LeafDD - Dash Display for Leaf

[Rusher]

Morning,

Just checking on the status of the programmer and if it can be sent to me?

Thanks,

Bill

[DaveEV]

Just checking on the status of the programmer and if it can be sent to me?

Looks like you're next in line, please PM me your address.

[jtragesser]

I'd like to be next on the list. I'm in Bellingham WA if anyone else around here would like to get the upgrade done.

Thanks.

[Rusher]

Hi,
I believe you are next on the list. I'll send it out to you in the next couple of days.

[jtragesser]

I've finished with the programmer and I've had it for several weeks. If no one else needs it I will be sending it back to Greg in a few days.

[jtragesser]

I have sent it back to Gregh.

[UBUYGAS]

Is the LEAF DD still being made ?

I had one years ago but never used it and sold it. I'd like to buy another. Is Greg still making them?

please email me if you have one for sale or Greg if you have a new one. The email on this account I don't monitor.

Sal@ElectricSal.com

Thanks!!

Sal Cameli

[ampitupco]

I've got a LeafDD for sale. $60 shipped? Works great. Updated to latest firmware. PM me if interested.

[FalconFour]

*tosses hat into the ring*

I'd like one too! I can't ... really ... bring myself to sit and sift through 43 past pages of posts to see what's been the current status of things, but I want to get my hands on one of these.

Leaf Spy is super awesome and portable, but after having experienced a real, live-updating AVR-CAN based meter (volts/amps/gids switchable on a segment LED display), I have just got to get one of these! It's like a real-time multimeter... and it's engineer bliss.

[FalconFour]

Wellp, here we go, I got my LeafDD from ampitupco (thanks!) and I dug in, read every post of the past 43 pages over the past hour or so.

Wow. Lots of great info here. Sadly, SO VERY MUCH information lost by damn Imageshack and Photobucket swallowing nearly every single one of the images posted in this thread! So incredibly frustrating, this forum still doesn't offer image posting. Storage and bandwidth are virtually free these days, in the modern hosting market. At a minimum, they could hook an extension in here to integrate imgur posting... yeah, this is worth noting: if you're gonna share an image, use http://imgur.com - much less likely to be eaten by the vacuum of time.

Posts worth a highlight:
(GregH) The final countdown - notable that all the images are missing

Ok, the final dozen are being assembled over the next week (or two).. Two of them are already spoken for.
As I dive into this last batch I thought I'd share a few photos of how I put these things together just for the sake of historical documentation

Start off with the 3D printed shells, the OBD2 Cables (which I clip and wrap the 12 unneeded conductors leaving the 4 I need (GND, 12V, EVCAN-H, EVCAN-L)), as well as the LeafDD PCBs hand soldered by my friend Vo for $10/pop (When she solders, it looks like a machine did it.. when I try SMT soldering it looks like a 12 year old did it).


Then the 4 wires are soldered in place and the cable is secured with two zip-ties. BTW, the unpopulated components were for digital lines and serial communication so that the LeafDD could be used as the front hub of a Chademo charger supplying all the signals to the Chademo connector while talking serially to a DC power supply... I just never tried it. That little regulator on the top left is what makes that corner get toasty warm.. If the temp sensor in the 8051 processor detects things getting too warm it will dim the display in software to prevent over heating.


The boards are powered up by a female OBD2 cable supplying 12V and the Silicon Labs 8051 is flash programmed from my laptop. I also do a sanity check on the powered CANH and CANL to verify neither is grounded (Leaf doesn't like that!)


Then I screw on the little nuts and bolts and add the standoffs and header for mounting the OLED board.


And finally add the OLED, screw it in place and solder the 20 pin header on both sides. Power up and test. Ta Da! Then off to my Leaf for in-car testing, a serial number on the back, then packaging for shipping.

(Stanton) 3G Modem upgrade causes LeafDD to mess up - cool, because my 2014 Leaf got the TCU upgrade, and my LeafDD got the upgrade as well! A perfect match. Good to call attention to it, as this is the firmware upgrade being ^^ referred to ^^ in all the above ^^ replies ^^ of the past ^^ few pages.

Fellow LeafDD users: the developer (@GregH) has implemented a "fix" (v2.34) that corrects the charging/non-charging behavior "broken" by the 3G TCU/modem update. In addition, he has authorized me to offer the charging dongle/programmer and software to anyone else who wants to perform the update. Since I received the hardware from another forum member, I am willing to "pay it forward" and ship it to the next person...who can then continue the process. Eventually it needs to go back to Greg...who was kind enough to implement the fix.
If interested, please PM me with your email (software) and snail mail (hardware) addresses; since there could be multiple "takers", I will make a (single) post in this thread so everyone knows where it is.

(darelldd) Fuel cell utopia - emphasis mine. I love this!

If they insist on only making a handful of cars, they're going to lose money. And honestly, that's what many car makers have WANTED to demonstrate over the years. Don't make us do this! We can't afford it! Leave us alone, and in 15 years or so, we'll have an affordable Fuel Cell car that will run on rainbows and the laughter of children!

The times are changing fast now though. The options today are astonishing, and what's coming in the next few years? Awesome. It's been a long, hard haul. But here we are.

This was definitely a fun thread to go over.

I should first note that my interest in the LeafDD came - after years of living with Leaf Spy (back when it was called the Leaf Battery App, or what-was-it?, and was downloaded as an APK) - when I saw a real Gid Meter (the one with the 7-segment serial display) in action, driving with it for 2 weeks. The real-time updates from that display were just fascinating. Leaf Spy is great for an occasional snapshot, but the limitations of Bluetooth are awful! LeafDD and other hard-wired displays give so much more of a geek's play tool, showing real-time amps/volts, and leveraging your engineering mental toolkit, you can see so much more stuff in the car than with the snail's-pace update of Leaf Spy.

I've now got to find a good place to stick my LeafDD - since I have a phone/tablet mount right above the center vents, I'll probably either go with the overhead option (if it fits ergonomics well enough) or off to the side between the rounded part of the dash and the squared center area. Lots of silicone sealant/hot glue will be involved, because that 3D printed enclosure does _sooo_ not hold the LeafDD in place nicely But it makes a great housing anyway! So it just needs a little touch-up adhesive action...

Also noticed 2 other quirks: severe burn-in, which is really noticeable when the screen goes solid-on* ... which itself is noticeable by the second quirk: the screen going all whacky when you touch the display pins on the back of the board, seems to flip different modes randomly like inverted-color, solid-on, flip, etc. I think some of those pins might be floating, missing pull-down resistors, that's what causes the craziness. And maybe even the "gibberish screen" issue mentioned by jjeff earlier.
* - I can really tell the screens the LeafDD used to stay on. A blur of Gid digits and temperature figures, with *C and the screen dividers burned in solidly. They still work, though. But that's one of the downsides of OLED displays... keep the same segments lit up for too long, and they dim lower than the rest, creating burn-in. Oh well. In operation, it's not terribly noticeable, so no real complaints there.

Probably my first mod is going to be replacing the 3.3v linear (!!!) regulator (!?!?!) with a simple 12v-to-3.3v buck DC-DC. That'll probably make it much more likely to survive the summer months and keep on kicking for years to come. Bleeding off nearly 10 volts is a huge ask for a tiny regulator like that!