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

[hgoudey]

It's nice to see that others are making steady progress. I continue to suffer from an acute shortage of time, but I'm still working toward and install, too.

Today was the Output Harness.
Not as involved as the Input harness, in fact, pretty boring... but it had to be done.

Any reason not to use smaller lugs to connect to the terminals of the large ceramic resistor? The charger will be pushing less than 10A and it seems like these terminals can handle that. It should be less hassle and a bit more peace of mind if you don't have to crack the high current connections?

As an addition to the output harness, it seems like it would be good practice to install a 600VDC 15A fuse under the lid, between the HV terminals and the gland out to the charger, in the event anything ever compromised those HV DC wires headed to the charger. That said, it is probably a good idea to throw a 20A fuse inline on the AC side to the Brusa, as well. Technically the 12 ga wire should be protected for what it can carry, as the EVSE will be protecting at 30A. Presumably the stock OBC has a fuse or fuseable link in there somewhere (I haven't looked at the shop manual/schematic to confirm). If tapping into the stock harness, one would have to be in front of any such protection to avoid over loading it with the additional charger.

Howdy

 

[KillaWhat]

I was back under the inverter cover today doing final fitting of the Gasket / Spacer that I'm putting below my plate.
When I went to reinstall the stock "Valve Cover" I noticed for the first time that 3 of the 5M screws are shorter than the rest.

I can't determine why this would be, but it would be a really sneaky way to verify if somebody had taken this cover off.

Can one of you who have not yet pulled the cover (or paid better attention) figure out / keep track of where the 3 short screws go?

I'd appreciate it.
Thanks

 

[KillaWhat]

Ok;

The Spacer

1/4" Cast High Density Polyethylene (HDPE)
This should be enough "rise" with the Bracket I made to clear underneath, and still not create other problems above.
Just "the other" way to go
(yes, I went to a BUNCH of trouble so that I would wind up with a pretty blue stripe visible. LED's behind it too much you think?)

How's the programming coming?
We 100% set in stone with using the CAN buss for control?
I still thinking we could pull this off using the Brusa self contained in AUTO mode.
Set it up with some parameters, when it reaches 90% of target voltage, it shuts down, and lets the OBC bring it home.
Easy Peasey?
I mean, it was designed to be "smart" and to be an adjunct charger.
If this will work, we can have these up and running PDQ.

 

[JasonA]

Today is going to be hook up my Brusa externally and play with programming, make sure it works, etc, day. I've been swamped this week and now the wifey's in Vegas so I'm free.

I'm going to start looking over the Brusa specs and I've got plenty of 'BIG' LiPo packs that I can play with and charge so I want to see how the unit does, drops off and specified voltage, etc.

Going to start making my serial cable/12v hookup now. Jack from EVTV really hooked me up!

Jason

P.S. Photos will come later!!

 

[QueenBee]

An alternative approach! This is pretty indepth!
http://www.metricmind.com/leaf/main.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; from http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=3010&p=307650#p307650" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[KillaWhat]

An alternative approach! This is pretty indepth!
http://www.metricmind.com/leaf/main.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; from http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=3010&p=307650#p307650" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Wow!
Thiis guy has a vision and a plan!
We need to look at this booster mode I think.

It's nice to see that lots of crazy talented people are out there thinking about this stuff.
Sometimes I get a very lonely feeling.........

Of course, now I want to add a PAIR of Brusa chargers under the hood!
But first, lets finalize the details of hooking up my first one.

 

[JeremyW]

Hi gang, sorry I haven't been active in this thread. I worked almost continuously the last two weeks (before the Refuel event) and still have one somewhat crazy week to go before I'm back to a more or less regular schedule with some days off for me to work on this.

How's the programming coming?
We 100% set in stone with using the CAN buss for control?
I still thinking we could pull this off using the Brusa self contained in AUTO mode.
Set it up with some parameters, when it reaches 90% of target voltage, it shuts down, and lets the OBC bring it home.
Easy Peasey?
I mean, it was designed to be "smart" and to be an adjunct charger.
If this will work, we can have these up and running PDQ.

I plan on using CAN, GregH has already programmed my gid meter to spit out the Brusa specific can messages on the bus. I've described the process up thread. I believe Greg is planning on adding this functionality to the LeafDD. Your method should work, however you need to have a way to gracefully shut down the Brusa in case you need to unplug before charging is completed. If you don't, the J1772 connection will arc upon disconnect. You can program the brusa to shut down via analog input, so by just adding a convenient switch and wiring it into the ampseal you should be ok.

The metric mind water-cooled method with extra brusa's in the trunk looks promising. In my area I'm primarily using public EVSE's- 208v at 30a. I've been to an RV park exactly twice, and don't really rely on them (my evse upgrade is only good for 16A anyway, home evse is 30A hard wired) so I don't have much desire to add a second/third. Plus we've got quite a few CHAdeMO stations here now... But for the (large) areas of the country that don't have this public infrastructure, I see this as a very good thing.

