Can't Initialize Isabellenhütte ISA Sensor. [SOLVED]

[Gregski]

So I went out and bought an Isabellenhütte IVT-S 1000A current shunt on eBay and they sent me the wrong one. I thought I was buying the exact same one as shown on our Wiki, you know the one with the three Volt sensors on top and two CAN ports on the bottom, well they sent me the model without any Volt sensors on top and only a single CAN port. I mention this up front as maybe this has something to do with the issue I am experiencing.

So the goal is simple: Get the ISA sensor to work so that we can have working stock (or customized) virtual gauges using the Damien Maguire EVBMW hardware version 2.0 VCU.

The Problem: for the life of me I can not Initialize or more precisely read the current aka amps value. I realize that this shunt does not read voltage, all I want to get working for now is the current.

• not working using the VCU

• not working using an Arduino Due with a CAN Bus Shield

Background: I own an Arduino Uno and a CAN Bus Shield and I followed the Wiki instructions and can Initialize it using this setup and I can read the current just fine.

I will add more detail and pics in the posts below.

[Gregski]

I believe my ISA sensor is good because I got it working with my Arduino UNO (Elegoo technically) and a CAN Bus Shield

[Gregski]

Then I tried it using the VCU itself by connecting the CAN Hi and Low signals to pins 19 and 18 respectfully and following the Wiki for the Due instructions

I tried it by saying the CAN port is on 0 or 1, I tried it by saying use 500 or 1000 kbps data rate

and no dice does not work!

[Gregski]

here is the ISA Scale Test dm2 Sketch for the Arduino Due that I got off the Wiki link and am running in order to Initialize the CAN Bus

I can't get this to work



#include <due_can.h>
#include "variant.h"
#include <ISA.h>

#define Serial SerialUSB //Use native port
template<class T> inline Print &operator <<(Print &obj, T arg) { obj.print(arg); return obj; } //Allow streaming

float Version=2.00;
uint16_t loopcount=0;
unsigned long startime=0;
unsigned long elapsedtime=0;
uint port=0;
uint16_t datarate=1000;

ISA Sensor; //Instantiate ISA Module Sensor object to measure current and voltage


void setup()
{
Serial.begin(115200);
Serial2.begin(115200);//wifi
Sensor.begin(port,datarate); //Start ISA object on CAN 0 at 500 kbps

pinMode(13,OUTPUT); //led
Serial<<"\nISA Scale Startup Successful \n";

printMenu();
}

void loop()
{
if(loopcount++==40000)
{
printStatus();
digitalWrite(13,(!digitalRead(13)));
if (Serial2.available())
{
Serial.write(Serial2.read());
}
loopcount-0;
}
checkforinput(); //Check keyboard for user input
}


void printStatus()
{
char buffer[40];
//printimestamp();

Serial.println(datarate);
Serial.println(port);

sprintf(buffer,"%4.2f",Sensor.Voltage);
Serial<<"Volt:"<<buffer<<"V ";
sprintf(buffer,"%4.2f",Sensor.Voltage1);
Serial<<"V1:"<<buffer<<"v ";
sprintf(buffer,"%4.2f",Sensor.Voltage2);
Serial<<"V2:"<<buffer<<"v ";
sprintf(buffer,"%4.2f",Sensor.Voltage3);
Serial<<"V3:"<<buffer<<"v ";

sprintf(buffer,"%4.3f",Sensor.Amperes);
Serial<<"Amps:"<<buffer<<"A ";

sprintf(buffer,"%4.3f",Sensor.KW);
Serial<<buffer<<"kW ";

sprintf(buffer,"%4.3f",Sensor.ah);
Serial<<buffer<<"Ah ";

sprintf(buffer,"%4.3f",Sensor.KWH);
Serial<<buffer<<"kWh";

sprintf(buffer,"%4.0f",Sensor.Temperature);
Serial<<buffer<<"C ";

Serial<<"Frame:"<<Sensor.framecount<<" \n";
}

void printimestamp()
{
//Prints a timestamp to the serial port
elapsedtime=millis() - startime;

int milliseconds = (elapsedtime/1) %1000 ;
int seconds = (elapsedtime / 1000) % 60 ;
int minutes = ((elapsedtime / (1000*60)) % 60);
int hours = ((elapsedtime / (1000*60*60)) % 24);
char buffer[19];
sprintf(buffer,"%02d:%02d:%02d.%03d", hours, minutes, seconds, milliseconds);
Serial<<buffer<<" ";
}

void printMenu()
{
Serial<<"\f\n=========== ISA Scale Sample Program Version "<<Version<<" ==============\n************ List of Available Commands ************\n\n";
Serial<<" ? - Print this menu\n ";
Serial<<" d - toggles Debug off and on to print recieved CAN data traffic\n";
Serial<<" D - toggles Debug2 off and on to print derived values\n";
Serial<<" f - zero frame count\n ";
Serial<<" i - initialize new sensor\n ";
Serial<<" p - Select new CAN port\n ";
Serial<<" r - Set new datarate\n ";
Serial<<" z - zero ampere-hours\n ";

