ElectricMotorcycleForum.com
Makes And Models => Zero Motorcycles Forum | 2013+ => Topic started by: Patrick Truchon on July 13, 2015, 01:47:34 AM
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For Android (I don't know for iPhone) the Zero App [v. 1.4.56] was last updated in November 2016. What new features / tweaks would you like to see on the app?
For myself...
I'd like to see some minor tweaks to the Riding Screen. Currently, it only displays in landscape mode. Personally, I like my phone in portrait. It would be nice if all the individual squares could rotate. We can now manually select between Portrait and Landscape.- It would also be nice to be able to configure multiple Riding Screens that can be easily accessed by swiping left or right. I would configure one screen with: State of Charge, Trip Odo, Speed, Distance to Empty, Time to Empty. And another with: Torque, Temp Motor, Watts, Temp Controller, Temp Battery Pack.
- Finally, I'd love to be able to configure the Drive Setup even more, specifically the regen braking "curve". I'd love to be able to have regen braking take me to a full stop, and be a bit more "aggressive" at higher RPM as well. Ideally, a regen lever (http://electricmotorcycleforum.com/boards/index.php?topic=4357) would solve that one, but that's a bit off topic...
Update: Here's a summary of what you've come up with broadly sorted into two categories. I hope this helps Zero find some low hanging fruits...
Bugs / Annoyances:
- Fix the bug where the app sometimes refuses to reconnect to the bike while the bike is charging, and you take your phone out of airplane mode, which disables the bluetooth function. This persists until the bike is powered on again. Not sure if this has been fixed in the latest version.
- Allow portrait and landscape viewing on all screens. Currently the riding screen can be manually configured, but the app doesn't automatically rotate.
Swipe between battery pages instead of press. The battery pages were consolidated into one long one.- The connected notification screen to disappear after say 30 seconds.
Feature requests:
- Ability to change bike image, backstround and font colour.
- Have multiple Riding Screens that can be easily accessed by swiping left or right.
- Show "last data" instead of demo mode when "offline" and add estimate charge completion countdown and alert
- Be able to configure the Drive Setup even more. For example:
- ability to tweak the regen braking "curve" more so as to be able to have regen braking take me to a full stop, and be a bit more "aggressive" at higher RPM as well.
- ability to set the max speed to a lower value than 60mph.
- Allow user accessible TXT log files and CSV data logging.
- Include social sharing options about trip performance, ...
The ability to update the bike's firmware thru the app. This was added for 2017 models (doesn't work with rooted Android phones).- Option for keyless ignition
- Connect via wifi
Open source the app or publish API so others can fork it or develop their own?
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I'd also like:
The connected notification screen to dissapear after say 30 seconds, its irritating pulling away, the app connects to the bike, and you have to stop to take off your gloves to press OK on the reconnected pop up screen. (Class 2 feature request)
The ability to set the max speed to a lower value than 60mph. (Class 3 feature request)
Fix the bug where the app sometimes refuses to reconnect to the bike while the bike is charging, and you take your phone out of airplane mode, which disables the bluetooth function. This persists until the bike is powered on again. (Class 2 bug)
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The ability to update the bike's firmware thru the app. Just download the update to the app and then the app connects to the bike to update the firmware. That would really future proof these bikes and help with resale if glitches could be fixed that easily.
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The ability to update the bike's firmware thru the app. Just download the update to the app and then the app connects to the bike to update the firmware. That would really future proof these bikes and help with resale if glitches could be fixed that easily.
+1 to that. I'm not overly concerned with the riding screen, the ability to provide connectivity for remote troubleshooting and firmware updates is the killer feature that's missing.
Aside from that, would love to see the option for keyless ignition.
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Demo Mode avoidance - "Last data" instead
Once out of Bluetooth range I still want to reference my statistics without re-entering Demo Mode and display the "Last Data" upon launch rather than the Demo Data.
Non Diagnostic History Email
Allow the user accessible portions of the emailed log - TXT readable. Owners are logging data only at trip end, or at charge through a burdensome process which would be simplified by owner readable Logs of "non-proprietary" information.
