Outlander VCU - Rear inverter, Charger and BMS

Mitsubishi hybrid drive unit hacking
Turbopete
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Re: Outlander VCU - Rear inverter, Charger and BMS

Post by Turbopete »

Apologies - i found my mistake on the dash bus - as you guessed i had the baud rate set incorrect.

As for the start up sequence - i have not connected the HV battery (being very cautious) and therefore the sequence stops at precharge. Do i need to bite the bullet and connect my HV components now?
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Re: Outlander VCU - Rear inverter, Charger and BMS

Post by aot93 »

Happy to hear that!

Caution is good, especially when HV is involved!

If you are ready for HV i'd suggest connecting through a resistive load (incandescent bulb is a good choice) untill you are happy with everything.

Alternatively you could comment out the pre-charge check and check for correct can transmission etc.
Obviously don't do this with HV connected.
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Re: Outlander VCU - Rear inverter, Charger and BMS

Post by Turbopete »

Thanks very much for the pointers - I will definitely do as you suggest when connecting the HV.

I have tried to use the test code you suggested but I can’t get it to work out of either can1 can2 or can3?

I managed to comment out the pre-charge check and that allowed the contactor sequence to complete however I’m still not seeing any traffic on the inverter bus?

Thanks very much for all your guidance and direction - massively appreciated!
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Re: Outlander VCU - Rear inverter, Charger and BMS

Post by Turbopete »

Scrap the above - making progress again! I’ve found a suspicious solder joint!
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Re: Outlander VCU - Rear inverter, Charger and BMS

Post by arber333 »

@aot93

I built the VCU board now. In a day (or several) i will be able to install the program.
In the meantime i would like to setup my car simulator with motor and inverter. Can you tell me how did you connect inverter Hirose connector?
Obviously inverter CAN lines are connected to VCU CAN2 but do you use any other inputs of inverter. I recall i could be using RSDN pin with notaus button directly. This could be pulling 12V down in case of any errors.
Also do you connect ignition pin of inverter to VCU, which pin?

Anything else interconnected?

tnx

A
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Re: Outlander VCU - Rear inverter, Charger and BMS

Post by aot93 »

Good to hear the progress!

I connected RSDN to Drive contactor of BMS, that way if the BMS faults it should be a graceful shutdown of the inverter.
IGN goes to a relay pulled high by the key switch.
GND goes straight to GND.

You will need the link to motor to have the temperature, revolver and other data, the inverter needs to see this or it does nothing from my experience.

As a side note and mentioned in other threads, these connectors are very hard to find, so try to get them from where you pick up your inverter or motor from.
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Re: Outlander VCU - Rear inverter, Charger and BMS

Post by arber333 »

aot93 wrote: Wed Feb 23, 2022 4:39 pm I connected RSDN to Drive contactor of BMS, that way if the BMS faults it should be a graceful shutdown of the inverter.
So for now i will just use my notaus switch. With your experience how is the shutoff effected? Is regen active or does the motor just freewheel.
IGN goes to a relay pulled high by the key switch.
GND goes straight to GND.
I will connect outputs to a LED ladder to see whai i need to connect in a car :).
You will need the link to motor to have the temperature, revolver and other data, the inverter needs to see this or it does nothing from my experience.
As a side note and mentioned in other threads, these connectors are very hard to find, so try to get them from where you pick up your inverter or motor from.
I got resolver cable with my motor and the other hirose connector with inverter. But since it is a small number of cables to connect to i would recommend to just make 3d print grommet with oring from PETG material. Model from LRBen is here:
https://openinverter.org/forum/viewtopi ... 728#p14728
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Re: Outlander VCU - Rear inverter, Charger and BMS

Post by aot93 »

[quoteIs regen active or does the motor just freewheel.
][/quote]

Freewheel.

Talking of 3d printed parts I made a HV cable entry block for the motor or inverter. If you can't get the original this could be helpful.
IMG_20210212_190919.jpg
motorPower.stl
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Re: Outlander VCU - Rear inverter, Charger and BMS

Post by bigdaveakers »

First time post, I have had all the kit in the garage including a powerdesigns controller board, didn't really get it working......I have been waiting for a CAN version and now I have found this I have ordered all the parts and look forward to getting spinning!
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Re: Outlander VCU - Rear inverter, Charger and BMS

Post by bigdaveakers »

Hi all, just tearing down the inverter to get at the vehicle wiring (fortunately I have a loom for the resolver) and I am presented with a question!

This is the back of the grey connector (view from inside the inverter) and the pinouts from the manual.......As you can see they are different as pins 1-7 and 8-14 are upside down and back to front. The pin numbers dont worry me as all I am interested in doing is identifying the wire colours for CAN L, CAN H, IGCT, and RSDN. I can say with some certainty that white appears to be GND.

So, is CAN H Green or purple?
Is IGCT Orange or Blue?
Outlander.jpg
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Re: Outlander VCU - Rear inverter, Charger and BMS

Post by arber333 »

I see this on the other side. This is OEM connector.
20220307_202049.jpg
20220307_202033.jpg
It seems the sketch was made from the front side of connector. Black is GND and IGCT is ignition (red), RSDN is shutoff (light green). CANL is green red and CANH is red black.

