[Driving] Freelander EV With Gen1 Leaf electrics and EVBMW VCU

[nkiernan]

MOT passed.

Well done

[Alibro]

Thanks mate

New fuel status on gov.uk site.

[Bigpie]

How?

Well done BTW.

[Alibro]

How?
Screenshot 2023-10-29 at 7.13.49 pm.png
Well done BTW.

Thanks mate, must be the MOT guy did it. The system is different here so maybe that's why.

BTW how did you get you're V5 changed or have you?

[Bigpie]

my what now?

[Alibro]

my what now?

Fix all the broken bits and make it work a bit warmer and easier to operate.

[Alibro]

New video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HY8KaaxAdO8

[Ev8]

My rx8 also shows as electric under fuel type in the mot system, I’m guessing Jamie’s mot guy didn’t know he can change the fuel type when he logs into the vehicle details on the mot system, in fact if the beatle is still on the system as petrol it should be subject to an emissions test still… odd

[Alibro]

So I guess today is confession day!

Since getting MOT I've only driven around 60 miles as I was really busy but also still trying to sort a few of the issues that cropped up.
On the day before MOT I had it on charge and was doing various bits and pieces in the garage when I noticed a funny spell. I couldn't place it but after 10 or 15 minutes trying to figure out what it was I saw smoke coming from the engine bay and immediately transferred to full panic mode.

After rushing around like a headless chicken turning off everything I could think of it turned out I had left the power steering turned on and for some reason the module that sends around 6V or 7V to the coils to generate magnetism had decided to send a much higher voltage and the alternator was cooking.

So While I was waiting for the alternator to cool enough that I could test it I hunted out a second dc motor controller however in my haste I connected it to the eBike battery arse about face and there was a loud bang from the battery.
So now I had a semi melted motor a dud battery pack and potentially two dud motor controllers, I had friends coming in a couple of hours for a BBQ and the MOT was next day.
After half an hour or so looking at the battery pack I realised it has a fuse which was blown so a quick replacement and it was giving around 37V again.
Until I tried charging it that is and once again it went BANG!
So after changing the fuse a second time it dawned on me I had damaged the BMS in such a way it would still give power out but I couldn't charge the battery. This was an issue as the battery was a little on the low side for the journey to the MOT centre and I wasn't sure it would make it.
However I had to plough on and after digging out a third DC motor controller (Don't ask why I had three) I connected it up and thankfully this one was OK and even better the alternator motor was still working. I have to admit it's a cause for concern though that someday it might be an issue.

Once I had all that sorted I decided to have a last test before packing up for the evening and turned the key to start it up and NOTHING!!!!!

I'm still not 100% sure why but it seems that with the 12V battery fully charged (as it will be after charging the traction battery) the startup sequence had decided to not work. This was after spending a couple of weeks where the startup sequence had been flawless so as you would imagine there was a lot more headless chicken.

Bottom line is on MOT day I drove to the MOT centre with a half dead power steering battery and a startup sequence that was flaky at best.

Any wonder I nearly kissed the tester when he gave me the pass certificate,

[Alibro]

So since I had trashed the old battery a new power source has been sourced.
That is I've built a new bigger battery pack.

The problem with the old setup was I had to manually turn on the battery, then turn up a potentiometer to get the desired power assistance. While this works it is easy to accidentally leave the battery turned on which is still sending 6V to the brushes on the alternator. I think this is what happened but for some reason the motor controller I was using to send the 6V had failed and was sending full pack voltage (36V) to the alternator hence the smoke. How it is still working I don't know but I fear the insulation in the coils will be irreparably damaged so I may have to make a big decision in the near future.

But for now I'm pushing on with the new pack. I built it with a smart BMS which has a BT connection to an App on the phone and sends all the details of each cell, pack voltage and current draw.
It also has a switch option so I can turn off the output of the battery remotely. Initially to keep things simple I'll connect the switch to the POT that I'm using to control the PS. Eventually the plan will be to automate everything through an Arduino.

[Alibro]

BTW just in case you're wondering why on earth I'm persisting with this crazy setup, it is a pet project of mine that I love messing about with.
The first diy ebike I built in 2018 had an alternator powering it and that is where the whole EV conversion idea was born.
At no time did I ever think this was sensible nor would I suggest anyone else should try to copy it even if I try to defend the idea from time to time.

[Alibro]

I thought you guys might be interested in the battery pack I built.

