Id love to chat!!! RX8 to Leaf Conversion

Nissan Leaf/e-NV200 drive stack topics
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DaveBlack
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Id love to chat!!! RX8 to Leaf Conversion

Post by DaveBlack »

Hay all - some of you may have read my previous posts about my RX8 conversion to date. Its actually finished but really low on power (about 15kw).

I have read, read and read some more, and I think my heart is set on upgrading this now to a Leaf motor, inverter and potentially battery pack also.

Despite reading, I still have some questions about the board for the Nissan Leaf that will communicate with the Inverter and allow us to convince it that it is OK to work even though not in the car.

Ive trawled through pages and pages of posts, and as ever with Forums lots of content is out of date as this project has moved on fast and as far as I can see is brilliant and exactly what I need.

Id love a 30 minute chat with anyone who has used the Leaf Controller board, just to make me comfortable that this is achievable before committing to buying one, plus the nissan leaf donor car. PM me and I will give you a call, its a punt - if not I will trawl a bit longer before posting my questions!

Cheers all

Dave
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Re: Id love to chat!!! RX8 to Leaf Conversion

Post by SciroccoEV »

Leaf inverter can be used in two ways.

1. Original Nissan logic board.

External controller sends CANbus messages;
http://productions.8dromeda.net/c55-lea ... tocol.html
https://www.evbmw.com/index.php/evbmw-w ... ted-boards

You're limited to torque, power and voltage limits as per original Leaf installation.

2. Replacement open source logic board

New logic board, plus adapter board control original power stage.
https://openinverter.org/shop/index.php ... duct_id=57
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Re: Id love to chat!!! RX8 to Leaf Conversion

Post by doobedoobedo »

I have a leaf motor running on the bench. Controlled using only CAN. You need to use FOC firmware if you're going to use Johannes brain board.
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Kevin Sharpe
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Re: Id love to chat!!! RX8 to Leaf Conversion

Post by Kevin Sharpe »

DaveBlack wrote: Wed Apr 29, 2020 3:32 pm if not I will trawl a bit longer before posting my questions!
The Nissan Leaf motor, Inverter, and Damien's VCU is an impressive combination :)

https://twitter.com/EvBmw/status/124355 ... 28066?s=20

Edit: both these projects are using the VCU;

viewtopic.php?f=11&t=372

viewtopic.php?f=11&t=496
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Re: Id love to chat!!! RX8 to Leaf Conversion

Post by DaveBlack »

Thanks guys, excellent summaries - reading so many posts I got a little lost at options.

In a nut shell this is looking far simpler than I expected! Next step for me is to find a donor Nissan, I feel confident that everything forward from that has been solved and is well within my capabilities.

Awesome! Let the upgrades begin!

Dave
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Re: Id love to chat!!! RX8 to Leaf Conversion

Post by Kevin Sharpe »

DaveBlack wrote: Thu Apr 30, 2020 8:09 am Next step for me is to find a donor Nissan
Start with the auctions if you want a whole car :)
IMG-20191118-WA0000.jpg
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Re: Id love to chat!!! RX8 to Leaf Conversion

Post by DaveBlack »

Hay - yes I have my eye on three on Copart at the moment - but that is not one of them? Is that a current auction?
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Re: Id love to chat!!! RX8 to Leaf Conversion

Post by Kevin Sharpe »

DaveBlack wrote: Fri May 01, 2020 8:59 am Is that a current auction?
No, the car was purchased by one of our course participants 8-)

Unless the auction vehicle is very cheap or includes photos of the mileage and battery bars display, I would recommend viewing the vehicle and running a sneaky test on the battery with a Pack Sniffer 2. In the US it's not unusual for cars to be sold with an empty battery pack :(
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Re: Id love to chat!!! RX8 to Leaf Conversion

Post by jerrykco »

Kevin Sharpe wrote: Fri May 01, 2020 1:48 pm Unless the auction vehicle is very cheap or includes photos of the mileage and battery bars display, I would recommend viewing the vehicle and running a sneaky test on the battery with a Pack Sniffer 2. In the US it's not unusual for cars to be sold with an empty battery pack :(
I love my Pack Sniffer 2. Wolf made a connector for the Gen 1 Packs now too. I have both cables and can inspect both types of packs now.
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Re: Id love to chat!!! RX8 to Leaf Conversion

Post by DaveBlack »

No chance of visiting an auction in the current climate - most have photos of the dashboard 'on', and I think you'd have a pretty strong mis-selling argument if a fundamental part was missing on the car! That said the auction sites generally say if a car is able to turn on, and move under its own steam, so ill keep an eye on that just to make sure!

Ta

Dave
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Re: Id love to chat!!! RX8 to Leaf Conversion

Post by Kevin Sharpe »

DaveBlack wrote: Fri May 01, 2020 3:07 pm I think you'd have a pretty strong mis-selling argument if a fundamental part was missing on the car!
Auctions are 'sold as seen' and the auctioneers are very careful not to make any claims about the battery. If you take a look at the Copart UK members T&C's for example you'll see they have plenty of wiggle room. Start here for an overview of how little they 'guarantee';

https://www.copart.co.uk/Content/uk/en/ ... ion-Pledge

This video is a couple of years old but useful for people who haven't purchased cars at a Copart auction before;

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Re: Id love to chat!!! RX8 to Leaf Conversion

Post by DaveBlack »

Yeah you have to be careful for sure - but that first example, the guy purchase a tesla for $12k that had recently been sold for $22k, I mean common... nothing in life is free and that is a massive red flag that someone has removed the $10k battery pack!

