Mini mainboard as a vcu

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Turbopete
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Joined: Mon Aug 30, 2021 8:42 pm

Mini mainboard as a vcu

Post by Turbopete »

Good morning, I have a plan to do the following and I just thought I would sense check it here first (I’m learning all the way with this so expect to make mistakes!)

I have a classic mini in which I’m mounting a outlander rear motor. I intend to use the outlander inverter, charger and dcdc with a bmw hybrid battery.

To control the Mitsubishi stuff I have purchased one of Arber’s (on here) can shields and arduino due - this will control these devices over canbus.

I intend to use simpbms to look after the batteries.

My plan was to use Johu’s mini Main board as a sort of vcu and to tie everything together - this may be a bad idea but as said previously it’s all learning!

I’m thinking of using the mini main board to receive signals from the forward reverse neutral switch, the ignition and start switch, the charging lead, the brake and throttle pedals and the regen control.

The mini main board can then send can signals to the Arduino over canbus to control the mitsubishi stuff

The mini main board can control the contactors (via a relay board)

Have I completely lost the plot with this or does it seem like a workable strategy?

I’ve started out by connecting the esp8266 to the mini main board successfully and the next stage for me was to attach my Prius accelerator pedal - I’ve given the pedal 5v and gnd and attached the wiper output to the mini main board but when I look at the gauges through the wifi interface the throttle just seems stuck at 8?

Any guidance anyone can provide would be massively appreciated!

(Apologies for the long rambling post!)
arber333
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Re: Mini mainboard as a vcu

Post by arber333 »

Turbopete wrote: Tue Dec 07, 2021 8:46 am I have a classic mini in which I’m mounting a outlander rear motor. I intend to use the outlander inverter, charger and dcdc with a bmw hybrid battery.
I have started to implement similar plan here :). I have pretty much all of Outlander here in pieces :). I want to use that to remodel my Mazda to more OEM solution. We can share knowledge and avoid many mistakes hopefully.

Up to now i have worked with one of my DUE boards on desk to prove a concept and then i put components in my PUG to make it work in a real car.
1. I made the Outlander charger work with my EVSE
2. I made DCDC in the same box work on engine on signal from the car.
3. I combined DUE CAN commands with CAN reading so i have charger max voltage protection, temperature regulation and DCDC 12V aux batt monitoring. When it falls under 12V DCDC will come on and charge it for 3 minutes to avoid deep discharge.
4. I tested Outlander heater and put it to my Pug. I made simple CAN temp regulation up to 55deg so i dont waste my battery too much.
5. I tested AC compressor with command and made a loop to control it via a simple signal from original AC clutch signal. Works every time. I intend to fit compressor to my Pug next week.
6. I was playing with single button charger selection for 3phase charging. In a simple way we could apply this to limit too fast charging on weaker EVSE or at home. One button and several LEDs...
7. I am testing the rear inverter and motor together now since they come from a different car. Moving slowly for now...
I can also get access to the BMS, current sensor and parts of the battery from Outlander.

What i am fumbling now is DUE watchdog. I see there could be a problem with DUE clogging up and i need to unlatch it via reset. I noticed sometime DUE gets cloged up while on EVSE and CAN bus dies out. I need it to reset proc in that case so it can resume. Anyone has any suggestion how to do that without disturbing the peripherals?

I am posting the code on my blog for later reference https://leafdriveblog.wordpress.com/
Check it out, no need to reinvent the wheel.
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Re: Mini mainboard as a vcu

Post by johu »

I'm using a V2 mainboard as VCU in my Touran with the stm32-car project. Essentially it's an STM32 dev board with some useful auxiliaries such as CAN transceiver and voltage divided inputs.
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Turbopete
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Joined: Mon Aug 30, 2021 8:42 pm

Re: Mini mainboard as a vcu

Post by Turbopete »

Well that’s confirmed for me that I’m heading down the right track at least! I shall continue slowly - and I will start a project thread when I get to the next good stage!
Turbopete
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Re: Mini mainboard as a vcu

Post by Turbopete »

When using the mini main board do I need a separate voltage sensing board? If so does anyone know where I can source a suitable one from? Cheers, pete.
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