Hybrid Assistant app for Android

[vskid3]

I recently came across this app and thought I'd share it with you guys. It's called Hybrid Assistant. It's a Toyota hybrid specific monitoring app, similar to Torque but without any setup required (unfortunately, this also means there's not much customization). There is also a HV battery test mode that records the voltages of all the blocks. It's only available for Android, here's a link. I'm using a cheap bluetooth ELM327 OBDII scanner and everything works great except for gas consumption (this may be an issue with the scanner and/or my phone). A companion app called Hybrid Reporter can generate graphs for each trip and the HV battery test (to save a trip, you use "back" to exit out of Hybrid Assistant, then it saves the data from that trip/HV battery test).

Here's a screenshot I took while using the app. We have the speed, brake usage (turns green when braking and getting regen, turns red when friction brakes kick in, blocks on bottom show the past 5 braking events), temps for ICE, MG, and inverter, ICE kw output, battery output/regen kw. The fuel economy gauge can cycle through instant and average, here you can see that it's obviously not working correctly. Next there's the HV battery temp and fan speed, you can use this to override and order max fan speed (which I'm doing here). The EV car lights up when you're in EV and the blocks show recent efficiency. The trip time and distance show the percentage of EV, this was a highway trip so the ICE was always on. The ICE RPM changes color if the ICE is off or not getting fuel, like when coasting downhill. Also shows the hybrid stage you're in. Then we come to the HV battery SOC.


The end of the above trip.


A short trip I did this morning. Used my EV button to kill the ICE whenever possible, since it didn't warm up enough to turn off on its own.


What the HV battery test screen looks like.

[Daox]

Thats pretty cool. I had no idea it even existed.

[vskid3]

I think I first read about it on the Prius subreddit a couple months ago. I installed it so I wouldn't forget about it, but the bluetooth scanner I had died years ago. I remembered that my dad has one that he doesn't really use; I borrowed it from him when we visited for the eclipse. Now I'm thinking of getting a nice one like an OBDLink.

I've always been bothered by my Prius' lack of gauges and info. Most newer hybrids and EVs tell you how much power is being used from where and have a trip summary, now owners of older Prii can have that with a $20-50 scanner and a smartphone.

I actually stopped and removed my lower grill block between the first and second screenshots because of this app. I've never seen any hard numbers on what the MG and inverter temps should stay under, but the app was showing them as yellow so I decided to see if the block was making much of a difference. Turns out it was, I'll put it back on in a month or two when the temperature drops a bit.

The only thing missing from the app is the ability to read codes. I don't know if any Android apps can read Prius specific codes, so a mini-VCI cable and Techstream would still be good for someone doing their own maintenance.

[S Keith]

Cool find.

I'm pretty confident that no ELM327 based solution exists to read either detail codes or MANY of the hybrid specific base codes, e.g., P0AA6.

The ONLY non-professional units I have seen that can consistently pull those codes are the Bosch readers used and sold by O'Reilly.