JasonA still has my template, will have to poke him next week to see if he's made any progress. There's also a few HackerSpaces nearby that have CNG machines, I might pursue those too.

Is that nice gasket something that you could make more copies of?

 

[JasonA]

The template/CAD work is done!!. I have a 1/4" MDF piece that he cut out first as a test template for me that I have to test fit. Since talk to KillaWatt about the bolt placement in the valve cover (some are longer, some are short... WHY???) I have a new neighbor up the street that has agreed to let me take off his cover one bolt at a time to mark which ones are which. Is this a Nissan tactic to tell when someone has been in there?

I've also emailed GregH about getting 2 units for us programed for the Brusa. Otherwise, my cables and connections are about ready. Once the test template fits, then the AL gets cut.

mounted and sink or swim!!

Jason

P.S. Since the weather is cooling down, I don't know if I'll make the EV rally meet this Sunday since I want to get cracking on this stuff. Sorry Tony.

 

[EVDRIVER]

I was back under the inverter cover today doing final fitting of the Gasket / Spacer that I'm putting below my plate.
When I went to reinstall the stock "Valve Cover" I noticed for the first time that 3 of the 5M screws are shorter than the rest.

I can't determine why this would be, but it would be a really sneaky way to verify if somebody had taken this cover off.

Can one of you who have not yet pulled the cover (or paid better attention) figure out / keep track of where the 3 short screws go?

I'd appreciate it.
Thanks

If NIssan wanted to know this they would not do it that way. The LEAF has provisions on some parts to throw codes for such things and this is not one of them. Some connectors do have alert pins as well.

 

[JasonA]

If NIssan wanted to know this they would not do it that way. The LEAF has provisions on some parts to throw codes for such things and this is not one of them. Some connectors do have alert pins as well.

If they would not do it this way, then why is it done in the first place?

If you have knowledge of these "magic" connectors that alert Nissan, then some discussion would be valuable and appreciated. But again, it seems not to apply to anything that's under...

The hood/valve cover (because TONS of us have been pulling apart the entire system without codes or issues on a CAN scanner)..

EVTV and MetricMind(Victor) have been tearing apart new Leaf's without issues or codes being thrown.

So I'd be interested in where these connectors are at so we may avoid them.

Thanks!

 

[gbarry42]

Presumably, with all power disconnected, it would be difficult to detect any "fault" that was "corrected" before restoring power.

Long or short bolts are usually the results of discoveries made during a pilot assembly. Either the casting is thickened in some spot to strengthen it, or some extra unit (like a brake reservoir) is added under a bolt head, or else it is found that some bolt protruding into a cavity could possibly contact a wire. Car makers are rarely capricious with these things.

 

[davewill]

... Your method should work, however you need to have a way to gracefully shut down the Brusa in case you need to unplug before charging is completed. If you don't, the J1772 connection will arc upon disconnect. You can program the brusa to shut down via analog input, so by just adding a convenient switch and wiring it into the ampseal you should be ok. ...

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the Brusa should be connected to the pilot/proximity signals, and therefore see the switch on the plug get pushed and shut down just like the main charger does, shouldn't it?

 

[JeremyW]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the Brusa should be connected to the pilot/proximity signals, and therefore see the switch on the plug get pushed and shut down just like the main charger does, shouldn't it?

Not exactly. The Brusa (or any "car side" of the J1772 spec) will have certain resistance values. By hooking up the pilot to the OBC and the Brusa in parallel will cause these values to be incorrect from the EVSE side (the resistance will be lower than expected). With proximity, the Brusa's resistance may make the OBC think that the button has been pressed when it hasn't.

Of course you could make a seprate circuit that "samples" the pilot... not sure about proximity... but in my case, the CAN message from the OBC shows 0 Amps when the button is pressed (in less than a second) and I manually set the current of the Brusa on my gid meter.

 

[KillaWhat]

... Your method should work, however you need to have a way to gracefully shut down the Brusa in case you need to unplug before charging is completed. If you don't, the J1772 connection will arc upon disconnect. You can program the brusa to shut down via analog input, so by just adding a convenient switch and wiring it into the ampseal you should be ok. ...

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the Brusa should be connected to the pilot/proximity signals, and therefore see the switch on the plug get pushed and shut down just like the main charger does, shouldn't it?

I'm sure this is just semantics, but we don't need to shut the brusa down on disconnect, we need to signal the EVSE to do a disconnect and open the contactor.

If we just left the pilot and proximity alone, just pushing the button will kill the EVSE, kill the 240 ac so nothing to arc.

