Mini app no cell service

I think you were told wrong, the SE has no wifi.

I've found that it does have cell service in places where my phone does not, but that won't help you in an especially remote area.

 

The MINI app does not talk directly to the SE, it communicates with a MINI server somewhere on the internet. The car also talks to the MINI server when it can, and the app will update information about your car from that intermediary server. This is why there can be a delay when changing settings.

 

Yeah sorry, I think you were lied to. It uses cellular data as far as I know.

 

No wifi in the way you were told. Access like this is tricky when the OEM doesn't explicitly support it. With my last car the manufacturer decided to basically kill the app so I went down a year long rabbit hole of replacing the functionality myself. I know this isn't exactly what you are asking for, but here are some options -

Wifi OBDII: Some OBDII dongles are Wifi based, paired with compatible software you'll see battery info. You might be able to get enough range out of it to be useful in the way you describe. I think they are all peer-to-peer though so it's not joining your home network and proximity will matter.

AutoPi: I had terrible luck with them years ago, but they claim to support i3 now. Last I checked they had some ICE MINI support, so MINI SE might work by combining the two? I do have the old unit still, might be worth trying again. Basically a little computer that has built in tools built to extract, record, and make remotely accessible info from the cars ODBII port. Wifi, BT, and cellular. At the end of the day you can do whatever you want to it, but you are also expected to piece together a lot of the functions yourself. If it works, I would say it comes the closest to replacing what MINI offers.

OVMS: Another 3rd party situation but the software is mediocre. Old, ugly, rigid. They do claim to support i3 though so it may work for SE as well. Seems less flexible and harder to extend. It does exactly what it wants to do and nothing more.

DIY: I was able to sniff the commands from my old vehicle and write my own software which ran offline. From what I've seen, much of the same can be done on the SE too. I even made a sort of driving experience that read out real time speed, usage, battery, etc. It was basically a RaspberryPi, 2x CAN adapters, and HDMI displayed into the head unit. Remote actions were triggered via an app I made. I even could lock/unlock the vehicle just by walking closer or further. Huge time investment especially if you aren't already coding.

 

Are you off-grid? I didn’t think there were any places left in North America, on the grid, that didn’t also have even mediocre cell service. Rather than going down Carl’s rabbit hole, I’d look at spending a couple of hundred bucks for a cellular booster system.

 

Am i correct in saying no EVSE can know a vehicles state of charge?

I'm thinking the solutions that @carrrl presented are the only methods that would work, apart from boosting the cell signal. I would personally think about the simplest OBDII option. But could you ensure the always plugged in dongle does not drain the 12v battery? Would the OBDII solution even work when car was not turned on?

 

It will.

It won’t.

 

There are definitely places on the grid but without cell service. Parts of the Adirondack park just south of you in NY are that way. It’s worse in the Green Mountains since VT is stricter about cell tower placement. I imagine that western plain/mountain states would have very large areas with power but no cell service.


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Thanks for the reminder. I do experience a dodgy signal getting away from I-87/89/NY22/VT2, with my phone inside a car, but it’s rare that I have zero signal for extended periods near any signs of civilization in the Adirondacks/Greens. I naively assumed that even a weak signal could be amplified enough locally to serve this specific purpose.

 

“the SE has no wifi”

it has peer to peer which is required for wireless CarPlay along with Bluetooth.

 

Very interesting if true.

 

What’s obnoxious is that my phone will latch to that Wi-Fi signal and then try to use it to access things like maps or Pandora. But it doesn’t have a data connection so I get no data at all.

To be clear, I blame Apple and not Mini for that “feature”.


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Could you put in a Cellular range extender with your carrier? (like this: https://www.verizon.com/products/verizon-lte-network-extender/)

It uses your internet service to set up a mini cell tower in your home.

 

GMTA

 

Both cell signals are likely lost in remote areas? An extender for both providers (who ever you and MINI use) would probably be needed.

 

When a friend had a rooftop antenna and big booster installed a few years ago (late 3G-early 4G), it wasn’t channel-dependent — just band-dependent. Any current booster that covers North American 4G/LTE should work on all the channels.

 

Right, a generic booster would be better. The home repeaters plugged into your internet are network dependent.