highlighted with a dot, along with min/max range and standard deviation.
    Note that under 70 km/h, variation is really high, since the electric motor can push the car with no petrol engine contribution


    BSFC Value
    Value of g/kWh during the trip.
    Note how BSFC value gets better as the engine enters best temperature range and speed variations are kept at minimum.


    At which power output is the engine more efficient?
    The BFSC for kW chart shows precisely that.
    The measure uses only values from optimal temperature range, and is significant when performed on a long trip with many different and steady power requests.



    New Release

    Fuel usage is now available on all OBD adapters.
    BIG disclaimer: quality of fuel reading is tightly related to quality of OBD adapter.
    Poor quality/slow adapters will lead to unreliable results.

    The settings dialog can now be accessed from the lower right wrench icon on the main screen


    Text size option in the settings screen: it can be used to reduce font size in case of truncated text


    Engine and inverter temperature indicators now change color according to trend: orange - increasing, cyan - decreasing

    Various fixes:

    • end of S1b
    • S4 detection at car ignition
    • RX450 now correctly detected
    • accurate speed detection for Prius 3
    • improved OBD adapters compatibility


    2016/11/01

    HA Survey

    in the following, the synthesis of survey answer is reported, as extracted from the permanent survey created as HA vs. phones and OBD adaptors monitoring tool.

    The survey is always available at the following link https://goo.gl/forms/ezAIiApn8kGCZFEq1

    HA team thanks the participants and invete all of you in provinding again your feedback on the newer versions of HA (lot of evolution in the last weeks)

    Thanks.

    HA Survey Report as of 31st October 2016

    • 32 unique testers have provided answers (multiple devices for some users)
    • 23 tester using OBDLINK LX as OBD tool (81,25%)
      • Basic Functionality working on 100%
      • Fan Control working on 100% for newer release (HA >56)
      • Battery Test working on 100% (only one reported not working with a 54 release)
    • 1 tester using OBDLINK MX with all functionalities
    • 1 user using DB Power Wifi on HA version 56, fully functional with reported sample time of 2,73s (!)
    • 9 tester using Cheap Chinese clone
      • 2 users with newer releases reports application fully working 

    NOTE

    The configuration with fan control not working are the ones with cycle time greater (>0,6). 
    Many exceptions to this rule also with users using OBLINK LX that experienced on old releases fan control problems. (No sufficient data to perform statistics on newer releases).
    1 tester, reported that disconnecting HA from TT2, the fan control functionality is restored.
    With newer releases, two testers reports several disconnections and Java IO exceptions at start.

    As general rule (from survey and from forum information):
    - the phone connected to 3g/4g network is good
    - the phone connected to TT2 or to other BT adapters presents high cycle time values
    - the phone connected to Wifi presents high cycle time values

    Phone compatible with HA according to survey:
    • Huawei NXT-L29 , MM 6.0
    • Lenovo A7600-H android SDK 19
    • LG G2 D802 Android 4.4.2
    • LG G2 D802 Android 5.0.2
    • LG Nexus 5X Android 7
    • Motorola Moto E 2015 - Surnia - CyanogenMOD 13
    • NGM E450 
    • Samsung GT-I930
    • Samsung Galaxy A5 Android 6.0.1
    • Samsung Galaxy J3 (2016)
    • Samsung Galaxy J5
    • samsung Galaxy S3 android 4.3
    • Samsung Galaxy S3 neo 4.4.2
    • Samsung Galaxy S4 5.0.1
    • Samsung Galaxy S4 5.0.1 L
    • Samsung Galaxy S6
    • Samsung Galaxy S7 - Android 6.0.1
    • Samsung GT N7100 - Android 4.4.2
    • SAMSUNG GT-I8190 / ANDROID 4.1.2
    • Samsung GT-i9100, android 4.1.2
    • Samsung gt-i9300
    • Sony Xperia Z3 mini
    • Sony Z1 Compact, sdk 22
    • Space Phone 5 Android 5.0
    • Xiaomi MI MAX 6.0.1
    • Xiaomi Mi5 6.0.1
    • Zuk z1 cm13

    2016/10/22

    New Release

    Hybrid Assistant:
    • Inverter Temperature is now shown alongside with engine coolant
    • Auris 2010 is now correctly identified
    • New BSFC table for RAV, RX and IS.



    Hybrid Reporter:
    • Temperature chart now contains inverter and battery temperature
    • Battery temperature is now in table format
    • Added BSFC value chart

    Reset Database


     The first time you run the new Hybrid Assistant version, you'll see the following message;


    After clicking OK there will be a brief pause before the app will start as usual.

