Hi power inverter for Nissan leaf motor. Dyno's 302.3hp p15

[liveforphysics]

I bumped into a guy a while back who claimed to have smuggled in a Nissan programmer (the laptop) and the nismo ecu etc.. said he sold it for a pretty penny stateside. Said the buyer asked complete anonymity. Wonder what the hell that guy is up to.

Historically every model of Nissan ECU for the ice cars have been widely hackable. It's typically just some guy who sniffs the buses until he can reverse engineer what he needs.

 

[Arlo1]

Reprogramming the OEM controller may be quite challenging without some specialized software. I'm sure somebody at Nissan has it. That would really be the ideal approach.

Another possible approach would be to "spoof" all the current sensor signals to fool the controller into giving more power. This has been done on some hybrid cars before. Basic approach would be to divide all the current sensor signals by a fixed amount so the computer sees a percentage of the actual current. The software is likely looking at the phase currents as well as the battery current and if something doesn't add up, it will trigger a fault. If all the signals are divided by the same amount, the math should be OK.

Figuring out how to change the old program is nothing new. ICE cars have been getting programmers that re-flash them for a long time and its common for most all ICE cars.

When you realize you need to start over with almost everything to run this controller that will only have ~30-40% more power potential then the oem controller with a less user friendly system when you are done you realize what its worth. If people want to try this they are more then welcome but I would not bother personally. The leaf is heavy and you are trying to make a brick shithouse fast... Why not start with a lighter chassis?
The CRX should weigh about 2200-2300 lbs now. I will weigh it when I get a chance.



Its not easy to hack the oem system mechanically. The Leaf looks at current sensors and the battery current sensor and the speed and the duty cycle and a few other things and if it goes out of a safe parameter it freaks out.

 

[hillzofvalp]

Adding a separate contactor controlled externally for the purposes of driving a second controller to the motor still not worth it? It might disable the motor controller if the bms detects loss of energy, but I can't imagine it would brick anything. It would only suck if it locked the steering or turned off power steering.

Is it a hard thing to do: design an inverter based on yours that will fit in the engine bay and then just require dropping the pack and adding a contactor? (one of the contactors is inside the pack I believe at least on 2012 I could be wrong here). It would give off all sorts of lights like I said and disable the oem controller.. but who cares.

The leaf is heavy, but I think it'd be easy to knock off 500 lbs.. but that's besides the point. This is a sleeper mod.. all it needs to do is lay rubber in a very publicly innocent and ironic way.

I want to eventually do an e30...

edit: the nismo ecu is a thing that plugs in underneath the glovebox if I recall, only on 2013 or later. I wonder if all it's doing is rescaling the CAN information fed to the controller. In other words, what if the controller was only CAN limited and if you write the right thing to CAN then it will increase performance? That would be silly wouldn't it

 

[Arlo1]

Adding a separate contactor controlled externally for the purposes of driving a second controller to the motor still not worth it? It might disable the motor controller if the bms detects loss of energy, but I can't imagine it would brick anything. It would only suck if it locked the steering or turned off power steering.

Is it a hard thing to do: design an inverter based on yours that will fit in the engine bay and then just require dropping the pack and adding a contactor? (one of the contactors is inside the pack I believe at least on 2012 I could be wrong here). It would give off all sorts of lights like I said and disable the oem controller.. but who cares.

The leaf is heavy, but I think it'd be easy to knock off 500 lbs.. but that's besides the point. This is a sleeper mod.. all it needs to do is lay rubber in a very publicly innocent and ironic way.

I want to eventually do an e30...

edit: the nismo ecu is a thing that plugs in underneath the glove box if I recall, only on 2013 or later. I wonder if all it's doing is rescaling the CAN information fed to the controller. In other words, what if the controller was only CAN limited and if you write the right thing to CAN then it will increase performance? That would be silly wouldn't it

Nismo claims to be running the oem power settings.

You have to remember all your gauges nav system power brakes (which are electric) and all kinds of things require the can network to be fully operational and see what the motor is doing. Its a CRAZY amount of work for small gains. What I was focused on was making more power then oem and building a car with 2-3 times more power dense battery and all in a vehicle that's about 1/2 the weight of a oem leaf.

 

[Arlo1]

DID some testing tonight and set the rev limiter to start reducing power at 52k erpm and be full limit at 56k erpm (13000 rpm)
I also set the battery limit up to 450 amps and field weakening to 350 amps and now with a fully charged battery at 100km/h It spins the tires!!!!!

Also I hit a top speed of 184km/h with more to go!


ONE COOL THING TO NOTE THIS IS NOW THE FASTEST I HAVE TRAVELED IN A ELECTRIC VEHICLE!!!!

 

[Lebowski]

450A at 470V is 212 kW, or > 280 hp

 

[Arlo1]

450A at 470V is 212 kW, or > 280 hp

Sag...... The battery is sagging to about 410v as its cold.

 

[hillzofvalp]

arlo.. two words for you: go pro

 

[Arlo1]

arlo.. two words for you: go pro

Yes I have to find it.

Once I get the bugs worked out I will make a good video. My focus has always been getting the things working and not wasting time setting up cameras and editing footage. Soon. I will find a way to make a video but at the same time I need to keep the heat off this car.... videos are fun but also can bring a lot of un needed attention.

 

[Lebowski]

with over 250hp and spinning wheels at 100kmh it must be a fun car

is the police so bad in Canada that you really have to watch out ? maybe you should disguise it, you know, make it inconspiquous.
Paint it orange, some numbers on the doors, flag on the roof

 

[kiwifiat]

I will find a way to make a video but at the same time I need to keep the heat off this car.... videos are fun but also can bring a lot of un needed attention.

Are you referring to this guy on Vancouver Island?

