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Old 05-18-2019, 11:25 AM   #1 (permalink)
NorwegianChrome
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Lightbulb CNC-mill powered by Nissan Leaf motor & electronics

Hello guys!

Got a Doc Brown flux capacitor kind of moment while I was asleep yesterday night. Long story short; I got a heavy truck with interchangable bed, or more like a chassis made for carrying containers and swapable cabinetts/boxes, I just bought a small box with container locks to put on the truck. Just look at the pictures and you'll probably understand at least some of it.


I've nursed a thought that I would make an off grid mobile work shop containing my CNC-mill and eventually my small CNC lathe along with some accessories for quite some time now. I've always assumed that I would put a semisized diesel driven powerplant capable of delivering >32A 400V 3-phase in order to run the machines while away from the electrical grid. Now, yesterday night I woke up with the words 'Why not ditch the old 3-phase motor and hook up an electrical motor from a Leaf, I-Miev or some other kind of common electric car?'. I figured I would use most of the stuff from the donor car. But this is where I need some advice..

The mill is using what I believe is a 6-7kW 3-phase AC-motor run by a 3-phase VFD, the VFD gets its commands from a Smoothstepper machine controller governed by MACH3 mill. I think the Smoothstepper is capable of generating various kinds of signals for the VFD. I want to remove current motor, VFD and what not and replace it with most of the stuff from a Nissan Leaf salvaged intact from the car. I'll build another housing for the batteries that are more suited for my needs and stack the batteries in a different way. I've searched some info through google and landed on the conclusion that motor, inverter and charger paired with one of those nice control boards made by Paul Holmes might do the trick.

What do you think? Any ideas, thoughts or other inputs?

Let's say I have a $3000 budget on the electronics.

Parts from Nissan Leaf, I-miev, Soul EV, Golf E and most other kinds are easy to come by here in Norway.

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