ABRP and Enode instead of OBD dongle !

Mark Hewitt · Feb 3, 2025

I did try Enode on a short trip and sure; it updates the SOC on the app, it seems with a slight delay as I imagine it only polls every x minutes. It isn't as quick to update as OBD.

Where both the solutions have issues with the MG4 is the OBD dongle sets off the alarm; requiring the likes of the on/off switch I installed

Enode when the car is stopped appears to poll the car every 5-10 minutes or so, resulting in the car 'waking up'; my car sits outside my living room window and I can see the dashboard lighting up when this happens. This isn't acceptable as when the car is off it should be off, no parasitic drain.

The aim for either method would be to have it transparent; to have it report SOC to the app without having to plug or switch OBD on/off or have Enode drain your 12v battery.

JIS · Feb 3, 2025

Gilles said:
OK sounds interesting. Currently I have to turn on and off the OBD dongle (to avoid a security alert when I leave and lock the car). I am happy to try Enode but how do I do this? What steps to follow please?

At first, you must be a registred user of the Premium version of ABRP.
Secondly, you must request Enode betatester status here:

https://abrp.featurebase.app/en/p/enode-for-mg-cars-mg4
And finally, once you are accepted, you will need to link to Enode in the "edit connections" section of ABRP.
But, remember that it's a beta version !

Hello Gilles (also in France I see

). I think I'll wait until we've returned from Spain before trying this out! At least I know that my OBD Link CX dongle works (despite MG stating altho it was surely the reason for all the software problems that I had experienced !)

Mark Hewitt · Feb 3, 2025

nanomad said:
With the mqtt gateway we spent literal months trying to come up with proper logic when to query the car to avoid such issues.

Did you find a solution? As I give MQTT a try via the python libraries and it seemed to have the same 'waking up' issue. I didn't manage to get as far as integrating with ABRP

JIS · Feb 3, 2025

Mark Hewitt said:
I did try Enode on a short trip and sure; it updates the SOC on the app, it seems with a slight delay as I imagine it only polls every x minutes. It isn't as quick to update as OBD.

Where both the solutions have issues with the MG4 is the OBD dongle sets off the alarm; requiring the likes of the on/off switch I installed

Enode when the car is stopped appears to poll the car every 5-10 minutes or so, resulting in the car 'waking up'; my car sits outside my living room window and I can see the dashboard lighting up when this happens. This isn't acceptable as when the car is off it should be off, no parasitic drain.

The aim for either method would be to have it transparent; to have it report SOC to the app without having to plug or switch OBD on/off or have Enode drain your 12v battery.

I agree, that is definitely not acceptable. Looks like it's better to stay with an OBD Dongle and turn OFF when you leave the car. That way, it is off completely!

Gilles · Feb 4, 2025

JIS said:
I agree, that is definitely not acceptable. Looks like it's better to stay with an OBD Dongle and turn OFF when you leave the car. That way, it is off completely!

I agree with you :
It would be necessary to be able to link the activation of Enode with the vehicle's power-ON, so the problem of recurring connections in OFF mode of the car would be solved!
Otherwise, this link to ABRP by Enode is unusable as is...

nanomad · Feb 4, 2025

Mark Hewitt said:
Did you find a solution? As I give MQTT a try via the python libraries and it seemed to have the same 'waking up' issue. I didn't manage to get as far as integrating with ABRP

Sure we did.

We start polling when the "engine started" notification is sent (this is sever side and has no impact on the 12V battery)
When the car stops we keep polling every 2 minutes for 10 minutes to see whether you started charging or not
If you have scheduled charging set we do check at that time to see if you started charging
You can notify the gateway externally that you started charging as well
During charging we poll with a dynamic period to get a resolution of 1% of the charging curve (computed from the charging power and battery capacity)

I have been using the mqtt gateway since I've bought the cars two years ago and basically replaced the original mg app completely

Mark Hewitt · Feb 4, 2025

nanomad said:
Sure we did.

We start polling when the "engine started" notification is sent (this is sever side and has no impact on the 12V battery)

When the car stops we keep polling every 2 minutes for 10 minutes to see whether you started charging or not

If you have scheduled charging set we do check at that time to see if you started charging

You can notify the gateway externally that you started charging as well

During charging we poll with a dynamic period to get a resolution of 1% of the charging curve (computed from the charging power and battery capacity)

I have been using the mqtt gateway since I've bought the cars two years ago and basically replaced the original mg app completely

Any tutorial on how to install that? The docs on GitHub are very sparse indeed.

HazardLights · Feb 5, 2025

I am optimistic that this will get to a mature release state and be very tempting. I think ABRP is best for multi-charging stop journeys which I don't do many of in a year however I am thinking of resubscribing because I use the free version, would like occasional android auto use, and want to support the development. I found it was a bit slow at providing directions on android auto and my brain would like more notice these days. Has performance on android auto improved since 5.0?

Gilles · Tuesday at 11:09 AM

The ABRP chat page concerning Enode and our MG4 seems to be inactive for 1 month, there is nothing new, no recent update, nothing ...

https://abrp.featurebase.app/en/p/enode-for-mg-cars-mg4

However Enode is still present on the car connection menu for ABRP Premium subscribers who have requested it!

Moreover, on the Enode compatibility table with the MG4, we see that only OBD dongles are validated:

Screenshot 2025-03-11 at 12-13-55 Live Data Comparison - A Better Routeplanner.webp

HazardLights · Tuesday at 11:30 AM

What we really need is for MG to implement Android Auto's CarInfo API and thus share state of charge. Although ENODE will do as an interim solution.

Gilles · Tuesday at 12:25 PM

HazardLights said:
What we really need is for MG to implement Android Auto's CarInfo API and thus share state of charge. Although ENODE will do as an interim solution.

Yes indeed, Enode would be an excellent connection method, without adding an OBD dongle, to have the SOC in real time!

HazardLights · Tuesday at 2:16 PM

Gilles said:
Yes indeed, Enode would be an excellent connection method, without adding an OBD dongle, to have the SOC in real time!

Even better would be a direct link to the car through the Car Info API which ABRP supports but MG doesn't. I didn't know this existed until I saw it working on a friends non-MG EV and then looked into it. He just installed ABRP and immediately it was aware of his SOC! He didn't even need a premium subscription.

hojnikb · Tuesday at 8:48 PM

Would be great if MG (and ABRP) also implemented battery preconditioning when driving to the charger, instead of doing this manually or keeping it on all the time.

ABRP and Enode instead of OBD dongle !

Mark Hewitt

Established Member

JIS

Established Member

Mark Hewitt

Established Member

JIS

Established Member

Gilles

Standard Member

nanomad

Established Member

Mark Hewitt

Established Member

HazardLights

Established Member

Gilles

Standard Member

HazardLights

Established Member

Gilles

Standard Member

HazardLights

Established Member

hojnikb

Established Member

Similar threads

Are you enjoying your MG4?

Yes

I'm in the middle

No

Latest MG EVs video