Lexus GS450H VCU Support Thread

[Jack Bauer]

Ok, I've ordered 100 pieces of NCV8402. Anyone stuck for these let me know and I'll pop them in the post free of charge. No need for you folks to pay for my f$%k ups.

[Bryson]

No worries from my end. It has been clearly stated that these are for advanced users capable of debugging. I’d much rather have this problem than have to order these to be made myself. That is all to say that it’s still very much appreciated that you offer these.

[evMacGyver]

I was just banging my head to the wall few days ago "something wrong with my wiring or what", so good finding, perhaps all 5 pcs are wrong as I just quickly checked those four on the corner. No worries as these things happens sometimes. I highly appreciate for mailing correct ones, because local shop source shows empty stock for now.

One another thing, wiring overview v2.4 and another sources where same connector pinout pictures is, seems to have flaw. Gear mapping on the left is correct but connector pinout naming on the right seems to be incorrect.

[Bryson]

Yep I can confirm that at least B and B+ are swapped in that graphic to the right of the connector. The chart to the left mapped correctly for my car and colors matched.

All 4 of the switches on mine are incorrect. I tried rewiring them to the correct pin out, but the incorrect PN has an internal current limit that is too low to actuate the solenoids in the transmission, so the correct replacement parts will be needed. You’ll be able to tell by listening to the solenoids oscillating.

My hacked up wiring diagram attached, for what it’s worth.

GS450H Wiring overview V2.4.pdf

(1.98 MiB) Downloaded 458 times

[xp677]

It worked fine at stand still and also while driving gently at modest speeds but was not smooth enough.
It needs refining for sure so use it as a guideline only, some comments may be useful.

I think the issue is related to the inertia of the rotors, potentially these need to by synced with the new speed during a shift.

Id also suggest ramping the torque back up after a shift.

[arturk]

Id also suggest ramping the torque back up after a shift.

I tried ~1s ramp up while helpful it did not make it smooth enough. I feel longer ramp would make shifting too long to be useable.
I kind of lost patience with it, need to revisit one day.

[Jack Bauer]

Folks could you confirm I'm not having a second brain fart in thinking this is an appropriate alternative to the NCV8402 :
https://datasheet.lcsc.com/lcsc/1809111 ... 153750.pdf

[Bryson]

Looks like it, although they give different ways of specifying max drain current. Do we know what the continuous current needs of the transmission solenoids are? Somewhere under 2A I hope?

[PatrcioEV-ATX]

I replaced all four on my board today. The are all working correctly now. I can turn their output on and off and verify that I do or don't have voltage when appropriate. I mangled my board trying to get the old ones off, so I had to solder on jumpers to get two of them to work.

Bryson - I don't see any updates to your software since last month. I'd like to see how you coded the regen light. I tried doing it with the Brake In as an output, but after looking at the board schematic, it doesn't look like that can be used as an output. Honestly, a lot of this is like reading German to me. I get the gist of what's going on, but miss the finer details. Such is my understanding, but I'm muddling through!

[Bryson]

Ah it’s in my test branch. Still a little new to GitHub. https://github.com/Bry5on/Lexus-GS450H- ... 0h_v3_user

I used Brake_In as a low gear shifter input. The transmission outputs are just the existing ones. Out1 is used to drive a relay that turns on the brake lights whenever there’s ‘70’ regen or greater. The regen brake lights are verified to work in my car, the relay shorts the two pins on my brake light switch at the pedal.

[SRFirefox]

Folks could you confirm I'm not having a second brain fart in thinking this is an appropriate alternative to the NCV8402 :
https://datasheet.lcsc.com/lcsc/1809111 ... 153750.pdf

There's no temperature/current limiting in the 8440 - I haven't looked at the usage enough to know how important that is - based on the automotive usage I'd guess important. The parts otherwise appear to be pin compatible. I grabbed some NCV8412s from digikey when I needed the 8402s, but I'd prefer to have something with the more appropriate current limit. The closest thing I see with similar capabilities and reasonable stock numbers is the ST VNN1NV04PTR-E.

[Gigas]

Sooo, came across this tonight and was ready to throw in the towel. Anyone know the best solution to this. I was going to clean things up and get ready to wire this out and looks like im missing SL2 + , SL1+ and SL1-. I gentle pried the connector up and there is almost zero play to get to the wires and I would need to figure which is which as it not in line with the pins. Anyone have suggestions?

[Bassmobile]

Anyone have suggestions?

Looks like there isn't much option here, other than to crack open the casting and rewire it up from the terminal block.

This is why I won't buy units from breakers online. Without seeing in person, there is no way to know what you are getting. Maybe you can return it? Some sellers offer limited time warranty.

[Gigas]

It was 400 and a no return policy. Either im going to get really good at this and fix it or my project is now dead

[Bassmobile]

It was 400 and a no return policy.

