[FIRST DRIVE] Upcycling a Suzuki Samurai

[hugow93]

Some small progress to update on:

- Last weekend I went to a nearby breaker's yard and got a radiator from a Toyota IQ. Compared to most modern cars the Samurai is tiny and this was about the only one that would fit the space available. I mounted it in the car yesterday, next weekend I'll plumb it in.

- The HVJB bug turned out to be a dodgey kilovac contactor which caused my precharge circuit to be bypassed and release some black smoke along the way . Contactor now replaced, no more black smoke.

- I am ~80% done with the battery boxes. They're all mounted in position, I just need to figure out connectors and cable runs. 8 modules in the back, replacing the samurai back seats (having them was fun while it lasted), 2 modules mounted in the undercarriage where the petrol tank was, 2 modules mounted under the bonnet.

- Throttle bug overcome, but still needs some adjustment.

So at this point, I thought, "Why not enjoy my car a little when I have it at this quasi driveable stage? What about a jolly around the farm, or a single field, or the damn driveway? After all, did even you really believe you would get this far? Bask in the glory of DIY achievement."

Yesterday afternoon, tuning guide in hand, I set about making the Samurai drive again with 240v (just the 8 modules in the back, I need to figure out some proper connectors for the other two). First I checked the parameter DB for any Siemens 1PV tunes, none available but I could find one tune from JB on the land yacht pre makeover. This was my starting point. Here are my findings:

- Boost >4000 needed to get any movement from motor (expected as voltage is low)
- Fslipmin > 3.5 needed to ease the early shudders, but the shuddering kicks in again at anything above a crawl speed.
- Any boost value greater than ~6000 quickly leads to an overcurrent event.
- Overcurrent errors came up a lot. Plotting IDC as I went, the current never went over 20amps but the Overcurrent error still triggered (ocurlim was 100 amps as per Johu's A2 tune in parameter database).
- Car moved most smoothly in 2nd gear, but still got large shudders above walking speed.

So not much in the way of drivability yet.
First on the list is to try and figure out why I'm getting overcurrent, then I'll continue my attempts to tune out the shudder.

Note, inverter is wired for Reverse, as that's what generates forward motion through my transmission.

[hugow93]

I think this project is the first on the forum to combine an ACIM and the Prius Gen2 (there have been a couple to use the Gen3 and the Siemens Motor), so this may be of some broader interest (equally may be me just being a noob).

I've had the car driving for about a month now, but only in test capacity.

Initial tests used ~240v and ~300v.
These allowed me to move at crawl speed, but any increase in current led to motor vibration and eventual overcurrent shutdowns.
This was somewhat expected as the Siemens requires 215v on the bus, needing a DC source of >300v.

Last week I connected the full pack for ~370v, and had better performance.
However, I still can't make the car to move beyond a jogging pace.
Boost has to be kept below 3000 to allow full throttle without overcurrent or vibration, and I haven't been able to tune it perform any better.

I am very sure this is because I'm doing something silly.
I've posted the relevant parameters from the most recent test drive below, and any suggestions are greatly appreciated.
The motor is being run in reverse as that's what generates forward motion though the drivetrain.
Testing in 2WD.

Thank you in advance!


- Motor
boost 2800
fweak 300
fweakstrt 400
fconst 180
udcnom 0
fslipmin 3
fslipmax 6
fslipconstmax 5
polepairs 2
respolepairs 1
sincosofs 2048
encmode AB
fmax 150
numimp 64
dirchrpm 100
dirmode Switch
snsm KTY83-110

- Inverter
pwmfrq 4.4KHz
pwmpol ActHigh
deadtime 0
ocurlim 500
il1gain 4.68
il2gain 4.68
udcgain 6.15
udcofs 310
udclim 500
snshs JCurve

- Throttle
potmin 2200
potmax 4000
pot2min 1050
pot2max 3000
potmode SingleRegen
throtramp 100
throtramprpm 6000
ampmin 10
slipstart 50
sinecurve VoltageSlip
throtfilter 4

- Regen
brakeregen -50
regenramp 0.5
regentravel 0
offthrotregen -5
cruiseregen -30
regenrampstr 20
brklightout -25

- Derating
bmslimhigh 50
bmslimlow -1
udcmin 0
udcmax 500
idcmax 500
idcmin -500
idckp 2
idcflt 9
tmphsmax 150
tmpmmax 300
throtmax 100
throtmin -5
iacmax 5000
ifltrise 10
ifltfall 3

- Contactor Control
udcsw 300
udcswbuck 540
tripmode PrechargeOn
bootprec Off

- Aux PWM
pwmfunc tmpm
pwmgain 100
pwmofs 0

[chentron]

your project is very similar to my daihatsu terios project !!
unfortunately we are stuck at the same point.
If you get solve please let me know. I will do the same.

[EV_Builder]

No expert yet on motor tuneing but the 4.4khz doesn't seem too high and also deadtime zero. Is something what caught my eye.

Are these correct?

[RetroZero]

Not a pro here, but how accurate are your gains for il1 and il2. It seems I had similar issues using 200v battery pack. There is a link somewhere as to how to test and calibrate them. Will try to find them tonight and link it in

[johu]

Fweak seems much too high
Also I wonder if your encoder is hooked up correctly, the primary source for motors that rattle instead of spinning. Try swapping A and B

Inverter parameters are correct, no deadtime as Prius inserts it by itself