openinverter forum

Hello friends of the electric drive.
I discovered this forum while researching the Leaf motor and, like many others, would now like to present my personal project. I am fascinated by how many enthusiasts are out there who want to convert their own special vehicle. I would like to use the forum for inspiration and learn from other members' solutions for my own conversion.

About the project:
The vehicle is a Barkas B1000 built in 1975. These cars were built from 1961 in the former GDR in East Germany as fast transporters. My vehicle was a fire engine in its 1st life. I would like to equip the Barkas with an electric motor and drive it for the next 40 years
I want to use the Leaf EM57 motor. However, the inverter will probably be based on the ID4 front-wheel drive and will be mounted on the Leaf motor with an adapter plate. I would like to do this for the following reasons:
-The ID4 inverter already has an integrated EMC filter
-The power modules are currently still being produced and further developed and are available as IGBT and SiC variants
-The inverter uses 3 current sensors for the phase currents

The motor should not simply be flanged to the existing gearbox. I want to remove the differential from an existing Barkas gearbox and put it in a newly manufactured housing. The manual gearbox and clutch will therefore be removed. The gear ratio of the differential is 5.2857. The maximum speed of the engine is to be limited to 4500 rpm. This corresponds to around 100 km/h. The maximum torque should be around 300 Nm at the motor and I want to limit the maximum power to 40 kW. This means that the drive is 4kW above the maximum output of the original engine, but slightly below the maximum torque of 350 Nm in first gear.

My background:
I have a doctorate in engineering in the field of power electronics. I can design circuit boards and program microcontrollers. I also like classic cars and enjoy working on old machinery in my spare time. Like the Barkas I am from the East-part of Germany.

The timetable:
It should be legal on the road in 2027. That could certainly be achieved sooner, but with a house and two small children, it's a realistic compromise. I also want the vehicle to be exactly how I want it to be.

Current status:
The vehicle has been completely dismantled and the chassis and bodywork professionally blasted and primed. Repair work is currently being carried out on the bodywork. After that, I will continue with filling, sanding and painting. At the same time, I am developing the drive train. I have the motor and inverter on hand. I replace the driver board and the control board of the ID4 inverter with an own development. This will be followed by testing and measurement on the test bench.

I will report my progress and findings here from time to time.

Many thanks for your interest,
Florian

I'm very much looking forward to this project, the Barkas is awesome

Here are a few more pictures of the ID4 front inverter. This drives an asynchronous motor and has a rated output of 80kW. The IGBT power module FS660R08A6P2FLB is used together with the LEM current sensor HAH3DR 660-S07/SP2.
Here is a comparison of the housing sizes between the Leaf inverter and the ID4 front inverter.

Wait a second.. you know that a mismatch of Inverter and Motor, which is your current plan, will possibly be an issue for the TÜV?
The currently practiced regulation says that you don't need EMV tests for matching motor and inverter, because that already has been certified. However mismatching combinations have not yet been certified and therefore need to be tested.

Or do you have access to an EMV Lab, being a Dr.Ing. for power electronics?

1975 is way before 2002!

You're right, an EMC measurement is necessary in this case. However, as you rightly suspect, I have a good contact with a nearby EMC lab. I have already discussed this with the director. However, in the case of a private conversion, a relatively simple and quick measurement of the radiated emissions is sufficient. My advantage is that the director also used to drive a Barkas and also thinks the project is great

Cool project.
So is the plan to do an open inverter control board for the front ID4 inverter?

I would like to adapt one of my existing control boards. With a corresponding circuit to read out the Leaf resolver. So far I have only had experience with encoders. I program on the C2000 series from Texas Instruments. I would like to continue this in the future because I am very familiar with the special features of the microcontrollers and the registers. However, I will be happy to make the schematics available to the community after completion.

Small update: I have finished designing the replacement driver board version 1 for the IGBT module. Piggybacked onto this board are SKYPER 12 R drivers from Semikron. I also managed to remove the original driver board, which was pressed on using a press-fit connection, without damaging the IGBT module.

BarkasFlo wrote: ↑Tue Aug 20, 2024 6:31 am However, I will be happy to make the schematics available to the community after completion.

That would be very much appreciated.

After testing and function verification i will keep my promise.

The adapter boards arrived today. After a short moment of tension, the certainty that all the holes are in the right place

Just out of interest, is there a reason why the board is so large and not limited to the mounting holes and connection pins? Because of the shielding?

To the phase output side it is so large because of the mounting of the current sensors. On the DC-side i could have spared some millimeters, but it was easier and quicker in the design process to just make a rectangular shape. And the cost of the PCB isn't increased very much. I think it also helps with the shielding, but that wasnt the reason for the design.

Is there a reason for not just using the pre existing driver board?

Reverse Engineering of the Schematic of the existing driver board (Parts, Connections, etc.) is way more complicated for me than just design an equivalent driver board. Some ICs don't have a part number and i don't have a x-ray machine to follow the signal traces.

Ausgezeichnet ! As a former Wartburg 1.3 driver I love this!