Friday, March 14, 2014

V40

News:
  • this version runs on the new Google Sheets
  • more speed when importing data
  • more speed when scrolling data sheet
  • more speed when browsing graphs
  • no more cell limits (try your biggest log)
  • horizontal axis is now "Distance" on most charts


Thursday, March 13, 2014

Issue with Maps

There is currently an issue on the map size: if you see a really small map, click on the image, select the down arrow and the "Reset size".
The map will be reset to its correct dimensions.


It seems to be a bug of the newer Google Sheets:

https://code.google.com/p/google-apps-script-issues/issues/detail?id=3770

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

V39

News:

  • better regeneration evaluation
  • better coasting detection
  • added charts of current recovery while coasting and braking


Current generation while coasting

Gathering data from an highway trip full of ups and downs, here's the chart of the current generated when the car is coasting (running without pressing the accelerator or the brake pedal).


Observations:
Beside some spurious samples in the transition phases, a clear behavior emerges.
Under 12 km/h there's no energy recovery, instead crawling consumes some energy also.
The energy recovered grows along speed until a little less than 60 km/h, afterwards it decrease a little and then it's steady until 100 km/h where it decreases again.

I suspect that every car model has its own characteristic curve.

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Steep ramps and gently slopes

Better steep or gently?

To answer, we'd need 2 roads that start and finish in the same place, while passing the same peak.
Pretty hard to find.
We may try to find an approximate answer with an asymmetric trip: the outward leg has a gentler slope than the return one.
The altimetric profile shows an highway section, so we are talking about higher than usual speed here.


We can't use the full trip, because the starting and ending point are at different altitude.
We need to fix a fictional "zero level" from which we'll start from one side of the mountain and end on the other side.
By picking up 2 point of equal altitude, we'll have equal potential energy; we also need to account for differences of cinetic energy (we're not standing still in those points) and electric energy (SOC level).
Let's choose the 150 m quote that crosses the profile first after 6 km and then again on the downward slope at nearly 63 km.
Using GPS coordinates, we can find the same point on the return trip log.

Here's the start:
Row: 612
Longitudine: 8.57436894
Latitudine: 44.87122654
Speed: 84
SOC: 56.47058868

And the finish line:
Row: 2066
Longitudine: 8.73766059
Latitudine: 44.4367162
Speed: 98
SOC: 69.41176605

We need to delete from the log all rows not belonging to the above range.
Then, we should rewrite columns
Trip Distance(km)
Fuel used (trip)(l)
by subtracting the value of the starting point to all other values.

Now, by running the analyzer, we'll have the stats only for the selected range.

Moving on to the return trip log, we search for the same points used as start and finish, this time in reverse order tough.

Start
Row: 1009
Speed: 68
SOC: 63.52941132

Finish
Row: 2502
Speed: 81
SOC: 60.7843132

Another analyzer run will gather the stats for this trip also.

Let's focus immediately on the main parameter:

Gently slope:
Fuel used3.01litres, as reported by Torque


Steep slope:
Fuel used3.12litres, as reported by Torque


Driving the gently slope, we save 0.11 liters.
Do boundary conditions justify this difference?

On the gently slope we finish with 12% more SOC, another energy credit.
On the steep slope we finish with 2% less SOC, so we lost energy.

On the gently slope we finish with 14km/h more.
On the steep slope we finish with 13km/h more.
It seems the same, but cinetic energy is related to the speed squared and the greater exit speed is the one of the gently slope (98 vs 81).

So, consumption in the case of the gently slope is potentially even lower, because we spare some energy to use on the road ahead.

Let's see some other interesting parameter:
Battery Stress8.37Quadratic average of battery current flow
vs
Battery Stress7.82Quadratic average of battery current flow
The steep slope puts less stress on the battery, mainly because we recover less SOC.

HSI:
HSI PWR %0.00Hybrid System Indicator % time in Power zone
HSI Upper ECO %89.75Hybrid System Indicator % time in the upper half of ECO zone
HSI Lower ECO %3.39Hybrid System Indicator % time in the lower half of ECO zone
HSI CHG %6.86Hybrid System Indicator % time in Charge zone
vs
HSI PWR %4.42Hybrid System Indicator % time in Power zone
HSI Upper ECO %91.10Hybrid System Indicator % time in the upper half of ECO zone
HSI Lower ECO %1.74Hybrid System Indicator % time in the lower half of ECO zone
HSI CHG %2.74Hybrid System Indicator % time in Charge zone
on the steep road we have to venture in the PWR zone and spend less time in CHG.

Engine load:
Average Engine Load83.68Mean value considering only non-zero values
Min Engine Load30.20Excluding zero values
Max Engine Load92.94Maximum value
vs
Average Engine Load86.38Mean value considering only non-zero values
Min Engine Load33.73Excluding zero values
Max Engine Load92.16Maximum value
no significant differences exists.

Sunday, March 9, 2014

V38

News:

  • correct step in map markers
  • max and average RPM
  • min and max current
  • altimetric chart
  • consistent colors across charts



Sunday, March 2, 2014

V37

News:

  • added check for max file size in "Import CSV": big files should be imported the old way
  • added Google Map (check the FAQ)