And there you go.
As the adage says "you get what you pay for"
If you do crack it and do the repair, document that process!

[Gigas]

It was 400 and a no return policy.

And there you go.
As the adage says "you get what you pay for"
If you do crack it and do the repair, document that process!

Not sure where those wires go, but im might try splicing the wires first, then go then stupid route later

[Bryson]

If you only need high gear, you don’t need those pins. High gear is fine for everything except burnouts in my experience.

This picture might help, I’m assuming the solenoids are the two twins on the top. A needle into each of the four wires probing for continuity will tell you which solenoid pairs to which. Please report back what you learn (ie: which solenoid is which)!

[Gigas]

If you only need high gear, you don’t need those pins. High gear is fine for everything except burnouts in my experience.

This picture might help, I’m assuming the solenoids are the two twins on the top. A needle into each of the four wires probing for continuity will tell you which solenoid pairs to which. Please report back what you learn (ie: which solenoid is which)!
20210103_100921[1].jpg

I was building a truck so I was hopeing for more more torque and less rpm so I think I want low gear. Is that just the oil pan removed? If it is , this might be a time consuming but easy fix.

[Bryson]

It is the oil pan removed. You might be surprised by the amount of torque in high gear, honestly. It might be worth trying first

[Bryson]

Okay I added some smoothing to the analog throttle input and it really helped make the car less twitchy and totally solved my torque oscillation problem. All code is now merged to my master branch: https://github.com/Bry5on/Lexus-GS450H- ... Controller

Also: IVT-S current sensor is supported in my branch as well. At this point I'm pretty happy with it and am not likely to make many, if any, changes going forward.

[Bryson]

Well I guess there's one more thing. Anyone here with ISA shunt experience understand why I'm getting erroneous current values? I'm using the same code from Damien's v7 file but on can1 instead of can0. It oscillates between ~1.5-1.8 million amps positive and negative. Voltage shown in the WiFi menu is coming in correctly from the ISA shunt, and kW always comes in as 0:

[xp677]

Folks could you confirm I'm not having a second brain fart in thinking this is an appropriate alternative to the NCV8402 :
https://datasheet.lcsc.com/lcsc/1809111 ... 153750.pdf

I originally used the FDT457N.

https://www.onsemi.com/pdf/datasheet/fdt457n-d.pdf

[chuuux]

So it seems there is a lot of confusion about using CAMRY inverters for this platform. My assumption is that users who have failed to get good results with the inverter are using the G9200-33020, from a 2007-2011 Camry NAFTA vehicle. This is the inverter that is recommended at the time of this writing in the Wiki. This should probably removed form the wiki, so other don't end up wasting time and money on an inverter that won't work.

In 2012 they changed the NAFTA Camry inverter to G9200-33171
We have the G9200-33171 paired to a GS450H Drive unit. Have not had any issue, However, still just preliminary low-speed testing in the parking lot. Have not done on road / highway travel thus far, because we need a proper traction pack to power the platform.

It seems the information is lacking for this more proper inverter. So here we worked up an info graphic that should help users to connect the -33171 unit and get spinning to do some proper tests.

Connections_G9200-33171.png

Thanks for graphic!
I've got the G9200-33171 too with full set of connectors. My ZombieVerter beta board understands MTH frames from GS300h inverter (in GS450h mode), but does't from Camry inverter.
Do you use unmodified GS450h software to comunicate with Camry 2012+ inverter?

[PatrcioEV-ATX]

Thanks, Bryson! I'm still essentially running the basic V3_User software, except that I've added the code for the ISA (not connected yet) and your code for brake on regen (tested working with positive values since I'm still on bench power supply) and code for HV_Power (Oil_Pump_Power in original code) to control main contactor (also tested and working). Batteries are on the way. This is the code I put in for HV_Power (again still on 60v supply):

at the end of control_inverter void:

if(dc_bus_voltage>50)digitalWrite(HV_Power,HIGH);
else digitalWrite(HV_Power,LOW);

This is easy enough to test on a bench supply. I don't want to institute regen in get_torque just yet since A) I'm not hooked up to batteries and B) I'm restoring an old car that is new to me, so I want to run it without regen at first to see what issues I may have in the drivetrain or brakes. I also haven't decided if I want it to be a one-pedal type system (i3) or a basic regen (LEAF) with maybe an input for a higher level of regen (using Brake_In). Hmmm, now that I think about it, I guess one could use the input to switch between no regen/regen or regular regen/one pedal driving.

[Bryson]

Looks good, but for me, the Lexus based dc_bus_voltage is unreliable. It reads around 90v most of the time for me now, even though I run a 370v nominal pack. Occasionally it did read the correct voltage near 400v, but typically not. The ISA reads right for me so you might take that input instead going forward if you find the same symptoms.