We are not going to be getting 240 AC back from the brusa, right? No field decay or anything?

 

[JasonA]

Ok guys, just got back from the BC2BC Rally party (actually just waking up) and I met GregH down there who was cool enough to lend me one of his units that is firmware programmed for the Brusa (similar or same as Jeremy's?)

This will take the Leaf's CAN bus data and then re-inject Brusa msg's back into the CANbus so the Brusa will hopefully be "happy" and work. One thing we talked about was the optimal way to get the Brusa & Leaf to work harmoniously together.

Our thought's are that connecting the Brusa inline (or parallel) like how KillaWatt has done it and I plan is fine so far. As long as the Brusa DOES NOT INJECT ANY PILOT SIGNAL or is in READ ONLY MODE, we should be good. The Leaf will ask for it's MAX AMOUNT and we'll program the Brusa for 14amp (32a EVSE unit)..

The best of both worlds is to have the Brusa in read only PILOT mode and hooked to the CANbus.

We'll see this week hopefully!!

Jason

 

[KillaWhat]

Ok guys, just got back from the BC2BC Rally party (actually just waking up) and I met GregH down there who was cool enough to lend me one of his units that is firmware programmed for the Brusa (similar or same as Jeremy's?)

This will take the Leaf's CAN bus data and then re-inject Brusa msg's back into the CANbus so the Brusa will hopefully be "happy" and work. One thing we talked about was the optimal way to get the Brusa & Leaf to work harmoniously together.

Our thought's are that connecting the Brusa inline (or parallel) like how KillaWatt has done it and I plan is fine so far. As long as the Brusa DOES NOT INJECT ANY PILOT SIGNAL or is in READ ONLY MODE, we should be good. The Leaf will ask for it's MAX AMOUNT and we'll program the Brusa for 14amp (32a EVSE unit)..

The best of both worlds is to have the Brusa in read only PILOT mode and hooked to the CANbus.

We'll see this week hopefully!!

Jason

Cool Jason!
Is this the "Wattsleft" meter?

I confess I'm still worried about the pilot signal.
What if we plug in something like the stock 110 VAC EVSE, or wander across a public EVSE that is not 30+ amp capable?

The Leaf, thinking it only can pull 3.3kw, will say OK, but unless we prevent the Brusa from charging unless it sees a 6.6Kw EVSE or better, "we gonna smoke somethin", No?

I don't want to fry my EVSE upgrade.

If we can just set the Brusa to somehow look at the pilot from the EVSE, and not activate unless it sees 30+ amps... that should work.
3.3: Leaf says OK.
6.6: Leaf and Brusa say OK?

 

[davewill]

If we just left the pilot and proximity alone, just pushing the button will kill the EVSE, kill the 240 ac so nothing to arc.

No, the EVSE does nothing when you push the button. It's up to the charger(s) to stop drawing current when the button is pushed. The EVSE doesn't open its contacts until either the charger tells it to (by removing the pulldown on the pilot), or you unplug the handle, disconnecting the pilot. If the EVSE tried to open its contacts while the charger was drawing current, it would cause arcing.

Not exactly. The Brusa (or any "car side" of the J1772 spec) will have certain resistance values. By hooking up the pilot to the OBC and the Brusa in parallel will cause these values to be incorrect from the EVSE side (the resistance will be lower than expected). With proximity, the Brusa's resistance may make the OBC think that the button has been pressed when it hasn't.

I think the Brusa is designed to be a slave, and will not do either of those things if properly configured. It HAS to see the pilot so it knows how much current is available for it to draw. Only the master charger would actually do any signalling back to the EVSE. The slave should just be monitoring.

 

[91040]

Jason is using GregH's Dash Display meter (DD). This thread- http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=44&t=12561" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Cool Jason!
Is this the "Wattsleft" meter?

 

[JasonA]

It's actually abit different. Has a bigger display, amber/orangish and has 2 buttons. I'll post some pics when I get home. I do agree like we were talking yesterday that the Brusa has to be a slave and just listen no matter what.

To have it "listen" or read only on the PILOT and be on the CANbus would be the best of both worlds.

Just be read only or on the PILOT would be the simplest.

 

[JasonA]

Here's the unit that Greg has programmed with the Brusa FW. Me being the Leaf newbie around here, I'm sure that others will know what project this came from. Greg told me yest but we ended up staying pretty late and drinking some more so I forgot the name he told me. Old Prius project?

Anyways, gonna start getting this all rolling in the next few days..One great thing about this unit that he showed me while sitting in his loaner '13 Leaf was that if this all works, Greg has set it up so that we have full control over the Brusa charge rate while the Leaf is chugging away.

So KillaWatt.... no worries about blowing up your 16a EVSE's or going to any public place. It's fully adj.