Author Archives: admin

What’s New:

  • MyVoltControl version 2.8.0 was released on September 19th, 2024. In this version:
    • For the Cell Balance test in the Volt Diag section, you can now PLOT the voltages for all of the cells directly in MyVoltControl.
    • We added a new “Weak Cells” test in the Volt Diag section to look for weak battery cells in 2016 and later cars.
    • The European builds of the Opel Ampera-e cars are now supported.
    • We fixed an error in the handling of battery information for the 2016 Cadillac ELR.
    • The heading title on each of the subpages in the app were changed to try to avoid confusion with other apps.
    • We fixed some bugs and made other minor improvements in many places.

  • MyVoltControl version 2.7.0 was released on March 17th, 2024. In this version:
    • We added support for the Cadillac CT6 Plug-In Hybrid vehicle.
    • In the Volt Diag function, we now display the battery state-of-charge (SOC) for the Internal Resistance test.
    • In the Volt Diag function, we now display the power draw from the battery which occurred when the Cell Balance test was running. If the test is being run at a low-SOC state, we issue instructions if the power is too low for that test to be valid. If the power draw was not consistent during any Cell Balance test, we issue instructions for that as well.
    • In the Connection Help document, we added some information at the end of the MX+ section about making re-connections reliable.
    • In the App Functions document, we added a graph at the end of the Volt Diag section showing how internal resistance varies with temperature and state-of-charge.
    • We fixed some bugs and made other minor improvements in many places.

  • MyVoltControl version 2.6.0 was released on October 17th, 2023, followed by a bug-fix version 2.6.1 on October 23rd. In version 2.6.0:
    • We added the ability to select which parameters are shown at the top of the first Volt Hold function page. You can also change the order in which they are shown. This is accessed thru the new “Edit” button at the top-right of the screen.
    • In addition, you can add up to two additional copies of that first top-of-the-page, with each showing the parameters you customize it to show.
    • In the Volt Diag function, we now allow you to override the year of the battery that is installed in your car for the Battery Capacity calculation. This will be useful if your battery has been replaced with one from a car of a different model year. It is almost required if you have a 2012 car because only you can determine if your car has the YK8 RPO which indicates that it has a 2013 battery.
    • We did an additional correction to how the “kWh” part of the Battery Capacity result is calculated for 2013-2015 cars.
    • We now issue an error message if you try to Connect to the OBD adapter before you have selected the connection method.
    • Other minor fixes and improvements.

  • MyVoltControl version 2.5.0 was released on August 8th, 2023. This version:
    • Adds a new “Diag Information” page, accessible from the “Volt Diag” screen by pressing the “Info” icon at the top-right of the page. This page helps you understand what results are “good” or “bad” when you run the tests on the Volt Diag screen.
    • Changes what is shown for the Cell Balance test (part of Volt Diag) in some cases to show more meaningful information about the number of cells that are exceeding a range.
    • Changes the App Functions documentation to give more information on the proper ways to use the Cell Balance test and to discuss how you might restore some of your lost battery capacity.
    • Corrects how the “kWh” part of the Battery Capacity result is calculated (for cars prior to 2019). The old calculation was consistent with the MyVoltCapacity app, but unfortunately it is wrong.
    • Now requires iOS 15, which might sound like a big deal, but it’s not because any device that can run iOS 13 (previously required) can also run iOS 15.
    • Other minor fixes and improvements.

  • MyVoltControl version 2.4.0 was released on May 16th, 2023. This version (which requres iOS 13 or later):
    • Adds a new feature to the My Volt Diag function. You can now determine the internal resistance of the high-voltage battery in your car. This new feature completes the set of information needed to gauge the health of your traction battery.
    • Adds a new feature for the My Volt Lifetime function which will calculate the distance your car has driven in both ICE and EV modes. This information is formatted so that you can make a screenshot of the information to pass on to the next owner of your car after you reset the current Lifetime Fuel Economy value. Passing it on will prevent the loss of this information that otherwise occurs when you reset this value. (You can use this feature even if you are not resetting the Lifetime Fuel Economy value.)
    • Now supports the Apple Shortcuts app for creating shortcuts which involve MyVoltControl. This support is done thru what are known as “App Intents”. What this means is that you will now find MyVoltControl among the list of apps you can use inside the Shortcuts app. You can include MyVoltControl as part of other automations you are creating, or you can create a shortcut just to call MyVoltControl (such as starting it in the Volt Hold function). When you create such a shortcut, you can add a link to it as a bookmark on your home screen. You can give a shortcut any name you like, and simply speaking that name to Siri will run the shortcut immediately.

  • MyVoltControl version 2.3.3 was released on May 9th, 2023 to fix a formatting problem with the My Volt Diag function on smaller phones.
     
  • MyVoltControl version 2.3.2 was released on March 30th, 2023 to fix some formatting problems on smaller phones and on phones running iOS 12. There were no functional changes.
     
