[joeaax1j]

Yes, I always recommend cutting the WHT/GRN wire heading to the DCDC converter. This forces the DCDC to output 14.x volts (like a normal car's alternator would). Cutting the WHT/GRN wire still allows the MCM to disable the DCDC entirely (which is controlled by GRN/BLK).

I'm open to this. Can you clarify whether you are recommending this for the benefit of LiBCM? Or, is cutting this wire just your preference? The reason I ask is that I recall in your original thread about this mod @retepsnikrep mentioning that cutting this wire caused a hit to fuel economy.

Original thread:

Mod to keep 12 volt battery charged

Howdy folks, here's a video showing a quick, simple modification that prevents the ECM from controlling whether the DCDC is charging the 12 volt battery. This means the DCDC will always keep the 12 volt rail at 14.x volts when the car is running (or in autostop), unless the IMA battery is...

www.insightcentral.net

Peter's comment:

Mod to keep 12 volt battery charged

I look at it this way. Anytime there is activity from the IMA, Regen or Assist, there is a load on the engine, either positive or negative load. I hate it when the Assist kicks in and I see a big (-) ATDC on the timing gauge until you get around 3K, then the timing starts to advance good for HP...

www.insightcentral.net

 

[joeaax1j]

Mudder, I'm thinking of rerouting the LiBCM charger power cord, similarly to how things were run for Mike Dabrowski's grid charger. I already have a hole on the metal IMA box wall and then another that goes up to the top. This has allowed me, over the years, to very easily plug in my grid charger. If you never had one of this chargers, here is a link to his installation video (I've got the link set to jump right to the part of the video that shows the cable routing that I'm talking about).

My thoughts are to:

1. enlarge the two holes as necessary
2. Install a rubber grommet in the hole in the IMA box wall. Something like this, perhaps.
3. Install a power inlet port with extension cord in the top of the "shelf". Something like this.
4. Route the LiBCM charger cord underneath the fan shroud and out through the protected hole in the IMA box wall and plug it into the power inlet port extension.

Thoughts? Concerns?
-Bryan

 

[joeaax1j]

This leads me to three related questions:

1. If the 12V battery is replaced with 6 leftover lithium cells, will that work for those times that it is cold enough that the conventional starter has to turn over the engine?

2a. Does LiBCM eliminate the need for extreme cold starts from the conventional starter?

2b. What part of the car instructs the conventional starter to do the engine turning? Will that part of the car still function after moving to LiBCM?

 

[joeaax1j]

FYI, my car started on the conventional starter the other afternoon after sitting ouside all day. It was -3 F (-19 C) at the time.

 

[joeaax1j]

Very interesting, Sam! I'm thinking back to those rusted screws that we have all encountered in the original front brake rotors. Maybe those were JIS and perhaps might explain why so many of us had trouble removing them. Yes they were rusty, but perhaps there was something else going on, as well.

From my reading online, JIS screws are easy to differentiate from Phillips screws. Apparently, they all have a dot in them (see below). Can anybody confirm whether the screw on the IMA switch has that dot/dimple?

 

[joeaax1j]

From my reading online, JIS screws are easy to differentiate from Phillips screws. Apparently, they all have a dot in them (see below). Can anybody confirm whether the screw on the IMA switch has that dot/dimple?

I kind of went down a rabbit hole yesterday, reading up on JIS screws/screwdrivers. After doing a lot of reading, I've made the following observations/conclusions:

1. The JIS standard is no more. If you take a look at Vessel's webpage (the main manufacturer of what used to be JIS screwdrivers), you will see that they don't make JIS screwdrivers anymore because the JIS standard doesn't exist any more.

2. The new standards are DIN 5260-PH and ISO 8763-1. Apparently a quality DIN 5260-PH phillips screwdriver, which is what currently high quality manufactured "JIS" screwdrivers are, works perfectly well on JIS screws.

3. If you want a real JIS screwdriver, you must look for older screwdrivers manufactured before 2008.

As for me, I have a quality set of Wera screwdrivers that are DIN 5260 certified. I'll stick to those unless I ever come across an old set of JIS screwdrivers. Maybe I'll keep my eye out for some older JIS screwdrivers on Ebay.

 

[joeaax1j]

Peter, I see two cords coming out of that hole. One is obviously the LiBCM charger cord. What is the other?

 

[joeaax1j]

I'm glad that Sean cares. Yesterday I was swapping out a UPS for an employee, something that I've done many times. The old one was not functioning correctly. I should have paid closer attention to the old one. It was slow dripping battery acid and I didn't even notice it until about 30 minutes later when I realized that I had developed multiple holes in my pants legs. Fortunately it is winter time and I was wearing pants rather than shorts. It gave me a renewed respect for the dangers of battery acid. Everybody, please take all proper precautions when working with LiBCM -- you obviously can't see electricity.

