Battery software update "battery saver" change

[Robbert]

A number of months ago I bought one of those Bluetooth battery monitoring gizmos, and I connected it to the 12V battery. Prior to the software update, with battery saver enabled, it would come on once a day or so, now at least 4/5x per day. Figured folks in this forum would find this interesting..

Prior to the upgrade:

After the upgrade:

 

[FloridaSun]

A number of months ago I bought one of those Bluetooth battery monitoring gizmos, and I connected it to the 12V battery. Prior to the software update, with battery saver enabled, it would come on once a day or so, now at least 4/5x per day. Figured folks in this forum would find this interesting..

Prior to the upgrade:

After the upgrade:

This actually makes sense.. The Kona had issues of the 12Volt battery dying as the original battery saver setup didn't do a good job keeping the 12 volt battery charged..

 

[eastpole]

Wow. If true, this will likely do a lot to prevent future "Dead Aux battery" problems. At what cost, I wonder?

 

[KiwiME]

It's certainly a "big hammer" approach but I expect there will be not too much additional cost in terms of traction battery drain. Don't be mislead by the 20 minute charging intervals at 14.7 V as they don't necessarily reflect current flowing, and therefore power. If the aux battery is already near 100% SoC it will only take a minute or two for the charge current to drop to under 1 amp and the corresponding drain from the traction battery to drop proportionally. As we understand it, the LDC is also woken to support the BMS checking the traction battery isolation resistance.
Lastly, I recall it mentioned that the 4-hour cycle would be only be active for a certain period (days?) after the car is parked so we need data for that situation.

 

[Robbert]

It's certainly a "big hammer" approach but I expect there will be not too much additional cost in terms of traction battery drain. Don't be mislead by the 20 minute charging intervals at 14.7 V as they don't necessarily reflect current flowing, and therefore power. If the aux battery is already near 100% SoC it will only take a minute or two for the charge current to drop to under 1 amp and the corresponding drain from the traction battery to drop proportionally. As we understand it, the LDC is also woken to support the BMS checking the traction battery isolation resistance.
Lastly, I recall it mentioned that the 4-hour cycle would be only be active for a certain period (days?) after the car is parked so we need data for that situation.

Well .. with the COVID crisis, I haven’t been driving much. My car had been sitting still for 4 days when I took that sample. I don’t expect to drive for the next few days until the weekend, so I’ll take another peek then to see if the cycle changed.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[wizziwig]

Looks like before the update your voltage was dropping down to minimum of 12.5V between charges. Now it's dropping down to only 12.7V. While improved, it's still not fully charging your battery. At 100% Aux SOC, the battery on my Niro EV shows 13.25V at end of charging and gradually drops down to 13.06V before the next automatic daily charge begins. These are open-circuit voltages taken with multi-meter with just the idle current (10-20 ma) applied.

 

[R P]

Looks like before the update your voltage was dropping down to minimum of 12.5V between charges. Now it's dropping down to only 12.7V. While improved, it's still not fully charging your battery. At 100% Aux SOC, the battery on my Niro EV shows 13.25V at end of charging and gradually drops down to 13.06V before the next automatic daily charge begins. These are open-circuit voltages taken with multi-meter with just the idle current (10-20 ma) applied.

12.7V is 100% fully charged. 12.5 is 90%. Anything above that is a surface charge following a charge up and drops off quickly with a load.

 

[Ronny]

I had the update done today and now cannot sign in to Blue Link. Anyone know if this is related or is it simply a typical Blue Link bug? Thanks!

 

[FloridaSun]

I had the update done today and now cannot sign in to Blue Link. Anyone know if this is related or is it simply a typical Blue Link bug? Thanks!

Probably just a regular bluelink issue.. My blue link still worked after the update..

 

[Ronny]

Probably just a regular bluelink issue.. My blue link still worked after the update..

I finally got in, as usual it was a Blue Link issue. I'm curious to know how many people actually renew after the initial included 3 years,

 

[Toolworker]

This actually makes sense.. The Kona had issues of the 12Volt battery dying as the original battery saver setup didn't do a good job keeping the 12 volt battery charged..