It seems like internal connector CAN wires are black and green yes. White is GND. Yellow is RSDN and blue is ignition.
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Re: Outlander VCU - Rear inverter, Charger and BMS

Post by bigdaveakers »

arber333 wrote: Mon Mar 07, 2022 7:28 pm It seems like internal connector CAN wires are black and green yes. White is GND. Yellow is RSDN and blue is ignition.
That is perfect, thanks!
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Re: Outlander VCU - Rear inverter, Charger and BMS

Post by bigdaveakers »

Look what arrived today!!
VCU.jpg
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Re: Outlander VCU - Rear inverter, Charger and BMS

Post by aot93 »

Nice! Looking forward to see your progress!
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Re: Outlander VCU - Rear inverter, Charger and BMS

Post by bigdaveakers »

aot93 wrote: Thu Mar 10, 2022 4:56 pm Nice! Looking forward to see your progress!
Also just bagged this lot for £225......I now have 3 inverters... :evil:
inverter.jpg
I am sure I will be tapping you up with stupid questions!
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Re: Outlander VCU - Rear inverter, Charger and BMS

Post by bigdaveakers »

More ebay trawling and I picked up a battery box for £70
outlanderbattery.jpg
outlanderbattery.jpg (91.36 KiB) Viewed 52266 times
All I really wanted was the contactors as I didn't want to pay £70 each for them. I found that the +ve and -ve contactors are housed in a nice single package
outlandercontactor.jpg
As a bonus the seller included the 10 BMS units that sit on each of the cells......that is money well spent I think!
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Re: Outlander VCU - Rear inverter, Charger and BMS

Post by bigdaveakers »

looking at the schematics, this looks like the quick charging contactor - need to dig in the other end of the battery box :D
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Re: Outlander VCU - Rear inverter, Charger and BMS

Post by aot93 »

Yep that is the chadamo one. (I used it to run my heater)

The other end under the fan should have a three pole one which is the main drive package.

There are a lot of handy parts in the case, I reused most of the wiring.

I was starting to look at using the BMS sub controller for is ground fault sensing but not got very far with that!
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Re: Outlander VCU - Rear inverter, Charger and BMS

Post by bigdaveakers »

aot93 wrote: Thu Mar 17, 2022 8:12 pm The other end under the fan should have a three pole one which is the main drive package.
Yep, I stripped the other end in the dark and pulled the 3 pole contactor and resistor.

I just need to think hard about what I am actually going to do for a battery.........the sensible choice is obviously an Outlander pack, but I would like a bigger pack to be honest and the rectangular cells are a little harder to package in my smart roadster.
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Re: Outlander VCU - Rear inverter, Charger and BMS

Post by aot93 »

I use outlander cells, they are easy to work with and cheap, but their energy density is just rubbish.
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Re: Outlander VCU - Rear inverter, Charger and BMS

Post by bigdaveakers »

So, I have made a harness, powered up the VCU and managed to run some of the menu items.

Throttle position set points done
Control of contactors (neg, pre charge, pos)

I am still waiting for the opto isoloator chips so cant do anything with the inputs and all of connectors are on chocolate blocks until I actually need to put the loom in a vehicle.
IMG20220319181255.jpg
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Re: Outlander VCU - Rear inverter, Charger and BMS

Post by arber333 »

aot93 wrote: Thu Mar 17, 2022 10:45 pm I use outlander cells, they are easy to work with and cheap, but their energy density is just rubbish.
Hi

I am working on your BMS module, adapting it for my use. I will use it with VW code.
Can you tell me why do you use 3V3 output pin C7 on your BMS board? Is it some sensor? I know CAN transciever is 5V tolerant.

tnx

A
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Re: Outlander VCU - Rear inverter, Charger and BMS

Post by aot93 »

Good work, always nice to hear things going click!

cpc are showing 9 opto's in stock they have been hard to get like a lot of other things..:

https://cpc.farnell.com/vishay/cny74-4h ... dp/SC17307
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Re: Outlander VCU - Rear inverter, Charger and BMS

Post by aot93 »

I am working on your BMS module, adapting it for my use. I will use it with VW code.
Can you tell me why do you use 3V3 output pin C7 on your BMS board? Is it some sensor? I know CAN transciever is 5V tolerant.
Do you mean the 3v3 take off on the teensy?

I tried to keep the amount of 5v signals to a minimum to avoid possibility of damaging the teensy, the T3 is much better and is 5v tolerant the T4's die very quickly at 5v

Also the can transceivers have 3v3 printed on them so it's a little less confusing when fault finding

If you mean pin C7 on the plug, this is for connection to analogue current sensor and not used in this setup.
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Re: Outlander VCU - Rear inverter, Charger and BMS

Post by bigdaveakers »

While I wait for the optos I thought I should make a miniature dash for the bench that works with the code in the first thread 8-)
IMG20220320204432.jpg
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