    If the app won't start, you can reset the database using Hybrid Report / Database Maintenance and selecting Delete.

    2016/10/16

    High Speed Logging

    The new version of Hybrid Assistant introduces High Speed Trip Logging.
    When enabled, in the setting page of Hybrid Reporter, data logging will be as fast as possible by the phone-OBD setup, instead of the default 1 second logging.
    Trip data, exported by Hybrid Reporter, will have many more samples, and values will be raw data, as reported by the car ECU, with no further processing.
    This can be used when post-processing data with external tools: driving is not affected in any way by this option.


    Elevation Profile

    The Elevation Profile charts shows GPS elevation data of the trip.
    Additionally, energy usage from both engine and battery, in kWh, is shown on the right axis.


    New Release

    Hybrid Assistant

    Hybrid Reporter

    2016/10/15

    New Release

    Hybrid Assistant
    • All new OBD interface code: faster and more reliable
    • iCarSoft i620 OBD interface now supports fuel stats (still slower than OBDLink LX)
    • By popular demand, the powermeter color scale is now reversed: red -> low efficiency, hybrid blue -> high efficiency
    • Lexus RX400h is now fully supported
    • Lexus RX540h is now fully supported (rear motor braking is taken in account)
    • RAV4 AWD is now fully supported (rear motor braking is taken in account)
    • Fixed Lexus IS300 braking detection
    • New onscreen indicator: tap it to switch between instant/average and L/H consumption (only with supported adapters)
    • Fixed excessive EV detection error
    • Prius 4 is now supported with basic info only (ICE Load / RPM / Speed / Ign Timing / MAF / ICE Temp / STFT / LTFT)
    • HV Fan control should be more stable
    • Layout changes to support devices with uncommon form factors
    • Prius 2 DCL & CCL

    Hybrid Reporter  (formerly Report Viewer)
    • Changed name to Hybrid Reporter
    • When viewed on a internet connected device, map charts now have a real map background
    • By popular demand, the BSFC color scale is now reversed: red -> low efficiency, hybrid blue -> high efficiency
    • Instantanous consumption map max value is now scaled to car model
    • Added Brake usage map
    • Screenshots taken into HA can be viewed in Reporter
    • Fixed error in HTML format
    • Fixed typos in labels



    2016/09/27

    Bluetooth, Wi-Fi or USB?

    Hybrid Assistant supports connection via Bluetooth, Wi-Fi or USB.
    Here is a performance test using the same adapter: the only difference is the connection method.

    OBDLink LX OBDLink MX OBDLink SX
    Connection type: Bluetooth Wi-Fi USB
    Requests per second 28 17 48

    New Release

    Changes:

    Hybrid Assistant:
    • DCL and CCL marks on the HV Powermeter
    • Fixed overflow of connection label in portrait mode
    • RAV4 AWD is now recognised and speed indicator is accurate
    • Dialogs have white backgound now, for better readability
    • Bluetooh fix for "rockchip" Android Head Units
    • 12V battery check
    • Added border to touch sensitive areas
    • Support for USB and WiFi OBD adapters
    Report Viewer:
    • Export trip and battery logs
    • Added BSFC chart
    • Added EV Map chart
    • Delete DB for full cleanup


    2016/09/25

    Hybrid Assistant on a Head Unit - modification required to OBD interface

    Custom Head units available on the market can be installed on our hybrid cars as replacement of the Toyota Touch / Toyota Touch 2.

    One of our tester has identified an incompatibility between his head unit and the OBDLink LX OBD adapter.

    The incompatibility identified does not allow the Head Unit to operate corretly both Torque and Hybrid Assistant. The problem is in the name of the OBD dongle since some Head Units requires the Can Bus adapter to be called with a fixed name "OBD" to correctly operate the Can Bus applications.

    To solve this issue, the following procedure can be performed
    • request to Scantool, an updated firmware, not available on their site, allowing the renaming of the OBDLink LX 
    • perform the Firware Upgrade according to the provided Scantool procedure using a Windows PC 
    • install on an Android phone a Bluetooth terminal (e.g. "Bluetooth terminal" available on the Play Store) 
    • Connect the ObdLink LX to the Android Phone via Bluetooth 
    • send the command STI 
    • Check that OBDLink LX has updated the firmware (now the release should be 4.0)
    • Send the command STBTN OBD 
    After this operation, the Head Unit can be paired to the OBDLink LX that now will be able to operate both Torque and Hybrid Assistant

    As usual these modifications are carried out at your own risk.

