Prius Gen3 Inverter Hacking

[dima]

Toyota and BMW logos together

[sonachan1]

Hey Damien, this is looking really good!

So I started to check the PCB layout against my inverter. I found that my board is 154mm x 143mm, so it is shorter on the edge nearest the current sensors.

Not to worry, I think the new board will fit, I'll just have to move the mounting holes down a few mm and rearrange a few bits. Will probably use a little cardboard aided design to check it!

[Jack Bauer]

Prototype board for the Gen3 inverter have arrived.

[sonachan1]

That looks good. Where did you get it built? Excited to see it working!

[arber333]

@Jack Bauer, how did you solve current sensing? +/-5V signal to 0 - 5V? Did you just use a diode and 2K2 resistor or something more elaborate ?

tnx

A

[Jack Bauer]

The Gen 3 inverter current sensors run between 1v and 9v with 5v representing zero current. See here : https://github.com/damienmaguire/Prius- ... _curve.jpg

So only needs a divide by 2 to work.

Successfully tested the prototype V1 board in the Prius inverter today. Ran motors openloop on both MG1 and MG2 power stages then ran a Leaf motor closed loop on both. Current sensors, power stage, voltage detection , heatsink temp sensing and resolver driver all working as they should.

[arber333]

Tnx for the info, congratulations.

I am now running Leaf motor in a closed loop with lebowski brain. Everything works with motor and controler loose. But when i tried to connect motor and controller case controler brain goes in drive 0 and refuses to run. I measured a PWM signal on motor case. It is the same shape as the IGBT signal and some 207Vac in magnitude. Can you try with scope what you get on your Leaf motor? It seems like my motor is leaking PWM...

[Jack Bauer]

Nearly all motors will leak like that. Connect the case to 12v ground.

[sonachan1]

Hey @Jack Bauer, great news on the working prototype. Time to get a kit of parts together I think! DC to DC convertor and charger up and running next?

[Jack Bauer]

The DC DC runs by itself so yeah that's done. Charger will take a little longer.

[sonachan1]

Great stuff. One of the things that gives me pause for thought is the proprietary connector and the need to get the mating half.

Looking at the housing there's an adaptor plate with a seal:

So a 3D printed part that uses the seal is a possibility. Here's a mock up with a molex connector (£7 from Farnell), fitted to a small PCB with a 40way IDC connector which could be connected to the main PCB with a ribbon cable.

@Jack B, I remember from your videos that you've used a similar connector, but I can't see it in my notes. What was it?

The other thing that occurred to me when I was looking at this is how are the two W-Fi modules going to get on once the metal lid's on?

[arber333]

Nearly all motors will leak like that. Connect the case to 12v ground.

That was exactly what caused the problem. As long as i have motor floating inverter runs silky smooth. If i couple motor to common gnd controller goes into mode 0.
I guess i will try to isolate controller from GND. Ive done it before .

tnx

A

[Jack Bauer]

Did some diesel cranking with the prius inverter and learned a few things. The temp sensors in the igbt block work perfectly with the "Semikron" option in the inverter. The prius inverter heats up fast which makes sense as the heatsink is very small. I bypassed the temp sensor input to the inverter and kept cranking. Seems Toyota were onto my game and at 100C the igbt driver backs off very smoothly and bring me to a stop regardless of the pwm command.

So I can't blow them with shootthrough, cant blow them with too much current and now I can't blow them with too much heat.

[Bigpie]

The DC DC runs by itself so yeah that's done. Charger will take a little longer.

Doesn't the Hubner brain have charging already built in?
What would the benefit of using the prius buck/boost instead be?

[johu]

Great stuff. One of the things that gives me pause for thought is the proprietary connector and the need to get the mating half.

Looking at the housing there's an adaptor plate with a seal:

Great stuff, would also work for the Leaf inverter which uses the same super secret connector. Would you like to share the production data or sell the part?

@Jack B, I remember from your videos that you've used a similar connector, but I can't see it in my notes. What was it?

The other thing that occurred to me when I was looking at this is how are the two W-Fi modules going to get on once the metal lid's on?

That was an Ampseal 35-way, don't know the model number though.
In the Leaf inverter you can still get connection to the Wifi module. It seems to "leak" through the plastic of the connector. It can even connect to my home wifi through the houses outer wall if pointed in the right direction.

[sonachan1]

Hey johu, don't mind sharing the data so anyone can print their own. I'll check out the Ampseal parts and see how they fit. I'm not too happy with the molex part I chose as I'm not sure how to seal it to the new plastic part. Maybe it needs some of Jack's Tiger Seal. Also, I thought the ribbon cable might be better as 2x 20 way.

Has the leaf got the same adapter plate with the seal? If not we can design something to fit instead, but use the same connector, PCB and ribbon cables.

[johu]

Cool. To me the Nissan outlet looks exactly the same. After all it's a TE part. https://www.te.com/global-en/product-1939561-3.html

[sonachan1]

Yep, identical. So the Ampseal connector is maximum 35 way and Mr Bauer is using 39 ways for the Prius Inverter. Will keep looking.

[Jack Bauer]

34 way is the max ampseal but there are other variants. I was able to buy the unobtanium plug from a guy breaking a prius on ebay.

[Jack Bauer]

Making some progress with the Prius inverter. Now running MG2 in my modified Gen 2 transaxle with the planet carrier welded to link MG1 and MG2. Should make a good dyno system as I can run one motor in regen and one in drive for testing.

[Aquinax]

Hey Damien, this is looking really good!

So I started to check the PCB layout against my inverter. I found that my board is 154mm x 143mm, so it is shorter on the edge nearest the current sensors.

Prius Gen 3 Invertor Board.png

Not to worry, I think the new board will fit, I'll just have to move the mounting holes down a few mm and rearrange a few bits. Will probably use a little cardboard aided design to check it!

I got the same...
But if two holes in the upper left can be moved, then in the upper right it goes right under the connector of the current sensor mg2, which on my board is performed in lying form

[arber333]

JB what would happen if i appied 360Vdc to Prius inverter? Did you try if 12V converter would work at all?
I have one unit sitting here and i am a bit anxious to connect full 360Vdc Ampera battery.
Does it need any secondary input like enable signal to create 12Vdc output?

tnx

Arber

[Jack Bauer]

I wouldn't advise it Arber. The Prius runs between about 180 and 250v. What you could do is use the converter to buck the 360v down to around 200v. The Lexus dc dc would be a better bet as they run at 288v nominal and might stretch to 360v.

[arber333]

I wouldn't advise it Arber. The Prius runs between about 180 and 250v. What you could do is use the converter to buck the 360v down to around 200v. The Lexus dc dc would be a better bet as they run at 288v nominal and might stretch to 360v.

Caps and IGBTs are cerainly capable of carrying 360Vdc, but i dont know what would happen with internal switching module...

Yesterday evening i tested with 2/3s of ampera battery, so some 208Vdc. 14Vdc wouldnt come online. So i started to read in Prius repair manual and on page 3878 i found in connector A59 there is a pin NODD (pin12) that needs PWM excitation to run DCDC. This is for Aux DCDC or for HV buck boost conversion?
There is also pin 11 S to monitor Aux voltage. What would we need to connect to start 12Vdc supply?

You intend to use Aux supply with your design?


Tnx

[Jack Bauer]

Here you go :