openinverter forum

I've been selling off some ICE car parts, getting ready to start purchasing my EV conversion parts.

Since I'm in the US, and the car I'm converting is Volvo 240 (front engine, rear drive, solid rear axle), a L110 from a GS450H seems to be the best option. However, the GS450H inverters seem to be quite a bit more expensive than prius or camry inverters.

Can anyone provide a quick summary of the different Toyota inverters, beyond just the generations and part numbers which the wiki has? Why would I choose a GS450H inverter vs a IS300H vs a Camry or a Prius?

I promise, if this thread winds up containing useful information, I'll compile it and put it all in the wiki.

Someone was compiling this info... 6 months ago?

I dunno that it ever got more than a couple steps.

I hope people do chime in.

The Gen 2 and Gen 3 Prius wikis have their info for this.

mark wrote: ↑Fri Sep 02, 2022 1:52 am
Can anyone provide a quick summary of the different Toyota inverters, beyond just the generations and part numbers which the wiki has? Why would I choose a GS450H inverter vs a IS300H vs a Camry or a Prius?

generally the l110 has been run via its matting inverter via sync serial, so not a lot of option outside of that for ones that will work in the same fashion. from my understanding, some camrey inverters has been proven to run a l110 via sync serial, but im not too sure if the same could be said about the prius inverter. in that case you may have to run OI to produce the 3 phase pwm for the igbt's.

and im not even sure if the other non standard inverters that would run a l110 via sync, would run it as efficiently as the stock one would.

I sourced a US 2007-2011 Camry inverter (cheaper to buy and ship to UK than a GS450H inverter was in the uk at the time!) and mated it to a UK GS450H transmission and it ran correctly in a bench test setup (60V DC and no load) using the GS450H VCU board

nkiernan wrote: ↑Fri Sep 02, 2022 9:55 am I sourced a US 2007-2011 Camry inverter (cheaper to buy and ship to UK than a GS450H inverter was in the uk at the time!) and mated it to a UK GS450H transmission and it ran correctly in a bench test setup (60V DC and no load) using the GS450H VCU board

Yes, this is generally what I'm hoping to do, as the Camry and some of the other Lexus inverters (ES300H, etc.), seem to be in the $150 - $250 delivered range on ebay.

I plan on using the zombieverter board, which I hope means its a bit more adaptable between which motor and which inverter we're trying to get communicating.

I was watching one of Damien's videos (Lexus GS450H Gearbox Project Returns https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gh-nTtw7k6U) and he has three Toyota inverters on his bench. And he starts with a Gen 3 Prius, then goes to a IS300H, and finally a GS450H. It seems that he describes them as just different sizes ("A step up..."), but not that they're fundamentally different in terms of functionality.

Is this the correct interpretation? The larger inverters have different power handling capabilities, or larger IGBTs, or some other difference? And what do those differences mean in terms of an EV conversion? Less power to the motor? Lower top end speed? These are the types of questions I think other would-be converters are trying to answer, and I'd love to document it in the wiki for future reference.

GS450H and Camry are essentially the same model, you wouldn't be interchanging the inverter and transmission from different Toyota/Lexus models though. You will see in the relevant threads how the Sync serial reverse engineering shows different communication packet lengths and data etc, so unless there was some sort of interperter in the middle to allow cross communication, you would stick with matched pairs.

This is what Zombieverter currently accommodates also, at this point anyway - matched Toyota/Lexus pairs

So the Camry inverter that you've bench tested would be what you referred to as a matched pair with the GS450H transmission? Which G9200 model is your inverter?

I would also recommend calling local parts yards to see if you can get one from them with the wiring harness or at least the main connector with some wire length. it will make your life so much easier. I was lucky and bought an inverter of eBay that had the main connector attached.

Link below should direct you to a bit more detail and a previous similar discussion and the inverter number was G9200-33030


viewtopic.php?p=30272&hilit=camry#p30272

The equivalent year Camry inverters are the same as the GS450h inverters, but have different electrical connectors (not really an issue).

That's very good to know. Thanks to everyone replying.

I'll do some more digging into the sync serial length differences. Maybe I could add a 'sync serial length' column to the existing table in the wiki to illustrate which are compatible.