Budget Battery Capacity Readout
- Thread starter MrFixit
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MrFixit
Well-Known Member
The problem is that the Clarity uses a longer message length. This causes two problems - First, many OBD adapters fail, and Second, even with a 'good' adapter, many Apps fail. We tried one of the most popular ones (Torque, or Torque Pro) and it could NOT handle the longer messages that the Clarity uses. We found that Car Scanner worked (AND the developer was very responsive and incorporated our Clarity PID's into his App).
What is your objective? We have identified 3 known good ways to obtain the Electric Powertrain data. First, Autel, with the AP200 and the Honda Beta Code that we can obtain authorization for. Second, a 'good' ELM327 OBD II adapter (known good is the Vgate iCar) with Car Scanner. Third, the same known good adapter used with a custom program to read data directly to a PC and generate reports.
Is there some reason that none of these appeal to you? If so, please elaborate as to why. In theory, with a good ELM327 adapter, any App could read the data, but you (or the App developer) would need the PID's that we have identified, and they would need to support longer messages than what is typical.
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Rajiv Vaidyanathan
Active Member
I really hope I don't irritate @MrFixit with this question, but I tried reading through the first few pages of the budget battery readout thread and got lost. As a "non-car" guy, I'd love to know the battery capacity and amount of degradation in my 4 years of owning the Clarity (I used to get 55+ in the Duluth Summers, but now only get 42+). Maybe it's a battery problem, maybe not. But how do I tell.
For a cartech novice like me looking for a user-friendly answer to the question, my understanding from what I read about the easiest way to do this is:
1. Buy an ODB scanner (I see there are a ton of "vGate iCar" models - which one should I get?)
2. Get an app that will interpret the scanner data (CarScanner?)
Presumably, CarScanner will spit out a number in an easy to find location that I can compare to others to see if my degradation is normal?
For a cartech novice like me looking for a user-friendly answer to the question, my understanding from what I read about the easiest way to do this is:
1. Buy an ODB scanner (I see there are a ton of "vGate iCar" models - which one should I get?)
2. Get an app that will interpret the scanner data (CarScanner?)
Presumably, CarScanner will spit out a number in an easy to find location that I can compare to others to see if my degradation is normal?
MrFixit
Well-Known Member
I know these threads have become a mess.
I am working on a "more concise" how-to which should be much easier to use.
It is not quite ready for general release, but I will send you a PM with a link and let you have a look.
Just provide me feedback if you see room for improvement.
Vgatemall is selling it for $21.99 but not sure how long the shipping takes
https://www.vgatemall.com/productinfo/552033.html
Domenick
Well-Known Member
@MrFixit has put together a page on GitHub that addresses the main topic of this thread and may provide answers quicker: Honda Clarity Plug-In Hybrid Battery Capacity Read
Hi all! For those who were looking for a link to aliexpress to buy an adapter - here I bought it, very quickly delivered, worth 16 bucks. I'm from Ukraine, we have a lot of cars from America and Canada here 
. Regarding the topic - I could not get the battery capacity using Torque Pro, although I entered the parameters correctly on the first page. Why? The adapter's buffer is not cut off, I'm attaching screenshots of the settings. But everything worked out with the Clarity PHEV profile in the Car Scanner application. The readings are as follows - capacity 47.88Ah, mileage 96640km, year of production 11/17. The mode of use is unknown, I will assume 75% EV.
. Regarding the topic - I could not get the battery capacity using Torque Pro, although I entered the parameters correctly on the first page. Why? The adapter's buffer is not cut off, I'm attaching screenshots of the settings. But everything worked out with the Clarity PHEV profile in the Car Scanner application. The readings are as follows - capacity 47.88Ah, mileage 96640km, year of production 11/17. The mode of use is unknown, I will assume 75% EV.
MrFixit
Well-Known Member
As we stated in this forum, Torque Pro does NOT work. Your screenshot is just demonstrating that the iCar OBD2 adapter does not have a buffer problem. We already knew that... The problem with Torque Pro is internal where the offset required to obtain the Battery Capacity is too large for the App to handle and it can't get to the correct data word. Stick with Car Scanner.
It turns out that Torque Pro worked when the screenshots at the beginning of this thread were created, but now it is "broken"? ok I will use Car Scanner, thanks!
