Leaf Gen 1 board

[langoo]

Hello forum, my first post.

Have anyone had any luck with this board in a Gen 1 inverter?

Johannes: Do you plan on making one for the Gen 1?

If you are interested in help to try out the board in a working car please tell me because I have a VW Beetle with everything working but with a different replacement card right now. I'm looking for a card that's working with Field-weakening and active development

The car at a big exhibition this Eastern here in Sweden.

[johu]

Nice!
Well if you can help out with pin mappings etc. it should be quite easy to make a replacement card. I will publish the Gen2 files, they are done in a program called FreePCB. Maybe you can even make a design yourself. The adapter boards only route the various signals to the headers. All the logic stuff is handled on the V3 board: https://openinverter.org/shop/index.php ... duct_id=58

[Jack Bauer]

I have a Gen1 inverter so might be able to assist.

[langoo]

Nice!
Well if you can help out with pin mappings etc. it should be quite easy to make a replacement card. I will publish the Gen2 files, they are done in a program called FreePCB. Maybe you can even make a design yourself. The adapter boards only route the various signals to the headers. All the logic stuff is handled on the V3 board: https://openinverter.org/shop/index.php ... duct_id=58

I'll see what I can come up to regarding the pin out of the Gen 1 board and send it to you

[johu]

I've released the design file for the Leaf Gen2 adapter board: https://github.com/jsphuebner/inverter- ... dapter.fpc
It is made with FreeePCB: https://www.freepcb.com/
If anyone feels like porting it to a more standard tool (that also shows a schematic), please do. Maybe it also helps doing other adapter boards like the Gen1 Leaf.

[doobedoobedo]

It'd be nice if everyone in the OSHW world could standardise on something like KiCad (my favourite). Huge bonus is that it runs on any OS.

Even Dave Jones likes it:


I know it can be a pain to re-learn something, but I've looked at Designspark (which I believe Damian uses, as does Paul Holmes) and it's horrible in comparison. I started using Eagle, but needed to do some 4 layer boards which free-version Eagle didn't support, which is why I switched. It's well worth a look at least.

[doobedoobedo]

Well freePCB runs under wine.

Looking at IC1 which I'm assuming is something like this http://www.farnell.com/datasheets/1498981.pdf pin14 which should be Vcc isn't connected? TI Sn74f00 also shows pin14 as Vcc.

[johu]

Yes it's connected to the top copper pour. Likewise pin7 to bottom copper. It's only denoted by a little cross

[doobedoobedo]

Thanks - got more of a handle on it now

[doobedoobedo]

OK I've got a schematic, could you confirm the values of r1 and r9? There are no units in the fpc file.

[johu]

Nice, where is it?
R1=120R
R10=1k2

[doobedoobedo]

I've attached a pdf. It's not beautifully laid out I'm afraid. The pin numbering on the leaf connector (CN001) on the fpc was a major pain. I'd recommend having a check over it to make sure I've not cocked anything up.

I still need to do the pcb layout. When that's done I'll zip up the KiCad project for you to do with what you will.

[doobedoobedo]

Still tinkering with the schematic.

Board outline ,all connector positions and mechanical holes are from the gerbers I generated from the other tool and imported into KiCad. Holes are sized for m3 and m5 fasteners.

[johu]

Beauty That should be a good base for creating other adapter boards.
Are you sure the screw holes for the connector are correct? I think one is missing and the others look out of place.
EDIT: yes there must be one between the two pin groups
EDIT2: on the original design I tried to minimize connections on the bottom layer to make the ground plane as solid as possible, maybe you should consider that.

[doobedoobedo]

Good spot on that hole, I'd completely missed it. There's not much on the back, I've re-routed one track. None of the mechanical mounts are connected to ground, but I could change that?

[johu]

I think on the original board the top right hole (front view) might be grounded.

[doobedoobedo]

Cool. I've connected it to ground. I wasn't sure on the original as it appears to be just a drill with a cutout in the 5V plane. Ground connections go out through the various external connectors too - but you already know that .

[doobedoobedo]

I've attached a zip of the kicad project. If you open the project in kicad it'll ask you if you want to recover the schematic/pcb layout when you open the relevant editors. Say yes. I've tested that this works in a different OS VM.

I might setup a github to host it and the various footprints (including the proprietary leaf connector) if I have the time and/or inclination.

Edit: re-uploaded the zipped file including generated gerbers and with zero-length tracks removed.

[doobedoobedo]

Now I have an original board in front of me I can tell that some of the mechanical mountings are a fraction out so I'm going to redo the proprietary connector footprint to get it more accurate.

[doobedoobedo]

I've gotten round to creating a git repo. https://github.com/doobedoobedo

The connector footprints are there along with the adapter board itself. I've done two different layouts - one through hole as per Johannes and a surface mount one using 0603 passives. I've ordered a couple of the surface mount ones and have already got a couple of through hole ones which lead to a little more tweaking of some of the mechanical mounting holes.

[johu]

Just gotten around to look at this, very cool.
Unfortunately the KiCAD version that comes with Ubuntu is too old and it doesn't load. Gotta change to another Distro, I frequently run into really outdated software

[doobedoobedo]

Really? I'm on ubuntu

[doobedoobedo]

I think I might be using kicad's own repository: http://kicad-pcb.org/download/ubuntu/

[johu]

Yes, I had version 4.something

[Jack Bauer]

Not wishing to go off topic but the problem for me in switching pcb cad is I have nearly 20 years worth of components defined in designspark. I would love to move to kicad as it would be the final nail in the coffin for needing dual boot windows / linux.

Back on topic I'll be putting power to my gen 1 system in the e46 touring today so nearly ready for a a board:)