Trip Performance History
Prior to processing a "Reset" archive the Trip Performance information in the application allowing for a "view history" to compare on device.
Average Speed to Trip Performance
Many users compare statistics and our varied average speeds make comparisons trickier than they need to be. The addition of an Average Speed would allow for a more realistic relative comparison.
Max Watts Per Mile to Trip Performance
I have alternate commuter routes that I would like to compare. Short and fast and long and slow. Adding a Max Watts Per mile (would fill the screen to six values) and provide insight into how much above the average where the higher speed sections.
Trip Performance / Battery State Sharing
Share selected statistics to Facebook, Google+, Email, Text or wherever the kids are sharing data now. My normal "arrival at work" message is "At work 76% battery 24 miles" and my "home message" is a notice to the other riders in the family "battery state, miles and time to full charge" all of which would be simplified by this feature.
Estimate Charge Completion Countdown and Alert
Most charging is done at basic outlets. Once Charging allow owner to exit bluetooth range and countdown the estimated charge state (use italics font to indicate estimate) and set an alert when charge is complete. This allows for full charge dependent trips to be taken as soon as possible.
- Change Bike Image
Customize Background and Font Color.
I'd pay to upgrade integrated Mapping with Charge Location:
Map Routing with identification of charge points at adjustable (5%-20%) "discharge" rather than just "along the route" so us Benswing wannabees can plan our trips aided by the application and dream. Allow saving of the trip - to link to the "Performance history".
Seconding
- Lower Custom Speed (learners)
- Update Firmware
- Portrait
I do not have a mount so I rarely use the driving screen (unzip and push lid into tank, drop phone on top to diagnose early temperature issue) but I am sure more features there may entice me to buy that mount.
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How about just plain ole data logging? I can always cull down any data I have, but data that's never recorded is lost forever. Throw the mileage, speed, battery SoC, whatever's available into a file and let us pick what we want to keep. I wouldn't always want to keep all the data (or even very often), but it would be nice to have it when I want it.
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Yes! Data logging like Voltsats.net with distance, avg speed, Wh/mi, fastest speed, kWh used, etc. That would be amazing! Downloadable to excel.
More custom modes would be cool.
I agree about the vertical riding mode. I don't use it, but why not?
Connect via Wifi would be great, too.
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I would like the lower custom speed to be able to go way down. Not for learning but for technical dirt riding to spread the speed out over the whole throttle to something like 20 mph. Way too often I've been trying to "crawl" through a spot and had the bike jump forward because I "twitched" and opened the throttle too much.
It would be so much better to be able to program this low top speed in the app than by physically putting a switched resistor divider across the throttle pot.
Trikester
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Below is my mail I sent to Zero last August 2014. I sent the mail to the Dutch zero-mail adres but got a response from Scot Harden (VP of Global marketing) ::)
He did adres the limited manpower and budget they have for maintaining the app but thanked me for my input.
Having read that Zero is also reading the forums it is a good time to share my thoughts on the app again :)
Worth noting is that my iPhone is setup in the Dutch language and that generates the language issues swell as the units etc. My bike is a 2014 SR.
The iphone app is at version 1.07 (July 2014)
1) Riding screen (while not actually riding) : The back button is very small and shows "Ter..aan" which probably is short voor "Teruggaan", this could also be just "TERUG" which fits easily within the button. Also just use capital letters like the rest on the screen.
2) Riding screen : the value for "SNELHEID" (speed) is calculated incorrectly, when riding 100 km/hr on the dash, the app shows "90" instead of 100. At other speeds it is also some 90% of the value indicated on the dash. (probably setup the conversion factor to 1.5 instead of 1.609)
3) Riding Screen : the designation "TEMPERATUUR BATTERIJ" does not fit and is shortened to "TEMPERATUUR BA...". Either split this into 2 lines or shorten to "TEMP ACCU" or "TEMPERATUUR ACCU"
The same applies to "TEMPERATUUR MOTOR" which is shortened to "TEMPERATUUR MO.." this should be "TEMP MOTOR" or 2 lines
The same applies also to "TEMPERATUUR CONTROLLER" which is shortened to "TEMPERATUUR CO..". this should be "TEMP CONTROLLER" or 2 lines
(image001.jpg)
4) Riding Screen : several values have either no or the wrong unit : in the examples below :
* "AFSTAND TOT LEEG" should have the unit "KM"
* "TIJD TOT LEEG" should have the unit "H:MM"
* "KOPPEL" should have the unit "NM" (newton meter) instead of "ft-lbs" (also ft-lbs should be in capitals, like the rest of all captions).
