Adding a Brusa charger under the hood for '11/'12s

[EVDRIVER]

Brusa software can be downloaded online for free.

Sure can, it's on the EV Motork Verks site, although I heard it is a bit clunky. I've heard that the best way is to go ino hyper-term first and establish connection there (it has a nice ASCII menu with the current status and readings) THEN pull up charge star. I have a laptop with a dedicated serial port running Win XP that should work nicely with the project.

Unfortunatly I will be traveling next week and won't be able to play with the charger. I have CAN-do running on my netbook now, just trying to learn the ins and outs of t and plot some values.

It's not as much as it is clunky as it is very difficult to establish communication. Your rig is a good choice, the charger was not exactly set up for consumer programming and is a bit dated in this area. It has not been updated since the first one I did years ago. The charger is well built and reliable and does offer good installation flexibility.

 

[JeremyW]

The charger is well built and reliable and does offer good installation flexibility.

Sure looks like it. The only thing that the manual seems to really emphasize that could affect reliability is the precharge requirement. I imagine this is handled by the BCM for the entire HV bus, but I do wonder if it meets Brusa's requirements.

 

[KillaWhat]

Has everybody seen this;

http://forums.evtv.me/post/Welcome-6107151" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The "automatic" mode sounds like what I want.
Looks like I have some more reading to do.

 

[QueenBee]

The "automatic" mode sounds like what I want.
Looks like I have some more reading to do.

Maybe I'm missing something but I don't think you want automatic mode if you are going to be using this on a LEAF? Something like the CAN controlled mode but where it subtracts as if its a slave.

 

[Luft]

According to EV TV Brusa is going to stop selling their 3.3 KW NLG513 charger soon. I think Jack said that sometime in August it would be no more. He also mentioned that they were suppose to start selling a new 22 KW charger. It would be awesome if that bad boy could be fit under the hood!

He didn't give any details about the 22 KW charger but it's got to be big and expensive.

 

[DaveEV]

Some details on the Brusa NLG6 22kW: http://www.greencarcongress.com/2012/09/brusa-starts-production-of-22-kw-nlg6-on-board-fast-charger-for-three-phase-currentbrusa22-20120907.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.metricmind.com/products/brusa-nlg6/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

22kW is only on 3 phase, on single phase it's only good for about 7kW.

 

[Luft]

Makes me wish we used European electrical standards! I'd love to be able to recharge my LEAF in less than an hour by just plugging in anywhere!

I don't suppose we could talk the entire country into upgrading and changing our electrical infrastructure! :lol:

 

[KillaWhat]

According to EV TV Brusa is going to stop selling their 3.3 KW NLG513 charger soon. I think Jack said that sometime in August it would be no more. He also mentioned that they were suppose to start selling a new 22 KW charger. It would be awesome if that bad boy could be fit under the hood!

He didn't give any details about the 22 KW charger but it's got to be big and expensive.

Unfortunately you would have change and redesign large portions of the vehicle to try to force 22kw AC in there!?

What are you going to use to supply it?
Not a J1772 setup.
I always figured somebody would tackle DCQC at home.
A big eBay transformer, a used laptop, and a CHAdeMO homemade 3d printer plug.
If you want to push more than about 7kw, you either need to go in through the DC or buy a Tesla.

 

[EVDRIVER]

If you want to push more than about 7kw, you either need to go in through the DC or buy a Tesla.

Why do you think only 7kw is possible?

 

[Luft]

If you want to push more than about 7kw, you either need to go in through the DC or buy a Tesla.

Why do you think only 7kw is possible?

I'm wondering if we could piggy back this 7 kw charger onto our 3.3 kw charger to get about 10 kw! Sweet!

 

[TonyWilliams]

The 10kW Tesla liquid cooled charger is less than $4000 from Toyota dealers for the Rav4 EV.

It won't come with an owner's manual, but we obviously have guys who can figure it out.

 

[davewill]

If you want to push more than about 7kw, you either need to go in through the DC or buy a Tesla.

If you could find the right charger you could go right up to the J1772 limits. On paper that's 80a@240v(19.2kW), but in practice the highest rated J1772 plug/cable/inlet combo seems to be 70a for a still respectable 16.8kW.

You could even piggyback 4 of these Brusa chargers to do it, if you could find the room and the $$.

If you're willing to be outside the J1772 standard, you could possibly go higher.

 

[JimSouCal]

The 10kW Tesla liquid cooled charger is less than $4000 from Toyota dealers for the Rav4 EV.

It won't come with an owner's manual, but we obviously have guys who can figure it out.

Could that somehow work as an external home charger through the quick charge port ?

