[WIP] Mercedes Sprinter / German-e-cars Plantos EV

[Swing]

So, I bought an electric van that was broken, and it was made by a small German company that already went bankrupt.
This one was one of their last, in 2015.

It basically is a Mercedes Sprinter with a Siemens ELFA2 drivetrain (motor and inverter) mounted to the 6 speed gearbox. That wasn't really necessary, but it worked.
The battery was a whopping 200 Winston Thundersky cells giving 40kWh at 700kg so it was a nominal 650v system
The van could drive up to 120km.
It is in fact a 9 seater van, and heating was done with a diesel heater. Because there wouldn't be much left of the range in winter heating the whole van.
The battery gave out because 2 cells died and that's how I bought it, broken.
I couldn't bring the Actia BMS back to live. It was in some kind of error state, and there is literally zero support or information, even though talking to people from Actia who knew about this project!

But, the whole thing is CAN bus controlled with all kinds of black boxes with no info.
Since the BMS had errors, the whole system did not get operational. And it never will, because I removed the BMS.

Luckily, I got some CAN bus documentation on the Siemens ELFA2 drivetrain and some help from a Siemens person.
So I spent some time to create my own VCU which also imitates a battery, based on an Arduino with CAN shield.
There is a start-up sequence to do, the Siemens drivetrain asks for Precharge and so on.
This week, I finally got it driving with the VCU using the original Mercedes throttle pedal.
Just around the parking lot. That was quiet the milestone for me!

But there is still lots to do:
- electric vacuum pump broken
- power steering is not doing anything (one of the many black bloxes is not controlling it)
- ABS / speedomotor problem
- brakes have been used for a while, might not be usable
- getting the original Valere 22kW chargers to work or bidirectional charger

Most important thing on the to-do-list: Building the battery in the rear.
I intend to put it over the rear axle inside, on the loading floor.

For this I purchased an BMW IX3 battery of 80kWh.
This means I will stay below 400v level, not using the whole power available (as amps are limited)
In the end I would like to add batteries, if weight allows it, to get to 600v, or 100 to 120kWh.
And getting more power.

I must say it is quite interesting to drive with a silent motor on a gearbox. You of course shouldn't be using the clutch to often, but when reversing it is necessary (at lost for now, the motor just goes into drive state).
There is zero indication that the motor is still making revs while you are releasing the clutch. Takes some getting used to.

[johu]

Interesting - this company used to reside 3 km down the road from my place in the "Nibler Turm". I once applied for a job there when it was already in Chinese hands. The whole situation was super awkward and I wasn't surprised when they went bust. You were probably at the auction that Nibler initiated to get the stuff removed from their property? Are you located near Kassel?

Anyway, will be watching with interest

[Swing]

Interesting - this company used to reside 3 km down the road from my place in the "Nibler Turm". I once applied for a job there when it was already in Chinese hands. The whole situation was super awkward and I wasn't surprised when they went bust. You were probably at the auction that Nibler initiated to get the stuff removed from their property? Are you located near Kassel?

Anyway, will be watching with interest

No I'm in the Netherlands

The previous owner, also Dutch, bought and imported it.
He said he bought it from someone who had 4 for sale, and the other 3 went to South Africa...
He used it for a year or so until it broke down and nobody could help him.
It has 60.000km on it. It needs some.polishing but overal in very good shape.

For me it is a big advantage that it was imported as a driving car, I don't have to go through any conversion registration anymore. It has become even more difficult in the Netherlands to convert to EV.

Anyway these vans were used as a shuttle bus on an airport.
Hence the 9 seats.
We intend to use it as a campervan and perhaps a home battery when not on holiday. But for now I focus on getting it driving.

[Swing]

Doing some basic testing, with some questionable cabling
The cables are shielded though, and I'm just driving 50 meters and stopping again.
PHEV battery pack for testing on a pallet, forklifted in the rear of the van. Convenient.

Now, I've got to figure out this electro-hydraulic steering pump.
It seems like something that ZF offered, but maybe somebody else really produced it.
There isn't any clear labeling on it.

Next to the big 12v power supply, there are 5 cables, obviously a 12v signal cable and 2 bus systems.
I will check them this week, I'm afraid that they are CAN bus and LIN bus.
But since it is steering, it could be redundend CAN bus?
I only have CAN tools so I will check it that way.

The red-yellow wire does get 12v on it when the key is on, and the pump is still silent.

Since this is a pretty big van, I'm afraid taking a dumb EHPS pump from an Opel or something will not be powerfull enough.
On the other hand, if these dumb pumps with the wires connected to each other go to high output, it might be good enough.

[Jacobsmess]

The vauxhall/Opel Corsa D EPAS have been used in motorhomes and other large Mercedes vans to success. I plan on swapping my van to the Corsa D EPAS when I pull the ICE engine for EV conversion.

[Swing]

The vauxhall/Opel Corsa D EPAS have been used in motorhomes and other large Mercedes vans to success. I plan on swapping my van to the Corsa D EPAS when I pull the ICE engine for EV conversion.

So with the electric motor on the steering column?
That seems like quite some work to me.
The van I have still has a standard Mercedes steering system, so as long as I get the fluid going into one house and out the other, I don't have to do a lot more mechanical work.

I do agree that a motor on the steering column is probably the best solution, lighter and more efficient (only when you need it).
But at this point I don't want to dive into steering systems (not enough time) and I don't feel comfortable messing around with it.

However, there are lots of other Opels in the wrecking yard for parts that do have simple on/off electro hydraulic pumps that I could fit. But yeah, they might not have enough flow.

[Swing]

I made a seperate topic for this power steering pump. I did some CAN bus debugging, but without any further info, it is quite hard.
It probably needs to be replaced.

viewtopic.php?t=4882

[Scrappyjoe]

> He said he bought it from someone who had 4 for sale, and the other 3 went to South Africa...

As someone in South Africa I am intensely interested in this. The EV conversion community is so small here, and support is so poor, that these may very well be sitting in a warehouse somewhere gathering dust…

[Scrappyjoe]

Ah, also, on the hydraulic power steering, if it proves too complex, you could always go with a Volvo electro hydraulic pump. It works at 70% power with just a 12v ignition signal, and you can get it to work with variable speed with a controller from Bruno power steering. I have one in my VW T3 bus and it is powerful enough for city driving.

EDIT:

The Bruno controller will vary the pump power depending on a GPS signal, so it will run at 100% when slow, and gradually reduce power as speed increases, resulting in more stable steering (and less pump load) at speed.

[Swing]

Regarding the power steering, I have sent out some questions, if all these paths run dead (quite likely) I will go for something more simple.
I'm thinking these Opel pumps as they can be enabled very easily and very cheap.
But yeah, such a controller with GPS is nice too.

> He said he bought it from someone who had 4 for sale, and the other 3 went to South Africa...

As someone in South Africa I am intensely interested in this. The EV conversion community is so small here, and support is so poor, that these may very well be sitting in a warehouse somewhere gathering dust…

Well, as I understand it, they were all working vehicles when sold.
And you can still buy the battery cells new.
I would say that the BMS is the weak point in the original design, without any support. The rest is more forgiving it seems.
I mean, the Siemens basically logs some errors that you make, but it will not behave any differently, it will not lock up in some error state.
With BMS in lock up, the whole thing isn't going anywhere.
Well, until now because I made a new controller for it.

[Scrappyjoe]

Well, I have a working Volvo unit in my car, so if you have any questions about it, feel free to PM.

I’ll keep an eye out for electric Sprinters here