Preconditioning without ConnectedDrive?

[bwilson4web]

Hi,

From time to time, "ConnectedDrive" fails. Usually we can't send the 'precondition' command to the server but it could be local cell access to the car. At the end of the warranty, it will be turned off unless I buy an extension. But preconditioning is important for getting the car ready to drive.

So far, the only workaround I can think of is to "READY" the car and enable climate control while it is still plugged into the EVSE. There may be a protocol of unplug; READY; 'enable climate', and; plugin ... a protocol to be discovered.

In contrast, our Prius Prime has a "hold A/C" button on the key fob. I can start preconditioning from inside the house. No server or cell network needed.

Does our BMW i3 have a similar function?

Thanks,
Bob Wilson

 

[TheMK]

A 2014 i3 should have a 10 year ConnectecDrive subscription I would think. I thought it was 2015 and later that had the shorter ones.

There are two options:

1. Use coding to add a climitize button to the i3 key fob.

2. Set a departure time in the car's iDrive system.

 

[jadnashuanh]

If you know when you are planning to leave when you get out of the car, set it into the menu then. Otherwise, the only other way I've found is to use the app on your phone or log into connected drive on your computer.

I haven't looked to see if there's a setting in the coding to enable it, but I can't see it conditioning the battery, only the cabin, as, depending on the ambient temp, the batteries can start up to 3-hours prior to your departure time.

It's probably overkill, but there are cell repeaters, and if you have internet near there, you might look into a microcell. I have a microcell in my home but it requires you register specific phone numbers and only on my carrier with it to function (otherwise, you might be using your internet connection to support anyone passing by or close enough!). A repeater is not carrier specific.

My microcell is from ATT. Once you buy it, there is no further cost. I get full bars in my house whereas without it, there are dead spots.

 

[imkazaam]

How would the microcell work? Would you have to somehow know the 'phone number' your i3 uses or is there a way to code it for WiFi?

 

[bwilson4web]

I tried: http://www.mybmwi3.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=5569&p=46438&hilit=key+fob#p46419

However, we may have different versions of software, mine is BMW i3-REx. I did not see the same options and got too chilly. So I did a manual process:

1. Unplug car
2. READY
3. First power off and enable "Comfort"
4. Plugin car

I'm letting it run to see how long it stays active or if it shuts itself off.

I don't know if it is doing anything for the battery but at least we're getting cabin heat. Our JuiceNet charger is showing ~3.6 kW so it should be nice in 15 minutes.

I like the scheduled option but being retired, I don't have to fight the clock. Regardless, scheduling a start time of say 8AM would let the battery get warmed up before the day starts.

I'll go back to the car and start making screen shots of Bimmercode to see if we can noodle out how to reprogram "Open Frunk" into climatize. The goal:

• short button - off
• long button - climatize

Bob Wilson

 

[EVMan]

My car refuses to accept commands from app many a times, saying no connectivity , but keeps updating the SOC
SO clearly the cell phone connection is working and its bugs in the BMW server ....which is the issue

Why do you have to unplug the car , just activate climate mode from inside the car , works for 30 mins...even when the car is plugged in...

 

[jadnashuanh]

How would the microcell work? Would you have to somehow know the 'phone number' your i3 uses or is there a way to code it for WiFi?

A microcell can work for your cellphone at home, but the ones I've seen only 'talk' to a single carrier. Essentially, they act like a cell tower. Mine is from ATT, but I think similar devices are available from others. For it to work with the i3, you'd have to know the carrier AND its actual phone number assignment...don't know if that's possible to obtain.

A repeater would work for any cellular data if you can route the two antennae - one near enough to the car, and the other after the amplifier where there's good coverage.

With my microcell, my phone shows when it's connected to the microcell - instead of just saying ATT, it says ATT Microcell. Functionally, it works like any cell tower, and if I move out of range, it will switch seamlessly to a 'real' tower, assuming there's one it can 'see'.

