openinverter forum

Oh no,
I just today joined the forum in the hope I could work with you Jack on reverse engineering the VW charger. I also bought a dead GS450H based on all your videos, with a plan to convert it to a PHEV. I have 26 years professional electronics/embedded software/FPGA design behind me, and I love a bit of reverse engineering. I joined to ask which version of the VW charger I should buy so I could contribute. D'oh!!
-Hazel

hazelnut wrote: ↑Fri Nov 25, 2022 12:55 pm Oh no,
I just today joined the forum in the hope I could work with you Jack on reverse engineering the VW charger. I also bought a dead GS450H based on all your videos, with a plan to convert it to a PHEV. I have 26 years professional electronics/embedded software/FPGA design behind me, and I love a bit of reverse engineering. I joined to ask which version of the VW charger I should buy so I could contribute. D'oh!!
-Hazel

Maybe reach out to him via YouTube comments? Another video recently dropped.

hazelnut wrote: ↑Fri Nov 25, 2022 12:55 pm Oh no,
I just today joined the forum in the hope I could work with you Jack on reverse engineering the VW charger. I also bought a dead GS450H based on all your videos, with a plan to convert it to a PHEV. I have 26 years professional electronics/embedded software/FPGA design behind me, and I love a bit of reverse engineering. I joined to ask which version of the VW charger I should buy so I could contribute. D'oh!!
-Hazel

The best place for that is probably the Patreon Discord channel. Even with the lowest tier you get access

hazelnut wrote: ↑Fri Nov 25, 2022 12:55 pm Oh no,
I just today joined the forum in the hope I could work with you Jack on reverse engineering the VW charger. I also bought a dead GS450H based on all your videos, with a plan to convert it to a PHEV. I have 26 years professional electronics/embedded software/FPGA design behind me, and I love a bit of reverse engineering. I joined to ask which version of the VW charger I should buy so I could contribute. D'oh!!
-Hazel

Yes, Youtube and Patreon, his latest video shows good progress with the VW chargers and more to do so good to see help go his way Interested to see the FPGA background, that's where Damien's work on the Tesla Model 3 BMS reverse engineering stopped!!!

Damien, I'm sad to see you go. Your input and knowledge has helped numerous people through the years including myself. I deeply wish I had more electrical engineering knowledge to have helped you in your projects, for this I am sorry. I also I want you to know that I have tried and used your boards the AEM LDU control board and in my opinion your board is far superior and easier to use so congrats to you and the others that have made it the goto board for a lot of people now. Again sorry to see you leave.

Jack Fleming AKA Roadstercycle

Also sad to hear this news, however you gotta do what is good for you mate! Just ordered my built ZombieVerter last night/this morning (depending on time zone and I'm really excited to get involved with all this gs450h stuff and ccs2 dc charging via lim control. Massive thanks Damien you're a champion of diy EV conversion recycling

Cheers from Australia for all your work and videos

Sad news. I'm a bit of a newbie and Damien with the ZombieVerter is what got me on this forum.

hazelnut wrote: ↑Fri Nov 25, 2022 12:55 pmI just today joined the forum in the hope I could work with you Jack on reverse engineering the VW charger. [... ]I have 26 years professional electronics/embedded software/FPGA design behind me, and I love a bit of reverse engineering.

In part I highlighted this as a problematic solution above.

The forums are generally where people find out about this stuff, and where they comment, and how they contribute.

Yes, if you were determined, you could join on Patreon and such.

But what portion of people are going to find out about that? What portion of people are going to become excited about something that they don't have access to? When there's roadblocks and the occasional casual person is able to contribute, or mention to someone else that that's in progress, how would they ever know?

Sometimes there's this feeling like "It's not technically impossible if your life depended on it, therefore, all solutions are equivalent." This, for example, is how open source projects are birthed and die on Github. Yes, the solution is technically there, if you knew it was there and wanted to fight to find it. But instead, going to the place where the people who are looking for that kind of thing will find you, and writing sentences with words, is going to be seen by 1000x as many people.

