Extending range of 24kWh Leaf with LeafBox

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Stanton said:
This is what I originally suspected, so glad to see it proved out. Unfortunately, the times I need range extension are on trips that are (mostly) highway, which reduces the value of LeafBox for me. There's no range-killer like speed for an EV ;)

Yes, you are right. If we assume 100% highway usage - then just simple physics says, that LeafBox cannot help with range.

Whole improvement comes from city driving, moderate long distance journeys, living in hilly region, or mountains.
 
Since I'll be extending my lease again, I'm interested. I drive mainly secondary roads at 30-50MPH, with some highway use at 55MPH. It's moderately hilly here. Any idea how much more range I could get?
 
LeftieBiker said:
Since I'll be extending my lease again, I'm interested. I drive mainly secondary roads at 30-50MPH, with some highway use at 55MPH. It's moderately hilly here. Any idea how much more range I could get?

After collecting all data from testers - it looks, that 10% or more (more city drive = better result). This also depends on drivers' skills, as huge part of range improvement comes from using "coasting/gliding" function of LeafBox.
 
I'm pretty good at coasting (my Vectrix motorcycle will coast), but rarely bother to shift to R/N to do it. What's the process? Are you still testing, or selling or renting it?
 
LeftieBiker said:
I'm pretty good at coasting (my Vectrix motorcycle will coast), but rarely bother to shift to R/N to do it. What's the process? Are you still testing, or selling or renting it?

It is a finished product, available from http://vtechtuning.eu/leafbox.html

Let's say it is a "half-commercial" product - I use money to develop products for other EV cars.
 
LeftieBiker said:
I'm pretty good at coasting (my Vectrix motorcycle will coast), but rarely bother to shift to R/N to do it. What's the process? Are you still testing, or selling or renting it?
As described in the videos and the first pages of this thread; LeafBox changes D mode to "Glide" mode. In this mode the "dead zone" of the pedal is larger to allow your foot to easily rest in a position where the motor will go to 0 kw/neutral. The stock Leaf already does this but you need supreme foot control as the pedal "dead zone" is only 1-2cm. This way you can cruise in D and with just a movement of your foot instantly switch to neutral and coast at maximum efficiency and not have to deal with the shifter at all.
 
Piro said:
I plan do explain also a bit more about that, how it is possible to go over 80kW limit (by poor 3kW, but still better than factory power, this functionality is NOT ENABLED yet) and how it is possible to invoke higher regen (again about 3kW better regen, as it bases on the same trick - exploit of factory PID_R algorythm for power demand stabilization). Maybe this will be boring for most of you, but for some it will be interesting. For me personally this exploit is a well known trick, because I have observed it in many ECUs of gasoline cars years ago, while working at reverse engineering them (as Im car tuner, all in all). I checked that in Leaf just for fun, believing in maybe 5% of chance, that this will work - and tadaaam - it works. Also for regen. I will prepare some pictures (graphs) to explain that better.
Would love to see exactly how that works.

For me, my biggest complaint about the LEAF's regen is how the maximum amount of regen is highly limited at any speed higher than 10-15 mph. At highway speeds you often get NO regenerative braking. This gets much worse as your LEAF loses capacity.

It seems that the only way to work around this would be to actually reprogram one of the LEAFs ECUs - I don't see how a pedal position remapper would be able move these thresholds significantly unless I'm missing something.
 
By the way, I have built following thing for my home:

Basically it is Type1 Charger, but you can connect it to 3phase or 1 phase socket. If it is 1-phase - it is typical 10A-13A charger (normal/boost mode) so you charge 2kW or 2.4 kW (boost). But if you connect it to 3phase (400V here) it will give you 3,6 kW (normal mode) or 4,6 kW (boost mode). It uses balanced load on all phases.
I have prepared also 6,6kW version, again balancing on 3 phases (10 A per phase in that case).
It is fully portable, with power meter, load (kWh charged) meter, voltage & current display.
So people with limitation of 16A per phase or so can charge with full speed if they only have 3 phase at home.

Please tell me countries, where such thing is a good idea.
Here in Poland we have 3phase in most houses, usually limited to 14,5 A (16 A fuse). So if I charge car (10A, 2 kW or so) i cannot use anything on that phase, that uses more than 1,5 kW or fuse will switch off current.
With my solution my Outlander PHEV charges with full speed of 3.6 kW, and my Wife's Leaf - 4,5 kW (7 A per phase).
Such charger is fully portable, it can be used as 1-phase 230V charger (10A normal mode, 13 A boost mode).
My problem here was, that we have same phase in garage, and dishwasher. So when I charge car (original charger, 10A 2,2 kW) and my Wife starts dishwasher, fuse switches off. With my new charger it is no problem (load per phase for Outlander, charging with full speed of 3,6 kW is 6A, so no problem at all)

I have prepared also prototype, that uses equal 10A load on 3 phases to have 30A for 6,6 kW charging of Type1 car (like Leaf).

