camasleaf wrote:Or just wait for the 60 kw battery.
camasleaf wrote:Or just wait for the 60 kw battery.
Wowcollink wrote:I've done it successfully. I added 12kwh worth of batteries in the "trunk" area of a 2012 Leaf. ...
No, I integrated the add-on pack such that the car ends up using it both for charge and discharge without knowing the extra pack is there... most of the time. Sometimes it generates an isolation fault or something. But, the error it generates clears with a power cycle so when it happens we just turn off the car for a bit and turn it back on. I'd have no patience for needing to charge the add-on pack separately. The fact that I'm spoofing out the car unfortunately means that it also doesn't really properly take the add-on pack into consideration when doing distance calculations. It somewhat does as it figures out that the car isn't drawing the main pack down as fast as it thought it would but the distance calculations get really funky - it'll drop 5 miles in range in 2 miles then stay steady for 5 miles, then drop 1 mile for each mile, then drop a bunch, then level out again. It's really confused. I thought about spoofing signals to the gauges but that seems like too much work for little benefit. I'm just happy to be able to reliably drive 75 to 80 miles in a 2012 Leaf.TimLee wrote:Wowcollink wrote:I've done it successfully. I added 12kwh worth of batteries in the "trunk" area of a 2012 Leaf. ...![]()
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Separate charger for the 12 kWh add on pack?
This is really cool - do you have any pics or documentation of your setup?collink wrote:I've done it successfully. I added 12kwh worth of batteries in the "trunk" area of a 2012 Leaf.
I somehow thought charging might cause issues.collink wrote:... No, I integrated the add-on pack such that the car ends up using it both for charge and discharge without knowing the extra pack is there... most of the time. ...
I'm really interested in knowing what chemistry have you used. All 18650 i know don't "fit" the leaf pack very well in terms of SOC vs voltage...drees wrote:This is really cool - do you have any pics or documentation of your setup?collink wrote:I've done it successfully. I added 12kwh worth of batteries in the "trunk" area of a 2012 Leaf.
I want to do this to my 2012 leaf as well. Could you provide a parts list of what you used?collink wrote:I've done it successfully. I added 12kwh worth of batteries in the "trunk" area of a 2012 Leaf. It has been driven around for months thereafter. I can't say that there are never any problems but they're rare and clear with a power cycle. The car used to get perhaps 55 miles per charge but now I can just barely squeeze out 85 miles if I really run it dead. However, my integration was a bit more involved than the average hobbyist project. The Leaf BMS is smart enough to do many checks before it'll enable anything and that makes it tough.
1. I'm connected in line with the big power wires coming out of the main pack.
2. I have my own contactor to trigger my pack in
3. I've tapped the power wires going to the main pack's contactors so I know when they're closed
4. I'm reading CANbus from both the Leaf BMS and a BMS on the add-on 12kw pack
5. You have to close your contactor only once the main system has precharged and closed for driving.
6. You must open your contactor immediately if the main pack opens
7. You can't close until the voltages measured on both sides are almost the same. Sometimes this delays linking the packs until driving for a while or charging for a while.
Basically, it is computer controlled and uses a contactor. If you don't cooperate that way then the BMS will scream at you and you go nowhere. I wouldn't say that such a project is super easy but I can vouch for it being possible. You absolutely cannot have voltage from your pack getting to the motor controller or other HV components until the Leaf is ready. Otherwise, the car will slap you and it'll be hard to clear the errors. My system is fully automatic now but it took a lot of work and experimentation to get there.