     A video of the result, showing hybrid assistant operative, is available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJnjPc3fIeA&feature=youtu.be

    2016/09/23

    WiFi and USB Adapters

    The new version of Hybrid Assistant adds support for USB and WiFi OBD adapters.
    To switch the connection mode you must use the Settings screen of Report Viewer

    Select adapter type and then run Hybrid Assistant again.

    Note: the WiFi OBD adapter should be set to listen on IP 192.168.0.10, port 35000.
    These should be the same settings used by other ODB communication apps.


    2016/09/22

    Auxiliary Battery Voltage

    The new version of Hybrid Assistant allow measurement of the 12V Auxiliary Battery also.

    Here is the procedure:

    1. Do not turn on the car: just wake up the OBD adapter from sleep. This is accomplished on my car by just opening the driver's door.
    2. Run Hybrid Assistant and let it connect: it will display "Waiting for the car" in the status line.
    3. After a couple of seconds a panel will open with the 12V measure updating over time.
    4. Once you bring the car to READY, the panel will close and operations will proceed as usual.

    Please note that Auxiliary Battery Voltage reading works even with the car completely off.
    The reading is available as soon as the adapter wakes up from standby.
    This is one step beyond the measuring method that uses the hidden menu of the Toyota Touch, because it still needs the car to be at least in accessory mode, and the voltage reading is somewhat altered because of the Toyota Touch load itself.

    2016/09/21

    CCL and Brake

    The new version of Hybrid Assistant displays real time CCL and DCL indicators on the HV Powermeter.
    Charge Current Limit and Discharge Current Limit shows maximum power that the HV battery can sustain any given moment.
    Their value is affected, among other factors, by temperature and battery charge level.
    When the battery can not accept any more incoming current, CCL is decreased accordingly even to zero: in this condition, regenerative braking isn't possible anymore so friction pads kick in.
    You can see it in this annotated video.

    2016/08/26

    Connected Car vs Cyberattacks

    "Connected cars are quickly rising and becoming part of everybody’s life. According to a MarketsandMarkets forecast, this industry will reach $46.69 Billion by 2020. So far so good, but, this evolution comes hand in hand with cyber threats expansion, so, there is only one thing we can do – make sure security comes first."https://www.rickscloud.com/connected-car-vs-cyberattacks/

    Be sure to use an OBD adapter that do not accept unsolicited pairing requests.

    2016/08/20

    Understanding Hybrid Assistant "bubble" charts

    Hybrid Assistant uses "bubbles" to represent data on scatter charts.
    Size and color are proportional to accuracy of the data point represented.
    Check the following chart, that depicts relationship between RPM of the petrol engine and kW produced.

    For each RPM value, all kW measured at that regime are averaged and plotted.
    A blue, large dot is made up from few collected values, so it's precision is low and the plotted point may be affected by statistical errors.
    An orange, medium dot is plotted when more data is available and precision is higher.
    A small red dot means that a sufficent samples were collected to have a reliable value.
    Longer trips lead to more defined charts.

    2016/08/07

    New Release

    News:

    • STFT and LTFT are now collected (for analysis of gas powered cars)
    • Additional panels for engine and battery details (tap engine and battery icons to open)


    2016/08/04

    New Release

    News:
    • Report is now in HTML format
    • Battery report is now in tabular format with highlight of notable values
    • ICE power color is now more readable for 2.5L engines
    • Battery Fan control touch area extended
    • Fix for km count truncation
    • Ignition Timing is now shown along RPM (useful for cars using alternative fuels)
    • Fix for S1a detection

    New Release

    News:
    • Report is now in HTML format
    • Battery report is now in tabular format with highlight of notable values
    • ICE power color is now more readable for 2.5L engines
    • Battery Fan control touch area extended
    • Fix for km count truncation
    • Ignition Timing is now shown along RPM (useful for cars using alternative fuels)
    • Fix for S1a detection

    2016/08/02

    Quality of OBD adapters

    While the Hybrid Assistant team tries to support as many OBD adapters as possible, some of them are just plain garbage.
    Most of them are based on the ELM327 chip, or better, an older version of it.
    The first version of the ELM327 was released without any copy prevention measures.
    This leaded to a number of unauthorized low-cost clones.
    While the official ELM327 grew from version to version, security mechanisms were introduced to discourage copies.
    So, right now, there are several clones claiming to be the latest version, while they are simply renamed clones of the old one.
    While the chip identifies itself as a newer version, its command set is still the older one, so some command are not behaving as expected.


