Tesla Large Drive Unit Support Thread

[etapp01@hotmail.com]

My mistake...lowered udcswbuck instead of udcmin.
Now it is turning but only at less than 1rpm. Board is installed in a stock LDU 2013 P85 Sport, is this the speed sensor that has to be repinned to make it work?

[Jack Bauer]

Please see the post in this thread regarding this exact issue.

[etapp01@hotmail.com]

Have had some good test run att 55Volt.
Tested 110Volt and got into a problem. At 7000rpm the DC minus cable fuse blow at 25 amp...motor made a jerk and stoped functioning (DC bus down). One led ( pen pointing at) on the inverter card on the picture lit up.
When I try to restart and set ut to forward the Lasterr flips to TMPHSMAX and Opmode go to Off...
Any idéer was is wrong...?

[Jack Bauer]

Sadly it looks like an inverter failure on the phase with the red led illuminated. We had another occurrence a few months ago with Jon Volk. Runs fine at low voltage but trips out as soon as the voltage is raised as you experienced. As best as we can make out it seems to be a weak or damaged igbt. I spent several weeks trying to replicate the failure on the bench without success. Where did you source the drive unit?

[etapp01@hotmail.com]

I got it from a salvaged car i Norway.
You know were I can find a separate inverter? I presume it's no ide to try to repair or what do you think?

[Jack Bauer]

I don't think it will be practical to take it apart for repair. I know Jon tried without success. Let me try a few contacts and I'll see what I can find.

[etapp01@hotmail.com]

Found one suspicious igbt, see picture.
Anyone have spare igbt's or know where I can buy a new one? And any one know where I can buy the jelly...?

[Jack Bauer]

That's the exact same failure as Jon's. I'll see if i can find the igbt details.

[jon volk]

Sorry to see.

I don't know how common this is, but here is a photo from the first time I had the inverter cover off. Note that there were disturbances in the re-enterable encapsulant before I ever applied power to this unit. You'll need to click on it for better detail. I didnt pay much attention to it since it was my first inverter. I also dont know how much, if any, of this is "normal".

[etapp01@hotmail.com]

Interesting to see. I don't have a picture from the right angle before I tested it but the jelly has the same type of bubbles now

[jon volk]

Its also worth noting that my current running motor had no such bubbles.

[Jack Bauer]

The fact both of the motors ran at low voltage and failed when the voltage is increased and have bubbles leads me to think the igbts may have been thermally stressed.

[etapp01@hotmail.com]

Any idéers where I can get a an inverter or inverter card please let me know...

[Jack Bauer]

I have updated the first post in this thread with information on the inverter, igbt used etc.

[Kevin Sharpe]

Any idéers where I can get a an inverter or inverter card please let me know...

Try Zero EV in the UK;

https://zero-ev.co.uk/

[BlueHorizon]

New forum member here and learning a lot about electrical engineering, slowly working my way to getting the motor bench testable. I've installed the board inside the motor but wanted to understand what the minimum pin hook-ups are in order for me to power up the board and be able to access the web interface?

I have a desktop power supply, some 22 AWG wiring including a 5 amp fuse w/ holder and an on/off switch at the ready. I understand pin 1 requires the 12v+ but wasn't clear on where I have to connected ground just to get the board to come alive.

Just trying to take things piece at a time

[Jack Bauer]

With refference to the diagrams in post one on this thread you simply need +12v(pin 1) and ground(pin 22).

[BlueHorizon]

Thanks - just wanted to make sure pin 11 didn't need to come into play at this stage.

[BlueHorizon]

OK, let me ask another complete newb question - for the encoder and the accelerator which require 5V, am I good using a step down module (such as https://www.amazon.com/Step-Down-Waterp ... 2306&psc=1) from my 12V supply to test these out?

[Jack Bauer]

The drive unit outputs 5v supplies for these. Please check the wiring diagrams attached to the first post and the pinout on github.

[BlueHorizon]

I'll avoid admitting that I'd already printed all the diagrams and had been staring at the them for hours before asking the questions above

Still, managed to get the unit to talk to me and am looking at the web interface again so I'm happy.

One important note, Damien, in the throttle calibration doc (https://github.com/damienmaguire/Tesla- ... cedure.pdf) you specify surfing over to 192.168.1.4 in the documentation however it should read 192.168.4.1 instead. Took me a minute to figure that out.

Anyway, next up is attaching the throttle to see if I can get that to work nicely. On that topic, I have an E46 BMW throttle pedal on it's way however also happen to have a Tesla throttle pedal at hand. Based on what I can find online, this pedal has multiple signals versus the single one coming from the BMW pedal. Am I just better off waiting a few days to get the BMW pedal or is there something I can do with the Tesla one from a testing perspective?

Thanks again!

[BlueHorizon]

OK, lots of good progress tonight. Managed to get the harness in a good state so that I can continue testing. I also received my BMW pedal in the mail (specifically part # 3540 6762480-02). Only thing I'm struggling with now is to figure out the pin order for the connector there. It's a 6 pin connected harness and there's not much info on the web.

Damien, do you happen to know the pin order?

[BlueHorizon]

Hold the press! I think I just figured it out..

Pin 1 = Signal
Pin 2 = Ground
Pin 3 = +5v

Let me know if that sounds right, Damien. Using the chart plotting it seems to respond and I was able to determine a min and max POT.

[BlueHorizon]

And more progress - I have the encoder wired up, a rotary switch that sets forward / reverse and I managed to get the Tesla accelerator pedal working like a charm. You can see the mess I'm making further below.

Now then - the low voltage test..

Currently don't have any batteries lined up nor do I have the various other bits yet (contactors, pre charge relays etc.) although could order these components today if needed. For the test I have a power supply that caps out at 60V (5A) and I was intending to have it provide about 50v DC for the test (to be semi-safe). Hoping that will suffice?

I read the note from Damien regarding the low voltage test (below) and am unclear on a few things:

1: Beyond setting the UDCSW param, it states to use the drive unit contactor control - what does that mean?
2: Somewhat semi-related, I haven't yet wired up the "start" signal as I currently have a simple "on/off" switch for ignition and was hoping I could use this for "start" too?

"It is recommended to perform initial tests at a low DC bus voltage in order to confirm correct operation of the drive unit and logic board. The voltage should be between around 40 and 100v dc. Some parameters need to be set to enable operation at these voltages.
UDCSW set to 0.
UDCMIN set to 0.
You will need to perform a manual precharge or set UDCSW to about 10v less than your test voltage and use drive unit contactor control.
Don't forget to reset these parameters to their original values when finished testing."

[Jack Bauer]

You need a start signal to be applied to the appropriate terminal to tell the inverter to enter run mode. Typically this can be done by utilising the "start" position on a traditional ignition switch that would have fed the starter relay on an ice. Regards contactor control please see the new wiring diagrams on the first post.