i3 controller hacking from diyelectriccar.com

[golfdubcrazy]

as always its been too long, but i decided to make my own custom housing, trying to keep everything compact. just got to cad up the capacitor. hard part is trying to keep all the water cooling but still be machinable

[MrX]

So I have had some failures followed by some successes, followed by confusion

After bricking my Mini Mainboard with a firmware update (bad wifi connection dropout!), buying a Tag-Connect and STLINK, reprogramming following https://openinverter.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=40323& (thanks for the hint using the .hex file Johannes), we are back to problem solving!

I have gotten closer to trying to solve my lack of drive signals, but more confused.

So it's not the 32V supply that collapses but DC bus voltage? Are all IGBTs good? deadtime set to 63? All gate drive signals sane when they arrive on the IGBT board?

All IGBTs are fine, gatedrive signals at inverter board are good and deadtime is at 63. I need to follow the signals to the gate drive board using the pinouts way back at the start of this thread, to be fair. One point to note: bus voltage is not dropping at the inverter, it remains constant.

Johannes, just in case you had something specific in your setup, was there a minimum voltage you had on the DC bus to make the inverter work? Also, do you have any information on the approximate power consumption on the 12V system when switching? My standby current seems very low, less than 0.5A on the 12V circuit.

This is where it is weird:
If I supply some reasonable voltage to the bus caps (>25VDC), the gate driver powers up and draws ~5W from the supply and then the inverter can read the bus voltage and phase temperatures via SPI. If I then run the inverter in Manual Mode, the inverter will switch the gate driver for ~200ms, bus cap consumption will jump to 0.5A, then the bus cap consumption drops to 0A and the inverter audibly stops switching (obviously, gate driver has no power). This repeats continuously at ~1Hz until I stop the inverter (i.e. on for 200ms, off for 800ms approximately). However, if I give the bus caps less voltage (15-20VDC), the inverter appears to stay switching and consumption increases to about 0.5A @ 20V on the bus caps. However, the 12V input consumption stays constant (@ 0.2A, ~13VDC at my supply). I would have expected the 12V input power consumption to jump up as soon as the inverter starts switching the IGBTs.

Any hints or comparison from your setup Johannes? My guess is that you are the only one who has had this gate drive circuit switching with the mini mainboard.

[johu]

Puzzled that boards still can be bricked
I think I mostly tested with 40V on the DC bus. Always observed the expected rise in power consumption. Won't be home for some weeks to come.
There is another DC/DC converter that sends power from the DC bus to the gate driver. Maybe that is related?

[MrX]

Puzzled that boards still can be bricked
I think I mostly tested with 40V on the DC bus. Always observed the expected rise in power consumption. Won't be home for some weeks to come.
There is another DC/DC converter that sends power from the DC bus to the gate driver. Maybe that is related?

A couple of interesting points on the cable running to the gate drive board:

Pin 35 (IGBT PSU 12V on) is low level 0V
Pin 17 (lower gate driver ready) is low level 0V. Notably, Pin 16 (upper gate driver ready) is 5V

Should pin 35 have 12V on it from the adapter PCBA? Mine does not appear to. Does that come from one of the ampseal inputs?

Edit* did not mention that I am aware of the DCDC off the DC bus caps. That appears to be okay. I see no increase in consumption from the 12V power when in manual run.

[Scott166]

I'm pretty much there with the physical side of the inverter, I'll be popping a video up soon with the cut lines etc
Thought you might like to see it all together

[EV_Builder]

Nice job! Well done! This is exactly what I meant. Was it easy/doable? Did you TIG weld it in the end?

[Scott166]

I have a confession, please don't judge
I ended up glueing it with liquid metal
I have never Tig welded before and my mig welding is questionable.

I figure it's not structural and when bolted together will be strong enough.

I have made two templates for the lower coolant area and will get some Ali cut and show you that when it's done.

[Scott166]

A little off topic but would this scope be up to the job in hand?
I don't want to spend too much and this popped up locally

[EV_Builder]

No problem offcourse. If you use glue or other stuff you might consider also the use of an extra sheet of alloy at the back modelled to the shape of the case rivets & glue etc.

