|
Post by jacksdad on Feb 22, 2018 21:48:41 GMT
Hi all Wow its been nearly a year since last posting, im afraid we have still not got a running motor i have the car back and still needs final wiring of BMS so hopefully should be live in next month or two. jacks at Uni and he is still v keen to be involved so may have to wait till june to progress everything. Off piste a bit here but im interested in peoples opinion re guages i am planning to make up some bespoke smiths guages to keep a retro look double gauges like this: i was thinking of these 6 guages with these 12 paramaters i realise its a lot but contains all the info needed to check motor, controllers and batteries, I'll get this data by reading parameters from the CANbus of the controller and BMS and doing some calculations on an arduino and driving the guages with PWM I also have speedo rpm and fuel let me know what everyone thinks, havent got a quote yet but i guess could cost a bit
|
|
|
Post by Stiggy on Feb 23, 2018 11:55:26 GMT
you need a tablet for display
|
|
|
Post by jacksdad on Feb 23, 2018 20:56:15 GMT
A tablet would certainly be easier as there is a bluetooth connection for androids from the BMS but i like the idea of a v modern electric car but with paramaters displayed on retro smiths guages - seems cool to me and i was planning to have an obvious normal range (in green) on the dials so you can have a quick glance to check everything remains ok
|
|
|
Post by jacksdad on Oct 14, 2018 23:31:27 GMT
Hi all ok i am back in action work has been completly mad and the summer v busy but i have finally got around to wiring up the BMS and the CAN bus to connect BMS and charger and motor controller together. I have not made up a CAN bus before so may have been a bit overkill but thought its was probably important to have it well screened as with a 144v AC motor I'm thinking there is going to be quite a lot of electrical noise to challenge the common mode rejection: Neat little splice connector for each node: note continuity of sheath earth drain adding copper screen around each node and covering each node in self amalgamising tape and terminating resistor. URL=http://s1065.photobucket.com/user/JonHykin/media/HVboxschematic2.jpg.html] [/URL] here is the final schematic for 12v and high voltage happy to share if anyone interested so these are the jobs that need doing before final start up: finish can bus and wire up the 2 battery CAN cell modules for the battery cases fit DC-DC converter and wiring Complete final battery box wiring (wire all cellmodules together and big 50mm2 wiring) tap BMS control into existing 12v wiring so it comes on with ignition switch or with override switch Wire up off board charger then can charge batteries and then try to get motor running fit drive shafts and take off
|
|
|
Post by jacksdad on Oct 19, 2018 21:57:12 GMT
|
|
|
Post by jacksdad on Nov 18, 2018 9:18:09 GMT
Made up a detachable box to programme and view curtis settings -im not going to use the spyglasses normally - will get data i need from bms - so i wanted to be able to plug these in and out: plug on side of main wiring enclosure for controllers
|
|
|
Post by jacksdad on Nov 23, 2018 18:47:58 GMT
I have made up the off board charger box containing elcon charger and can module and contactor (both controlled by BMS) to switch of charger via contactor if any cell overvoltage or temperature and set the charging algorithm from the BMS and it will tell the charger exactly what voltage and current it wants continuously via the CAN link. There are two leads to connect to the car one is the high voltage lead to the batteries to supply the charging current and the other a twisted pair to connect the BMS CAN bus to the charger CAN link and 12v for the contactor and return to the charger enable pin on the BMS. I think i will need to adapt these a little to comply with the UK regs to interlock the motor when charger is attached, also at the moment you need to take the lid off the high voltage control box and plug in the anderson cables which im guessing may be frowned upon! Just need to connect the cell modules together and the HV wiring within each battery case and then can setup BMS and controller software charge up batteries and should have a turning motor in time for Jack coming home from Uni at christmas - woohoo.
|
|
|
Post by jacksdad on Nov 26, 2018 23:08:21 GMT
Last but one job before trying to get it going is the DC-DC converter that keeps my 12v battery charged from the main pack - comes on when ignition is on. I realised that the nearside engine mount (gearbox mount maybe ??) for the zetec which i have not cut off (just in case i ever gave up on electric due to immovable IVA problems and also didn't want to disturb powder coat) is the perfect size as a support for the DC-DC converter unit - almost like it was designed for it and so it doesn't look so odd and creates a convenient place for the component. Aluminium plate needed as the mounting holes on the converter don't align with the bracket. It will also fit upside down under the bracket this would lower the weight a little and tuck more neatly in the chassis i guess the hot air coming from the fins would not rise quite so well but not sure if this would be a big issue or not for the charger Elcon (who make both) are very specific on the orientation of the device i guess for cooling performance but don't mention this for the DC-DC converter so i think will be ok.
