How reliable is the Hondalink app for you?

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Mark W

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Hi All,

Just signed the papers for my new Clarity. I went to load the Hondalink app to my android phone, and I noticed the ratings were really low. I also own a Nissan Leaf, and the Nissan App SUCKS. So unreliable that I barely use it. I was hoping that the Honda app is better. Thanks!
 
So so. It does not pull data on demand, but only at predetermined points. It will tell you if when it finished charging though. It would be great if it had an option to stop charging at 85%, useful for those that pay for charging by the minute, since the last 15% takes much longer.
 
The HondaLink app also sucks. But it does function and there is no indication we will have to pay for the service in the future. I assume it uses a low quality cell service.

I find that I can ping the car from my phone and 80% of the time get a response showing the battery charge level and range, and gas range (so far as the car shows that accurately!. The parking reminder seemed to work the few times I tried it.

The Odometer can fall behind and be showing data from a week to three weeks ago. Not that big a deal.

I've fired off Remote Climate a few times which seemed to work about 75% of the time.

Also the Find My Car works most of the time. It can't locate the car if it is moving.
 
I think it's great since it's the first car I have that has telemetrics (sp?). And it's free. I know people that owned Leaf and Ioniq they loved my HondaLink app. It even reminded me to charge the car if I forgot to plug it in at 7pm (my schedule charge time) I read some of the comments at the Play Store and I found that a lot of them have unrealistic expectations or different models of Honda car. As for the Clarity, I would rate it 3.5 or even 4 stars right now and with a few improvement, 5 is not out of the questions. YMMV of course
 
“Telematics” if you want to keep your HS English teachers from rolling over in their graves. So far mine is working flawlessly and the odometer is never more than 1 mile low. In 7 months it’s only gotten behind one time for 2 days. Very mysterious and I never found a cause for it but that’s just 2 days out of over 210 and every thing else worked so I’ve got no cause to complain.
I did have realize that to afford to give us this free service, Honda had to cut down the transmissions and bandwidth and so it doesn’t update in real-time but does it close enough for a free service. That’s why the SOC is reported in 15% increments ans not purely real-time. It would cost Honda too much.
It’s working great for me and I’ll give it 4.5 stars. I’d give it 5 if they would bring back the time remaining to full charge and let it report the interior temp. That would be rather useful and I want it back (the time to full charge)
Ken
What I really want to know is how much data it’s sending back to Honda since potentially it has access to everything flowing over the data bus. How does Honda de-identify all that data and what safeguards do they use to protect my privacy?
 
I think it depends where you live... whatever cell service Honda uses has no reception where I live and poor reception in the area, so the app is only useful at all when traveling. From that I guess they are using Sprint.

The one time it is useful has been on weekends away when the app can tell you how much charge the car has gained when plugged in to a public charger. However, my first (and only so far) experience with a high-powered L2 charger was nerve-wracking. We sat in a restaurant receiving "Charging Stopped" notifications. The first one prompted me to run outside to see if some joker had un-plugged the car. After a while I accepted that either the charge really was starting and stopping for unknown technical reasons, or the app was just messing with me.
 
Remarksman said:
I think it depends where you live... whatever cell service Honda uses has no reception where I live and poor reception in the area, so the app is only useful at all when traveling. From that I guess they are using Sprint.

The one time it is useful has been on weekends away when the app can tell you how much charge the car has gained when plugged in to a public charger. However, my first (and only so far) experience with a high-powered L2 charger was nerve-wracking. We sat in a restaurant receiving "Charging Stopped" notifications. The first one prompted me to run outside to see if some joker had un-plugged the car. After a while I accepted that either the charge really was starting and stopping for unknown technical reasons, or the app was just messing with me.
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Many on this forum have reported the Clarity is more sensitive to voltage fluctuations at public EVSEs than any other plug-in car. In a bank of 4 EVSEs, one might prove reliable for the Clarity while the other 3 always cause the Clarity to stop charging before charging is complete. We can hope there will be a software update for this problem, but, as usual, Honda's saying nothing.
 
The rater’s—and your—opinion re the quality of the app will depend on your expectations.

There is an infinite list of things it does not do, or does poorly.

However, I only use it to turn on the climate control when heading back to the car while out. For that, it performs well, and so much better than my prior cars (which had no such option) that I would happily give it 5 stars. I am not at all bothered by the intermittent updates of odometer and charge status, and am pleasantly surprised every time when it reminds me that charging is complete.

