Chademo Controller Development

[Isaac96]

Here's a first test version -- I've stripped out most of the extra functionality. This should be able to run Chademo correctly, and not much else.

It's using the SAM3X EEPROM (which should work, not tested at all). I need to do a little more research before adding the I2C EEPROM - seems like write speeds are very low.
Please test whether parameters actually save.

Serial commands have been reduced, please only use them over SerialUSB else weird things might happen.
Working commands:
V - sets chademo target
VMAX - sets chademo max
AMIN - sets min charge current
AMAX - sets max charge current
CAPAH - sets capacity
CAPKWH - sets KWH capacity
DBG - sets debug level (this one isn't super useful afaik)
SAVE - saves EEPROM
FULLRESET (don't know about this one - it resets the eeprom to the hardcoded values)

z - resets charge state (whatever that means)
p - prints settings
u - updates Chademo with new voltage/current targets


Would you prefer commands to be used over USB or wifi? Either is possible but using both adds a lot of complication.

-Isaac

[Jack Bauer]

Looks fantastic:) Will begin testing. Picked up a chademo port yesterday so will install this on the E39 as this has an ISA shunt fitted. Commands need to go over usb only. Wifi is just for display purposes.

One request would be to move the ISA to CAN0 and leave CAN1 just for chademo as chademo chargers provide one end of the 120 ohm termination.

[Jack Bauer]

Loaded up on a leaf vcu. Just two observations so far :

1- Had to comment out this line as it was spamming the serial monitor : // SerialUSB.println("Chademo looped");

2- Dueflashstorage seems to lock the flash necessitating use of the erase pin function to clear it for a reprogram.

[Isaac96]

Looks fantastic:) Will begin testing. Picked up a chademo port yesterday so will install this on the E39 as this has an ISA shunt fitted. Commands need to go over usb only. Wifi is just for display purposes.

One request would be to move the ISA to CAN0 and leave CAN1 just for chademo as chademo chargers provide one end of the 120 ohm termination.

Done and done.
(also found a typo which might have prevented CAN from working at all, fixed that too).

Loaded up on a leaf vcu. Just two observations so far :

1- Had to comment out this line as it was spamming the serial monitor : // SerialUSB.println("Chademo looped");

2- Dueflashstorage seems to lock the flash necessitating use of the erase pin function to clear it for a reprogram.

1. Oops, that was just a debugging thingy. Good thing it works. Removed now.

2. I'll switch it to the i2c EEPROM. EDIT I'm an idiot, was looking at the chademo controller instead of leaf vcu.

Once I have the flash sorted v0.2 will be up.

-Isaac

[Isaac96]

Version 0.2:

-Removed extra debugging
-Removed more legacy garbage
-Moved Chademo to CAN1, ISA is on CAN0
-I2C EEPROM added (no idea if it will work)

Hope it works!

-Isaac

[JaniK]

How nice to see more people attend to making stuff happen!

Thank you Isaac96!

[Jack Bauer]

Good news is we are reading from the ISA shunt. Seems we have a problem with the menu saving. It wont update no matter what it try e.g. V395 etc. Not just that it wont save to eeprom but it wont update on screen when p brings up the values. But yeah. Great progress and many thanks:)

[Isaac96]

Hmm.. I'll look some more at the EEPROM coding. Not sure if the chip is compatible.
I assume you've verified that the EEPROM on the VCU works in general? If not, try one of the Wire_EEPROM examples (https://github.com/collin80/Wire_EEPROM)

Good to see the ISA reading correctly

-Isaac

EDIT I've done some looking through datasheets and schematics... Leaf VCU uses TWI0 for the EEPROM so that should all be correct. Please test functionality of example code.
I am using a struct rather than a class for the settings holder, if the EEPROM works with the example just let me know and I'll switch the Chademo code over.

[Isaac96]

Just took another look -- with the EEPROM code removed the settings update correctly.
Are you typing "V395" or "V=395"?
The latter works for me - the "=" is the marker for end of command/start of value.

