[thingstodo]

Another long post ...

Well, it's not REALLY a video game. But that's what I call my 'TEST environment'. It's going to be a test bench of sorts that lets me 'shake out' some of the obvious bugs before I get to the real truck.

The PLC5 will be set up and wired as it will be in the Truck (well, as close as I can make it). The software will have a few signals ignored because they are not there, but I will be doing everything within reason to make it as real as I can.

First - the simulated truck motor.

The PLC5 will have one output wired to a cordless drill. A calculation based on the VFD speed reference (that won't be connected to anything) will drive the drill. Forward and reverse are ignored. The drill will be wired from 2 12V gel cells in series through a DC output on the PLC that only switches at about 100 Hz. The 32 different patterns should give 32 different no-load speeds. The motor is unloaded and may jerk a bit, but it should turn an arbor that has one encoder mounted on it and the encoder will be wired back to the PLC. That's my drive train simulation.

The accelerator/brake

The 'accelerator' signal will not be a 'real one' - likely a potentiometer connected to an analog input ... perhaps a modification of an old analog joystick. The speed reference will generate the expected signal to the VFD, which will 'look up' a code pattern for the single digital output to make the 24V drill turn. It's a crude PWM signal, but it should work. The brake will likely be identical, but connected to a separate input.

The Real S10 digital instrument cluster consists of, top row, left to right ...
Gas gauge, battery voltage, signals indicators over the digital speed, temperature, oil pressure
bottom row, left to right
Service engine soon idiot light, seat belt indicator, ebrake indication, anti-lock brake status, high beam indicator, parking light indicator
Above the P R N O D 2 1 indicator is the odometer
to the right on the second level is the tachometer

The cockpit

The 'video grame' drivers seat is a chair at a desk. The instrument cluster will be a number of surplus 50 ua - 500 ua gauge movements wired to an analog output card. These 'video game dashboard' meter movements will have a few extra resistors wired in series and parallel to scale the output signal from the PLC. The meters are mostly 50 microamp.

The planned 'video game' dashboard

Top row, left to right
(1) amp-hours used meter, (2) voltage meter, a (3) temperature meter,
Bottom row, left to right
Planned for but not there yet are a few idiot lights as well - pre-charge/run, motor turning, ebrake, brake lights, etc.
(4) current meter (shows + and -), (5) Tachometer
I need an indication of the P R N O D 2 1 - for the first while it will be a number that is entered into the PLC.

I need to display a digital status that shows which voltage, current, and temperature the gauge represents.
Voltage is planned for:
- the battery pack total
- the difference between the split pack(to show imbalance)
- the ground leakage voltage

Current display is planned for
- the battery current
- motor current
- charger current
- ground leakage current

The temperature is planned for
- battery temperature
- motor temperature
- VFD temperature
- ambient temperature
- coolant temperature (if I go liquid cooled)

The plan is to cycle through these displays and have them calibrated so that green is 0 - 60%, yellow 60 - 80% and red above 80%, similar to a real cockpit. This is, of course, not the same as the real dash will be. I'll b e experimenting with that.

The PLC outputs to the dash will be set up as 0-10V signals for one card, that has 4 channels, driving meters 2,3,5. -10V - 10V is set up for meters 1,4 to show amp-hours outgoing or incoming and amps outgoing and incoming.

I guess we'll see how close I get to that. It should be useful for testing and debugging before building the truck. It may even be useful after the truck is built for testing changes before deploying.

It's a good way toprove that my full set of spares works ... being a paranoid ...