[youtube]JcxPvUUEMLE[/youtube]

I think you have earned an honorary PhD degree in Electrical Engineering.

 

[Arlo1]

with over 250hp and spinning wheels at 100kmh it must be a fun car

is the police so bad in Canada that you really have to watch out ? maybe you should disguise it, you know, make it inconspiquous.
Paint it orange, some numbers on the doors, flag on the roof

LOL yes that would work... As it is now its Low key. But yes have to be carefull at 40km/h they take your car away for a week and charge you a shit pile of money.

It would not be good to let this sit in some yard in the rain for a week....


Yes its is a very fun car

Today I put a set of new tires on the front Nitto Neo-gens they are great. After they were scrubbed in they hook up amazing. It will still roast them but it launches harder....

I think I have a CV shaft making noise now lol.... Time to get a custom set made.

 

[Arlo1]

I will find a way to make a video but at the same time I need to keep the heat off this car.... videos are fun but also can bring a lot of un needed attention.

Are you referring to this guy on Vancouver Island?

[youtube]JcxPvUUEMLE[/youtube]

I think you have earned an honorary PhD degree in Electrical Engineering.

Yes do not need to be like that guy... He can't travel to the US or Mexico or many other countries because of his record now.

 

[Arlo1]

Edited the driver board files I will post more info once I get the new set and test them. The old file just needs a jumper.

Been busy
-developing a 7kw 240 VAC charger.
-Had our first son Issac on november 23
-Installed Ohlins suspension in this car.
and a few other things.

I will try to update this soon as things happen!!

 

[kiwifiat]

Congrats on the birth of your son, children are literally little bundles of joy at that age.

 

[liveforphysics]

You rock Arlin! I love your work!!

Glad you've got a healthy beautiful son!

 

[marcexec]

Congrats mate,
homemade stuff is just the best, isn't it?

 

[Arlo1]

Weighed the car today. 2400 lbs without the 42lb battery that's running my heat right now.
Wheels are a bit heavy.

So with a race battery I can remove about 340lbs out of the back and put about 30-40lbs of rc lipo under the hood

For now I will try to run it at the 1/4 it should be in the 12s now and tens with it cranked right up and perfect traction!

I also don't weigh that much. I came home and double checked and I'm 235lbs so its possible the scale is a bit off where the car was weighed but I also got out really fast.

 

[Arlo1]

I also spent some time trying to finish cleaning up the wiring under the hood.

I spent some time with the double pulse tester. And found some small gains but making the emitter jumpers as short as I could.
I compared the laminated BUS to the non Laminated BUS and even tried some 1/0awg cable in place of the buss. The BUS was better then the cable but the lamination didn't do anything. I realize this is because there is no current flowing in the opposing part of the lamination I had. Its a difficult design to run lamination properly.

But at the end of the day THIS HAS EXCEEDED MY EXPECTATIONS! And I think I can turn the power up some more.

Right now its limited to 250hp and its crazy fast! Its the Fastest 0-140km/h car I have owned With about 30-40% left on the table.

THEN A BIG GAME CHANGER will come! All in time stay posted.
I will try to make a build list for this for those trying to build these things soon.

-Arlin

 

[HighHopes]

i love how you put the inverter inside the old engine. i'm glad you're getting good results!

ps your current sensors look like they might be prone to vibration. something to keep an eye one, doesn't seem urgent.

 

[Arlo1]

i love how you put the inverter inside the old engine. i'm glad you're getting good results!

ps your current sensors look like they might be prone to vibration. something to keep an eye one, doesn't seem urgent.

Thanks.. And I think you meen inside the old leaf inverter housing. Having been there done that I won't do it again lol. The inside needs to be machined and the bolt holes for the IGBTs go into the water jacket.

And yes the current sensors ICs are soldered with lead free crap so I re-soldered them with lead solder. I then made sure I bolted them to the boards first with locktight on the screws. They seem ok.

I am moving the design to a melexes current sensor that lays right on the buss bar but I need to test those first. When I do that it will open up board space and let me move some DC/DCs to the proper side and lower the inductance on the board from the DC/DC-the boost stage.

 

[Animalector]

or something like this:
http://www.ti.com.cn/cn/lit/ug/tiduaz4/tiduaz4.pdf

 

[HighHopes]

I am moving the design to a melexes current sensor that lays right on the buss bar

i didn't see busbar mount on their website. marcus told me about another manufacturer that does this which is ISB Series Current Sense Transducers by ICE components. read the datasheet and you'll see its not as good and not as robust as what you have now. weither that maters to you or not is another story. even LEM makes bus-bar mount style, but again, not as good (though at least it is as robust). tracking current and motor's position to high degree of accuracy with minimal latency will make the difference to eeking out that last 10% of torque. so keep that in mind when you are evaluating.

 

[Arlo1]

I am moving the design to a melexes current sensor that lays right on the buss bar

i didn't see busbar mount on their website. marcus told me about another manufacturer that does this which is ISB Series Current Sense Transducers by ICE components. read the datasheet and you'll see its not as good and not as robust as what you have now. weither that maters to you or not is another story. even LEM makes bus-bar mount style, but again, not as good (though at least it is as robust). tracking current and motor's position to high degree of accuracy with minimal latency will make the difference to eeking out that last 10% of torque. so keep that in mind when you are evaluating.

Iv'e been warned.
https://www.digikey.ca/product-detail/en/melexis-technologies-nv/MLX91208LDC-CAV-001-SP/MLX91208LDC-CAV-001-SP-ND/6173904

They do show using a shield to help keep noise out.

 

[Lebowski]

or something like this:
http://www.ti.com.cn/cn/lit/ug/tiduaz4/tiduaz4.pdf

interesting.... looking at this it will not be so sensitive to whether or not is it the middle of the hole, but i think any rotation will cause an immediate error....