  • MyVoltControl version 2.3.1 was released on March 23rd, 2023. In this release we added another parameter that you can set to trigger “Auto-Hold”, that being the temperature of the engine coolant. Doing this forced a reformat of the Auto-Hold status line, which now shows flags only for Auto-Hold parameters that are enabled, and the line can be scrolled left/right to see all the flags if many are enabled. And of course … we fixed a few bugs.
     
  • MyVoltControl version 2.3 was released on March 10th, 2023. This release:
    • Revised the “Auto-Hold” function to add several new parameters for which trigger values can be specified to cause your car to automatically enter Hold mode.
    • Added a new “ReTest” button to the Volt Diag section that showed HV Battery Isolation resistance. You can still use the Read button to see the value the car measured when it last ran the test automatically, but you can also now cause the car to run the test again at your request.
    • Added “quick links” to the MyVoltControl App icon so that long-pressing the icon will bring up a small menu that allows you to quickly launch the app in the Volt Hold function, or in the Volt 12v function.
    • We greatly improved the reliability of keeping your engine On or Off, (whichever you requested in the Volt Hold function).

  • MyVoltControl version 2.2 was released on January 8th, 2023, quickly followed by version 2.2.1 the next day to fix a bug. This release:
    • Added a new “battery is heating” indicator (red dot) to the battery temperature gauge in the Volt Hold function.
    • Changed the layout of the Volt 12v function to ensure that the graphs display correctly on small devices (even iPod touch!).
    • Fixed a problem with the app-launch time shown in the About menu item.

  • MyVoltControl version 2.1.1 was released on September 3, 2022. This release:
    • corrected some problems with recognizing changes on the WiFi configuration page.
    • will now issue an error if the OBD adapter doesn’t respond to commands (previously the function buttons just wouldn’t enable).
    • now requires that the first-time user select a connection method instead of defaulting to MX+.
    • added units (mph or km/h) to the values shown in the speed picker for Auto-hold.
    • will start the ICE right away when the auto-hold speed threshold is exceeded (in most cases).

  • MyVoltControl version 2.1 was released on July 27, 2022. This release was hurried in order to fix some problems that occurred in the 2.0 release. But since we were releasing another version, we also added an “Auto-Hold” feature to the MyVoltHold function.
     
  • MyVoltControl version 2.0 was released on July 15, 2022. We added a major new function called MyVolt12v which looks at the voltage and current on the 12 volt battery. We also included a new section in the MyVoltDiag function to show the High Voltage Isolation value that the car’s computer last measured.
     
  • MyVoltControl version 1.9 was released on June 1, 2022. We added support for running MyVoltControl natively on iPad. This also gives the ability to run MyVoltControl in split-screen mode with another app next to it.
     
  • MyVoltControl version 1.8 was released on May 18, 2022. We added a “Welcome” message to tell you how to get started with MyVoltControl. We also fixed an error that was occurring with a misbehaving WiFi OBD adapter.
     
  • MyVoltControl version 1.7 was released on March 20, 2022. We fixed a problem that prevented the OBDLink Cx OBD adapter from working properly. We also improved the formatting of all “alert” type messages.
     
  • MyVoltControl version 1.6 was released on November 30, 2021. We disabled the Afterblow function for 2013 model-year vehicles after discovering that it had never worked for that year. We also made it possible to see the price of in-app purchases before connecting to your car.
     
  • MyVoltControl version 1.5 was released on January 27, 2021. We added support for Bluetooth 4 (also known as Bluetooth Low-Energy (BLE)) OBD adapters.
     
  • MyVoltControl version 1.4 was released on September 19th, 2020. This version includes Dutch language support! We’ve also added two new “information pages” to the top of the MyVoltHold function which show more information about your car.
     
  • OBD Explorer version 1.1 was released on July 30th, 2020. This version adds a Translation function which can translate the output from your vehicle into more useful forms.
     
  • OBD Explorer was released into the App Store on July 10th, 2020. It is an educational tool that allows you to learn about OBD adapters and the car busses they connect to.
     
  • MyVoltControl version 1.3 was released on May 15th, 2020. It added an entirely new function to MyVoltControl: My Volt Afterblow! We were very disappointed that we were unable to include the Afterblow function in the initial release and am very happy to be able to add it now.
     
  • MyVoltControl version 1.2 was released on April 30th, 2020. It added a new “Hold Mode” to the My Volt Hold screen.
     
  • For the next release, expected in April, we’ve been working on supporting other languages. The first language to be added is Ukrainian. If you think a translation into your language of choice would be useful, and you’re willing to update and verify initial translations for that language, please contact us. We’re also working to add a true “Hold Mode” to the My Volt Hold function.
     
  • The second release of MyVoltControl was released on January 28th, 2020. This release fixed a few bugs, added support for 2019+ cars for the Battery Capacity test, added an option in VoltHold code to allow you to force the engine off down to about 4% lower SOC than normal, and allows you to share the “raw data” of the cell balance test as a CSV file.
     
  • MyVoltControl was released in the Apple App Store on Monday, 1/13/2020
     
  • January 3, 2020: Our first app, MyVoltControl, will begin the process of entering the App Store on Monday, 1/6/2020!
     
  • October 13, 2019: We hope to be releasing our first app to the Apple App Store in January. More info as the date approaches!