 

[JeremyW]

A little update:
I was gone last week for training for work and this weekend got wrapped up in family things. Not much to report just yet. Hope to power up the Brusa in a few days and make sure it's alive.

 

[TonyWilliams]

The 10kW Tesla liquid cooled charger is less than $4000 from Toyota dealers for the Rav4 EV.

It won't come with an owner's manual, but we obviously have guys who can figure it out.

Could that somehow work as an external home charger through the quick charge port ?

Not only can it do that, that is exactly what Tesla does at the "Supercharger" (DC charging) sites.

They use 9 of the 10kW chargers, 3 on each of the three phases of 480v. That's why the unit is rated for 277v (each phase to ground is 277v on 480v service).

 

[KillaWhat]

Hi;
Could I get a list of other people (PM Me with e-mail) who are actually in possession of a Brusa charger, and are actively doing this mod?
We have been e-mailing each other what we are doing, so that every discussion and idea isn't out there for the world to see, and we don't have to wade through so much to communicate quickly with each other.

So far, most of us have the Charger, all the cables, our mounting Plate is in some sort of construction phase, we have in our possession or have decided what we are going to use to tap into the J1772 input. (I have spare sets) and are discussing the CAN interface.

Tony, I know JeremyW could use your help making the Plate.

Thanks

 

[TonyWilliams]

Tony, I know JeremyW could use your help making the Plate.

Thanks

Why don't we plan a "plate building party" at my house (equipped with band saw, drill press, MIG and TIG welders, etc) after the June 8 meet in Encinitas?

Bring a LEAF and a Brusa charger.

 

[JeremyW]

Tony, I know JeremyW could use your help making the Plate.

Thanks

Why don't we plan a "plate building party" at my house (equipped with band saw, drill press, MIG and TIG welders, etc) after the June 8 meet in Encinitas?

Bring a LEAF and a Brusa charger.

Sounds awesome!

 

[JeremyW]

The CAN bus interface and the Brusa

First off, a big thanks to GregH who has been extremely helpful figuring out the "golden CAN message" i.e. the on board charger power request message.

The message to look for is 0x5BF, with the 7th byte being the power request. From what we've seen, this message varies depending on if you are connected to L1 or L2. It remains zero during drive and quick charging. During normal L2 on a 2011/2012 we find that the request is 0x40 for most of the charge, going down 0x38, 0x30, 0x28... with the last twenty seconds the current ramps down quickly to zero. The Brusa will only be active when the current request is 0x40.

On the Brusa side, it uses message id's of 610, 611, 612, 613, and 614 to send status and parameters out on the CAN bus. There are no devices in the Leaf that use these, so no conflicts there. You must send 618 from the "BMS", Leaf DD, or whatever you have to the Brusa specifying charging enable, output voltage, and output current. This must be sent every 100ms to 300ms.

So as far as communication with the leaf we just have to listen to the EV can for 0x5BF, translate it for the Brusa and send it out on 618. The Brusa needs to be directly connected to the EV can bus somewhere under the hood.

Brusa CAN spec PDF

 

[GregH]

The CAN bus interface and the Brusa

First off, a big thanks to GregH who has been extremely helpful figuring out the "golden CAN message" i.e. the on board charger power request message.

The message to look for is 0x5BF, with the 7th byte being the power request. From what we've seen, this message varies depending on if you are connected to L1 or L2. It remains zero during drive and quick charging. During normal L2 on a 2011/2012 we find that the request is 0x40 for most of the charge, going down 0x38, 0x30, 0x28... with the last twenty seconds the current ramps down quickly to zero. The Brusa will only be active when the current request is 0x40.

On the Brusa side, it uses message id's of 610, 611, 612, 613, and 614 to send status and parameters out on the CAN bus. There are no devices in the Leaf that use these, so no conflicts there. You must send 618 from the "BMS", Leaf DD, or whatever you have to the Brusa specifying charging enable, output voltage, and output current. This must be sent every 100ms to 300ms.

So as far as communication with the leaf we just have to listen to the EV can for 0x5BF, translate it for the Brusa and send it out on 618. The Brusa needs to be directly connected to the EV can bus somewhere under the hood.

Brusa CAN spec PDF

I have occasionally seen 0x48 on L2 charge (when the SOC/Voltage is low thus slightly higher current). On L1 I get 0x18 but Sam has seen 0x10. Also Sam's car for some reason has the two LSBits on.. ie 0x43 or 0x13 instead of 0x40 or 0x10. I haven't seen this in 5 other cars tested.. So I'm thinking the operation should be something like:
if(((5bf:7)&0xf8)>0x38) Brusa Charge!
I haven't seen 5bf on a 2013 with 6.6kW yet, so not sure if shows up 0x40/0x48 on full power or maybe 0x80-0x90?