Is that a good idea, such semi-fast charging at home, or any place, where 3 phases are available (even with 16A limit per phase, as my charger takes 10A per phase) ?
Thomas

PS: Maybe we can start a separate thread to discuss that
 
Did I read correctly a few posts back Piro? You have a solution to running 30kwh pack in 2012 model leaf? If so can you provide further details?
 
Well, I'm still curious what the max distance-to-turtle i'll get buying this box

I have JDM Nissan Leaf S 2014. AHr=66,4. Good battery is the one reason i don't want trade this car on 30kWt SV with SOH=90%

In fact i had never meet "turtle". Moscow roads are flat. Roads jams at morning and get free at the deep evening. So cruising in ECO at 40-60 kmh from one to the next traffic light and then driving 90-110 kmh on my way home i can get 155 kms till i meet "---". One time i asked my dad drive this car, and he was new with right-side drivewheel car he drove 80 kmh and passed 150 km on 88%.

So what i can expect with this device in summer's 20'C?
 
About using 30kWh battery in 24kWh Leaf: this is possible, but CAN-CAN converter is needed to translate communications to simulate 24kWh battery in 24kWh car.

About range with LeafBox - this depends on driver. If I assume my wife as "not educated driver" that does not care on coasting etc, difference is 14.8 kWh/100 -> 14.0 kWh/100 - so 6%.
For me with cruising I can easily go over 10% maintaining same speed even with higher speeds, but not at highway.
With highway speeds gain is small.
 
Any word on increasing HP or Torque numbers for better performance? A sort of ludicrous mode? I have entertained the thought of a weight reduction, sticky tires, and better suspension. A HP upgrade would really complete the car, even if its just a mild 10-15hp increase. Im sure the drivetrain could handle it. Heck, let the user control how much power is allowed. What if the buyer doesn't mind trashing a battery and just wants to drag race on a closed course? I think there should simply be a disclaimer stating if you break it, the company is not liable...
 
who the EFF spends much time driving in eco ?
trying to accomplish What.. it is an acceleration limiter.. misnamed eco.
I find it most useful in situations where I might over control.. ( too busy)
but in any steady state cruising.. it does nothing. and on undulating hills.. it just puts you behind the curve
for adding power at the best time.

I use eco as a braking/regen control..
in hill climbing it does nothing.. since the amount of power to get up a hill at X speed is mathematical

all eco does is keep lead foots from pumping the gas stupidly.
and increasing regen..

I wish Nissan would give us a nice paddle on the shifter to toggle between D ( coast) eco ( stage 1 regen) and B ( stage 2 regen)
the present system is stupid.. as the eco button is out of reach whenever you turn the wheel... stupid.
 
blimpy said:
who the EFF spends much time driving in eco ?

Me. I use it all the time. I like the gentle application of the power. stops me getting the jump on people in front of me. the only things I like about the Normal mode is less regen when i want to coast more and not try control it with the pedal (not lifting off all together) and playtime. Most of my driving is very grown up and stuck in traffic on the freeway and surface streets in town where 'playtime' is limited, well up to 30mph anyway.
 
I also use Eco 95% of the time. Normal is fun, but it's more like a "Sport" mode than one for normal driving. I will say that when you mainly use Normal then Eco feels wrong - and vice versa.
 
I'm on my 2nd 2012 leaf. I drive in eco mode roughly 100% of the time, and I enjoy trying to get my mileage as high as possible.

Last week I test drove a Tesla Model X, just for fun. I was really surprised by there acceleration curve. Basically, they tell you you should never need to use the brake, except in emergencies. So they have extremely aggressive regenerative braking, that's aggressive enough to slow you down to a stop. Just keep your foot on the accelerator, release the pressure, and you'll slow down to a stop.

This intrigued me because they are obviously playing to the strengths of an electric car, instead of trying to mimic a gas car. With a little bit of driver reeducation, and positioning this as a positive, they are able to maximise the mileage.

Is it possible with something like leaf box to try such an aggressive regen on the leaf? If you were to disable creep, and be able to use the regenerative braking for the majority of your stop-and-go traffic, I'm curious how many miles you could regain. Has anybody tried this?
 
The problem is that regen is much less efficient than coasting. It gets no more than 40% of the power recovered at most, so using regen as you suggest will lower overall efficiency rather than raising it.
 
LeftieBiker said:
The problem is that regen is much less efficient than coasting. It gets no more than 40% of the power recovered at most, so using regen as you suggest will lower overall efficiency rather than raising it.
Where does this 40% value come from. This sounds extreme or misleading.

Regen should be about 90% efficient recovering the energy that is available to be recovered. Of course you cannot recover energy lost to air drag etc. In the same way that the electric drive is close to 90% efficient to propel the car, regen should be similarly efficient.
 
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