 

[joeaax1j]

I hit a roadblock on my LiBCM install embarrassingly early in the process last night during the modifications to the IMA wire harness. I had no problems crimping my Anderson Powerpole connectors on, as I actually have an Anderson Powerpole crimper. However, I repeatedly failed to get the connector into the housing. During the repeated failures the wire kept getting bent where it goes into the metal connector. Finally after about 10 tries, the wire broke right at that point and the connector fell off. Darn!

Now I have two issues:

1. I need to order more 15AMP contacts. So, I'm looking at this. 15AMP is 15AMP is 15AMP, right? I'm assuming there is nothing special about Mudder's connectors.

2. More concerning is that I now only have about 11mm of orange wire protruding out of the plug that goes into the MCM. Hmm, how to proceed? I have so little wire remaining that I need to get this right on the first try. At this point, I think my best option is to strip some more sheathing off and then solder on a pigtail extension and then cover it with heat shrink tubing. I have some 20AWG stranded wire (slightly bigger than the orange wire), but should work with the 15 amp connectors. Thoughts? See the pic below:

Thanks!
Bryan

 

[joeaax1j]

Thanks Peter!

 

[joeaax1j]

I got my LiBCM coversion completed this morning and back in the car. My LiBCM is one of the 18S->12S conversions. Worked very well. Mudder's videos are awesome. Just took the car for a short test drive. No IMA light and no CEL codes, so far. Everything seems to be working very well, for the most part. The only issue I'm seeing, so far, is corruption on the 4X20 display. It seems to happen during serious braking. Obviously, a key off/on resets the display. I just need to figure out why it seems to happen during every braking event.

-Bryan

 

[joeaax1j]

Does anybody know if putting a clip on ferrite over the 4x20 display cable would stop the display corruption issue?

 

[joeaax1j]

The IMA greats a huge amount of electrical noise, it's killing my OBDIIC&C and the LiBCM on some cars.

Gasp! It is killing LiBCM? As in permanently?? If so, that isn't good!

 

[joeaax1j]

Whew! Thanks for the clarification. Relieved.

 

[joeaax1j]

@geocougar I don't know what Mudder would say to your question, but I will add that his official instructions in the 18S->12S conversion video specifically require removing the black rubber from bay 1. It isn't for the reasons you mention, but I did notice that my converted 12S module had more space around it with the rubber removed. However, once I got the end plates bolted on, everything seems solid and stable.

 

[joeaax1j]

Mudder, so sorry to hear of your Mother's passing.

 

[joeaax1j]

I've read Mudder's FAQ on SOC differences between the LiBCM 4x20 display, OBDIIC&C, and the dashboard display. Keeping those differences in mind, does anybody know how low the SOC needs to be before the car starts to force charge the lithium battery? On my old OEM battery/BCM it usually would start to force charge when the SOC got down to about 64%. Thanks!

 

[joeaax1j]

I'm curious if anybody is having as much trouble with garbage output on the 4x20 display, as I am? I went to the trouble, yesterday, of rerouting my display cable down and out through the air intake behind the passenger seat and then routing the cable around the passenger seat and up to the cup holders. At first, I thought it was an improvement, as I didn't have any problems this morning on my 30 minute commute. However, this afternoon on my way home, it turned to garbage output after about 10 minutes. I pulled over at an exit. It was so messed up that turning off the car didn't cause the display to turn off. I ended up having to flip the IMA switch, twice, and then two more key off/ons before it finally started working again. Then, I drove away, only to have it mess up again after about 1/4 mile. I got home and had the same problem -- getting the display to reset is very difficult again. I don't have any other problems with my LiBCM -- no buzzer warnings and no CELs, so far. But this display is practically unusable. I'm going to wrap the display cable around a clip on ferrite to see if it helps.

 

[joeaax1j]

I'm fairly certain something is wrong either with my 4x20 display, the display cable, or the arduino. To keep the display from being lit up all night last night, I turned off my IMA switch. This morning I turned the IMA switch back on. And interestingly, the display lit up briefly and then turned off -- like it is supposed to. Then, before starting my car up, I thought to myself, "Bryan, you never zip-tied the display cable to the display, like Mudder shows in his video. So I proceeded to do that. As I was tightening the zip-tie, the display lit up on its own (key was not in the ignition) and looked like this:

This is what it was doing last night, as well. I found this page that mentions: "That display means that you have not initialised the display controller correctly. So it could be hardware or it could be software." Another comment on that page states: "That is the 'Power Up' pattern shown for that LCD controller. it persists until the Initialisation is completed."

Even when the display does appear to initialize correctly, it then malfunctions in other ways. See the below video as an example of what I'm referring to:

VID_20220218_083647

Watch "VID_20220218_083647" on Streamable.

streamable.com

 

[joeaax1j]

Thanks, Peter. I don't have any experience with Arduinos or these displays, but I'll start some googling to see if I can find out what I'm parts I need to make these types of cables. Also, this weekend, I'll pull the pack and check for continuity between each of the individual wires in the cable.

-Bryan