EVMonitor

New version of Think EV Monitor

2011-12-17T14:06:00.000-08:00

There is a new version of the Think EV Monitor available for download.

Apart from some stability improvements, the most important is the checked and confirmed state parameters for both charger and bms. So all of them should work exactly as they work for the original diagnostic equipment.

Another news is the German, Norwegian and English versions of the software.

Use the menu above to get to the files section and download the new versions.
As usual let me know any problems.

New link to palm sync software

2011-11-14T12:44:00.001-08:00

Following is a new link to the palm desktop software:
http://kb.hpwebos.com/wps/portal/kb2/common/article/37014_en.html

Use the software to sync prc files to your palm handheld.
Note - it does not seem to work with Windows 7 or Vista. Only Windows XP and older.

So try to get a small (max 1GB) SD card and copy the file on it instead.

New design

2011-11-05T05:34:00.001-07:00

Welcome to the new design of www.evmonitor.info. I think it is much cleaner and easier to find info, hope you agree. :)

Energy and Speed

2011-05-01T08:18:00.000-07:00

A simple explanation I liked by ERG4ALL at the Nissan Leaf forums.

... Energy consumed goes up by the square of the speed.
Thus a car traveling 70 mph uses four times the energy of one traveling at 35 mph. For other circumstances, let's say the difference between traveling at 60 mph versus 70 mph, 70 squared equals 4,900 and 60 squared equals 3,600. Divide 4,900 by 3,600 and the answer is 1.36 or 36% more energy. For only 10 mph difference the extra energy consumed is considerable. The difference between 55 and 75 is 86% more energy required which is even more sobering.

source

New videos

2010-12-19T09:39:00.001-08:00

New videos going through some of the functionality in Think EV Monitor and Think EV Manager.

Think EV Manager available for download

2010-11-21T02:02:00.000-08:00

After a long delay and testing the Think EV Manager program is available for download.

In this version the reading of errors from BMS and the Charger is reporting numbers only.

Also the test charging LED function does not seem to work.

Download it at the Think EV Monitor page.

Everything you want to know about Li batteries

2010-10-25T07:27:00.000-07:00

http://www.ri.cmu.edu/video_view.html?video_id=60&menu_id=387

How does a charge of Think EV (with NiCd batteries) look like?

2010-10-03T04:23:00.000-07:00

Well, there it is - it is not that often when I charge to 100%, but this time I decided to do it, and the resulting parameters were logged, and then plotted in excel.

And here is the result. A bigger size is available on this link.

New version of the Think EV Monitor

2010-06-06T13:13:00.000-07:00

I just uploaded a new version of the Think EV Monitor.

A very exciting new parameter - calculated battery module internal resistance!

Also fixes for currents in charge mode, correctly reporting maintenance and initial charge.

Find the download of the latest version at the Think EV Monitor page.

Ready to go soon

2010-05-13T17:15:00.000-07:00

71km - stop for food and charge.

2010-05-13T15:25:00.000-07:00

Drove 71km using 9344Wh => 131.6 Wh/km!

92%-55% =37%SOC used.

If we manage to continue to drive this way the theoretical range would be 26kWh battery pack at 131.6Wh/km => 197km!!!

Starting the trip to EV2010

2010-05-13T13:50:00.000-07:00

We are starting the trip from Malmö to Trollhättan, in Sweden.

Total 370km.

We will be driving a RAV4 EV produced in year 2000. Ten years ago!This car still has it's original battery pack with total capacity of 26kWh, composed of 24 NiMH batteries, each with nominal voltage of 12V and rating at 95Ah .

Car charged, trip meter set to 0, Wh meter set to 0.

Cable holding contraption

2010-03-13T03:22:00.001-08:00

I got these two photos showing a contraption made out of a wire hanger. Apparently it should work very well holding the cable and providing secure contact with the palm handheld.

I have not tried it myself, and when I get some time I will build one and publish the photos.

How does a charge of RAV4 look like?

2010-02-15T13:11:00.000-08:00

Here it is:

Since RAV4 EV Monitor can log the data to a comma separated file, it is easy to open it in excel and plot the data for whatever reason ;-)

The log data in excel format is available for download here:

http://sites.google.com/site/theevmonitor/rav4-ev-monitor/download/Battery_20100215.xls?attredirects=0&d=1

Error nr.5

2010-01-27T05:32:00.001-08:00

I have had some reports of "Error nr.5" while using evmonitor and logging data.
I went out and bought couple of SD cards trying to reproduce the error, and I think I figured it out.The error occurs only when logging to the SD card is on, there is a SD card in the palm handheld, and the SD card is not compatible with the palm.
According to specification the palm m500 (m505 and m515) can handle SD cards up to 1GB.
The newer model SDHC card are not even recognized when inserted in the palm.
The normal SD cards above 1GB seem to be recognized, depending on manufacturer, but when any app tries to access and write to the card a system error occurs. So make sure you are using normal SD cards (and not the SDHC ones) and make sure their capacity is maximum 1GB.

Overview of RAV4 EV Monitor usage

2010-01-11T06:32:00.000-08:00

2010-01-01T05:26:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the evmonitor blog.
Here I will post news, problems and advice about evmonitor for both Think and RAV4 electric vehicles.