Some farmers want to be the farmer where people drive up to their property and ask if they're selling any vegetables. And if it suits their lifestyle, that's fine. If your goal is privacy and minimal interaction, that's a good way of getting it. But it's not going to be as successful as that farmer going to a farmer's market. And if you were going to the market and stopped, yeah, you'll see people making the effort to find you at your farm instead. But a year or two later, that number will have gradually shrank to nearly zero. What doesn't really make sense is to be the farmer who wants both privacy and success. Maybe you loathe interacting with the public, and seeing 9/10 people taking samples of your carrots and not buying any, but, that's a part of being successful. So, do whatever makes you happy, but, be aware of the tradeoffs you make.

While the solution to not having to deal with annoying freeloaders can be to withdraw to where they won't find you, the solution to finding more people who will contribute isn't going to be the same. Have to pick your poison. Can't skim the cream if you're not milking.

I'm thinking it's about time to move on. Even if Damien does not decide to return here, his work is still accessible for everyone. It can be seen as a trade, the community makes use of his reverse engineering and in return supports his customers (I think it still says on every board "for support visit openinverter.org") . Damien is shielded from the stream of tiring questions and can concentrate on his work. He is working with his supportive crowd on discord where the contribution to question ratio is more favourable than on a public forum.

I think his work is the most important building block because it broadens the choice of devices that can be reused.

The "demystifying" theme is of equal importance and I think that is something to really concentrate on. People should be able to land on the openinverter.org entry page and immediately stumble upon a beginners guide on EV conversion with used OEM components.

I think this important topic should be discussed separately: https://openinverter.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2826

Any objections to locking this thread?

johu wrote: ↑Mon Nov 28, 2022 9:23 am People should be able to land on the openinverter.org entry page and immediately stumble upon a beginners guide on EV conversion with used OEM components.

I think soon we'll have a guide book that could fill in this gap

discord by the way is a whole other story. Not a place a beginner gets along and also not a place a beginner wants to ask questions, you'll get a shitstorm. I'm on discord for openpilot. I'm sure Damien and the rest of the elite is better off there, not getting silly questions all the time. Let's see what Damien gifts us in the future! The info will be on openinverter anyways in the end.

I wouldn't consider Damiens Discord channel to be that elitist, it has a different scope than the forum. The forum is there to ask questions where many people can help you and the Discord channel is rather focused on the development side where fewer people are involved.

To my knowledge there hasn't been a shitstorm yet because someone asked a question. Maybe the openpilot community is a bit more... hostile

Personal things have taken me away from EV conversion work and this forum lately, and when I have been on, I understand the feeling of being overwhelmed by the discussions. I know some of my dumb questions and screw ups haven't helped matters either.

I know I haven't said it enough, but my deepest thanks to Damien and the others that have made this forum a wealth of information and driven the community forward.

My favorite memory from my build was a day where I was troubleshooting a tuning issue and was getting near real-time feedback from Ireland, Germany, the Netherlands, Connecticut, Oregon, and Washington, all in my garage in North Carolina.

hi. as a newbie, I am devastated by your decision, Damian. I've only just discovered this forum and I'm a pelican at all these things. You and Johu are mentors on this issue and I thank you very much for that. Stay with us please. greetings

My personal opinion for what it's worth is that Damien should not leave the forum completely even though sometimes it may feel like a drain on his precious time.
This forum has been closely related to Damiens work and has contributed a great deal over the years so to leave it completely may be a mistake.
Having said that he should not feel obliged to be here all the time nor to answer questions that have been asked before.
Forums are like clubs, people come and go and everyone has different levels of commitment so it can sometimes feel disheartening for the leaders but sadly that's just life.
Perhaps his PM inbox could be turned off to lessen the load.

Alibro wrote: ↑Mon Nov 28, 2022 8:16 pmPerhaps his PM inbox could be turned off to lessen the load.

https://openinverter.org/forum/viewtopi ... 741#p40741

'nuff said. Locking up for now unless there is an enormous shitstorm