openinverter forum

Bought a wrecked 2020 nissan leaf. Initial idea was to gut it for parts for an EV conversion.
I shifted my plan slightly and like to do an interim step first.

The first goal is now trying to get the leaf working with the ZombiVerter, replacing the original Nissan VCU and to drive the car under its own power.
Hoping that gets me a better understanding of all the parts involved and interacting.

I have the car working now with the original VCU. So i know all parts work
Stripped all parts/connection off are not needed/used. So I pretty much have now isolated:
- motor inverter
- PDM
- HV batterie (OEM) still sealed

Plan is to interface the zombie to the existing connectors (for now) and do a test run just spinning the wheels.
I have zombiVerter with IVT shunt working on the bench.

One issue I run into, is connecting the shunt to the existing car. There is no access to the PDM HV connection unfortunately, unless i removed the motor/inverter/PDM stack. trying to avoid that if possible.

Looking for suggestions on how to get access to the HV voltage, so zombi can enable/disable precharge and enable the main HV relay and get ZombieVerter in "RUN" mode.

You no longer need an IVT shunt with a leaf drivetrain and Zombie.

https://openinverter.org/wiki/Leaf_stac ... ombiverter

Wiring info is on the wiki, not fully word for word but all the info is there.

tom91 wrote: ↑Wed Apr 09, 2025 6:23 pm You no longer need an IVT shunt with a leaf drivetrain and Zombie

Is this still the case if only using invertor/motor or is just for full stack ?

zippy500 wrote: ↑Wed Apr 09, 2025 6:42 pm Is this still the case if only using invertor/motor or is just for full stack ?

You could use just the motor and inverter from a leaf. Keep in mind nothing will be dynamic and rely on you settings the udcsw as before

thanks for the hint, tom91
let me look up how that works.

Upgraded my ZombieVerter board to 2.22 to take advantage of the noShunt configuration.

Connected ZombieVerter to the 2020 Leaf. At this point I pretty much stripped off all unneeded part and I am left with the Leaf stack (motor,inverter,pdm) and the OEM Leaf batterie mounted in the cars.

Once I enable power on [T15] and hit start button, I see CAN message popping up. Pretty exiting to see something working and the PREcharge relay is enabled. Couple of seconds later PREcharge is disabled again (and Main RELAY is off too). ZombieVerter VCU goes into PreCharge fault. This is pretty repeatable.

Shifting through the logs I see the inverter CAN msg [1DA] showing only 4V. So there is definitely no HV being detected by the inverter. I assume the HV batterie is not supplying any juice, even though I hear the precharge relay clicking.

I noticed that the CAN message [11a] joystickGearPosition and [1d4] VCM are missing in the log. I did 2 more test runs and they definitely not showing.
Are these message needed by the HV batterie?

If I run the ZVvcu on the bench, (not connected leaf stack and batterie) they clearly there, send by ZVvcu
Why would they be missing when connected to the Leaf modules?

Does anybody have/share some knowledge on the LEaf HV batterie.
Can the HV batterie supply High voltage without being connected to a VCU?
Meaning I just supplying 12V, poweron, and precharge signal to the HV batterie terminals is enough to enable HV output?
I noticed that some CAN message talk about "main relay permiission" and wonder if the the VCM [1d4] is needed to tell the batterie to supply HV

Are the Gen3 batterie (2018+) have different controls needed compared to the Gen/2?

Sorry for all these questions and appreciate all your thoughts to help me sort this out

Here a link to can message [savvyCAN] of the test run: leaf_solo_zombie_noshunt.csv

some additional notes:
When testing just the zombie VCU on the bench (no leaf connected) I never see any CAN message being send out from the ZombieVCU.
It seems that with 2.22 installed, CAN msg [11a], [1d4] (and more) never send when status is UdcBelowUdcSw. so zombieVCU needs to see voltage above 300+V, which it never does in my case.

Raises the question again, why does the HV batterie not show me some voltage?????

Sorry, My comment above "run the ZVvcu on the bench" was a test run with the ISA shunt connected and a simulated HV batterie with 60V power supply

Come on atleast follow a logic in you approach. You just bash all bits in and assume it works.

You first need to get the battery pack working propperly. Closing the negative contactor and the precharge, then you add the positive contactor+ shunt/inverter or what ever does your feedback. before moving on. this is also after getting everything else to work like the throttle signal, direction signals and brake pedal.

Also provide a pram dump I cannot see what you have configured wired or anything.
See rule 4 viewtopic.php?t=5714

Thanks tom91 for your response, I really appreciate it, and it is really helpful to me.

Sorry for not following the rules, I totally get your point. I am new on this block and promise to improve and follow up with what is needed to describe my setup. will try and do a PARAM dump tonight.

There is a big possibility that I mis-wired something. Especially since I do (as of now) not have direct access to the connectors (PDM, inverter, batterie). and have to splice into the existing car harness.
I try to do my due-diligence as much as possible, but it is a big learning curve.

- have VW/Audi throttle setup working.

- No brake signal setup yet, from looking at this diagram Leaf stack with zombiverter. I got the impression it might not be needed for the inital setup. though i can easily add brakes signal input

- I do not have a NEG contactor relay setup. I was wondering how that works. I could not identify any NEG relay input on the HV batterie connector.
it only provides signaling for PRE-charge, main RELAY and MAIN2 relay.
I was wondering how zombieVCU works that out with the HV batterie (CAN msg?). Did I make a mistake here? Is MAIN2 relay input the NEG contactor?
I was under the impression (looking at leaf 2021 schematics pdf), that the MAIN2 relay is for the heater on/off (connected to the HV batterie).

schematic of my current setup

leaf_B24_lion_connector.png

the schematic does not show the main relay connection to HV batterie.
On my current setup I removed the ISA shunt and moved to a "NONE" shunt configuration.

@tom91

thanks for raising that question about the negative Contactor.
I discovered that I made a mistake.

on the openinverter zombieverter leaf link i found a picture with updated description of the B24 LIIOn control connector



this states tha MAIN2 relay (pin13,14) is the NEGATIVE contactor. I wished the Nissan's Leaf schematic would have been more clear on that. I was drawing the wrong conclusion.

But thanks again for pointing me in the right direction

Rewired my setup and included the control for the negative contactor build into the Leaf HV battery. Removed the ISA shunt to measure the HV voltage and re-configured ZombieVerter to use the can message from the x1DA from the inverter. Thanks to Damien and CO for making the feature available. Really simplifies my setup.

Here a simple schematic illustrating how i wired everything up, by using the internal leaf wiring and connectors.

My current zombieverter configuration params.json

I do not know how you are hosting the images but please attach direct, same with your params.

mattes wrote: ↑Wed May 07, 2025 8:07 pm My current zombieverter configuration params.json