PDX Clarity
New Member
At some point in this very long thread someone requested that we all post information on our battery condition. I'm using the Car Scanner app and it is super easy to get the requested information. If there is still interest here are the data for my car:
2019 model; 11,050 miles; Battery Capacity (Total) = 53.72Ah
If my rudimentary knowledge of electricity is correct, to convert to kWh I take the Car Scanner reading of battery voltage and multiply by the capacity:
316V X 53.72Ah = 16.975 kWh
This seems awfully close to original spec of 17kWh.
2019 model; 11,050 miles; Battery Capacity (Total) = 53.72Ah
If my rudimentary knowledge of electricity is correct, to convert to kWh I take the Car Scanner reading of battery voltage and multiply by the capacity:
316V X 53.72Ah = 16.975 kWh
This seems awfully close to original spec of 17kWh.
coutinpe
Active Member
Thank you for the tip!
coutinpe
Active Member
I just went to Amazon to buy the vGate iCar pro 3.0. It seems the version depicted on the GitHub post (Thank you Mr. Fixit!) is no longer available. There is a BT3.0 but it says it's only compatible with Android and Windows, not iOS. I decided to buy the Vgate Bluetooth 4.0 (BLE) for iOs/Android instead. Will get it on Friday. We'll see what happens...
PDX Clarity
New Member
Oops. I just found the spreadsheet where this forum is tracking battery condition:
Sharing of Battery Capacity Measurements
In the interest of learning more about HV battery behavior, InsideEVs forum members are cooperating and entering battery measurement data into a shared spreadsheet. This will help identify trends and you can easily see if your Clarity is out of character with others. You are encouraged to participate in this important effort, and you can get to the spreadsheet HERE
Sharing of Battery Capacity Measurements
In the interest of learning more about HV battery behavior, InsideEVs forum members are cooperating and entering battery measurement data into a shared spreadsheet. This will help identify trends and you can easily see if your Clarity is out of character with others. You are encouraged to participate in this important effort, and you can get to the spreadsheet HERE
coutinpe
Active Member
The Vgate Bluetooth 4.0 BLE worked great with CarScan on iOS (iPhone 7). 52.5 Ah at 3.5 years and 28800 miles (approx.) Still need to go back and check the cells. Silly question: Can I leave it plugged in without draining my 12V battery? At my age and spine it's a PITA (almost literally) to get down to that ODBII port which (to add insult to injury) I found loose and had a very hard time retrieving it from that metal enclosure.
MrFixit
Well-Known Member
See Post #37 and #42 in this thread. I will probably add something about this on the new GitHub pages to address this issue.
My OBD2 port also became loose, and I use the "Y" cable to give myself better access (plus I have another device also connected to the port - A blind spot warning device).
MrFixit
Well-Known Member
I put the information about the ELM327 sleep / powerdown into the Github pages:
https://github.com/clarity-phev/Battery-Capacity-Read
coutinpe
Active Member
Got my "Y" cable, my back and I thank you for the advice! But then I thought: wouldn't it be nice if we could see all that data in our car's screen? Could we somehow persuade the developer to make the CarScan app "CarPlay/Android Auto compatible"?
MrFixit
Well-Known Member
I have no experience with Android Auto, but I can ask the developer.
After googling around, it seems that an App must be approved by Google before they will allow it to be supported by Android Auto. This I'm sure introduces a layer of bureaucracy for any App developer who is interested in this. The reason is obvious - safety. Nobody wants people driving around while watching The Simpson's on their infotainment center.
On the other hand, one could argue that displaying a 'dashboard' from Car Scanner is just enhancing the vehicle's normal instrumentation and if it is simply a display with no interactions, it [should] be safe?
If I were especially interested in this, I would also look for other 'generic' ways to cast the screen from the phone to the vehicle display too. I'm sure there are probably some ways. It is possible that you would need to root your phone (or the infotainment center - Honda Hack?).
Here is one approach I saw that reportedly does not require rooting your phone. It supposedly fakes Android Auto into thinking that an arbitrary App is Google Approved for AA:
https://www.xda-developers.com/install-unapproved-apps-for-android-auto/
I do not advocate or condone anything like this, but Google can be your friend when searching for 'solutions'. Let us know if you stumble on something that works for this. I will let you know what the Car Scanner developer says.