'73 VW Tesla Bus and '49 Pontiac

[deadsled]

Hi all,

I currently drive a '65 Ford Mk1 Cortina with Hyper9 and 30kWh Tesla batteries, CHAdeMO charging (via Orion BMS2), air conditioning etc.

Underway is a '73 Kombi VW bus, full resto and Tesla swap.

I've stripped out a couple of Model X wrecks over the years, this time I want to make more use of the Tesla parts in the VW.

So we have mounted the SDU and are currently fitting 3 battery boxes for 14 Tesla modules. Again using Orion BMS2 as I need DC fast charging.

Still haven't decided on the controller for the SDU - Damien's board, ZeroEV or even the Polykup solution. Each very different I know, and am weighing all the options up.

I want to use the following Tesla parts that I have on hand but need to do some research:
- Gen 3 18.5kW charger from the Model X (will buy Damien's board - but will it work well with the Orion BMS2?)
- A/C compressor (needs to be hacked/controlled, someone has done it here in Australia, has anyone else?)
- DC-DC converter (I see there are some threads about it on here/DIY).

Thanks.

[deadsled]

and waiting the wings for a conversion sometime down the track is my long term restoration project - '49 Pontiac fastback.

[Bratitude]

the Tesla chargers boards are able to talk via can. currently the final working code is not open source (at this time) for the Gen2 v5 charger boards, but can be purchased from Damien.

gen 3 boards and gen 2 V4 boards code is public.
Interface if you Orion shouldn’t be much of a problem.

so far what what we’ve seen is the Tesla dc/dc converters work with a enabled pin pulled high. Personally, model S dc/dc works for me in this fashion.

[DaveH]

Very nice. Can you share some more details about the SDU mount? Is it your own design? Does it just hang on the transaxle mountings or is there something else as well?

[deadsled]

Very nice. Can you share some more details about the SDU mount? Is it your own design? Does it just hang on the transaxle mountings or is there something else as well?

It's a custom design by Traction EV, it hangs off the original mountings. It helps to leave as much room as possible for battery boxes.

[DaveH]

I was thinking of using a Leaf motor but that looks much better suited to a VW. It's a shame you're in Australia.

[Johannes.l]

Interesting project, quite similar to my own.
I was also thinking of using CHAdeMO fast charging even if I would prefer CCS which is more common were I live. I personally went with Damiens board for the SDU and will hopefully try it this weekend.
/Johannes

[Extremetaz]

I currently drive a '65 Ford Mk1 Cortina with Hyper9 and 30kWh Tesla batteries, CHAdeMO charging (via Orion BMS2), air conditioning etc.

PICS!!!

Love that car!

[deadsled]

I currently drive a '65 Ford Mk1 Cortina with Hyper9 and 30kWh Tesla batteries, CHAdeMO charging (via Orion BMS2), air conditioning etc.

PICS!!!

Love that car!

Happy to oblige

[Jack Bauer]

Another Chademo exhaust:)

[deadsled]

Another Chademo exhaust:)

Yes, I can't remember if we were influenced by your Chademo exhaust or we just realised there was no other spot for it as the JB was right there in the fuel tank and the AC port was already using the old fuel filler position...

[Extremetaz]

That's a beauty!

[JaniK]

So cool

[celeron55]

All I can think when I see those exhaust charge ports is how bad an idea it would be around here...

I mean, just imagine a charge port anywhere in this photo:

[deadsled]

All I can think when I see those exhaust charge ports is how bad an idea it would be around here...

Luckily we don't see any of that white stuff anywhere near here in sub-tropical Queensland... Just that hard white stuff (hail) that damaged my Cortina body panels a couple of weeks ago!

[arber333]

All I can think when I see those exhaust charge ports is how bad an idea it would be around here...

I mean, just imagine a charge port anywhere in this photo:

20171213_164206cr.jpg

I am also thinking where to put my Chademo socket in winter.... i have a box made i just need to isolate it from the elements. Its not like i will be using it that much in winter. Huh!

[alexbeatle]

Looks great looking forward to following this.
Have you any plans already for the battery box(s)?

[deadsled]

Looks great looking forward to following this.
Have you any plans already for the battery box(s)?

Yes, the 3 battery boxes have been designed and fabricated to accommodate the 14 tesla modules - one under the belly and two in the rear engine bay. No loss of internal space for batteries. they've been test-fitted but now removed to allow the bus to be restored.

The bus is now waiting for paint and glass etc before the conversion work continues.

[alexbeatle]

Mind sharing the pictures of the boxes? Looking for inspirations for my own conversion.

[deadsled]

Mind sharing the pictures of the boxes? Looking for inspirations for my own conversion.

Here you go. Might be a bit hard to picture out of the bus.

We're starting to solder in the Openinverter board into the Tesla SDU now... exciting times.

[alexbeatle]

Mind sharing the pictures of the boxes? Looking for inspirations for my own conversion.

Here you go. Might be a bit hard to picture out of the bus.

We're starting to solder in the Openinverter board into the Tesla SDU now... exciting times.

Looking good! Does the belly one drop the bus's bottom clearance significantly? Looks like it would house 2 rows of batteries.

I'm done with my OpenInverter board soldering and it's working very well. Getting ready to mount my SDU. My bus is '72.

[deadsled]

It's been a long time since I updated this thread. The restoration of the '73 VW has been continuing alongside the Tesla swap conversion by Traction EV workshop here in Brisbane, Australia. It's been a long, expensive journey but I'm sure everyone is familiar with that.

Fitting 14 Tesla modules, SDU motor, twin air conditioning condensers, HV air con compressor and twin cooling systems all underneath the bus has been a challenge, but it has been done. No modifications at all to the interior except the installation of front and rear air con evaporator / fan boxes.

It has been fully engineered and signed off as being fit for use on Australian roads, which was quite a significant milestone. We couldn't make any amendments to the chassis / body at all so all battery boxes and motor mounts come off stock mounting points. The rear suspension torsion bars have been upgraded to heavier duty given there is a bit more weight at the back now. Overall total weight was 1594kg (without the interior fully trimmed).

We are still trying to find the right parameter settings on the Openinverter SDU board. I have an expert programmer friend to handle that side of it and so far it is technically working but lacking some power during acceleration. He's also got the custom Speedhut CAN gauges working with a Teensy but still trying to get the power kW gauge to work.

I think I need to get my head around the Openinverter parameters so I will have to trawl through some of the threads on here.

Enjoy some progress photos...

PS I post more frequent photo updates on instagram under charged_garage

[alexbeatle]

Could you please share your sdu board parameters?

[deadsled]

Could you please share your sdu board parameters?

Well... Short story is... the openinverter board fried my SDU so I wouldn't be using whatever parameters I had!

I had to replace the whole SDU and whilst doing so I upgraded to the T2C controller at the same time. Not without its own challenges, but so much easier for someone like me to manage.

I did post on other threads at the time of the SDU failure and found out it wasn't a rare occurrence. Some of the default parameters should be changed, maybe they are nowadays.

[johu]

Did you describe the specifics anywhere?