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WattCat - Third party InControl app for Android

85K views 276 replies 58 participants last post by  Topdown500 
#1 ·
Hi all!

I've been working on a third party InControl for Android for a little while now It's still early days but after having reversed the entire InControl Remote API along with the official mobile app I realized that I could do better. There is a Python library for said API available here.

Now, back to the app. It's still rather early in development and is nowhere near finished but it's a fun little project and I'm quite satisfied with what I've got so far. Some of you might be testing it already as I've discussed it on the UK forums for quite some time.

Some features so far include:

- More data presented compared to the official app including battery health
- Experimental implementation of a Max SoC system. Until the I-Pace starts supporting the official Max SoC API it will have to suffice.
- Snappy and good looking user interface
- Vehicle alert log
- Faster access to useful features such as preconditioning, departure timers, etc.
- 100% free and no ads. This is a hobby project through and through!

Screenshots are attached.

In order to participate in the alpha test I will have to add your google associated email address to the list of testers. After which you can opt-in to the test here.

Feedback, suggestions and criticism is very welcome :)

Cheers all!
 

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#3 ·
Thanks! You don't need a Gmail account but you need to have some sort of email address associated with Google Play. If you have an Android device and you have access to Google Play then you should be good to go. Just PM me the associated email address and I'll add it to the Google Play testing list.

Cheers!
 
#4 ·
I can give an unconditional thumbs up to the WattCat app. It is much more stable and loads/updates way faster than the official (Not)In-Control JLR app. It's still a work in progress but @ardevd has done a phenomenal job with it and addresses any bug reports/issues super quickly. I am shocked he is doing this for free :grin2:
 
#11 ·

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#28 ·
Would love to partake if I can find the time!!!



I don't have an android phone but have an old android tablet. An iPhone user. Am I able to partake?
 
#17 ·
Thanks to WattCat we now have SoC measurements reported by the API ... in kWh!

I pilfered some free electrons today at a nearby super fancy hotel and I accidentally let it go until it shut off. (I try to avoid charging to max if I don't have to because of battery life). WattCat showed 100% and 84.7kWh. I drove home and WattCat still shows 100% ... but only 81.7 kWh. Sooo .. we're getting some real data here to tweak the picture of reported SoC [%] vs total battery capacity (kWh) and useable capacity (which seems to be ca. 81kWh based on the top and bottom buffers).
 

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#20 ·
There is JLR internal worksheet doc about Car Storage that says the JLR service tool will report 2% different than the power meter in the dash. Not sure if that's part of it. ie - at the dashboard's 0%, the JLR PID should say 2% according to JLR.
 
#21 ·
WattCat is awesome! It provides 3 pieces of very important information. It provides the car's alert logs which are health and status messages that can be helpful to know when the car has a mechanical, electrical or software related problem. WattCat also shows the overall battery health which will be very important as the I-Pace ages and battery health declines to the point where a warranty claim may be necessary. The app also displays the available battery kWh and not just the SoC.

I took a long trip and logged the available battery kWh at trip start and end and discovered that Sciencegeek is entirely correct about the I-Pace and InControl app underestimating battery consumption and overestimating predicted range by a lot! Using WattCat's available battery kWh I managed 2.589 miles per kWh which gives the vehicle a range of 209 miles at 81 kWh battery capacity or 219 miles at 84.7 kWh battery capacity. The InControl app showed 32.75 kWh/100 miles or 3.275 miles per kWh for a range of 259 miles - a difference of 40 miles at 84.7 kWh and 50 miles at 81 kWh. The InControl app is overoptimistic by 20%!

Anyone who is interested in knowing their real-world efficiency and range would do well by contacting ardved and requesting to test WattCat. I highly recommend the app for those who take long trips and need to know their actual range and not the InControl app.
 
#24 ·
I think I know what they do wrong in their calculations. When consumption is highly variable in a single trip (or "journey" as they call it) the figure is biased towards the lower-consuming segments of the trip. Interestingly, this leads to overly optimistic estimates in drives that have a lot of acceleration/deceleration or where there's a mix of high-efficiency slow driving and low-efficiency fast driving ... which tends to be shorter trips where range is actually not that important.

In my experience, the range estimates are a bit better when cruising at constant highway speeds (because there's not much variation in speed), but still somewhat optimistic. I agree that >200 miles at 75 with AC is only possible with a tail wind or going downhill.
 
#26 ·
I like the Chevy Bolt GoM that displays minimum, maximum and current predicted range.

I'd like to see average miles per kWH added to the trip banks. In Trip A or B you could see an overall average based on multiple trips while Trip Auto would show just for the current trip. This would allow the driver to make range assumptions based on experience and upcoming road and traffic conditions.
 
#38 ·
What WattCat is showing me causes me concern and I would appreciate other people's thoughts on this.

When I started to charge my car today WattCat reported that I had a 56% charge and that the battery had 35.75KWH. If I'm reading it right and the battery health was 99%.

Well if my charge in the battery is 37.75 kWh as and the battery shows a 56% charge that suggests that my battery will only hold 63kwh when fully charged.

What am I missing?
 
#43 ·
I charged the car to 71%. WattCat indicates that the battery health is 100% and is holding 47.05 Kwh of power giving the car a range of 222 KM.

Based on these numbers the battery would only hold about 66kwh at a 100% charge. (47.05/.71). Should I charge to 100% and see what the system is showing them?
 
#44 ·
That's not good. Yeah I'd do that. It's possible that the battery is just fine but that something is recorded incorrectly ...

Once you're at 100%, noodle it down to about 90% and then start recording the miles driven and %age SoC used to see what your consumption is (see my thread "how to calculate range"). Given that something is likely wrong here you want to arm yourself with data in case you have to go to the dealer.
 
#47 ·
Charged car to 100%. Stated capacity of the battery, state of charge at 100% is 68.20kwh. see attached. I think I need to started monitoring actual amount of power going into the battery which I'm not set up to do yet.

I'm also in touch with my dealerships service center and will booking an appointment to get them on this issue.
 
#49 ·
Great app! It is much, much faster than Jaguar's and provides more data that are actually useful (battery kWh (81.1 @ 100% SoC in my case), and the alert log).


Question for you ardevd: the "Control" section of the "Charging" page states that a TCU 16.2 or newer is recommended. TCU = Telematics Control Unit? How do I determine what my current TCU version is?


Here's another question for all y'all, this one perhaps academic in nature: doesn't the I-Pace have a 95 kWh battery? 14 kWh seems like alot of overhead, no?



Thanks!
 
#50 ·
Here's another question for all y'all, this one perhaps academic in nature: doesn't the I-Pace have a 95 kWh battery? 14 kWh seems like alot of overhead, no?

Thanks!
90.2 kWh battery.

Usable is about 84 kWh, but it's important to remember that battery capacity is measured in AmpH and not in kWh because Voltage spikes at the high end and is very low at the low end, so total kWh is a bit iffy. At full charge sometimes you'll see 80 kWh and sometimes 84 kWh depending on conditions. There are protective buffers at the top and and at the bottom end, equivalent to about 2-4 kWh each.
 
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