    Another whole group of clones even cut shorts on components: low quality interfaces and controllers, and even missing components.




    Buying this products supports piracy and divert resources from companies investing in developing new products.

    Links to original source:
    http://can-newsletter.org/tools/tools-miscellaneous/nr_elm327_wgsoft_140123/
    http://prius-touring-club.com/vbf/showpost.php?p=310628&postcount=121


    New Release

    New release with some fixes to bugs reported by users, and a couple of new stats:

    • iCar and some other ELM327-based adapters should work now
    • layout fix for truncated/too big text
    • battery temperature readings for Prius 2 and RX400
    • kW for RPM added to report
    • kW generated while braking added to report

    2016/08/01

    Quick User Guide

    A Quick User Guide for Hybrid Assistant is available
    You can get it at this link in english or at this link in Spanish

    2016/07/30

    Open Beta

    Hybrid Assistant is now available on the Play Store as Beta
    See to Download page to get it

    2016/07/29

    New Release

    Available on Play Store to selected testers.
    News:

    • HV fan speed control (touch icon)
    • Better brake evaluation
    • More precise kW/km/h evaluation
    • S1-2-3-4 detection
    • Speed indicator with speed limit highlight
    • HV battery temperature
    • HV battery intake temperature
    • New ICE powermeter
    • Prius Plugin support
    • Engine history indicator
    • Modified report format
    • GPS speed offset added to report
    • Consumption in kWh/100km added to report
    • Added ICE running stats to report
    • HV Battery stats
    • RX400h brakes detection
    • Prius 2 brakes detection


    2016/07/18

    New Release


    • New braking evaluation: the brake icon will always show green/red according to regen/friction braking, while the history will use yellow to report a mixed usage
    • Power for speed now uses only constant speed
    • The detected car name is now shown on the connection line
    • Reduced text size to avoid overflow on some icons
    • Corrected Prius 2 braking error
    • Some layout changes


    2016/07/17

    kW/km/h

    The new version will add a new statistic to the report.
    For each speed value, kilowatts required to maintain that speed are reported.
    Please note that, to avoid transitories, only when a given speed is maintained steady for at least 5 seconds, the kW value is considered valid; so some speeds may not be present in the report. This is normal and expected in most cases.
    Please note that not all trips are well suited to produce correct values: uphills and downhills will provide readings affected by the additional power required to climb, or the regeneration effect while going down.
    If you want to estimate power required for moving your car, choose a flat road and use cruise control to maintain a constant speed.

    2016/06/25

    New release


    • better support for different screen sizes
    • kWh used and recovered added in reports
    • ICE efficiency evaluation for 1.8 engines
    • report energy used at different speeds
    • better support for older P3 models
    • support for Prius+

    Debug Settings

    Hybrid Assistant writes a log of logging, for debugging purposes.
    This is usually not necessary while driving regularly.
    The Report Viewer has Settings screen where you can turn on and off logging.
    Turn it on if requested by the developers.


    2016/06/20

    Report Viewer

    Hybrid Assistant produces a detailed report for every trip.
    A simple Report Viewer is available on the Play Store, to read and manage reports.



    2016/06/19

    New release

    New release is available to testers.
    • Optimization factor (Yaris only): shows ICE efficiency 
    • Power meter
    • Fixed screen refresh issues
    • EV distance and % glitches fixed
    • Brake icon now reflects friction pad usage: evaluation is applied only to history


    2016/06/18

    Power Meter

    The new power meter shows kW produced by the engine, and those flowing in and out of the battery.


    2016/06/13

    2016/06/10

    New Dashboard

    New update is available to testers, with a redesigned dashboard, and support for landscape mode

    2016/06/09

    EV Abuse

    Hybrid Assistant reports “abuse” of EV mode.
    How do we define “abuse”?
    You’re abusing EV when applying traction by the electric motor and you have SOC<60%
    Since SOC will be replenished by petrol at the next engine ignition, this will not lead to efficient driving.
    You can freely use EV when your SOC is >60% and you have energy to spare.



    2016/06/07

    Braking Bad

    The brake icon has 5 history bars, with a summary of the last 5 brakings.
    The bar color tells the effectiveness of the braking.
    The history bars allow the driver to check brakings actually after the brake event, without compromising on security while driving.


    2016/06/05

    Check your EV

    Hybrid Assistant now tracks EV usage:
    2 different progess bars show percentage of EV time and EV distance over the whole trip.


    Additionally, the EV icon will turn red if you're abusing EV usage.