The cells are Liitokala Lii-50A 26650's so a good bit bigger than standard 18650. I bought them a year or two ago but they were tested when bought and charged to storage voltage. Before building the pack I checked the voltage of each one and they were all identical.
They can provide around 5000mAh each and if we say the average voltage is 3.7V then they have approx 3.7V x 5A = 18.5Wh
I have 10 in series with 5 in parallel therefore 50 in total so if we multiply by 18.5Wh x 50 the pack should be good for 925Wh or 0.925kWh

The power steering draws around 3A at 37V so approx 111W or 111Wh so in theory the pack should be good for 9 hours.
Maybe a little over specced.

The BMS is "Smart" so it has a Bluetooth connection to an Android or Apple device. It allows me to monitor cell voltages, output current and voltage but also gives a great deal of control over charging and allows me to turn the the pack output on or off remotely. I also have the option of a switch to turn the pack off which I plan to use with a switched POT. Eventually if I ever get around to it I'll use an Arduino to control the power steering but for now a POT mounted beside the boot window switch works well.

I also refitted the boot door card last night but had to do a little mod to make it fit.

This is from the inside with the boot door closed.

It was up against the lid of the battery box preventing the door from closing but now is a nice tight fit. In all the years I've had Freelanders I don't think I ever used the boot door storage so I'm not too bothered to have a gaping hole in it.

[Alibro]

I think I've managed to max out the Mitsibishi Outlander OBC (On Board Charger)

I know using a 13A plug for current drain of just over 14A is a little dodgy but it was just for testing and a 32A wall socket should be arriving tomorrow or the next day This way I could see the power being drawn and confirm it is working correctly.


This is the Wall charger EVSE I bought off ebay

It's stupidly big but should do the job and if I ever upgrade to a 7kW OBC it should be able to deliver that.

[Alibro]

New Video

[Alibro]

A new toy arrived during the week.

This is the main reason for getting an Android Head Unit.

If you look carefully you can see the latest achievement.
I managed to get the Pack Voltage showing in the VCU web page with just a tiny change to the sketch.
I still haven't managed to get the shunt working so no current or power but at least now I know the SOC.

[rstevens81]

That does look good, unless you were in the know it looks completely normal.
its a shame we cant just replace our whole dashboard display with a web interface would make our lives alot easier

[Alibro]

That does look good, unless you were in the know it looks completely normal.
its a shame we cant just replace our whole dashboard display with a web interface would make our lives alot easier

Mmmm, I happen to have an old Android tablet spare.

[Alibro]

I still haven't managed to get my Leaf heater working but Thankfully I got heated seats, a thick coat, woolly hat and heated gloves.
The windscreen fogs up easily tho and I still have to figure out why the heated windscreen isn't working but in the meantime I have ordered one of these.
https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_DmwsmfF

On a more exciting note, now I can see the Pack Voltage I decided to take the car a little further than before to test the range and at the same time drive it onto a weigh bridge.
In the last week or two since the last full charge I had driven 50 miles on small back roads around home while testing different changes, so the pack voltage had dropped from 400V to 352V. These were not easy miles as there was lots of start stop and hard acceleration involved.
As the weigh bridge is 15 miles from home I figured it would be a good test and hopefully well within my theoretical range of around 100 miles.

Here are the results
Before leaving

Gross weight with fatso and and some tools adding around 100kg

Rear axle

Miles since last charge after test

Voltage after test

To say that I am pleased with this is a big understatement. I was driving at between 50 and 60mph most of the time so I believe the realistic range to be at least 100 miles and probably more. I never saw the voltage drop below 335V even when accelerating so the individual cell voltage never dropped below 3.49V so this is well above what I believe to be the sensible minimum of 3.2V

[rstevens81]

This is always somewhat a controversial .... you actually only need to worry about voltage going below the minimum when unloaded (as long as your not doing ANYTHING SERIOUSLY STUPID).... if you look at 18650 cells the minimum cut off voltage can be as low as 2.5v!! (samsumg 25r's are a good analogy to our cells as they are power cells).
Generally the minimum cell voltage should be in the region of 2.7-2.9v volts, but at that point in the discharge curve its a bit of a voltage free-fall anyway.
I mean the remember you'll not building a million mile car, 3.2v is generally given as the knee of the curve at which voltage starts collapsing in the cells, so if your in a pinch you can can go below 3.2v to maybe 2.7 but obs not something you want to do unless your in a pinch.