In my experience, the battery saver would have done a fine job, but strange interactions with the EVSE kept it from running, or worse. I am hoping the latest code fixes that issue.

 

[wizziwig]

12.7V is 100% fully charged. 12.5 is 90%. Anything above that is a surface charge following a charge up and drops off quickly with a load.

< 13V immediately following a charge (as shown in the first post) is not fully charged. A fully charged 12V battery will show a peak of about 13.2V; then drop over many hours until settling closer to the range you describe. Even for the stock Kona battery, KiwiME's graphs from a few months ago showed 13V+ following an automatic 20 minute charge and didn't discharge below 13V until 5+ hours later. Obviously applying a load will make it drop even higher but that's not what's happening in these graphs of parked car.

 

[FloridaSun]

In my experience, the battery saver would have done a fine job, but strange interactions with the EVSE kept it from running, or worse. I am hoping the latest code fixes that issue.

Hopefully!

 

[robxb]

Neat, thanks for the observation

 

[Bob Long]

This actually makes sense.. The Kona had issues of the 12Volt battery dying as the original battery saver setup didn't do a good job keeping the 12 volt battery charged..

12Volt battery issues are common to most EV cars. Our 2019 Kona died on us twice and so did our 2016 Kia Soul, also twice. The batteries were so flat that it wouldn’t even take a charge. The batteries on both cars were changed. Not sure what’s happening with our Kona as the Battery saver+ option has disappeared from the menu. The car is going in on Friday to have it checked. For the record.....why don’t EV manufacturers display the state of the 12v battery on the dashboard, especially with so many problems? I mean, would you buy a mobile phone that doesn’t show how much battery you have? Or better still, a car without a fuel gauge? No point having a fully charged high voltage battery if the damn thing won’t start because of a dead 12v battery!

 

[electriceddy]

12Volt battery issues are common to most EV cars. Our 2019 Kona died on us twice and so did our 2016 Kia Soul, also twice. The batteries were so flat that it wouldn’t even take a charge. The batteries on both cars were changed. Not sure what’s happening with our Kona as the Battery saver+ option has disappeared from the menu. The car is going in on Friday to have it checked. For the record.....why don’t EV manufacturers display the state of the 12v battery on the dashboard, especially with so many problems? I mean, would you buy a mobile phone that doesn’t show how much battery you have? Or better still, a car without a fuel gauge? No point having a fully charged high voltage battery if the damn thing won’t start because of a dead 12v battery!

That and a battery pack temperature gauge of some sort (even bars would suffice given the known increments).

 

[wizziwig]

For the record.....why don’t EV manufacturers display the state of the 12v battery on the dashboard, especially with so many problems?

If you don't mind installing an OBD2 dongle, there are phone apps and small stand-alone devices that can display various additional stats including 12v battery SOC (in addition to voltage and current).

 

[Wildeyed]

I had the BMS service done a few months ago after the service notice. Lately I'm noticing the light on the grill on a lot, like several times a day. Seeing the light used to be a real anomaly. I also notice that the green charger ring light is on at the same time - something I don't recall clearly happening before the update. My car is always plugged in. Is this situation and frequency unusual?

 

[electriceddy]

I had the BMS service done a few months ago after the service notice. Lately I'm noticing the light on the grill on a lot, like several times a day. Seeing the light used to be a real anomaly. I also notice that the green charger ring light is on at the same time - something I don't recall clearly happening before the update. My car is always plugged in. Is this situation and frequency unusual?

The ring light will come on at the same time :
https://insideevsforum.com/community/index.php?threads/fun-with-the-charge-port-ring-light.9339/
Are you sure the color is green and not yellow (ish)?

 

[R P]

You know, I have never seen the grille light come on. Maybe because it is in the garage and I don't go in there that often, certainly not to check it. Having said that I do occasionally check my 12V battery, and it is always good. However, the car is driven pretty well every day, and multiple times. Maybe it doesn't need additional charging. We do a lot of short trips around town.

I do have that little BM2 monitor now, but just haven't got around to hooking it up yet. That should tell me if and when aux charging happens.