But if it holds it holds..

[Scott166]

No problem offcourse. If you use glue or other stuff you might consider also the use of an extra sheet of alloy at the back modelled to the shape of the case rivets & glue etc.

But if it holds it holds..

Thanks
I'll let you all know how I get on

[Scott166]

Does anyone have the pinout of the 12 pin from the resolver please?
I have looked through and can only see Hans has detailed the motor temp wires.

[golfdubcrazy]

This should be the pin out for the i3 resolver

[Scott166]

Excellent thanks

So I've been prodding the connectors and I've come up with this to go in tandem with the above pinout.
The grey block from the resolver Hans has already dealt with but I'll add some details too.

Working on the 12 pin connector I've taken pin 1 as the one by the dots.
Pins 1-6 go to the black connector
12 pin number 1 goes to black block pin 4 I think this is Sin H
Number 2 to black block 1 I think this is Sin L
Number 3 to black block 5. Ex H?
Number 4 to black block 2. Ex L?
Number 5 to black block 6. Cos H
Number 6 to black block 3. Cos L

Number 7 to grey block 1 blue
Number 8 to grey block 2 grey
Number 9 to grey block 3 red
Number 10 to grey block 4 grey
Numbers 11 + 12 unused

The question is which Temp wires do we connect to pins 17+18 on the board?

[Scott166]

Found it!
The two temp sensors go to the stator and rotor (at the bearing)

[EV_Builder]

That documentation is confusing it states 3 sensors are present and only states two connections. I think that one connection has 2 sensors of the stator in parallel. So you will read half the signal.

If you see in the connection list it only states 2x stator but no rotor sensor. The diagram also looks to omit the rotor sensor l..

[Scott166]

As we only have one temp sensor input do we use the rotor or stator temp?

Even more confusing is this page shows the connectors the other way round to what I expected with the block with 6 wires for the temp and the block with 4 wires for the rotor position

[Scott166]

I've put my latest video online, it has the details of where I cut the inverter etc on it

Cheers all

[Scott166]

My motor seems to be stuck in Park, Damien says it should turn by hand but it's not happening.
Do I have to take the transmission off?

[Scott166]

If anyone knows the pinout of the parking actuator that would be amazing.

I've been doing some reading and I think these numbers on the motor cover could be to do with the position sensors.

[Scott166]

Sorry, forgot the image

[Scott166]

It's not very clear but there is a 06, 03 and 14

[MrX]

If anyone knows the pinout of the parking actuator that would be amazing.

The motor actuator is 12V to the outer two pins of the plug. Apply 12V in one direction to lock, reverse the polarity on the pins to unlock. You should only need ~5A of current to actuate, and you will head the gears moving in the actuator until it stops in the new position. If that doesn’t help, you should be able to unbolt the actuator from the gearbox if you get properly stuck. Please don’t open the gearbox unless completely necessary! You’ll just have more pain reassembling everything.

[Scott166]

If anyone knows the pinout of the parking actuator that would be amazing.

The motor actuator is 12V to the outer two pins of the plug. Apply 12V in one direction to lock, reverse the polarity on the pins to unlock. You should only need ~5A of current to actuate, and you will head the gears moving in the actuator until it stops in the new position. If that doesn’t help, you should be able to unbolt the actuator from the gearbox if you get properly stuck. Please don’t open the gearbox unless completely necessary! You’ll just have more pain reassembling everything.

Excellent, thanks Xavier

Have you made any progress on the inverter lately?

[Scott166]

Has anyone tried a manual start yet?

[Scott166]

Ok, I've been trying to follow Damien and Johannes' Leaf inverter video to ensure all is safe when putting HV to the inverter.
I have a bulb in line with the HV wiring and have slowly been increasing the voltage up to 60v.
The bulb has a dull glow but does not go out, at the capacitor I have 0.8v.
I was expecting the capacitor to charge to match the input then the bulb to extinguish.