Chademo Controller Development

[P.S.Mangelsdorf]

How many amps can the board provide the contactors? I have a feeling mine are drawing too much.

contactors are switched via one of the relays on the board.
PCH-112L2MH,000
5amp 12v

Do the contactors have a econimmizer ?

I'm using the Chevy Volt contactors that are not economized, I tested them for a couple hours and the heat rise was not that significant. I've thought about using another relay to trigger them, and/or using a fuel injector driver as an economizer (yes I'm aware that economizers are not terribly difficult to build, but I'm trying to find solutions I can get in a week)

[P.S.Mangelsdorf]

Ok I got some logs:

First, a log turning on the ISA shunt (disconnected from controller) and then re-doing the initialization.

log power up and reinitialize.csv

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Second, after the reinitialization, I power cycled and logged without the controller connected to the bus.

log of power up without controller.csv

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Third, I logged with the controller connected to the bus.

log of power up with controller.csv

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Also attached is a screenshot of the controller interface. The car was not plugged in (pins were jumped to turn on board). BMS (not connected to this bus) was reporting 15% SOC. As you can see, the controller was reporting 0%.

[Isaac96]

In the powerup without controller:
Looks like voltage reading is close to zero (0F and then a very small negative, so in the millivolt range).
Ah reading is also zero.

So this seems to be the correct configuration.

Controller SOC wouldn't change unless you put power through the shunt, no?

[P.S.Mangelsdorf]

In the powerup without controller:
Looks like voltage reading is close to zero (0F and then a very small negative, so in the millivolt range).
Ah reading is also zero.

So this seems to be the correct configuration.

Controller SOC wouldn't change unless you put power through the shunt, no?

That seems to make sense to me. Would there be a way to test that there are correct readings without going to a charge station? It's 15 miles from my house to the nearest station.

Could I just power up the inverter?

[Isaac96]

That should do the trick!

Do you have a picture of the shunt in its place?

[P.S.Mangelsdorf]

This was a quick test with the inverter on, while I was on my way out the door this morning. I'll do a longer test and log this evening.

The shunt ended up sticking out of the box after I flipped it around to the correct orientation. Safety/emergency contactor is above, cables out to the inverter and charge contactors are below. (note: when placed inline, the image is upside down, but if you click on it, it will flip right side up. no clue why)

[P.S.Mangelsdorf]

Attached log is from the bus with shunt and CHAdeMO controller while I start the inverter and then spin the motor up twice. I couldn't also grab a screenshot from the web interface, too much going on.

spin up inverter.csv

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[P.S.Mangelsdorf]

Got some new captures, these from charging attempts.

These were logged on separate charging attempts on an EVGo station. In all cases, charging failed and the station reported that the car initiated a normal shut down.

Edit to add: the web interface cmdstatus showed as SystemMalfunction|Stop once the charge failed.

First is a log on the ISA Shunt bus.

shunt bus attempt failed.csv

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Second is a log on the command/station communication bus.

chademo bus attempt failed.csv

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I also attempted to screen record the web interface but it didn't work correctly.

I'm going to dig into these tonight, but I'd really appreciate anyone that could take a look and let me know what you see.

[P.S.Mangelsdorf]

I found part of my problem, but still no sucess charging.

I realized that the shunt and station communications are the same bus, so I had an extra termination resistor. I pulled that out, but still had issues.

I also double checked the soldering on the relays, and made sure they were connected.

This attempt was at an Electrify America station. I got all the way through the process right up to delivering power, and then it failed.

I got a CAN log and a screen capture, but for some reason its not letting me add the screen capture.

The web interface is still showing 0% SOC, which I think is the error. I did have the shunt installed backwards for a while. Could I have damaged the shunt, where it is still communicating but not measuring properly?

[Isaac96]

Backwards installation shouldn't cause damage.

Looking at your picture: I don't see a voltage sensing connection?
One of the 2-pin connectors needs to be connected to the opposite side of the HV bus (if shunt is on negative then connect 2-pin to positive).


Here's how I had mine hooked up (this is in a RAV4 EV). Pack wiring is on the left, chademo power comes in on the right (orange wires).

