Phev Insight

[boelle]

first crazy thought that came to mind was making a new cage for the the lifepo4 cells

of course that depends of how much spare space you have to play with, the new cage of course had to use the bolts that are allready are there, but if the wheight of the pack is the same or close to that should not be a problem

making another board that interfaces with the RS485, will that make the belive the pack is X-number bigger? or will it just correct the display?

regarding replace the BCM complete i stand with one foot on yes and the other on no.. normal i like everything as close to as it left the factory... but i'm open to idea's

btw. i'm close to have saved up 1/3 for an insight

[retepsnikrep]

Bloody hell finally. I've woken from the Insight noise nightmare.

After scoping it today still lots of noise on Master Bus and Temp Sensor Bus. (These snake round the pack passing the high current wires so are just ripe to pick up the emi) I didn't rewire my slaves in the end with twisted pair etc as I wanted to try the supression first.

Added a varistor between Gnd and Master Bus Input pin.

LITTELFUSE|V8ZA1P|VARISTOR, 0.4J, 4VAC | Farnell United Kingdom

Instant massive reduction in noise.

Then added a 0.1uf poly between Master Bus Input pins which smoothed it right off. (Might need to add a minute amount of voltage compensation due to extra capacitance on bus)

Also added same varistor between Temp sensor data line and Gnd all noise gone off there as well.

Went for short test drive and BMS responded normally with no errors. I need to do some work on Master software now to tidy it up. I also need to do some checking to make sure the Master logic is working correctly, over/under alarms, temp alarms etc etc. Charger control seem to be working OK but I need to adjust the voltage set points in Master etc.

One pic shows setup in Insight IPU compartment.

www.solarvan.co.uk/bms/ItsAlive002.jpg

Ignore the Google warning.

Board on right is the Master.

Board on left is my testing/connection point for Insight BCM/MCM METSCI & BATTSCI RS485 bus work.

I think I could probably use the serial data system now instead of the new pulse width voltage system. So I might go back to that to try it!

[boelle]

how many cells did not fit inside the org. battery cage?

and how much spare space are there to make a bigger cage?

[retepsnikrep]

Its in and running at max speed 4800 baud and I have put the battery packs back in the car and been for a 10 mile test drive.
Cells are all within 20mv which is the limit of the resolution. No unexpected errors.

Still some issue with Master software but that's expected.

What Works.

1) Cell voltage measurement and transmission to Master
2) Current sensing & AH counting
3) Charger control Relay & Opto
4) Over/Under Voltage/Temp alarms
5) Individual cell voltage view feature.

What doesn't work yet or untested.

1) Security code feature crashes Master requiring it to be re-programmed so I am removing that for the time being.

2) I2C Temp sensors are ok when engine off but when driving giving eroneous readings due to interference. Need to scope them a bit more. May move them to seperate inputs as I have some spares.

3) Speed/Distance not connected up yet. Code is active in Master though.

So car is back together and driveable. Few minor niggles to sort and re-write some of Master code but it basically works now as I originally intended.

I think the Slave code will stay as is for quite a while now.

The Master code will continue to evolve as I correct the issues and add/remove features.

I will add remote programming of things like Slave Load on/off voltage but at the moment you have to pre-program that in Slaves.

Thanks to all for their help and support on here, you know who you are! This project would not have ben possible without the support, advice and contributions from friends around the world



Boelle

Probably 25% of my cells would not fit in ipu comp. Theres not that much space to fit a bigger box unless you really hack everything about!!

[Mike Dabrowski 2000]

Great work Peter, your technical skills, hard work and persistence has paid off.
Thanks for sharing.

[boelle]

looking at http://www.solarvan.co.uk/bms/ItsAlive002.jpg not sure if i understand it correct but:

the battery pack starts from the 2 leads on the left ? it seems that there is some solid plastic to starts with and then there are a big space between the pack and the 3 connectors marked a b and c... it does however not look like there is any space upward as the ipu controller sits on top of the pack

what are the external messurements of the pack itself without the ipu electronics on top? and how much do the free space at the a b c connectors messure?

might kill some time working with some cardboard... even thou i dont own an insight yet

[retepsnikrep]

I used a hollowed out battery case to mount all my stuff on. It sits exactly where the OEM battery does.

You need something secure and substantial to mount all the bits on/in unless you are going for a complete rebuild of the rear compartment.

I suggest wait until you get an Insight before really looking at converting it.

[boelle]

what i had in mind was an replica of the batterycase... just bigger to make use of the small extra space there is next to the abc plugs

could be made in alu or steel.... of course useing the org bolts so that that a swap could be easy...

could use meaasure the org battery case and the space next to the plugs? and the cells? could make a cardboard copy of the setup just for the fun of it

[retepsnikrep]

Tidying and some final testing today.

Vehicle speed mph and odometer now work
Still not quite sure about Ah counting need to look back at some of my older versions
Some pics of various BMS screens. Vehicle stationery.
No unwanted errors now!!

www.solarvan.co.uk/bms/BMS050809001.jpg
www.solarvan.co.uk/bms/BMS050809002.jpg
www.solarvan.co.uk/bms/BMS050809003.jpg
www.solarvan.co.uk/bms/BMS050809004.jpg
www.solarvan.co.uk/bms/BMS050809005.jpg
www.solarvan.co.uk/bms/BMS050809006.jpg

I'll post Master when it's done. Bug hunting certainly takes time.

I have allowed it to do an unattended charge cycle now so I'm much more confident. When an Alarm conditon occurs you get the audible alarm and negative screen with details etc.

The screen remains negative until the BMS is reset so you know an Alarm has occured perhaps while system unattended. I'm working on storing last few alarms now so you can recall them via another screen.

The BMS control buttons are shown in little cubby hole under radio in dashboard. Grid on screen pics is photo artefact

The Zivan charger is controlled in three ways.

1) It's own internal alogorithim, it is adjusted to 180v max CV output.
2) Via BMS and opto isolated voltage pull down opto.
3) Via BMS and charger mains control relay.

The voltage pull down is operated when any cell goes over 3.75V
The charger mains relay is cut if any cell goes over 3.80v

At the end of todays charging cycle the BMS did not need to take control at any time as the Zivan just finished it's normal cycle. All cells were within indicated 20mv at end of charge.

[retepsnikrep]

I've been fiddling with variables for ah counting and speedometer all morning, now got both to be about as accurate as I can.

Speedo agrees with car now +/- 1mph. Ah counting now working OK.

Of course the speedo and alarm counting routines etc will all need to be adapted depending on what others use for the sensors etc.

I've also added an alarm count loop in case of erroneous alarms. An alarm has to occur a number of times in a row before the Alarm subroutine is called. You can specifiy how many. I'm using 3. So the program must loop three times returning an Alarm condition before the alarm sounds. 3 loops on the move only takes about 2 seconds so I'm happy with that response rate. As the system gets more stable I can tweak that number down.

I was getting the very odd eroneous error/alarm so I added this as a double/treble check. Most won't need it.

I would say the software is now fit for the masses In fact here is my working Master & Slave code

http://www.solarvan.co.uk/bms/MASTER...6_4800BAUD.txt

Slave code still as the other day.

http://www.solarvan.co.uk/bms/SLAVE_...4_4800BAUD.txt

Car is sat outside charging as we speak.