openinverter forum

P.S.Mangelsdorf wrote: ↑Wed Dec 18, 2019 2:15 pm Do you know of a source for a smart fuse like you mentioned previously?

US ebay has several Tesla Model S/X pyro fuses listed. This one at $150 is a decent price;

https://www.ebay.com/itm/TESLA-MODEL-S- ... 3600903496

We do not allow our BMS authority over the contactors for the above reasons. However, a fuse is absolutely required for racing as per FIA or any other organizations that have EV rules. FIA actually requires two.

Gigavac has pyro fuses. https://www.gigavac.com/catalog/power-products/fuses

I've got some posts in the "LDU Parameter Tuning" thread, but thought discussions of errors may be more appropriate here. During our dyno runs, IDC was consistently 50-60% lower than the battery pack current logged by our Orion2 BMS. The Orion values appear to be correct. Has anybody else seen this? Is this a problem with just our board?

We also experienced a number of overcurrent errors that shut the controller down even though the software limits were set so that the limits should never have come into effect. Was this s possibly related to the incorrect IDC measurement?

IDC is not measured but calculated from the AC current.

I would not 100% trust any induction current sensor, plus I do not know how fast they measure or what sort of filtering they do.

If you are on a test bench use a calibrated instrument to get a better understanding of how far both differ.

The overcurrent shut down is also derived from il1 and il2 values I believe. Depending on the slip or fweak parameters, they can be hit quite easily.

Orion current readings have been verified on the bench and also against the Tesla supplied values via CAN when using the stock controller. In reality, I don't care about the IDC values - unless they are affecting our ability to tune. I'm just trying to see if there is anything we can do differently to increase power/torque. As with Jon, we seemed to hit overcurrent quite easily.

What is your AC current limit set to? Also look at setting up the rise and fall for the current limiter.

IACMax=5000. Ifltrise=10. Ifltfall=3.

What is ocurlim ? The default is -2500 in most LDU parameter files. That is the value shutting the motor down.

I started with -1500, moved it to -2500, then -10000. Also tried +10000. None of the changes appeared to move the overcurrent point. They were definitely not spurious errors though. If I made a change to decrease current (i.e. moving fweak, fslipmax) the error would stop. When I initially ran your parameters, I got an error with boost = 1850. I was able to run successfully with boost = 1500.

Interesting. I doubt you hit 10k il values to trigger that. I wonder if theres another error state that piggybacks off the overcurrent error state. I do remember when I had a bad igbt, it would give an instant overcurrent fault with key on despite no AC current generation. Thats not the case here since your motor runs well, but does point to multiple possible triggers for that error state.

This reminds me about a similar problem i had on my Enova controller board (different hardware i know, but same designer). The signals from the current sensors/opamp were so high that the IL1,IL2 lines from the mcu hit their maximum of ≈3,3v well before actual motor current reached it's maximum.
My current sensors has Gain and Span adjustments so i fiddled whit those and also changed some resistors on the signal conditioning until i got it under 3,3v at the "overcurrent protection". Remember to recalibrate your sensors in software afterwords...

-edit-
I checked the LDU schematics and they are almost identical for the current sensors and the overcurrent handling..

Damien - would you mind sharing your source for PCB mfg and assembly? Maybe something can be set up with them similar to programs that PCBway offer....wherein, you make a shareable link on their site that allows buyers to click on it to order directly from the manufacturer. They then pay you a bit on every deal.

Sorry no. The pcb builder I use would not work that way.

It seems that all 3 phases of my motor are shorted in both directions, diode voltage across dc +&_ to ac output is 0. It seems the whole inverter is destroyed. I guess I'll purchase a new one.

Is there any point to upgrading my standard LDU inverter to a performance inverter? I'm using 2 Chevy volt packs in parallel, is the inverter the limiting factor?

also I had an issue with the main contactor opening whenever I floored it from a complete stop. Is that caused by an overcurrent limit being hit? I don't want the contactors to open again and cause another inverter failure.

