Hacking into Zoe's CANbus

[jmeijer]

Live on the charger.

Almost full. Max input of the battery is 7 kW.

Charger box sends a 16A pilot signal.

And more interesting data, such as State of Health.

[NorZE]

Thank you for your tremendously excellent work on this project!
I'd love to test out the software as you are making progress, if you need alpha-testing.

One question: Will the software require the KW902 dongle, or would any compatible dongle work? Is this a knockoff, or does it in fact use an ELM Electronics chip? (I'd guess it's a knockoff, as it's really cheap)

Again - thank you for your work. Can't wait to try it out!

[jmeijer]

Hello NorZE,

I will discuss with "the team" if we can make an APK available, say for instance, every week. Many people are asking for it, and we feel proud and a bit humbled. I will post here if that's possible and where it can be found of course. In due time we will try to make it available on Google play.

If you're not afraid of running and using both Android Studio and github, you can download the sources yourself (and possibly contribute), though I really understand that is a bridge too far for many.

As for the dongles, it is a very complicated matter. Let me try to summarize:
- Dongles based on true ELM chips should, in principle, work;
- If they don't, we know they should and we should make the App compatible. I'd be happy to incorporate needed changes, if someone would donate or borrow me one for a while;
- Same goes for ST1110 based dongles;
- It is close to impossible to know which dongles do use true ELMs or ST1110s, as the chip manufacturers don't tell, and the dongle manufacturers usually lie;
- Almost all the knockoff's from eBay do not work. I have tried several myself. They have a reduced command set and it is impossible to read Zoe or Fluence ZE data. Reason is they build the logic into the "spare room" of the BlueTooth microcontroller;
- There are knockoffs that work, but it's all unbranded stuff so you can buy one that works from a seller, test it, be happy, buy 10 more from the same seller and they don't. It is just not worth the effort.
- The Konnwei KW902 ones do work (until those are re-manufactured too of course) and that is why for the time being, it is the only one that I can recommend. They should cost under 20 Euros;
- If you already have a dongle and you're in doubt, I have a few tests that could be used. You just need an android phone and something like "Bluetooth terminal".

Hope this helps.

[jmeijer]

One more. Same data, different representation

[NorZE]

I will discuss with "the team" if we can make an APK available, say for instance, every week. Many people are asking for it, and we feel proud and a bit humbled. I will post here if that's possible and where it can be found of course.

Would be greatly appreciated if you did when you feel it's ready.

- If you already have a dongle and you're in doubt, I have a few tests that could be used. You just need an android phone and something like "Bluetooth terminal".

As it happens, I do have an Android and something like Bluetooth terminal. Do elaborate.

I don't speak code, so I'm afraid I wouldn't be of much help. But thanks for the info on the adapters.

[jmeijer]

Connect the dongle, start the car and make a terminal connection with the dongle.

Send atz first. For knockoffs, all answer will be lies, but ELM327 v2.1 is a worse lie than ELM327 v1.5.

Now send the following commands:
ate0
ats0
atsp6
atat1
atcaf0

All should answer OK

Then try

atsh7e4
atfcsh7e4

If all answers are OK, that is good and go on. If not, forget it.

03222006

Something should come back starting with 06622006

atcra699
atma

You should see a new line with data about every second or so. You can stop it by sending atar

If it works as expected, lucky man!
If it does not work as expected, I would appreciate a log of the conversation.
I also would appreciate to know if this "instruction" was clear enough.

[NorZE]

The instruction is clear. Will try it out later and report my results.
To be honest, I'm not holding my breath. This is an old (2012) ELM327-knockoff. Not sure what version it claims to bo.

[jmeijer]

Old is GOOD in this case. It is the recent sub-10-euro ones that are the problem.

[NorZE]

It works!

The dongle reports ver 1.4.

[jmeijer]

I am reasonably sure 1.4 will work.

I have discussed the APK with the team members and they agree on doing it and working with a weekly schedule for the interested. Because I have had a very nasty PC problem, I might skip this coming Sunday, but it's coming.

I showed it to quite a few Zoe owners todat at the 2015 Dutch Zoe day and people were impressed!