Serial<<"**************************************************************\n==============================================================\n\n";

}

void checkforinput()
{
//Checks for keyboard input from Native port
if (Serial.available())
{
int inByte = Serial.read();
switch (inByte)
{
case 'z': //Zeroes ampere-hours
Sensor.KWH=0;
Sensor.ah=0;
Sensor.RESTART();
break;

case 'p':
getPort();
break;

case 'r':
getRate();
break;


case 'f':
Sensor.framecount=0;
break;

case 'd': //Causes ISA object to print incoming CAN messages for debugging
Sensor.debug=!Sensor.debug;
break;

case 'D': //Causes ISA object to print derived values for debugging
Sensor.debug2=!Sensor.debug2;
break;

case 'i':
Sensor.initialize();
break;

case '?': //Print a menu describing these functions
printMenu();
break;

case '1':
Sensor.STOP();
break;

case '3':
Sensor.START();
break;

}
}
}


void getRate()
{
Serial<<"\n Enter the Data Rate in Kbps you want for CAN : ";
while(Serial.available() == 0){}
float V = Serial.parseFloat();
if(V>0)
{
Serial<<"Datarate:"<<V<<"\n\n";
uint8_t rate=V;

datarate=V*1000;

Sensor.begin(port,datarate);
}
}


void getPort()
{
Serial<<"\n Enter port selection: c0=CAN0 c1=CAN1 ";
while(Serial.available() == 0){}
int P = Serial.parseInt();
if(P>1) Serial<<"Entry out of range, enter 0 or 1 \n";
else
{
port=P;
Sensor.begin(port,datarate);
}

[Gregski]

then I tried the CAN Bus Shield atop of the Arduino Due (though I am not sure that is even supported, word on the street is they make special CAN Busers for the Due, correct me if I'm wrong) well at least this way I could see some LEDs light up when I connected the CAN high and low wires to it, unlike flying blind with the VCU, but still no dice, does not work!

[Gregski]

Found this thread on the Arduino Forum: Arduino DUE and CAN BUS SHIELD

seems like the exact same question I am asking, well that thread led me to sum sticker shock! complements of EVTV.me they make this CAN Bus Shield specifically designed to fit the Arduino Due for $149 bucks

[Gregski]

seeking a cheaper alternative I stumbled upon this article Arduino Due CAN Bus (Controller Area Network) Interfaces which provided three alternatives and a tiny dinky dink called a Breakout Board $10 bones on Amazon

it read: "In order to add CAN bus transceivers to your Arduino Due, you will need either a CAN transceiver breakout board or the CAN Shield for Arduino Due:"

CAN Bus Breakout Board from SKPang Electronics
CAN Bus Breakout Board by WaveShare
Arduino Due CAN Shield With 2 CAN Ports

[arber333]

Found this thread on the Arduino Forum: Arduino DUE and CAN BUS SHIELD

seems like the exact same question I am asking, well that thread led me to sum sticker shock! complements of EVTV.me they make this CAN Bus Shield specifically designed to fit the Arduino Due for $149 bucks

Here is my DUE variant with everything you should need
viewtopic.php?f=17&t=1148&p=34456&hilit ... eld#p34456
viewtopic.php?p=30299#p30299

But for experimenting i use Canalyst II tool. It is much more flexible than programming DUE and can record and replay CAN.
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32779970643.html

[Gregski]

guys I am a total newb so I have to ask what in the world does this mean, it seams to me like the module is stubbed out

Sensor.debug=!Sensor.debug;

or this

Sensor.debug2=!Sensor.debug2;

per the attached User Manual they should look like this no?

Sensor.debug=1;

Sensor.debug2=1;

[Gregski]

so I finally stumbled upon this Wiki page by dumb luck just Googling CAN bus with Arduino Due to which there is no link off of the Isabellenhütte Heusler Wiki page at all

which reads: "The Due has two on-board CAN interfaces. However, the board lacks the necessary CAN transceivers to make then useful. You will need to add the transceivers yourself. You can find suitable 3.3V SN65HVD230-based CAN transceivers easily on eBay. They are very cheap. Unfortunately, not all of them work."