I am not sure where you would get a spare inverter. Those things cling to the motor untill they burn.
Maybe you can use 2 Volt inverter sections to drive Tesla motor at 1000Arms. You would just have to remove burned inverter and make a cooling plate to cover the passages that cool the inverter which is now missing.
Nice side project to see what tesla motor would do with "ordinary" inverter

arber333 wrote: ↑Tue Dec 31, 2019 1:08 pm I am not sure where you would get a spare inverter.

A number of vendors sell Tesla inverters;

https://www.ebay.com/itm/TESLA-MODEL-S- ... 3928238829

Kevin Sharpe wrote: ↑Tue Dec 31, 2019 2:09 pm

arber333 wrote: ↑Tue Dec 31, 2019 1:08 pm I am not sure where you would get a spare inverter.

A number of vendors sell Tesla inverters;

https://www.ebay.com/itm/TESLA-MODEL-S- ... 3928238829

Wow! missed that, thanks.

Rx7FD wrote: ↑Tue Dec 31, 2019 7:03 am also I had an issue with the main contactor opening whenever I floored it from a complete stop.

Clearly something is fundamentally wrong with your setup because we have at least 50 cars using the open source controller board. I would recommend that you publish details of your conversion in a project thread before trying this again.

Since announcing that I was stopping supply of built boards for Tesla I have had a storm of emails and contacts from people begging me to reconsider. Now, the problem of small volume board building is not something that many people encounter. I won't go into the painful details but trust me it's not easy. I spent a ton of time and legwork trying to make it work and just couldn't. Over the Christmas period I was looking again at ways to get boards built particularly for my Toyota projects. I think I hit on a super way to do this and good news is it will work for Tesla boards also.The video here gives a full explanation and I expect to be using JLCPCB for all my builds if things go to plan. So, more boards, faster and cheaper:)

Jack Bauer wrote: ↑Sun Jan 05, 2020 2:53 pm Since announcing that I was stopping supply of built boards for Tesla I have had a storm of emails and contacts from people begging me to reconsider. Now, the problem of small volume board building is not something that many people encounter. I won't go into the painful details but trust me it's not easy. I spent a ton of time and legwork trying to make it work and just couldn't. Over the Christmas period I was looking again at ways to get boards built particularly for my Toyota projects. I think I hit on a super way to do this and good news is it will work for Tesla boards also.The video here gives a full explanation and I expect to be using JLCPCB for all my builds if things go to plan. So, more boards, faster and cheaper:)

Sounds like a good solution! All your efforts on this a truly appreciated, thank you!

Tesla large drive unit boards now in production at JLC.

That's great news on the new boards. I may need more now. Thanks Damien for taking the time.

I want to thank everyone for their help in getting my car running. Its a Rocket ship. IMO of course.

I have a question though if anyone cares to answer it. I have push buttons for forward and reverse but I a bit stumped as how to hook up a Neutral button or if it's necessary.

Jack

First batch of prototypes have arrived from JLCPCB. Initial observation is that this is top tier board building. As good as anything I have ever seen in my career and better than anything local who have charged a hell of a lot more.

I'd like to appeal for some calm in relation to the whole JLC build. I won't be responding to anymore "DAMIEN! WHEN ARE YOU RELEASING THE JLC BOM AND PLACEMENT FILES!" type of emails or messages on here or otherwise. The boards will be tested. Errors if found corrected. Webshop and github will then be updated and videos made. The vast majority of people are great and appreciate the effort involved but some seem to think I'm their personal design engineer. Newsflash! I'm not.

Now in relation to the webshop we'll be making a few changes. There will be three tiers of board available to buy :

1) Board direct from JLC as I receive them with listed smt placed, unprogrammed and untested. This will replace the bare boards currently on sale.
2) Board direct from JLC as I receive them with listed smt placed, programmed but untested. This gets around the need for programming the micros.
3) Board with all components both listed smt and non listed smt and through hole placed, programmed and tested.

Great stuff. Are you going to do a video on your general impression of the JLC stuff? Im considering using them once I finalize a couple projects.