EDIT Note that there are three voltage sense connectors; sensor 1 is used for power measurements and has highest priority, not sure which one is read by the Chademo VCU (since all can be accessed via CAN).

[Bigpie]

I'm just getting the harware mounted up at the moment, so not fully up on the specifics.
Has anyone created a mock chademo charger for tesing purposes?

[P.S.Mangelsdorf]

Looking at your picture: I don't see a voltage sensing connection?
One of the 2-pin connectors needs to be connected to the opposite side of the HV bus (if shunt is on negative then connect 2-pin to positive).

Well I'm an idiot. I misread the data sheet and assumed they were only needed to measure sub pack voltages. I'll get them wired up next weekend and see if that solves it.

[alexbeatle]

Is the CHAdeMO controller hardware coming to the shop soon?

[Bratitude]

Is the CHAdeMO controller hardware coming to the shop soon?

its discontinued. zombiverter takes over now.
i think lars sells boards still

[alexbeatle]

Is the CHAdeMO controller hardware coming to the shop soon?

its discontinued. zombiverter takes over now.
i think lars sells boards still

I'm using Tesla SDU with Damuen's V6 drop-in board. I think the zombieverter is an overkill for me...

[P.S.Mangelsdorf]

Looking at your picture: I don't see a voltage sensing connection?
One of the 2-pin connectors needs to be connected to the opposite side of the HV bus (if shunt is on negative then connect 2-pin to positive).

Well I'm an idiot. I misread the data sheet and assumed they were only needed to measure sub pack voltages. I'll get them wired up next weekend and see if that solves it.

Ok, now that I have that fixed, time for my next dumb mistake:

When I built the HV junction box, I put the shunt on the positive side of the battery, so now the shunt reports a negative voltage. Is it possible to tell the shunt to report an inverted voltage, and if so what CAN message would I need to send?

Additionally, as a clarification question: should the shunt report positive amperage when power is leaving the battery or when it is entering?

[Isaac96]

Not sure which way the amperage should be; in my implementations I just checked what it read and adjusted the code as needed.

There is a sign change bit for measurements - can be used for amperage and voltage if necessary.

In the settings command, date byte 1 (second byte) is usually 0x42. Change to 0xC2 to reverse sign for that measurement.

[P.S.Mangelsdorf]

There is a sign change bit for measurements - can be used for amperage and voltage if necessary.

In the settings command, date byte 1 (second byte) is usually 0x42. Change to 0xC2 to reverse sign for that measurement.

Is that for all 9 settings or just one of them?

[Bigpie]

Getting my chademo contactors wired up. Anyone know how the PP should be used?

[Isaac96]

Is that for all 9 settings or just one of them?

I believe that bit can be set for any of the sensor channels individually. (voltage, current, etc).
Not sure which channels you'd want to reverse. Voltage for sure, current possibly, amp-hour counting might be needed too? (though switching current might reverse amp-hour reading).

Getting my chademo contactors wired up. Anyone know how the PP should be used?

PP meaning proximity pilot? Pin 7 can be used to wake up the QC controller, it's a pretty low current signal so you'll want either a small relay or a mosfet.

[Bigpie]

PP meaning proximity pilot? Pin 7 can be used to wake up the QC controller, it's a pretty low current signal so you'll want either a small relay or a mosfet.

Yea, proximity pilot, is it 12v?

[Isaac96]

Yea, proximity pilot, is it 12v?

Pulls to ground.

[Bigpie]

figured it out, thanks though. Works in bench testing, as far as i can test. Need to get it in the car now.

[P.S.Mangelsdorf]

I'm headed out to do some more testing but have a question: Now that I have voltage reporting correctly, the web interface is still showing 0% SOC. Is the controller supposed to be figuring out SOC or is that communicated back from the charging station based on maximum voltage?

[Isaac96]

Charging station does not calculate SOC; I believe the station can display an SOC only if the car tells it what SOC it's at.
I would assume the controller does the job of keeping track of it using the shunt (basically counting power in vs power out, then comparing to pack capacity).