[Alibro]

This is always somewhat a controversial .... you actually only need to worry about voltage going below the minimum when unloaded (as long as your not doing ANYTHING SERIOUSLY STUPID).... if you look at 18650 cells the minimum cut off voltage can be as low as 2.5v!! (samsumg 25r's are a good analogy to our cells as they are power cells).
Generally the minimum cell voltage should be in the region of 2.7-2.9v volts, but at that point in the discharge curve its a bit of a voltage free-fall anyway.
I mean the remember you'll not building a million mile car, 3.2v is generally given as the knee of the curve at which voltage starts collapsing in the cells, so if your in a pinch you can can go below 3.2v to maybe 2.7 but obs not something you want to do unless your in a pinch.

I agree completely, thanks for this as it is great to have some confirmation of what I was thinking.
I've been riding DIY ebikes for years and once the voltage goes below 3.2V you're in trouble, ebike controllers just switch off even if there is a little left in the tank. Ironically my cells are Samsung so I'm guessing they are of at least the same if not better quality than 25R's so should be good for similar usage.
With the cell voltage (off load) currently at 3.54V I'm happy to push them a little further and plan to drive another 20 miles tomorrow. Wish me luck.
If I had seen pack voltage dip below 300V today I wouldn't even try but as it never dropped below 335V I'm happy to give it a go.
The only thing I'm not certain about is whether Damiens VCU will decide otherwise.

[Alibro]

Sadly I chickened out of extending the range test today as I had taken the car two miles to church this morning and when we went to leave it was a tad iffy about moving. I'm not sure why but it moved a few metres and stopped. Unfortunately I need to wait around 10 seconds before retrying and it took 3 or 4 attempts so the boss wasn't impressed. I plugged it in for a few hours before going for my mum and apart from it being baltic had no issues .

[Alibro]

Hopefully I've discovered the issue last Sunday.
Some plonker was working at it during the week and forgot to tighten the neg terminal on the battery. Maybe a dodgy earth or sparking at the battery caused the problem. I haven't driven it since as the weather here has been terrible and I'm still not sure about the water proofing.

[Alibro]

So good news and bad news today.
I took the car for a drive without any real destination in mind but it seemed to be going well so I decided to try a range test. The battery was charged a few days ago and I stopped the charging at 402V. As expected it dropped back so by this morning it was 396V. I have no way to set a constant voltage variable current so this will always happen.
Anyway I drove to a town approx 35 miles from home and back, then did another 9 miles before parking up for lunch so had 79 miles on the clock but the voltage was still around 345V. I was driving between 55 and 60mph most of the time.
This afternoon I drove another 19 miles to pick up my mum and when we got home the voltage was still at 336V after doing 98 miles.
I was watching the voltage the whole time and it looks like initially it gets just over 1 mile per volt then levels out to 1.5 ish miles per volt.
If we call 400V 100% SOC and 310V 0% SOC then in theory I still have over 25 miles or a max range of over 120 miles without really trying.
With a 38kWh pack it works out over 3 miles per kWh which I think is pretty good for DIY conversion in a not particularly aerodynamic car.

The bad news is that a few miles from home the brake boost stopped boosting.
I'm hoping to it's just a blown fuse but will confirm tomorrow.

[Alibro]

Some more good and bad news.
The good news is after some rewiring the car is working again and it there was no harm done. It looks like passing the 12V pos through several connections caused a problem with stray voltages so I've tried to simplify things a bit and it seems to have helped a couple of issues.
The bad news is I didn't have the 20 or so miles in the battery I thought I had.
I called with some friends to let them have a short drive but the car only got a further 4 or 5 miles before I noticed the voltage falling off a cliff and shortly after it died.
Thankfully I had my laptop with me and was able to tweak a setting to let me limp back to their house. We plugged it in for a couple of hours to let me get home, but lessen learned I should never let the voltage fall below 335V and preferably not below 340V.
Also in the current temperatures I think the range should be counted as 100 miles max. To go any further safely would require driving a bit slower.

[Alibro]

When I got it back to my friends house and let it sit for a bit the battery was at 306V which is 3.19V per cell so not disastrous, I was surprised it dropped so quickly from 335V but I guess that must be the tipping point of the curve, however I need to confirm one of the cells didn't drop lower than the rest. This means I need to get the BMS working to check them, if there is a difference then allowing the voltage to sag so low may have made things worse. I don't expect the BMS to fix any imbalance but it will let me know if there is one.