LCD Instrumentation for Cougar Controller

[Freyguy]

Originally Posted by wakinyantanka

Paul's quote of readable amperage was very funny. Could the scale be adjusted to 2000A?

Yes, Paul's posts usually require that you not be eating or drinking for fear of choking!
As the firmware exists today, a user adjustable "scaler" for motor amps allows displaying up to 999A. Anything more and code would need modification to display a thousands digit. Simple change really since there is space on the display for it.

[wakinyantanka]

Originally Posted by Freyguy

Yes, Paul's posts usually require that you not be eating or drinking for fear of choking!
As the firmware exists today, a user adjustable "scaler" for motor amps allows displaying up to 999A. Anything more and code would need modification to display a thousands digit. Simple change really since there is space on the display for it.

Nice!!! I want one!

[MPaulHolmes]

Man, I want one too. I love the miles to empty. that's way too cool for school.

[Freyguy]

Thought I'd show it in operation in my car. Used the flip video rather than my camcorder so video quality isn't the best. I'm in the process of doing a writeup for operation and another for setting parameters using MPLAB.
Still making minor tweaks to firmware. Hope to have all info up on the Wiki within a week.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sq5bbojhXzQ

[adamj12b]

Originally Posted by Freyguy

Ya, Macungie is home of the car shows.....Wheels of Time, Das Awkscht Fescht, and don't forget the Macungie EV show. That one is April 30th this year. I hope to see you there Nevyn! I'll be there even if my car isn't ready

Hey,

Were you guys there last yet? I was. I brought my version of the motor controller and showed it off all day under the huge tree(oak if I remember correctly)

I will be there again this year. Looking forward to it. Even with it being a almost a 5 hour ride, its totally worth it.

-Adam

[Freyguy]

Hi Adam,
I was there last year though I got there a little late. I remember your display-it was the one surrounded by the large crowd
What goodies are you showing this year? The preliminary 6kW charger perhaps??

[Freyguy]

For those interested, I have support documents, bom, PCB fab files cleaned up and ready to go. I hear the wiki is down, so for now you’ll need to pm me so I can email them to you. I made some final changes to the code, most notably motor amp display up to 9,999, optional temperature compensation of traction battery capacity and leading zero suppression (creates better visual for amp magnitude changes).

Excluding the bare PCB & shipping costs, the material costs for LCD display and all components will be in the $43~50 range. More towards $43 if you want to forgo canbus. I have no code written to support it at this point anyway.

Keep in mind that this is designed around the very common Hitachi 44780 LCD controller. With minor code changes, this would support up to a 40char x 2 line LCD. Steal an I/O line (possible if you eliminate CAN) and you can expand this to a 40char x 4 line LCD.

-Chris

[mrbigh]

Originally Posted by Freyguy

For those interested, I have support documents, bom, PCB fab files cleaned up and ready to go. I hear the wiki is down, so for now you’ll need to pm me so I can email them to you. I made some final changes to the code, most notably motor amp display up to 9,999, optional temperature compensation of traction battery capacity and leading zero suppression (creates better visual for amp magnitude changes).

Excluding the bare PCB & shipping costs, the material costs for LCD display and all components will be in the $43~50 range. More towards $43 if you want to forgo canbus. I have no code written to support it at this point anyway.

Keep in mind that this is designed around the very common Hitachi 44780 LCD controller. With minor code changes, this would support up to a 40char x 2 line LCD. Steal an I/O line (possible if you eliminate CAN) and you can expand this to a 40char x 4 line LCD.

-Chris

Hi are you planning to supply the PC board or a parts kit?
Thank you

[MPaulHolmes]

Not to put words in his mouth, but I can tell you that he just wants to make the information available, and not supply kits, and shipping, and all that stuff. Way too time consuming!

[Freyguy]

Originally Posted by MPaulHolmes

Not to put words in his mouth, but I can tell you that he just wants to make the information available, and not supply kits, and shipping, and all that stuff. Way too time consuming!

Mr Bigh,
Very sorry, but Paul's right. My schedule really doesn't leave room to involve myself in something like that. I tried to be as thorough with the support documentation as possible to make this a fairly easy project to tackle.
A group buy of PCB's might be economical since you can amortize the setup fee over the qty of boards. BatchPCB also has a marketplace option where others can purchase my design which would be shown on their website. I would add zero markup, but they might (not sure).
Let me look into that.

-Chris