-Isaac

[Jack Bauer]

Ok, so I wasn't using the "=" sign which was the problem with the serial monitor ignoring the commands. What happens now is if I type say "V=395" and hit enter the serial monitor freezes and the SAM3 locks up. However, if I then reboot and hit "p" it has actually updated and saved the parameter so it must be hanging on return from the eeprom routine. I also ran the eeprom test and it works fine so I don't think its hardware.

Isaac96, really appreciate your help. This project has been crying out to be ported to a more capable micro since 2015.

In other news my Chademo port turned up so will have a car ready to do some actual testing soon.

[mdrobnak]

That looks awfully like the port I have from a Leaf...

Glad to see my 'hey can't we simplify this' theory wasn't crazy in the end.

Thanks Isaac for taking this on.

-Matt

[Isaac96]

Ok, so I wasn't using the "=" sign which was the problem with the serial monitor ignoring the commands. What happens now is if I type say "V=395" and hit enter the serial monitor freezes and the SAM3 locks up. However, if I then reboot and hit "p" it has actually updated and saved the parameter so it must be hanging on return from the eeprom routine. I also ran the eeprom test and it works fine so I don't think its hardware.

Isaac96, really appreciate your help. This project has been crying out to be ported to a more capable micro since 2015.

In other news my Chademo port turned up so will have a car ready to do some actual testing soon.

Well at least it's saving now...

There's a "noInterrupts()" call at the beginning of the save() function. Then "interrupts()" gets called again at the end.
Are you getting a "SAVED" message after setting a parameter? (probably not since the monitor is locking up).

Also I'm a blithering idiot - my GEVCU hardware actually has a M24M02 EEPROM on it already. I'll start testing with that in about 5 minutes. Should be able to solve these issues quite easily.

-Isaac

EDIT Uploaded the code, I'm getting the same issue. Will add more debugging messages and see what's going on.

[Isaac96]

Here's version 0.3, with more improvements and still less clutter.

-Added help menu - shows when a wrong command is entered and on startup
-Fixed EEPROM - turned out to be something weird about the delays and the interrupt() function.
-Improved AH/KWH counters (just uses ISA numbers now, resets them to zero at certain times)
-Took out some extra functions that did nothing


I'm trying to strip this down to the bare minimum while retaining the configuration capabilities. Not messing with the Chademo (though that might be necessary) but allowing lots of room for expansion in whatever direction anyone wants.

Let me know how this works!

-Isaac

[Isaac96]

Disregard previous attachment please - it's got the wrong logic on the inputs and the outputs are swapped. The old JLD505 has optocoupled inputs, Leaf VCU has none.

Here's the corrected version (v0.3b?).

-Isaac

[Jack Bauer]

Working perfectly (at least on the bench). Added this line to Setup() to give a heartbeat led : pinMode(13, OUTPUT); //led

Will be a few weeks before I have the E39 kitted out with a Chademo "exhaust" for testing. If anyone else is going to get there quicker and willing to help with testing,I'll donate a leaf vcu. In the meantime I'll get my wifi guy to do some wifi firmware so we can have a display ready to go.

Isaac96, if you are happy I'll throw this up on Github?

[Kevin Sharpe]

Will be a few weeks before I have the E39 kitted out with a Chademo "exhaust" for testing. If anyone else is going to get there quicker and willing to help with testing,I'll donate a leaf vcu.

I can probably help in a few weeks if no one else is ready.

I'm making a CHAdeMO to CCS adaptor which in it's first iteration could simply bypass the CCS functionality. We could also jury rig a CHAdeMO interface into the bus directly for testing

[Isaac96]

Working perfectly (at least on the bench). Added this line to Setup() to give a heartbeat led : pinMode(13, OUTPUT); //led

Will be a few weeks before I have the E39 kitted out with a Chademo "exhaust" for testing. If anyone else is going to get there quicker and willing to help with testing,I'll donate a leaf vcu. In the meantime I'll get my wifi guy to do some wifi firmware so we can have a display ready to go.

Isaac96, if you are happy I'll throw this up on Github?

Yup, go ahead. I've checked through the code a couple times now, all seems correct.

