Odd SoulSpy readings

[ksoul2084]

Last October I had the BMS + harness replacement recall completed on my 2016 Soul EV Luxury (Canadian model with the battery heater). Also, my battery had been replaced or refreshed with refurbished cells back in 2020.

Yesterday I connected my ODBII reader and used SoulSpy to have a look at the battery cell temps and voltages before and after a trip to the city. I saw a few things that were distinctly different from my previous readings and unexpected.

Vehicle had been charging for several hours prior to departing on a 30km highway trip. Here is the cell map after I started the car. Outside temp. was approx. -2c. In the past I had seen the battery temps generally around 10-12c after a long charging session so was a bit shocked to see it at barely over freezing while charging:



At the end of my trip (32km at mostly highway speeds) the temps had risen to 4-5c. Again, in the past I would expect to have seen them at 10-14c after a trip like this:


Then about 6 hours later I drove back home (32km highway) and recorded this while underway but within a few mins of home:

...as you can see the temps are now up where I had expected them to be from the start of the trip.

It almost seems like the battery heater wasn't being engaged while it was charging, nor during my initial trip, but them was on the way home. The battery would have been cooled to outside temps while it was parked before I left for home (-6c).

Finally, after parking at home I took these readings:



So I guess my battery is doing okay? as far as cell balancing is concerned, since they seemed to "settle" down to identical voltages?

But then I noticed this strange reading with "ghost" cell values on the bottom row that shouldn't exist?



Very strange. So I am wondering if anyone has any thoughts on what I'm seeing here?

 

[JejuSoul]

Yes. It is strange.
But there is absolutely nothing we can say with certainty about what is going on.

All the homemade apps that read PID data from the car are inaccurate and getting more so over time.
They are for entertainment purposes only.

The BMS software that the apps are reading changes over time. None of the apps are updated to reflect these changes.

Five years ago I used to update the PID codes for the Torque app.
I stopped doing this after I got a new battery and new BMS software.
The codes for the battery heater had changed. I don't have a battery heater so have no way of knowing what the new codes mean.
I realized that it is no longer possible to match each different ROM variant with a different set of software.

Back in 2016 we did do this. There were different versions of the OBC software and so we had different versions of the PID codes to download.
It's no longer possible given that there are so many versions of the BMS.
We can't even read the ROM ID, so people would have no idea which version they need..

The only car that all these apps will work correctly on is my original blue 2015 which has never had an upgrade to the BMS.

 

[ksoul2084]

I understand. Thanks.

 

[IanL]

....The only car that all these apps will work correctly on is my original blue 2015 which has never had an upgrade to the BMS.

I would add to that the 2018 model with E400 battery cells which has not yet received the updated BMS and harness. That is certainly true of mine - the SoulEV Spy app was updated to recognise this variant, and it takes advantage of the BMS data to report SOH (presumably the SOH data was not available, or not recognised, with the 2015 model).

The E400 recall has been issued in Feb 24 for UK cars, but I've not had a letter, and my dealer states that the recall is not shown against my car, so it would appear that it is not being applied to all E400 cars in UK.

 

[IanL]

Update: The E400 recall was published in UK in February, but my car is not included. When I pressed them, they said not all electrical/electronic units were the same build, so that could be the reason. But its all governed by the system, so no common sense deployed. I just have to hope all will be well.