Tesla SDU board

[philipj]

I have Tesla SDU board which I bought 4 years ago and had it working fine with the help of Johannes. It has been idle in the garage for 4 years and I am trying to get it and associated motor working again. To start with I could not get consistent wifi comms , I managed to get them working long enough to re load yhe parameters. Aftet that no significant success. I removed the open inverter board and found that a capacitor had fallen off and so re soldered it and than for one day was able to get the motor running again. However then could only get occasional operation. I notice that the 20 way connection plug is not very secure, though I have sprayed with WD 40 which did not help. Does anyone know if the openinverter boards are prone to failure? If so I could buy a replacement but want to be sure in case the problem is elsewhere. Also can the software on this board be updated? If so how and could that be the best approach ?

[johu]

It must be a board with an Olimex wifi module (the red one). These sometimes don't make good contact with the socket. You can fix this by unplugging the module and slightly (like 1mm) bending the 2 rightmost (towards C6) pins towards each other. Then reseat the module. This puts more pressure on the contacts.

I don't think you need a replacement board. Make sure you have stable 12V supply and once the web interface works plot signals such as "din_forward", "din_reverse", "potnom" to verify the essential control signals are not dodgy. The digital ones should stay at a constant level, potnom should vary with throttle input.

Also when the module works you can upload a recent stm32-sine.bin for upgrading. It can be found here: https://github.com/jsphuebner/stm32-sine/releases

[philipj]

Thanks very much for your reply Johu! Here's what I have done:-
- Checked the wifi module, It is the olimex one and I have bent the pins as you suggested. But no improvement.
- Some of the time I can connect on wifi but often when I use the browser to go to 192.168.4.1 its says address cannot be found
Sometimes it does work and I can access the interface. Then I can usuallly download parameters OK but nothing else. Trying to get spot values gives a blank screen, and I usually find this action has caused the wifi to disconnect. The wifi also disconnects randomly. I have tried to down load both the STM32_sine.bin and STM32_foc.bin files but nothing happens. The web interface suggests it should be an STM32_sine/foc.bin file which I cannot find. Maybe the next step should be a new olimex module, what do you think?

[philipj]

Can some direct me to where I can download an stm32_sine/foc.bin file for SDU board ?

[royhen99]

https://github.com/jsphuebner/stm32-sine/releases

[johu]

Do not download the stm32_foc.bin ! Only stm32_sine.bin is intended for Tesla boards

[philipj]

OK ... but I am puzzled as to why the wifi interface says to downloadd stm32_sine/foc.bin

[philipj]

https://github.com/jsphuebner/stm32-sine/releases

Thanks ... but these releases do not include stm32_sine/foc.bin

[johu]

Thanks ... but these releases do not include stm32_sine/foc.bin

You do realize that this is just meant to express the two alternatives?
You can either flash stm32_sine.bin OR stm32_foc.bin . NOT stm32_sine/foc.bin

As said, you need to flash stm32_sine.bin.

[philipj]

Now I realize that. The / was confusing to me. Dementia catching up. Now have downloaded stm32_sine.bin and board working

[philipj]

Is there someone who can help me get an SDU board working ? I am happy to pay. This board worked 4 years OK but now will not run the drive. I know there is an option to get help but not sure if this is still working. So far I have spend $8000 on the vehicle plus $6000 on the motor plus 700 0n the SDU board but nothing working so I am a bit cranky now!

[philipj]

Is there someone who can give me some assistance in geting a Tesla SDU drive working? I am happy to pay. The drive worked fine 4 years ago with the open inverter board, but now will not work.

[barracuda816]

I think you could get some decent pointers/assistance here if you are able to work safely on the system yourself. But you need to give much more information. As a minimum people will need to know;

1, Did you build it yourself?
2, You are using a Tesla SDU, but how are you controlling it? are you using a open inverter board?
3, What are your parameters?
4, you say its not working. What does that mean? Is it going into run mode? Is it showing battery voltage? it is precharging or contactors closing etc. It's not working means nothing.

Im sure if you post some more info here you will get some decent engagement.

[P.S.Mangelsdorf]

Is there someone who can help me get an SDU board working ? I am happy to pay. This board worked 4 years OK but now will not run the drive. I know there is an option to get help but not sure if this is still working. So far I have spend $8000 on the vehicle plus $6000 on the motor plus 700 0n the SDU board but nothing working so I am a bit cranky now!

Where are you located?

[philipj]

params.json

(1.15 KiB) Downloaded 302 times

Hi barracuda,

Here is some more info. I am using an open inverter board to control the SDU. Attached is a .json file with the parameters I am using.The wifi connection shows battery voltage and 12V supply. All the inputs are getting into the board as determined by the "spot check" function as is the throttle position input. The drive never goes into run mode. It pre-charges OK. I have tried forward and reverse inputs. Further investigation reveals that the "fault A" signal which comes from the main Tesla board is off. ( And off means there is a fault from what I can see ), This in turn means that the inhibit output on the OC board is on so not surprising that the motor will not run.
Getting into the Tesla board looks a little daunting so would need some one with experience at that level.
I am in Melbourne Australia. If anybody has experience , let me know

[johu]

Can you check which pin of IC5 stays low?

The parameters look pretty much alright for an SDU.

[philipj]

Pin 1 ie Fault A stays low

[philipj]

I am in Australia. Have narrowed the problem down to “fault A” on the Tesla main board. Do you know what that means ?

[johu]

Sorry, missed that. Merged the other topic to this one to have a better overview.

Alright, it is no easiest to check if there's an actual problem with the power stage or just a bad logic connection. Look at the second section here and report back: https://openinverter.org/wiki/Electronics_Basics

[philipj]

Sorry, missed that. Merged the other topic to this one to have a better overview.

Alright, it is no easiest to check if there's an actual problem with the power stage or just a bad logic connection. Look at the second section here and report back: https://openinverter.org/wiki/Electronics_Basics

Thanks for your help Johu, This has taken me some time.
I have done the tests as outlined in the link you sent and looks like there are no IGBT faults. On the OC board I found that the fault A signal is not actually zero but is just no connection. I can drive it up to 12V or down to zero. Same with fault B. Fault C is definitely being driven to zero ( 0.6V actually ). I tried bypassing all the fault inputs so that the inhibit PWM signal is off, and tried to run again. But nothing happening.
Now I have removed the OC board and removed the plastic cover on the main circuit board ( and the gel ). There are 36 IGBT's ( 6 for each phase ). I found the connections and all of them test OK. Now I am trying to work out the circuit as a step to fault find. If you have access to the circuit diagram or know of anyone who does please let me know. Seems like there is some logic between the signals from the OC board and the IGBT's

[johu]

This sounds not so good. The power electronics seem ok but the gate drive board seems toast. Also note that fault signals are 5V. Not sure where you applied 12V? If to the SDU logic board you may have blown the and-gate IC5

[philipj]

This sounds not so good. The power electronics seem ok but the gate drive board seems toast. Also note that fault signals are 5V. Not sure where you applied 12V? If to the SDU logic board you may have blown the and-gate IC5

My mistake , it was 5V not 12V. IC5 is working OK. Will check more on the drive board