* "TIME" should have the (ability for) 24 hour format (so 15:50 in the example below) and have "HH:MM" as unit.
(image002.jpg)
* "TRIP METER" should have the unit "KM"
* "LAADSTATUS" should have the unit "%" and the text "LAADSTATUS" is in a different place compared to all other texts in the riding screen
(image003.jpg)
5) Non Riding screens
All non riding screens are not available in landscape, only portrait. This is not very handy because the riding screen is only available in landscape. Ideally all screens would have both orientations available so people have a choice how to mount their phone on the bike.
6) Drive setup screen : When trying to enter the either the cost per liter of fuel, liter per 100 km a screen pops up with digits and a comma ( , ). However the app only accepts values with a dot. This way i cannot enter the correct values.
* The slider for "Max koppel gewoonte" should read "Max Koppel Custom" because it refers to the custom setting. This is also wrong in the english language, there it says Max torque ECO, but it is not the eco setting which is adjusted but the "Custom" setting.
* the slider "Max regenereren Gewoonte" should read "Max regenereren Custom"
* the slider "Max regenereren remmen Gewoonte" should read "Max regenereren remmen Custom"
(image004.jpg)
(image005.jpg - next post)
7) "TRIP PERFORMANCE" screen. Trip performance is not translated. this should be "TRIP GEGEVENS"
* "$" sign should be "EURO" or "€" 8)
(image006.jpg-next post)
8) Main Screen
* The "TIJD TOT VOLLEDIG OPGELADEN" field has no unit ("H:MM")
* The "Gem. Watt Uur Per km" Value is calculated incorrectly (still in Whr/mile) so about 160% off.
* The "CO2-besparing tov brandstof" unit is in "lbs" this should be "kg" for kilogramms
(image007.jpg-next post)
9) bluetooth connection on iphone 3GS the app does not reconnect to the bike automatically, i have to go to bluetooth settings and connect to the bike before the app functions correctly (this could be an IOS 6 limitation). update, i now use an iPhone 5 on iOS 8.4 and it still exists.
10) on the iphone 3GS 5 there are very annoying pop up screens when bluetooth connects or disconnects from the app. They can only be closed by clicking OK. Please make this auto-dissappear or do not show them in this way.
11) On all screens the (beautiful) zero LOGO is missing.
Some items I've come up since then.
12) I also have a pebble smartwatch and it's impossible to use both the zero app and the pebble watch simultaneously. I think they both use the same bluetooth serial port. I HAVE to switch of the bluetooth on the pebble to be able to connect to the zero.
13) on the battery page swipe for the next page.
14) the temperature of the motor is always reading about 10 degrees higher than the other sensors. My bike has been sitting in the garage for 3 day straight now (bad weather) and the temperature of the controller is 24 degrees, the temperature of the battery is 27 degrees and the motor is reading 35 degrees. Please not that my garage is very well insulated and the temperature has not changed in these 3 days. The bike's displays states 34 degrees celcius as temperature (so motor ?).
15) life average whr/km on the bike's display is 62.4 while in the app it states 73 on the battery page and 118 on the main page. The 118 on the main page is obviously an error in conversion from km to miles (118/1.609 is 73) but why is it different from the value on the bike's display ?
16) distance left on the bike says 131.9 km but app says 145 km
And personal favorites for some things you already mentioned above ;D
17) multiple riding screens with swipe to switch the next/previous riding screen
18) Estimated charge time left with a countdown to fully charged and the estimated level of charge when too far away from the bike for bluetooth would be utterly awesome. When you're in a restaurant eating and waiting for the bike to charge you have the tendency to walk to the bike every 15 min. That does not make my girlfriend happy 8) if you could see a countdown timer on the screen with the time to full charge and the estimated charge level would help a lot.