Copart have a 'run and drive' policy, A car has to be pretty messed up for that to be a 'no', I think with that information, pictures of the dash (on) that shows battery status and as that video states a good look at suspension height - hopefully should be OK.

But thanks for the heads up, fingers crossed! Ill be producing some videos as I go through this extraction and upgrade. Seems lots of people are very interested in putting Leaf motors in RX8's.

Cheers

Dave
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Re: Id love to chat!!! RX8 to Leaf Conversion

Post by jnsaff »

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Re: Id love to chat!!! RX8 to Leaf Conversion

Post by jerrykco »

You need to get a pack sniffer 2 from Wolftronix. that and a 5V USB portable power supply it will tell you if the battery is there and what shape it is in.
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Re: Id love to chat!!! RX8 to Leaf Conversion

Post by xp677 »

You can't really connect a pack sniffer to a car in an auction yard.

Normally Copart has images of the dashboard display, you can see battery state of charge and Nissan's own health approximation on the right side. This should be enough to verify the existence of a battery, and give a rough indication of life.

Nissan do not cool their packs, it seems that the lifespan of the Leaf batteries is questionable. I'd aim for a low mileage car that "runs and drives".
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Re: Id love to chat!!! RX8 to Leaf Conversion

Post by Kevin Sharpe »

xp677 wrote: Mon May 04, 2020 5:47 pm You can't really connect a pack sniffer to a car in an auction yard.
We've done that several times at Copart auction locations in the UK while inspecting the battery.
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Re: Id love to chat!!! RX8 to Leaf Conversion

Post by xp677 »

That's good to know. From watching his videos, it seemed that you needed to get under the vehicle to connect directly to the battery.
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Re: Id love to chat!!! RX8 to Leaf Conversion

Post by jerrykco »

xp677 wrote: Mon May 04, 2020 8:40 pm That's good to know. From watching his videos, it seemed that you needed to get under the vehicle to connect directly to the battery.
Yeah. This is the plug that comes out of the battery box. (both BMS and HV). The Pack Sniffer 2 connects directly to the BMS.
By battery is out of the box.
20200404_202655.jpg
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Re: Id love to chat!!! RX8 to Leaf Conversion

Post by xp677 »

I'm aware of that from watching the videos. I wasn't aware that you could get to that connector with the car on the ground. Can you get the same data from elsewhere in the car? Diagnostic port, etc?
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Re: Id love to chat!!! RX8 to Leaf Conversion

Post by Extremetaz »

Worthwhile being aware of this if you're not interested in the pack itself:
https://www.adverts.ie/car/nissan/leaf/ ... f/19933827
Break it; Fix it; Repeat;
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Re: Id love to chat!!! RX8 to Leaf Conversion

Post by james@N52E01 »

Kevin Sharpe wrote: Fri May 01, 2020 1:48 pm
DaveBlack wrote: Fri May 01, 2020 8:59 am Is that a current auction?
No, the car was purchased by one of our course participants 8-)
This was me. I took a punt as it was a good price and the front impact clearly wasn’t deep so the hope was that it avoided the power electronics. The worst case I intended to use any parts that were salvageable and just sell off the rest. I managed to get all the HV components needed and even sold a door to someone from the leaf owners forum. The rest though nobody was interested in, I could have disassembled and sold bit by bit on eBay but it really was not financially worth the time, labour or garage space (as it was being rented). Many of these parts are common on eBay but if you do find a buyer for a specific part it might be worth your time. In the end after ringing around several local garages I managed to sell the rest for £150 (Mike Brewer I am not).

In hindsight I got Very lucky. The 12v battery got trashed in the impact which preserved the HV components while making the car appear completely dead. If you find one that appears similar it’s worth taking a 12v battery and some jump leads (There’s a bonnet release on the gen 1 is by driver’s right knee and there is a catch that’s fiddly to release under the bonnet itself). If you can’t get access to the underside to use a pack sniffer and the car has 12v power you could get an OBDII connector with leaf spy pro app.
FACF5E59-C1DF-43BC-8529-23CE3611FCBF.png
Send me a PM if you have any more questions and good luck with the conversion.
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Re: Id love to chat!!! RX8 to Leaf Conversion

Post by Alibro »

Extremetaz wrote: Tue May 05, 2020 1:59 pm Worthwhile being aware of this if you're not interested in the pack itself:
https://www.adverts.ie/car/nissan/leaf/ ... f/19933827
LOL, I just spotted this post.
I bought this car and was amazed at how clean it was.
It's now completely stripped of all electrical parts for my EV conversion and anything I can't use is for sale.
I need a bigger hammer!
DaveBlack
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Re: Id love to chat!!! RX8 to Leaf Conversion

Post by DaveBlack »

Sorry for being quiet guys - I bought a car from Copart - all good, sold the chassis and gearbox for over half the value I paid for the entire car.

Just got the motor installed in the car, lots to do but had everything working on the bench, so fingers crossed!



Dave
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Re: Id love to chat!!! RX8 to Leaf Conversion

Post by DaveH »

It's all looking very neat Dave. Are you going to support the front of the motor as well or just leave it hanging on the gearbox adapter?
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Re: Id love to chat!!! RX8 to Leaf Conversion

Post by Alibro »

Great work Dave. Loving this series.
I need a bigger hammer!
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