There may be commercial microcells, that's likely what is used in some subway stations and large buildings where the cell signal may not penetrate, but the likely cost may put it out of range. I haven't looked into those. The computing logic to hand off to multiple carriers are likely what would make it expensive, not only in the hardware but the computing power required. FWIW, the one I have from ATT cost about $150 or so. They don't advertise them, but most of the stores either have them or can get them.

 

[jadnashuanh]

How would the microcell work? Would you have to somehow know the 'phone number' your i3 uses or is there a way to code it for WiFi?

A microcell can work for your cellphone at home, but the ones I've seen only 'talk' to a single carrier. Essentially, they act like a cell tower. Mine is from ATT, but I think similar devices are available from others. For it to work with the i3, you'd have to know the carrier AND its actual phone number assignment...don't know if that's possible to obtain.

A repeater would work for any cellular data if you can route the two antennae - one near enough to the car, and the other after the amplifier where there's good coverage.

With my microcell, my phone shows when it's connected to the microcell - instead of just saying ATT, it says ATT Microcell. Functionally, it works like any cell tower, and if I move out of range, it will switch seamlessly to a 'real' tower, assuming there's one it can 'see'.

There may be commercial microcells, that's likely what is used in some subway stations and large buildings where the cell signal may not penetrate, but the likely cost may put it out of range. I haven't looked into those. The computing logic to hand off to multiple carriers are likely what would make it expensive, not only in the hardware but the computing power required. FWIW, the one I have from ATT cost about $150 or so. They don't advertise them, but most of the stores either have them or can get them.

FWIW, the ATT unit allows you to register up to 10 phone numbers that it will then allow to connect.

 

[jadnashuanh]

How would the microcell work? Would you have to somehow know the 'phone number' your i3 uses or is there a way to code it for WiFi?

A microcell can work for your cellphone at home, but the ones I've seen only 'talk' to a single carrier. Essentially, they act like a cell tower. Mine is from ATT, but I think similar devices are available from others. For it to work with the i3, you'd have to know the carrier AND its actual phone number assignment...don't know if that's possible to obtain.

A repeater would work for any cellular data if you can route the two antennae - one near enough to the car, and the other after the amplifier where there's good coverage.

With my microcell, my phone shows when it's connected to the microcell - instead of just saying ATT, it says ATT Microcell. Functionally, it works like any cell tower, and if I move out of range, it will switch seamlessly to a 'real' tower, assuming there's one it can 'see'.

There may be commercial microcells, that's likely what is used in some subway stations and large buildings where the cell signal may not penetrate, but the likely cost may put it out of range. I haven't looked into those. The computing logic to hand off to multiple carriers are likely what would make it expensive, not only in the hardware but the computing power required. FWIW, the one I have from ATT cost about $150 or so. They don't advertise them, but most of the stores either have them or can get them.

FWIW, the ATT unit allows you to register up to 10 phone numbers that it will then allow to connect.

 

[bwilson4web]

. . .
Why do you have to unplug the car , just activate climate mode from inside the car , works for 30 mins...even when the car is plugged in...

1. With the car plugged in, it won't go into READY.
2. I only see maintain climate check box after the first, power-off activation from READY.
3. Clicking on maintain climate, I can plug-in the car.
4. The EVSE provides power to maintain 100% battery SOC by providing the heating/cooling.

Happily, the cell phone app is working tonight. Regardless, I scheduled start time at 7:30 AM every day. This should precondition the battery too and we'll see it in the JuiceBox charging log.

Here is the manual, preconditioning test:

Here is the cell phone initiated, preconditioning test about 6-7 hours later:

Bob Wilson

 

[websterize]

With the key fob, I used Bimmercode to re-assign the long press of its fourth button — the one with the red triangle in the U.S. market — to cabin preconditioning. This automatically makes the interior cool in hot weather and warm in cold weather.

In the module BDC_Body, search for ...

30D0 > RC_DEFAULT_IDG_4TH_BUTTON_LONG

... and change the default setting of "werte 03 = panic alarm" to "werte 07 = precondition cabin".