19) log files to be easily readable for owners.
20) Dataloging of the last trip(s) would be awesome
any more thoughts ?
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and 3 more screenshots
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Speaking of data logging, if anybody's not aware of it, you should check out Google's "My Tracks" app in the store. It's free, does an excellent job of logging GPS fixes on a ride, gives all the statistics you could want about a ride, and has an active display (driven by Google Maps) which is very cool by itself...although you can also run Google Maps on top of it to get guidance if you need navigation. Tracks can also be shared, as this one (from July 4th's Vetter Challenge in Northern California; you may notice that I didn't make it to the end!):
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0tc8PZroqgNZzhEUTluV0g3T2c/view?usp=drivesdk
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Has there been any published API for the app? Bluetooth isn't terribly complicated and I suppose I could just reverse the app, but I have a lot of things to do with my time :)
Cheers
--G
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Zero, please listen to the people and update the app. I feel like the most polished portion of it is the demo section where it shows what you can do when you buy the bike...but then when you actually have the bike, it's a bit of a let down. Please update, then update yearly to keep up with new models. My 2015 SR that I just bought shows up as a 2013 SR...is that even a product?
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Zero would not need to update app if they open source the app and released api of app functions. The community could then add and improve the app. All the app is doing is displaying data from bike and logs. We all have great ideas to improve the app.
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They may not want to open the API up for safety and liability reasons. Just give me a yearly update, that's all I ask for!
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If anyone from Zero happens to be reading this - if you don't have an app developer on staff, feel free to ship me an SR each year and I'm happy to help you out :)
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Lots of good ideas here! I hope Zero finds a few easy ones to implement and updates their app soon. I summarized most of the ideas so far and sorted them into two broad categories back on the first post (http://first post).
Anything else?
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I just finished watching the latest ZeroCast and Abe mentioned that the app was one of their next areas of focus. You've said multiple times that you read the forums to get input from us, so I thought I'd make it easier by pumping this thread back to the top. ;)
Cheers guys!
Update: for some reason, when I put a live link to the Zero Cast page, it works with Preview, but it gets changed when I post it. Here's a dead link you can copy and paste manually:
http://livestream.com/accounts/14139273/events/4442461
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Connect via Wifi would be great, too.
+1 on connect via WiFi! When I am in my apartment my bike is always just barely too far away to be connected via bluetooth and check SOC. WiFi would solve this and allow me to easily check SOC any time while I'm home without going out to the garage. However, I'm pretty sure it would require a hardware upgrade to the bike.
Aside from that, would love to see the option for keyless ignition.
+1 for using the phone to start the bike. It would be great if I didn't have to get out a key!
The bluetooth connectivity in general needs to get better. Android allows identification of trusted bluetooth devices that bypass the lock screen when connected to the phone. I want my bike to be a trusted device so that I don't have to enter my passcode when I pull out the phone quick at a light or stop sign to check the map etc. This requires that the bike maintain connection with my phone at all times while the bike is ON....even if the rider screen isn't up.
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With the recent update, I thought I'd bump this one back up. It'd be nice for the next update to be more feature rich.
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I'm experiencing problems with the app. It always crashes when I switch from imperial system to metric system. Does anybody here experience the same issue? Because it's driving me crazy, I have the bike in metric system and the app in the imperial system. Everytime I try to change it it just crashes. I've tried in several phones, reinstalling the app, even in demo mode. Nothing worked. I remember that the first time I connected the bike it worked, but at some point it simply crashed.
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I don't have a zero but I have app on both android and apple phone.
I can change in setting back and forth between English and metric settings.
And adjust sliders and change screens.
What mobile is and phone are you using?
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I've solved problems like that with other apps by simply removing the app from the phone, and then reinstalling it. Might be worth a try.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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I do not have a mount so I rarely use the driving screen (unzip and push lid into tank, drop phone on top to diagnose early temperature issue) but I am sure more features there may entice me to buy that mount.