I can probably start testing Chademo in a couple of days (with my different hardware) but first I have to get a shunt hooked up and add a few CAN messages (only in my version) to get voltage readings.

The Chademo stations will probably not be happy if my voltage readings are too far off... My custom BMS has quite a slow sample rate (it's talking to 12 different things at 9600, one at a time) so I might have to add some hacks to make that work.

-Isaac

[arturk]

Working perfectly (at least on the bench). Added this line to Setup() to give a heartbeat led : pinMode(13, OUTPUT); //led

Will be a few weeks before I have the E39 kitted out with a Chademo "exhaust" for testing. If anyone else is going to get there quicker and willing to help with testing,I'll donate a leaf vcu.

I have car ready to test it and all other components except Leaf VCU...

[mcgousha]

I must have been working in IT projects for too long, I really enjoyed reading through the last couple of days on this thread.

Fantastic collaboration happening here. Big kudos to Isaac96 for stepping up to the plate and sharing his skills.

I'll throw my hat into the ring as a potential tester (assuming it's still needed) as soon as I have the battery installed in the Porsche, I have a Leaf Chademo port just waiting to be put back to use.

[Isaac96]

I'm doing some bench testing... Some very weird things happening.
I am testing with my GEVCU hardware, so pins 48-51 are usable as inputs.
For some reason 48 and 50 don't work with the rest of the Chademo code. When read by a simple DigitalReadSerial they read the inputs just fine but when the Chademo code is set to use them, no readings (they stay high).

I'm fairly sure this is caused by some of the libraries in use but don't have the time right now to test all that properly.

The problem here is that the Leaf VCU uses pins 49 and 48 as outputs, so I don't know if those will work, and can't fully test the output side.
(48 and 50 don't appear to work as outputs, 49 and 51 probably do work).

Yes, I'm very confused. Going to set off to the local Chademo station and see if the init sequence is acceptable at the altar of EVGo.

-Isaac

[Isaac96]

I think the inputs are reading correctly. However, the charger is timing out.
IN1 gets pulled high by the station, the car begins sending CAN, then the station shuts down with a 'communication error'.
I'm going to test CAN more properly -- it certainly receives properly, but I may or may not have reversed the wiring, and haven't tested sending yet.
Getting close to full communication though.

-Isaac

[Jack Bauer]

Excellent work and thanks everyone for offers of assistance.

[Isaac96]

Thanks for the kind words guys, it's not quite there yet though.

Found the issue with pins 48/50 - the due_can library defaults to using them for CAN enable.
So I'm setting the CAN enable pins to 255 (which nulls them out).
ISA.h also needed changes since it also defaults to 48/50. Modified version is attached.
(That library is weird, it seems to autosave/autorecover amp-hours on power reset. No idea if that works, I don't have an ISA shunt yet).

I also seem to have forgotten that the CAN mailboxes needed to be set up -- I just added that in along with a little more debugging (since there are plenty of bugs).
v0.4 is attached.

I'm going off for another test at the station. I do hope it works this time, it's such a pain to move the whole setup.

Note - when there's a 1.0 release I'd like to include copies of all the libraries, since at least one will end up modded and that's no fun for anyone else.

-Isaac

[Isaac96]

Went out for a test run, one station was in use by a Bolt and the other has a dead credit card reader...
I'll try again in an hour or so.

-Isaac

[mdrobnak]

(That library is weird, it seems to autosave/autorecover amp-hours on power reset. No idea if that works, I don't have an ISA shunt yet).

I also seem to have forgotten that the CAN mailboxes needed to be set up -- I just added that in along with a little more debugging (since there are plenty of bugs).

Glad to see you've got that mostly going.
The auto save/recover is to try and compute accurate State of Health or Charge. Not sure which.
I didn't realize CAN mailboxes were "a thing" in most micro-controllers.. I have definitely have seen them on ST C167 16-bit processors. (Bosch ME 7.5/7.8 ECUs)

Went out for a test run, one station was in use by a Bolt and the other has a dead credit card reader...
I'll try again in an hour or so.

-Isaac

How, like, 90s man. Don't you know apps are the future?

-Matt