[Gregski]

so I ordered one of them 3.3 tranceiver breakout board thingies but for the life of me I don't get why I can't initialize the ISA current sensor using Damien's v2 VCU I mean it ought to have the tranceiver built in right for it to read CAN data once initialized?

[Gregski]

Progress Update... finally made some headway!

So I decided to try the Arduino Uno code off the Wiki on the Due I mean why not, it's a totally different microcontroller that uses totally different libraries, no reason for it not to work right?!

well with the SPI_CS_PIN changed from 10 to 9 and the datarate set to 500KBPS the CAN Bus Initialized and I was able to see actual Current values upwards to 3 amps which is exactly what my bench power supply read

So yes you can use the Uno CAN Bus Shield on a Due ... great now what?

[Gregski]

I realize all this is documented on the Wiki but I just like to have it all in one place for the next poor soul who comes along and encounters the same problems as I have, so this is the code to initialize the ISA shunt for the Arduino Uno (which appears to work with the Due as well) values in red have been changed from what the Wiki has (as dictated by newer versions of hardware/software)



// IVT-S meter using CAN bus shield
// electric_dart 2020

#include <SPI.h>
#include "mcp_can.h"

// the cs pin of the version after v1.1 is default to D9
// v0.9b and v1.0 is default D10
const int SPI_CS_PIN = 9;

MCP_CAN CAN(SPI_CS_PIN); // Set CS pin

unsigned char len = 0;
unsigned char buf[8];

void setup() {
// Set your Serial Monitor to 115200 baud
Serial.begin(115200);

// Initialise the CAN bus
while (CAN_OK != CAN.begin(CAN_500KBPS)) { // init can bus
Serial.println("Failed to initialise CAN bus. Retrying...");
delay(100);
}
Serial.println("CAN bus initialised.");

/*
set receive mask
*/
CAN.init_Mask(0, 0, 0x7ff); // there are 2 masks in mcp2515, you need to set both of them
CAN.init_Mask(1, 0, 0x7ff); // 0x7ff is '11111111111' in binary, so we are checking 11 of the CAN message ID bits

/*
set receive filter
*/
CAN.init_Filt(0, 0, 0x521); // there are 6 filters in mcp2515
CAN.init_Filt(1, 0, 0x521); // 0x521 is the CAN message ID for IVT-S Current value
CAN.init_Filt(2, 0, 0x521);
CAN.init_Filt(3, 0, 0x521);
CAN.init_Filt(4, 0, 0x521);
CAN.init_Filt(5, 0, 0x521);

}

void loop() {
if (CAN_MSGAVAIL == CAN.checkReceive()) { // check if data coming
CAN.readMsgBuf(&len, buf); // read data, len: data length, buf: data buf
unsigned long canId = CAN.getCanId();

if (canId == 0x521) {
Serial.print("Data received from IVT_Msg_Result_I");
Serial.print("\t");

// Convert individual big endian byte values to actual reading
long reading = (buf[2] << 24) | (buf[3] << 16) | (buf[4] << 8) | (buf[5]);
Serial.println(reading);
}
}
// Refresh every 250ms
delay(250);
}

[arber333]

so I ordered one of them 3.3 tranceiver breakout board thingies but for the life of me I don't get why I can't initialize the ISA current sensor using Damien's v2 VCU I mean it ought to have the tranceiver built in right for it to read CAN data once initialized?

You may have ISA shunt that is differently innitialised from the start.
I think there is a procedure to reinnitialise it using simple arduino sketch here on wiki
https://openinverter.org/wiki/Isabellen ... Bus_Shield
With videos



Also make sure if your board has 120R resistor built in or not. If already there then additional resistance can eat on the signal (60R) and interfere with CAN lines.

[Gregski]

so I ordered one of them 3.3 tranceiver breakout board thingies but for the life of me I don't get why I can't initialize the ISA current sensor using Damien's v2 VCU I mean it ought to have the tranceiver built in right for it to read CAN data once initialized?

You may have ISA shunt that is differently innitialised from the start.
I think there is a procedure to reinnitialise it using simple arduino sketch here on wiki
https://openinverter.org/wiki/Isabellen ... Bus_Shield

thanks that's the procedures I've been following, hence me posting on here, maybe I am doing something wrong, maybe it does not work with this variant of the ISA sensor, I don't know yet

[Gregski]

so I ordered one of them 3.3 tranceiver breakout board thingies but for the life of me I don't get why I can't initialize the ISA current sensor using Damien's v2 VCU I mean it ought to have the tranceiver built in right for it to read CAN data once initialized?

