Paul and Sabrina's Cheap 3 Phase Inverter (AC Controller) with Field Oriented Control

[MPaulHolmes]

thingstodo, for the pump, you have 3 phases to work with, so you could use one of the 3 for a boost converter, and then the other 2 for generating the 120v or 240vAC. I can do up the code when you are ready to do that.

[MPaulHolmes]

thingstodo, for the pump, you have 3 phases to work with, so you could use one of the 3 for a boost converter, and then the other 2 for generating the 120v or 240vAC. I can do up the code when you are ready to do that.

[oil pan 4]

Originally Posted by Stubby79

Put a CVT or at least a centrifugal clutch on it? Just gotta make sure it doesn't slip under full load...at least the CVT would just "gear down" instead.

I already did that and it works. I didn't use a CVT because they need their own varrible drive and driven pulleys and the problem with the small CVT clutches is they appear to be for 2 pole motor speeds and higher, I am now using 4 pole motors. I would use 6 pole motors but I can't really find any that fit my application.
But I did use a modified go cart clutch and a Dayton electromagnetic clutch with very good results.

Eliminating start up inrush current - EcoRenovator

[thingstodo]

Originally Posted by MPaulHolmes

thingstodo, for the pump, you have 3 phases to work with, so you could use one of the 3 for a boost converter, and then the other 2 for generating the 120v or 240vAC. I can do up the code when you are ready to do that.

I have a large (300 A, 800V rated) inductor that I can use for the boost ... it's actually bigger than the controller and *MUCH* heavier but I have it and it should work fine.

I should start on this project ... this weekend ... since I need the sump pump to run for our upcoming spring season

But I'll be loading the 3 phase code first and going through some testing to make sure all is wired correctly before I start with the experimentation.

[MPaulHolmes]

I'm heading up to washington/oregon for work until the 3rd, so I won't be horribly useful until then, but I might be able to do some stuff.

Oh! We just got a wrecked Nissan Leaf that was only $2900 at an auction (hurray for the line of credit haha).

It turns out that basically it was just the side panel that was damaged, and a cheap blinker. So, they totalled it out, and it is costing us around $200 to totally repair it to almost like new. Crazy insurance people!

I would like to stick the controller in there, but it's a veritable nanny state. I don't want to brick the car with error codes. Even the steering wheel is electronic. Does anybody know if I could just take the stock controller out, and stick mine in, and then disable some stuff, and drive around, or will that mess up other systems like the steering?

[thingstodo]

Originally Posted by MPaulHolmes

I'm heading up to washington/oregon for work until the 3rd, so I won't be horribly useful until then, but I might be able to do some stuff.

I won't be that far along for a while ... and I'll be bugging you for pointers while I hook things up.

I am planning to video what I am doing, in case it is interesting for anyone. No editing since that takes more time than actually DOING the work, but the video will be available for me to work on later. I think manuals are great and are needed, but a bit of video helps you to see EXACTLY where things go and how they hook up.

Oh! We just got a wrecked Nissan Leaf that was only $2900 at an auction (hurray for the line of credit haha).

It turns out that basically it was just the side panel that was damaged, and a cheap blinker. So, they totalled it out, and it is costing us around $200 to totally repair it to almost like new. Crazy insurance people!

Great catch! I would love to get a couple of wrecks and play with the CANbus codes, figure out which connectors are required, etc. The Leaf is not popular where I am (Saskatoon, Canada) .. no wrecks. I would need to drive 8 hours away to look at a used one!

I would like to stick the controller in there, but it's a veritable nanny state. I don't want to brick the car with error codes. Even the steering wheel is electronic. Does anybody know if I could just take the stock controller out, and stick mine in, and then disable some stuff, and drive around, or will that mess up other systems like the steering?

I don't have any first hand experience. I have read that the motor controller .. or perhaps it is some supervisory ECU? .. checks the BMS before enabling (don't drive away with the car plugged in).

EVTV has done a lot of work reverse engineering the Tesla power train.

I'd like to do the same with the Leaf ... but first I need to source a Leaf.

EVTV built some tools - a CANbus interface that can log the codes, some PC software (linux, mac, or windows) that will decode the data, export to csv files, play back certain codes or a file of them so see what they do to the car.

