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

[HaroldinCR]

WOW, what a thread. I finally got through all 306 pages, reading 5-10 pages at a time, until my old eyes crossed. I know nothing about electronics, but, can hold my own with mechanicals. I was hoping the topics would drift just a little bit further off course, and get some discussion going about programming a switched reluctance induction motor, in a lower voltage scenario.

I am of the "jungle with a hand drill" crowd, as Paul said, but, have a few more tools, machines. Down here, in the jungles of Costa Rica, there are hundreds of motorcycles of the 125cc-150cc range. Gasoline hovers around $6.00/gallon. My goal is to produce electric conversions for the locals.

I have built a homemade moto using a hub motor and Chevy Volt 83V battery. Hub motors are too low KV to climb hills very well. Controllers take a beating.

My plan, if ANYONE would be interested, is to try to get a controller working for the E-assist alternator, which can put out over 20 HP at 55v and expected 30+ HP at 72V. I have been in contact with a guy in Spain that has verified these figures. He also wanted to build a controller and I tried to get Lebowski to see about recoding his chip, but, like Paul, he is very busy. These motors are relatively inexpensive for the HP potential.

I know a couple of the posters here also are members of other forums and are very well educated with home built controllers.

If anyone would be interested in working on this, I will gladly start a new thread and supply a motor in the states for whoever would need one to figure out the code.

I also have a step grandson here, who is crazy interested in electronics and no one knows how to build OR repair controllers. I have bought him a started list of stuff so he can get into the electronics and his sister is working on getting into electronics engineering, so, this could be a great future for these two.

Any takers on trying to do this, hopefully ??

Thanks and a great big thanks for all the active members-testers in this thread, especially Paul, things to do and eclipse.

Harold in CR

[freebeard]

Congrats. I fought to keep my Superbeetle off a salvage title, and to double their payout.

It shouldn't impact being driven, just the resale value. In my case mid-book valuation is up $1150 in the last two years. That wouldn't be the case if it was on a salvage title.

HaroldinCR — Do you have a link to the E-assist alternator? Nevermind, https://www.google.com/search?q=E-assist+alternator

That's an interesting part. Max RPM? If the jungles are full of those, I need to get out more. Else, J&P Cycles has them for $525.99 w/ free [prolly domestic] shipping.

That could make a viable conversion business.

[HaroldinCR]

I would assume similar RPM to a regular alternator, 4000+ ? It is used to propel a 4000 pound vehicle across intersections at an advanced rate of speed helping the 2.4L infernal combustion engine. These are watercooled, also.

I have more info, but, would prefer to start a new thread if I can get enough member interest for building a controller. Would not want to further hijack Paul's thread.

[freebeard]

Certainly do so.

There is a similar thread about the Toyota/Lexus MGR that ran 41 pages. You'll find a lot of the usual suspects there.

If the first post in the thread is updated with newer information, that saves it getting buried in the thread. People can still wade through if they want to see the back-and-forth. I tried to extract and summarize the above thread but gave up after six pages. There is also a Wiki, but I don't know how much it's used.
________

I've been thinking this afternoon about an aircooled boxer VW mild hybrid. A CNC billet generator stand and serpentine belt would be a fine start.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2NQ_dO3lMU

There exist serpentine belt drives available for the bigger VW alternators, but this looks like it would need a sturdy base for the belt tensioner.

I don't see a way to attach the stock cooling fan, though.

[kalidasbala]

Originally Posted by MPaulHolmes

Josiah is going to help me do a nice video of the whole setup. He's been practicing his lighting, and has been acting as my apprentice lately.

Oh, and you can just change one little setting, and boom, you have 3 phase power at your house! 208v 3 phase up to 480v 3 phase.

I would be interested in the video. When is it possible to make one?

[HaroldinCR]

Freebeard
There is no cooling fan. These are water cooled. I'm thinking natural convection circulation.

[thingstodo]

Originally Posted by MPaulHolmes

Yes I'm definitely interested in figuring out the CAN codes.

Excellent - step one complete!

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.

Everyone needs help. Some of us just don't know that ... or accept that .. sometimes

As far as I understand, EVTV had to use the GEVCU to timestamp and buffer the data, since it IS order dependant and the Tesla uses much of the bandwidth available. A 115K serial link may keep up to the 250K or 500K CANbus if it is not saturated with data. 250K and 500K are common for CANbus. 125K does not seem to be used. I have heard of a higher rate - 1 MB or 2MB? I have not seen anything that uses the higher data rate, either.

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!

I'm sure that I would have remembered if I had seen this posted elsewhere. Was it posted anywhere on ECOMODDER? Good job, in any case.

Blasting out the info and letting any node that is interested in the data use it for whatever they like ... that's one of the big plus's on CANbus. The big negative is that in order to consume the data, you need a map - what does each bit or byte mean, and what is the scaling? This is fine if you did both sides (data source and data consumer), or you have the documentation. Not so great if you are reverse engineering .. say the Leaf .. and don't even have a starting point

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?

That's how I understand it. Mask matches all, let me know when ANYTHING comes in. I'm not sure if timing is a big deal on the LEAF bus ... but I expect that it may be. If just playing back the captured data as fast as you can (with the ECU disconnected from the bus) does not power up the car and do stuff, it may need to be timestamped before being stored (relative to start of capture should be OK) so that you can play it back with the correct delays between the messages

The other concern is missing a message that was important. If it does not fit through the 115K (or whatever you are using) serial link it may be dropped but you may not know that.

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)?

Perhaps a 2 pin connector? For bench testing you can add the resistor but in the car I wold not expect the controller to be one end of the bus?

The CANbus is used by Rockwell (with 2 more network layers added, they call it Devicenet) so I have some experience with that. If you are under 10 feet, termination resistors are sort of optional. You can make it work on your bench with cat5 network cable, no terminators, and the ugliest splices you'd ever want to see.

In the environment of an Motor Control Center (MCC) room, with AC and DC controllers running nearby, UPS systems on the same AC supply, etc you need the correct cabling, terminators at the ends and only 1 at each end, the drop cables and taps need to be properly sealed to keep out moisture and other gunk.

In my experience, the Devicenet controller works better in the center of the bus. It still works on one end of the bus, but unscheduled throughput is lower. Like saving the configuration of a VFD. That is no likely a factor in a car .. but who knows?

Another post that is too darned long .. sigh! ..

[thingstodo]

Originally Posted by MPaulHolmes

Josiah is going to help me do a nice video of the whole setup. He's been practicing his lighting, and has been acting as my apprentice lately.

I think I missed that part of the post

It's good to hear that you are passing on your knowledge and experience to the next generation!

[freebeard]

HaroldinCR — It's the opposite problem. It's the stinky gas engine that is air cooled. The fan attaches to the back side of the generator/alternator.

The other thing fascinating about CANbus is the implementation of dominant and recessive messages. I'll bet thingstodo can explain it better than me.

BTW my son now works for Rockwell, after Thales wanted him to relocate from Seattle to Edison, NJ.

[thingstodo]

Originally Posted by freebeard

BTW my son now works for Rockwell, after Thales wanted him to relocate from Seattle to Edison, NJ.

Really? Rockwell is a large company - which product area does he work in?