Zombieverter as CAN bridge
Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2025 2:47 am
I have a Via Vtrux, it is a Chevrolet Silverado that has been converted to a series hybrid, replacing the transmission with 2 electric motors, retaining the original gas engine as the generator, and adding 24kWh LFP battery, DCDC, bidirectional charger/export power, and HV AC compressor and PTC heater. It works pretty well given its limitations, but in order to get it to pass smog I had to temporarily modify the wiring and use a laptop running a Python script as a CAN bridge to modify a CAN message from the hybrid controller to backdrive the engine with the generator motor to get it to complete the engine's smog monitor cycles. (Details here for the curious)
I was thinking for the next time I have to do this I'd like to do it with something that is more permanently installed rather than a laptop running a Python script with wires going into the engine bay, and I was thinking the Zombieverter would be a good candidate for this, I could use 2 of its CAN ports to bridge the EV can bus to do the same modification I did before, and then I could use the third to tap onto one of the original GM CAN busses to be able to get more information about vehicle states, such as speed, shift position, etc. I could also give instructions to other Vtrux owners - get a Zombieverter, make these wire harness modifications, and load my custom software and you're good to go.
Would the Zombieverter be good in this role? There's a decent amount of CAN traffic it would have to retransmit. I'm not afraid of having to redo a lot of the Zombieverter's software, I figure its normal software load is not written to be a CAN bridge and I would need to bring in the logic from my original Python script.
I was thinking for the next time I have to do this I'd like to do it with something that is more permanently installed rather than a laptop running a Python script with wires going into the engine bay, and I was thinking the Zombieverter would be a good candidate for this, I could use 2 of its CAN ports to bridge the EV can bus to do the same modification I did before, and then I could use the third to tap onto one of the original GM CAN busses to be able to get more information about vehicle states, such as speed, shift position, etc. I could also give instructions to other Vtrux owners - get a Zombieverter, make these wire harness modifications, and load my custom software and you're good to go.
Would the Zombieverter be good in this role? There's a decent amount of CAN traffic it would have to retransmit. I'm not afraid of having to redo a lot of the Zombieverter's software, I figure its normal software load is not written to be a CAN bridge and I would need to bring in the logic from my original Python script.