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

[MPaulHolmes]

I did CAN last year, and got it working, and added it onto the newer boards, but I haven't included it since I wasn't really sure what to do with it. I had one board that sent a can throttle message to another board, and then spun a motor, but wasn't sure what to do beyond that. Also, i didn't know the proper format for anything. It was just a made up packet structure. I wasn't familiar with "can to computer" stuff or whatever, and just wasn't sure what to do, so I haven't really gone anywhere with it.

Is there a specific format that things should be sent? And where does it get sent to? And is there a device that sends things to the controller?

I did get field weakening working for the case of a permanent magnet motor:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xA6C12Pbw4g

I'm also ready to test out new code for field weakening of an induction motor, but I need to get a controller working again. When we moved, I lost track of just about everything. HOpefully tomorrow I can get things sorted out.

[MPaulHolmes]

Here's also some pictures of the chevy volt board too. Dustin Eward did so much to help me with samples to destroy so I could get this made. One neat thing about it is, you can remove a few resistors, and then instead of a resolver, you can hook up an encoder instead. And it can control 2 separate motors.
Photobucket seems no longer available, so I'm going to try some amazon prime pictures. Here's a test, and if it works, I'll add the volt pictures:
edit: OK that didn't work...

Now trying imgur.com (this is a test):

[jackbauer]

I'll be ready to go next week in the track car for testing.

[thingstodo]

Originally Posted by MPaulHolmes

I did CAN last year, and got it working, and added it onto the newer boards, but I haven't included it since I wasn't really sure what to do with it. I had one board that sent a can throttle message to another board, and then spun a motor, but wasn't sure what to do beyond that. Also, i didn't know the proper format for anything. It was just a made up packet structure. I wasn't familiar with "can to computer" stuff or whatever, and just wasn't sure what to do, so I haven't really gone anywhere with it.

Is there a specific format that things should be sent? And where does it get sent to? And is there a device that sends things to the controller?

I don't believe that there is a specific 'format' to follow.

From Jack Rickard's postings (EVTV.me) on CANbus, the general idea is that the standard packet is 8 bytes. You can split them up into whatever groups you want. Some bits, some bytes, some words.

I would expect that you would accept a command packet with ... maybe :
- rotation forward as a bit
- rotation reverse as a bit
- regen enable as a bit
... and the other 5 bits to be assigned later

Maybe the next 6 bytes split up into 12 bit numbers ... for a speed setpoint, a torque setpoint, a braking setpoint, and a spare setpoint?

That leaves one 8-bit bye as spare at the end

Taking the info that you already generate for status and putting it into the 8 byte format ...
8 bits of status, showing forward rotation, reverse rotation, regen in progress , maybe accelerating, decelerating, and at speed/torque
Present speed in rpm, 0 - 4096 (or maybe rpm / 2 if you need to go over 4000 rpm), torque current 0 - 400.0 for the 0 - 4096 counts, regen current ... and a spare?
The last byte could be a status/fault code ...

You can also use multiple packets. So one packet could be setup information .. like the inductances for the motor, accel and decel rates, throttle range settings, and anything else you can think of

@jackbauer - any requests? Does it make sense to match something that Tesla or some other manufacturer already has so that third party displays work?

[thingstodo]

Originally Posted by MPaulHolmes

Here's also some pictures of the chevy volt board too. Dustin Eward did so much to help me with samples to destroy so I could get this made. One neat thing about it is, you can remove a few resistors, and then instead of a resolver, you can hook up an encoder instead. And it can control 2 separate motors.
Photobucket seems no longer available, so I'm going to try some amazon prime pictures. Here's a test, and if it works, I'll add the volt pictures:
edit: OK that didn't work...

Welcome back to the forum! I haven't seen anything from you in a while!

Did you contact @02BMW02 on his pinout?

[jackbauer]

Yeah you can pritty much make up any message structure you like. Also remember you don't always have to use 8 bytes in a message. Can be just one. From my perspective there are a few formats that would be useful like driving BMW instrument clusters with specific messages but i can probably hack that together myself with a few examples.

[MPaulHolmes]

Originally Posted by thingstodo

Welcome back to the forum! I haven't seen anything from you in a while!

Did you contact @02BMW02 on his pinout?

It's nice to be back! I don't remember a message from 02bmw02. Was there a question on here earlier that I missed? OR that I said I would respond to, and now I have no idea what it was anymore? That is more likely. I mean, I put the milk in the cupboard and the cereal in the refrigerator. OK, I can do a basic straight-forward can packet type. How are the messages read? There are instrument panels that just read can messages and then display the results? Are there specific parts I could order that would help with testing?

[thingstodo]

Originally Posted by MPaulHolmes

I don't remember a message from 02bmw02.

Here's the permalink

https://ecomodder.com/forum/showthre...tml#post589677

[MPaulHolmes]

Oh i am pretty sure he wrote to me over email and I sent him the pinout for the older board (there was a person who wrote right about that time with a pinout question for the older resolver board). But just in case:




I've finally got all motors code ported over to the Leaf software, which was much more fancy. Now I just need to test it. Also I was going to add the can streaming. Is there a certain rate can is supposed to stream (I mean how often the data is sent)? And does it have to be at 250 or 500kbps?

[jackbauer]

Paul, I can send you an instrument cluster to play with if you like?
Here is a list of can messages for us BMW people
https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/s...an-bus-project