It seems like a great puzzle to sort through. Jack Rickard, at EVTV, believes that home-built EV's are going to be using parts of EV wrecks for years to come. They are cheap and plentiful. Many times, they are just fine when the car has been written off. I agree .. but first we have to figure out what codes to send to them, and how often, to make them do their thing.

Are you interested in investigating this type of stuff? I think it would involve:
- lots of CANbus captures. Do one simple thing, log the data, then shut everything down, start a new capture, and do one other simple thing.
- lots of CANbus tinkering. Disconnect the ECU, play back the CANbus files, and remove the message types until something stops working.

The CANbus logging for the Tesla was done with the EVTV GEVCU since it was such high badndwidth. Not sure if a less expensive CANbus shield could be used to capture and play back data on the Leaf.

As usual ... I wrote a book!

[thingstodo]

Originally Posted by MPaulHolmes

I would like to stick the controller in there, but it's a veritable nanny state. I don't want to brick the car with error codes. Even the steering wheel is electronic. Does anybody know if I could just take the stock controller out, and stick mine in, and then disable some stuff, and drive around, or will that mess up other systems like the steering?

Sorry about that - I got carried away and did not attempt to answer your question!

The CANbus devices talk to each other as well as to the ECU. The data is published to the bus and any other device that is interested can get that data, and respond to the data. The CANbus message arbitration is handled in hardware, based on the address of the device. Lower is more important. The devices monitor the bus and verify that what they 'sent' is what is on the bus. Since the address is first, and active low is 0, 0 trumps 1. So the lowest address wins. If a device sends a 1 and reads back a 0, it stops sending and waits for the message to end before retrying.

So the steering, Anti-lock brakes, radiator fan, dash gauges, etc should all function. I think you would need to figure out which codes are sent by the ECU to tell the controller to enable, what speed to go, max current, etc. in order to use your controller in the Leaf. That is one of the things I want to figure out. There is some feedback as well, from the controller, the actual current to the motor, bus voltage, ... I'm sure there are others.

I think this will be a challenge but well worth it. I'd like to see your controller be able to replace the stock controller in any AC vehicle system. Sooner or later the OEM parts go obsolete and I expect these drivetrains to last for many, many years. The controller, in my opinion, is one of those things that will wear out ... capacitors dry out ... connectors have contamination and short out ... that sort of thing.

Was that message a bit more focused?

[MPaulHolmes]

Yes I'm definitely interested in figuring out the CAN codes. I'm sure I'll need help, but I could use the AC board to capture some can data, and then stream it over serial. I've got CAN working, and have tested it on a BMS I did a couple years ago based on Fran Sabolich's suggestions. I used it to send 48 battery voltages over CAN to a charger, and it worked great. The nice thing about it was, you could just blast your messages willy nilly, not caring what other CAN nodes were doing, and the people (charger) who were supposed to get the message just got the message, and the people (other battery groups) who were supposed to ignore it, ignored it!

So, if I added a CAN node to the group, I could just have a mask that says I should receive everything, and I just sit back and listen? And I should leave the spot on the board for the 120Ohm resistor unpopulated, because those 120Ohm resistors are probably somewhere else in the car already (between CANH and CANL)?

[freebeard]

It seems like a great puzzle to sort through. Jack Rickard, at EVTV, believes that home-built EV's are going to be using parts of EV wrecks for years to come. They are cheap and plentiful. Many times, they are just fine when the car has been written off.

Like a whole Leaf for $2900? I stopped by the Toyota dealer and talked to this saleskid who di'nt no nuthin' about cars, but he said the RAV4 and Highlander have the newer twin motor/software differential rear MGR.

[MPaulHolmes]

Yes a whole leaf! Except I ordered a replacement front right metal panel thing for $60 (plus free shipping). And there are the full 12 bars of capacity for the battery, so I think it must have been replaced with a new battery at some point. It is a salvage title, so I don't know how to make it legal to drive. Hopefully it's not a hard process. There's nothing wrong with the car. I've already driven it around. It feels very expensive. Our usual cars are in the $1000 range.