170.000 km and counting...

As battery life is always a classic debate argument, here is the HV Check from a long time friend of the Hybrid Assistant development team: his Yaris MY12 is just a few km under the 170.000 mark, and the battery is in perfect shape.
The delta values of the battery modules is really low, and nearly constant both at high and low SOC levels.

 

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.

RPM/Trim/Timing Chart

Following an interesting post on PriusChat, https://priuschat.com/threads/e85-3-gal-e10-7-gal.121314/#post-1730070
a new chart has been added to Hybrid Reporter: you can see efficiency at various RPMs, based on Ignition Timing and Fuel Trims.
Ignition Timing points can also be painted with the BSFC value achieved.
This can be useful when using different fuel types (LGP or E85).

New charts in Hybrid Reporter

The RPM Scatter chart shows RPM values while driving at a given speed.
Note that, given our eCVT transmission, there's no fixed relationship between engine speed and vehicle speed.

The Power Map chart has been revised to give more information: beside giving the power value for each RPM of the petrol engine with a dot proportional to data accuracy, it also plots collected values range and standard deviation.
This provides a more accurate view of the collected data.

The Average Power chart plots power required to keep a given speed.

This is total power, coming from the petrol engine and HV battery.
Values are collected only when a constant speed is maintained long enough to have a consistent reading, so a trip with many different speeds may not gather enough data to plot.
Since required energy is heavily influenced by road slope, you should drive on a plain road to have a correct reading.

The Instant BSFC/Fuel Consumption Chart combines fuel efficiency with burning efficiency, giving an unprecedented insight view of engine workings.
Instant fuel consumption value is drawn using the BSFC color scale.
You can now see how efficiently you are burning the fuel needed to achieve a specific mileage.
The best desirable condition is a short cyan bar.

LGP tweaking

A creative user from Hybrid Synergy Forum has found a way to use Hybrid Assistant for checking an LGP modified engine that was behaving erratically.

Using the fuel trim chart he helped the tech support to correct settings of the engine LGP control unit.

Full story is available here:

http://www.hybrid-synergy.eu/showthread.php?tid=62430&pid=701071#pid701071

By his suggestion, the new version of Hybrid Reporter now charts fuel trim corrections for each RPM range of the engine.

Here is the map of the misbehaving engine, with very high trims at high RPMs

After tweaking, the trims are back to lower values

LGP fuel quality evaluation

Joshue Martín de Blas, a long time friend of Hybrid Assistant, has put to good use the Fuel Trim charts of Hybrid Reporter.
In his own words:

These 2 Fuel trims graphics are of the same trip, but with different LPG brand. It's clear that in one case the effective Fuel Trim is bigger (and the fuel consumption higher also), because the ECU needs to make much more corrections tho the injection time.

some more information on fuel trims may be found here:
http://mitoyotaprius.mforos.com/1727338/13003776-como-saber-si-dos-combustibles-se-comportan-igual-ejemplo-con-glp/
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILm8sJrL2R0
and here:
http://www.lpgc.co.uk/index_files/Page736.htm

Fuel usage over distance

The Fuel usage over distance chart plots consumption on a distance scale.
The green line shows overall fuel usage starting from the beginning of the trip, while the red histogram depicts local fuel consumptionin every single kilometer of the trip

Voltage Delta Chart

The Voltage Delta chart plots voltage differences between blocks.
The bottom area plots delta value between maximum and minimum values.
Min, Max and average values are also plotted.
If the average value is not roughly halfway between min and max, we may have a block balancing issue.

HV Battery Temperature Chart

The HV Battery Temperature chart plots temperature sensors values during an HV Check.
Common thresholds (fan and EV disable) are also shown, along with current.

Block Values Chart

The Block values chart plots individual battery block voltage values.
SOC % level is also shown

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:

Load and Timing

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

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

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

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.

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.