Bought the mount.
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My app doesn't want to update, and I can't find a setting for allowing or blocking that on my phone. Any ideas? Do I have to uninstall it and then reinstall a fresh download?
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I can now answer this one myself. If you don't have your device set to auto-update apps, then you go to the Play store, search and touch the Zero app icon, and then select "Update" instead of "Download." So the setting can be changed while at the Play store, or you can, as I did, just update the app(s) you want, leaving auto-update off.
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My app doesn't want to update, and I can't find a setting for allowing or blocking that on my phone. Any ideas? Do I have to uninstall it and then reinstall a fresh download?
Is it fruity or robotic flavour phone? On my Android, I have automatic updates blocked, so I have to go to Google Play app -> "My Apps & Games" and tap it to update. (Updates blocked as I don't want Firefox to update)
The auto update setting is in the Google Play app settings as a checkbox for "Auto-update apps" at the very top.
Uninstall/reinstall won't hurt. The current Zero Android app version is 1.3.6 (under Settings -> Apps -> Downloaded" and scroll all the way down and tap it to see the version.
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As I wrote above, I was able to update the app. Now I'll see if it still works ok. I could only get one log to download with the old version. Does the new one download two?
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The new one gives me options as to which (or all) logs to download. Takes a while to download them all.
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This is just a tiny addition to the app, but I would really like it: When you connect to the bike via your phone, have it set the clock on the bike to match the one on the phone. No more messing around with press-hold-release-press-pressagain and the like. And it would eliminate the need to do it all again every time Daylight Savings Time does its thing.
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Adding to the wish list, as already said, why not have WiFi (instead or in addition to) bluetooth. Have the WiFi turn on when the charger is plugged in, and then the bike could check for firmware updates itself, and download during the charge. Once downloaded it could send an alert to your phone asking when to apply the update. If no smartphone is configured, then put the question on the dash (when charger plugged in) apply at end of charge, or, ask me latter (meaning ask me again next time I plug the charger in - incase you need to charge and go).
Then maybe we wake up one morning and we have autopilot!!!!!
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This is just a tiny addition to the app, but I would really like it: When you connect to the bike via your phone, have it set the clock on the bike to match the one on the phone. No more messing around with press-hold-release-press-pressagain and the like. And it would eliminate the need to do it all again every time Daylight Savings Time does its thing.
That is one of those simple things that makes so much sense when you say it... but no one thought of it before.
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This is just a tiny addition to the app, but I would really like it: When you connect to the bike via your phone, have it set the clock on the bike to match the one on the phone. No more messing around with press-hold-release-press-pressagain and the like. And it would eliminate the need to do it all again every time Daylight Savings Time does its thing.
Hear hear! Especially since my clock tends to run a little fast, but the only way of adjusting it is forward, and there's no press-and-hold function. So I have to press that stupid button 53 times to correct the clock, through the damn waterproofing rubber cap which makes feeling the button almost impossible.
Even just a manual clock adjustment feature would be very welcome on the app, but as Semper Why says, it could easily all be automated. These days, everything is wired into network time.
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My on-board clock runs fast too. That is why I bought a cheap stick-on clock and stuck it to the part of my right mirror that only shows my shoulder when I am riding. It is more accurate that Zero's clock, so I only look at the stick-on and just check the Zero clock twice a year. ;)
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Since the last app update, I went back to the first post (http://electricmotorcycleforum.com/boards/index.php?topic=4834.msg32768#msg32768) and edited the wish list we had. It seems zero managed to cross of few items off it. Thanks guys!
I particularly like being able to set up the riding screen in portrait mode.
One small bug I noticed though: it looks like when the power is in the centre of the riding screen, the writing is shifted to the left a bit too much. Look at what happens when regen braking...
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I like the notice of the vertical Riding Screen, but it does not work for me.
For me (Motorola MotoX) even DEMO mode won't show vertically. It flips back failing to connect (in DEMO mode it shouldn't try to connect).
So thanks for the post - because i wouldn't have tried vertical or even discovered it in DEMO.