Another FRS/BRZ with a Leaf Motor

Tell us about the project you do with the open inverter
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Henny
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Joined: Mon Oct 12, 2020 1:16 am
Location: Niagara Falls, Canada

Another FRS/BRZ with a Leaf Motor

Post by Henny »

Hey all,

Figured it was about time I posted something as I have been working on this project for a few months.

First off Big shout out to these guys so far!

Zapatero – Thanks for sharing you CAD files, ECU coding and any questions I had.
Gerald @ just projects
Bratitude – Leaf motor adapter flange & CAD files

Build parts list so far:

2014 Nissan leaf motor and inverter
Openinverter Gen 2 Leaf board
DC/DC Tesla converter
Gen 2 Tesla Charge with Damien’s logic board
Orion 2 BMS
Geraldjustprojects FRS ECU/canbus converter
Kia Soul EV 35KwH battery pack


Started all the research and contacting people back in October / November of 2020. After Zapatero shared his CAD files with me, I modified them to work with Bratitude’s leaf motor flange. My adapter plates consist of Bratitude’s leaf motor adapter plate. Then I took Zapatero’s Adapater plate and made three different variations. I layered them in the same way that Zapatero did his.

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My initial wood cuts before I did my aluminum ones.

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My final Aluminum cut adapters

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After I had finished sourcing all my big components and CNCing my adapters, I purchased a salvage Toyota FRS as a test vehicle until I have finished the build. Upon which I will transfer everything into a road worthy FRS/BRZ/86.

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How the Kia Soul EV battery arrived and with the top off, exposed modules showing. Wish I documented taking apart the pack as it was pretty cool. The modules all have grid heaters on the sides of them. The utilize a SK pouch cell. When broken down each cell is two SK pouches in parallel. These modules are fairly configurable If you don’t utilize the grid heaters. You can take the top, bottom, side covers, and cell tap fuse block/plug off the modules and combine cells into any configuration.

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I decided to keep them in their original configuration so I can use the heaters as I live in Canada. Two are located in the engine bay, two where the fuel tank was and the others are in the trunk. These are the battery boxes I made to house the modules. They are of a split shell design, sealed with silicone. The tops are cork gasket so they can be removed for servicing.

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I have finished nearly all the fab work and am in the process of wiring everything up. So far BMS cell taps are wired up. Starting to wire all the I/O connections for the BMS, Charge and inverter. As well as the CAN network.

Here’s a photo of the engine bay thus far. Wish I took more photos during the build, but I always get too into it and forget to take them.

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Ill be tidying everything up more once it is transferred to another road legal frs/brz

Starting to get unmotivated on the project now that the nice weather is here. Hopefully I keep powering through, nearly there.
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DarkwingDuck
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Re: Another FRS/BRZ with a Leaf Motor

Post by DarkwingDuck »

Nicely done!

Your battery boxes look very similar to mine (Still haven't documented my work here.. :( ). I use BMW i3 battery modules which have more or less the same form factor as the soul modules. The engine bay of the FRS/GT86 looks luxuriously spacious compared to my RX8 build. I could only dream of hanging battery boxes like that ;)

Keep up the good work!
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Zapatero
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Re: Another FRS/BRZ with a Leaf Motor

Post by Zapatero »

Hi Henri,

this looks awesome! Are you using an automatic transmission? I love your coupler-design. It's far more sophisticated than mine! Also your battery boxes with the ability to be serviceable are awesome! Looking forward to more pictures! If you need any help you can always contact me!

Philip
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