If your needs are as simple as mine, you’ll love it. Otherwise, well, try to see it for what it has rather than what it lacks.
 
insightman said:
Many on this forum have reported the Clarity is more sensitive to voltage fluctuations at public EVSEs than any other plug-in car. In a bank of 4 EVSEs, one might prove reliable for the Clarity while the other 3 always cause the Clarity to stop charging before charging is complete. We can hope there will be a software update for this problem, but, as usual, Honda's saying nothing.
Click to expand...
And no sooner do I complain than SB 18-097 pops out of the woodwook!
See this Service Bulletin about charging that doesn't complete in this thread:
http://www.insideevsforum.com/commu...rity-today-advice-detailing-expectation.3420/
 
Does anybody know the refresh rate of the information on the app? I can't seem to update the information on the app, unless the car door was opened and closed etc. The car is currently in my garage connected to the wifi of the home and charging.
To install the app was a bit of an experience as well. Waited more than 30 mins to get the confirmation code to sync the app to the car. I loved how they had a bar code scanner integrated to the app to get the VIN and a handy, "turn flashlight on".
 
Well, just wanted to report back. In a little over a week of using the app, I think there was only once where it would not connect. Way better than the Nissan app!
 
morphman said:
Does anybody know the refresh rate of the information on the app? I can't seem to update the information on the app, unless the car door was opened and closed etc. The car is currently in my garage connected to the wifi of the home and charging.
To install the app was a bit of an experience as well. Waited more than 30 mins to get the confirmation code to sync the app to the car. I loved how they had a bar code scanner integrated to the app to get the VIN and a handy, "turn flashlight on".
Click to expand...
Many have documented that the SOC onlunupdates in 15% increments and the odometer somewhat sporadically. Ans as you found out, updates are also triggered by start and shutdown.

I think the lack of complete real time updating is to be expected since we get this service free which means that Honda has to pay for th cellular bandwidth and the server upkeep. So it stands to reason that Honda tries to keep the cost down by only updating in 15% SOC increments.
 
KentuckyKen said:
Many have documented that the SOC onlunupdates in 15% increments and the odometer somewhat sporadically. Ans as you found out, updates are also triggered by start and shutdown.

I think the lack of complete real time updating is to be expected since we get this service free which means that Honda has to pay for th cellular bandwidth and the server upkeep. So it stands to reason that Honda tries to keep the cost down by only updating in 15% SOC increments.
Click to expand...

What are you calling "SOC"? I see 1% granularity on the battery in the app, and
there's nothing else that is a percentage...

The app is always ridiculously slow to show the charge level, or to start or stop charging, or to start climate control, but it always works. I did have about a three week delay in the odometer reading when I first got the car, but it has been fine since then. Also the scheduled service appointments thing doesn't work, at least for anecdotal evidence of one instance (scheduled service yesterday for 18-09x SBs, and the appointment still doesn't show in the app).
 
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State Of Charge. The Honda Link will give you the exact SOC when the car sends it (as in when started or shut down) but will only show 15% increments when charging. For example, you’ll see it sit at 70% for a while and then jump to 85% but nothing in between.
 
KentuckyKen said:
State Of Charge. The Honda Link will give you the exact SOC when the car sends it (as in when started or shut down) but will only show 15% increments when charging. For example, you’ll see it sit at 70% for a while and then jump to 85% but nothing in between.
Click to expand...

I swear I've seen it go by 1% while charging in my garage; maybe having Wi-Fi available enables more updates? Or maybe I'm just imagining that and I've never actually seen it.
 
I've had it for about a month and the app was working fine until a few days ago. It is now saying "cannot retrieve information" for all types of info. Hoping this is temporary. Anyone seen this before?
 
danomite said:
I've had it for about a month and the app was working fine until a few days ago. It is now saying "cannot retrieve information" for all types of info. Hoping this is temporary. Anyone seen this before?
Click to expand...

I've had the same problem, uninstalling the app and re-installing solved it. But it works for a week or so then does it again.
 
danomite said:
Mayfor base model owners they give you one month access to hondalink for free and after that you need to pay.
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AFAIK, the Free Honda Link services are the same for Touring and Base models in the US and that includes preconditioning. There are several threads on this.
 
su_A_ve said:
So so. It does not pull data on demand, but only at predetermined points. It will tell you if when it finished charging though. It would be great if it had an option to stop charging at 85%, useful for those that pay for charging by the minute, since the last 15% takes much longer.
Click to expand...
yes, seems to issue updates every 15% vs pinging when you refresh the app. Still, it seems accurate when texting me that charging stopped. Even found that I didn't need the app open for the car to text me it was done charging. I also used the app to locate L2 chargers on the trip and found them easily. Though one I knew of on a college campus wasn't showing up.
 
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