|
|
|
Post by jacksdad on Mar 31, 2020 15:54:19 GMT
Hi all just an update
Quite a bit of progress since this last post lots has been happening at home jack is at uni now and working last summer but as he is now home and uni cancelled till september we should be able to make some good process however as a GP i am naturally a bit tied up at the moment but hopefully should have some down time at weekends so will post our progression. We have almost finished the BMS wiring this is taking ages as a lot of the threads on the battery terminals have been screwed so we are having to try to fit helicoils into these and each pcb on every battery is taking a while to wire up but we are 90% through then we should be able to run the first battery charge. If this works ok we can start setting up the motor controllers and we should have a live motor. About 2 or 3 days work away we think.
|
|
|
Post by jacksdad on Apr 11, 2020 19:34:02 GMT
|
|
|
Post by kiwicanfly on Apr 11, 2020 20:19:15 GMT
Excellent and fascinating work guy's.
Next time anyone whines about the difficulty of wiring a Rocket I shall point them to your diary so as to get a sense of perspective 😉
Once I managed to short my battery via my wedding ring, intended up with a wedding ring shaped blister all around my finger, didn't half hurt and took ages to go down!
|
|
|
Post by casesensitive on Apr 15, 2020 11:09:07 GMT
Once I managed to short my battery via my wedding ring, intended up with a wedding ring shaped blister all around my finger, didn't half hurt and took ages to go down! Tig welding your wedding ring; cool. Tig welding wearing your wedding ring; not cool
|
|
|
Post by casesensitive on Apr 15, 2020 11:11:25 GMT
few hours today continuing to wire up all the batteries - its quite dangererous work as its easy to forget that the batteries are all live and can put out around 1000 amps with a short we have a set of insulated tools and have covered any we use in heat shrink after a nice mini sun from a dropped alan key. have to stay focused as the path through the battery case is tortuous and important cell modules are in an increasing voltage daisy change we have a cell on each 2 battery unit these will look like 2 separate battery series in parallel even though each pair is clamped so battery a1 will have the same voltage as b1 although different temperature etc. i need to plan a way of clamping the batteries down. I think i will make some delrin cross members to between each row and bolt to the case and we'll notch these to hold the inter connecting cables in place Incredible work guys. I bought a scabby old go kart frame, the plan was to remake it as an electric kart for my nephew. In the meantime, while I haven't built it, or my kit, I've made my own progeny, so it'll probably need to be pink now. Around winter 2027 I'll dig out your diary and get a start made!
|
|
|
Post by jacksdad on Apr 20, 2020 12:53:22 GMT
More work done the rear battery case is now fully wired up and is LIVE 98V So just checking all leads and confirming insulation resistance and no obvious shorts to the chassis then we will connect up the front and rear battery packs and then we can turn on the BMS and check this works ok and all batteries are monitored then we can a charge them all a little then we can try setting up the motor controller. Its getting exciting.
|
|
|
Post by jacksdad on Apr 25, 2020 20:57:10 GMT
Had an eventful week finally connected up all cells and we are now at 148V - so connected the BMS from emus and setup to configure i have started a thread on the DIY electric car forum with details of this probably more relevant than here: www.diyelectriccar.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1056477#post1056477In a nutshell we are slowly setting this up and fixing issues the main change was to remove half the cell modules so there are only one per parallel pair of batteries the BMS engineers thought these not only unnecessary but could be a problem if each cell balances at a slightly different voltage and the bypass current is not identical. We developed a way of checking the CANBUS by checking the resistance seen at all nodes and check is 60 ohm this confirms that there are no broken connectors between the node and both terminal resistors. Also we identified an interesting way of checking any loose connections in the cell module chain as the comm leds on each cell lights up during config in sequence so by watching the cells carefully you can see where it stops and identify the faulty cell or connection the lights only come on for a second or so but by turning the lights off and videoing the cells we could spot the fault: Finally got it all working so moving on to charger setup next
|
|