Long press takes about 5 seconds to activate, upon which you'll hear the car's fan spin up and see a flashing fan icon on the HVAC temperature display.

 

[alohart]

With the key fob, I used Bimmercode to re-assign the long press of its fourth button — the one with the red triangle in the U.S. market — to cabin preconditioning.

Now, in addition to worrying about your windows opening due to an inadvertent fob button press, you'll have to worry about cabin preconditioning being inadvertently turned on by an inadvertent fob button press

 

[websterize]

With the key fob, I used Bimmercode to re-assign the long press of its fourth button — the one with the red triangle in the U.S. market — to cabin preconditioning.

Now, in addition to worrying about your windows opening due to an inadvertent fob button press, you'll have to worry about cabin preconditioning being inadvertently turned on by an inadvertent fob button press

haha.

 

[bwilson4web]

I'll work the key fob shortly but in the meanwhile, we had temperature just above freezing last night. I had scheduled the departure time and this is what the charger saw:

1. I need to investigate the x-axis time calibration. The displacements appear right but there could be an error on the server that offsets the time scale on the graph, a harmless problem. The car clock agrees with the cell phone. This suggests the server time is off by about 5 minutes. I can setup the cell phone to video record the cabin and manually initiate preconditioning. Then I can plot the load to get the exact offset between the graph and 'reality.'
2. The initial battery warm-up, ~1.4 kW, appears about three hours before the scheduled departure time. After the initial warm-up, no power is needed until just before the cabin warm-up.

Bob Wilson

 

[alohart]

This suggests the server time is off by about 5 minutes.

I would be surprised if the server's time isn't correct to a few milliseconds. Servers do all sorts of things that require accurate time, so they typically synchronize their clocks with an international time server daily.

It would be more likely that the car's software is to blame. It might awaken only once every 5 minutes to check the time to determine when to start preconditioning. Maybe BMW feels that 5 minute accuracy is good enough for preconditioning start times.

I've read that battery pack preconditioning turns off when the pack temperature reaches 10º C (50º F). If true, your pack must not have been very cold considering the short pack preconditioning times.

By contrast, cabin preconditioning consumed a significant amount of energy. It would be interesting to compare the energy consumed when preconditioning a BEV's cabin. I assume that the heat pump would turn on for BEV cabin preconditioning rather than the electric resistance element.

 

[jadnashuanh]

Yes, the heat pump can be heard in my BEV when running preconditioning...it's definitely not switching to resistance heating unless it's REALLY cold out. It was below zero F earlier this week, and the car was silent, so it must have decided resistance heating was required as the heat pump definitely wasn't on.

 

[bwilson4web]

Still no luck. This is an audit of the current settings.

Setting up communications and finding the body controller settings:

Not previously discussed and set to "Wert_00", I set "RC_IDG_3RD_BUTTON_COMFORT" too:

There are three press duration values so I set all of them to "0x07":

Instead of starting "Wert_07", Auxiliary Cooling, pressing the middle button, "open frunk," worked each time. I'll send this to the developer.

Bob Wilson

 

[websterize]

What happens if you change 30D0 > "RC_DEFAULT_IDG_4TH_BUTTON_LONG" to "werte 07 = precondition cabin"?

Fairly sure the default fob button settings are:
1st = unlock doors
2nd: lock doors
3rd: unlock frunk (2014 model year) or trunk (later MYs)
4th: alarm (U.S.) or ♢ (programmable in rest of world)

 

[bwilson4web]

Ok, the good news is we have two answers:

1. In "expert mode", only use the options listed ... don't fiddle with other, override values unless someone has reported one that works. The "Werte 07" only works where it is listed as an option.
2. "4TH" button is the only one that appears to work for key fob activation by key fob.

So this begs the question, "What are all of the expert options and the possible replies?"

There may be some as yet undocumented enhancements to our rides.

Bob Wilson

 

[websterize]

Great to hear button 4 is working for you. I use it all the time.