With videos

oh my lord god, you just saved my life, YOU HAVE TO CONNECT THE CAN WIRES TO THE A CONNECTOR (PER THE VIDEO) NOT THE B CONNECTOR AS SHOWN HERE

[Gregski]

now it's working, I don't understand why the code would not spit out an error if it had no ISA sensor connected on the other two pins and just kept saying Initialized

[Gregski]

thank you arber333 so much really appreciate the help

so my gauges are working now, here I only have the current connected to show the amps

[PatrcioEV-ATX]

so I ordered one of them 3.3 tranceiver breakout board thingies but for the life of me I don't get why I can't initialize the ISA current sensor using Damien's v2 VCU I mean it ought to have the tranceiver built in right for it to read CAN data once initialized?

With videos

oh my lord god, you just saved my life, YOU HAVE TO CONNECT THE CAN WIRES TO THE A CONNECTOR (PER THE VIDEO) NOT THE B CONNECTOR AS SHOWN HERE

VCU Wiring CAN Corrected.jpg

Those are CAN0 and CAN1. You could also just switch them in the code. When I was having issues with my shunt, I tried both and ended up with the shunt on CAN1 and my other line on CAN0. It was easier than moving the pins in the connectors.

Don’t forget to uncomment out the Sensor.Voltage and Sensor.Amps lines in the code so you get those values on the web interface.

[Gregski]

Those are CAN0 and CAN1. You could also just switch them in the code. When I was having issues with my shunt, I tried both and ended up with the shunt on CAN1 and my other line on CAN0. It was easier than moving the pins in the connectors.

Don’t forget to uncomment out the Sensor.Voltage and Sensor.Amps lines in the code so you get those values on the web interface.

thanks so much, when I switch the code to

Can1.begin(CAN_BPS_500K);

it does not work when the ISA CAN wires are hooked up to the B Connector, do I have to reInitialize it on CAN1 ?

also it works on the A Connector whether I have:

Can0.begin(CAN_BPS_500K);
or
Can1.begin(CAN_BPS_500K);

in the Sketch, I totally don't get it?

[PatrcioEV-ATX]

Those are CAN0 and CAN1. You could also just switch them in the code. When I was having issues with my shunt, I tried both and ended up with the shunt on CAN1 and my other line on CAN0. It was easier than moving the pins in the connectors.

Don’t forget to uncomment out the Sensor.Voltage and Sensor.Amps lines in the code so you get those values on the web interface.

thanks so much, when I switch the code to

Can1.begin(CAN_BPS_500K);

it does not work when the ISA CAN wires are hooked up to the B Connector, do I have to reInitialize it on CAN1 ?

also it works on the A Connector whether I have:

Can0.begin(CAN_BPS_500K);
or
Can1.begin(CAN_BPS_500K);

in the Sketch, I totally don't get it?

So those are initializing the different CAN buses. You need to have this agree:

Sensor.begin(0,500); //Start ISA object on CAN 0 at 500 kbps

Where 0 or 1 is the bus your shunt is connected to. (0,500) or (1,500)

[Gregski]

So those are initializing the different CAN buses. You need to have this agree:

Sensor.begin(0,500); //Start ISA object on CAN 0 at 500 kbps

Where 0 or 1 is the bus your shunt is connected to. (0,500) or (1,500)

thank you for trying to help, this is like pushing a string

so

this works: Sensor.begin(0,500); //Start ISA object on CAN 0 at 500 kbps on the gray A Connector

this does NOT work: Sensor.begin(1,500); //Start ISA object on CAN 1 at 500 kbps on the black B Connector

[Gregski]

I have two ISA sensors so I tried a second one just for the hell of it, I know it's dumb but hey you never know, and it acts exactly the same as the first only works on the gray A connector, does not work on the B connector

I eyeballed the hewk out of the B connector and the circuit board and nothing obvious jumps out at me like me forgetting to solder some pins or something like that

[PatrcioEV-ATX]

I have two ISA sensors so I tried a second one just for the hell of it, I know it's dumb but hey you never know, and it acts exactly the same as the first only works on the gray A connector, does not work on the B connector

I eyeballed the hewk out of the B connector and the circuit board and nothing obvious jumps out at me like me forgetting to solder some pins or something like that

Hmm.. I have my sensor hooked to pins 18 and 19 on connector B and running on CAN1. H/L pins are switched on the different connectors of course. I'm sure you have, but make sure your CAN begin and Sensor begin match in the code. Other than that, I'm out of suggestions.

Can0.begin(CAN_BPS_500K);
Sensor.begin(0,500);

or

Can1.begin(CAN_BPS_500K);
Sensor.begin(1,500);

[Gregski]

H/L pins are switched on the different connectors of course.

darn it I was looking at Ver 1 pin out earlier