Battery Upgrades are very possible

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Daklein: Thanks for your pioneering spirit in this area in general and your response to my question in particular! One follow-up question: should this device also work if one were to replace one's original pack with a smaller capacity one? E.g. one buys a new 62 Leaf (for the newer features, etc but doesn't need that amount of range) and decides to exchange it with someone else's Leaf with a 40 (or even a 30) battery pack? (I guess this may make more sense if the device cost drops significantly, which should happen eventually.)
 
MikeD said:
One follow-up question: should this device also work if one were to replace one's original pack with a smaller capacity one? E.g. one buys a new 62 Leaf (for the newer features, etc but doesn't need that amount of range) and decides to exchange it with someone else's Leaf with a 40 (or even a 30) battery pack? (I guess this may make more sense if the device cost drops significantly, which should happen eventually.)
The CAN bridge method should work in the same way, the GOM related scaling messages would be different, but the battery pairing should be the same.

The mechanical part would be different, but anything can be done. The 62 car has a lower extended frame rail on the sides, and a new 62 car with a shallower 24/30/40 pack would have the pack sitting lower with spacers at the front and back, and that would misalign the big DC at the front. Or cut the side frame extensions off the car. Swap the rear brackets with the battery also. Vs. the way I'm going where the front and rear mounts are the same height, and add 40mm spacers on the sides.

Propilot and other features are available on the 40 kWhr Leaf though, I'd go with that.
 
So is the 2019 (and 2020?) Leaf bodies' underneath battery pack support different between the 40 and 62 battery pack models? If so, since the 62 pack is significantly heavier than the 40 such a difference for the 62 body might have been deemed desirable for additional support?
 
Just the Plus version is a little different for mounting the 62 kWhr battery, which has 40 mm additional depth, but some of the mounting points are still the same. More discussion back here: https://mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=27600&start=180#p572415
 
Happy New Year! I hear the happy Leaf sound again! The 62kWhr pack is bolted up and powered up. Thanks to mux and the Muxsan can bridge, it just works! The GOM seems reasonable for the current SOC. Only driven on the jackstands so far, but looks good. Forward, Reverse, and charges fine.

I still need to fuss with putting the covers on (not sure how many of the mounting points will line up), and wrap up a couple other mechanical items. There may be some minor items with the bridge to do (some leafspy data seems missing, and I'll want to set up the bridge with Dala's ending SOC charging control.)

https://youtu.be/53Kh1jo9MsU
https://photos.app.goo.gl/tcVLm3SHCtozeLSa6
 
Congratulations!: Do you expect that you will normally charge up to ~80% (for battery pack health) when you expect not to need the maximum range during a given day?
 
Daklein said:
Happy New Year! I hear the happy Leaf sound again! The 62kWhr pack is bolted up and powered up. Thanks to mux and the Muxsan can bridge, it just works! The GOM seems reasonable for the current SOC. Only driven on the jackstands so far, but looks good. Forward, Reverse, and charges fine.

I still need to fuss with putting the covers on (not sure how many of the mounting points will line up), and wrap up a couple other mechanical items. There may be some minor items with the bridge to do (some leafspy data seems missing, and I'll want to set up the bridge with Dala's ending SOC charging control.)

https://youtu.be/53Kh1jo9MsU
https://photos.app.goo.gl/tcVLm3SHCtozeLSa6

Congrats on the new batt! But are those temp bars correct?!
 
MikeD said:
Congratulations!: Do you expect that you will normally charge up to ~80% (for battery pack health) when you expect not to need the maximum range during a given day?

Yes, I think we'll charge to a lower SOC normally, 50% would do more than our typical use now. If we're going further and depending on where we're going, charge more at home, or stop at a fast charger.
 
Oils4AsphaultOnly said:
Congrats on the new batt! But are those temp bars correct?!

Funny, youtube chose the still image that had the most lit up on the dash, during the key-up sweep of the display.
 
Daklein said:
MikeD said:
Congratulations!: Do you expect that you will normally charge up to ~80% (for battery pack health) when you expect not to need the maximum range during a given day?

Yes, I think we'll charge to a lower SOC normally, 50% would do more than our typical use now. If we're going further and depending on where we're going, charge more at home, or stop at a fast charger.

My E Plus lives between 20 to 70% 90% of the time. Highest overnight SOC; 74%. Highest SOC negating delivery day; 88% (during 150 trip)

I have yet to use home charging. I have all but decided I probably won't until my NCTC runs out next month. No real reason to do so. With enough range to do my entire 4 day weekly commute, I simply stop and charge when its convenient.
 
I took a drive today after putting everything back together. 75 miles and it's still about half full, and didn't start from full either, Boy it's crazy having that much range. A little bug with fast charging though, the car tells the charger it's already full and it stops right away, so some figuring to do on that.

The original covers are on; some of the screw and push pin holes lined up right at the front and the rear of the pack. In the rest of it, I made new holes in the covers to line up with existing mounting points on the 62 pack. They're not perfect by any means; they are not quite wide enough and don't wrap upwards since the battery is lower underneath. I may add something along the sides to keep spray from blowing up in there. The front cover worked ok with some trimming, it will keep the cables protected.

There's a little less ground clearance for sure. And it might be riding lower too from the extra weight, looking at the fender gaps. Feels great driving though, but that might be coming primarily from having such a high number on the GOM!
 
Daklein said:
I took a drive today after putting everything back together. 75 miles and it's still about half full, and didn't start from full either, Boy it's crazy having that much range. A little bug with fast charging though, the car tells the charger it's already full and it stops right away, so some figuring to do on that.

The original covers are on; some of the screw and push pin holes lined up right at the front and the rear of the pack. In the rest of it, I made new holes in the covers to line up with existing mounting points on the 62 pack. They're not perfect by any means; they are not quite wide enough and don't wrap upwards since the battery is lower underneath. I may add something along the sides to keep spray from blowing up in there. The front cover worked ok with some trimming, it will keep the cables protected.

There's a little less ground clearance for sure. And it might be riding lower too from the extra weight, looking at the fender gaps. Feels great driving though, but that might be coming primarily from having such a high number on the GOM!

My car does that too. Have you tried a different chademo?
I only have access to 1 and I'm pretty sure it's the chademo.
 
Daklein said:
I took a drive today after putting everything back together. 75 miles and it's still about half full, and didn't start from full either, Boy it's crazy having that much range. A little bug with fast charging though, the car tells the charger it's already full and it stops right away, so some figuring to do on that.
Does the QC start and just "finish" with no error or does the CHAdeMO spit back some error code while starting?
 
It was a known issue with our firmware for 40kWh swaps, I recently fixed it (at least for the 40kWh swap on DBT fast chargers) and hopefully that fix will work for Daklein too. He's compiling and flashing the latest version shortly I think.

The reason this happens is that DBT, Efacec and possibly some other chargers are programmed to terminate a charge at 100% indicated charge level. The Leaf has 4 (!) internal SOC states, two of which we modify with our firmware and two of which until recently were either unmodified or wrong in some sense. The car interprets those values as 100% (or, well, more than 100% if the new battery capacity is way more than the car is programmed to handle), forwards this over QC CAN and then the charger thinks 'hey, why are you trying to charge, you're full already!' and either fails the charge with a communication error or initiates and immediately stops the session.

As the three sub-generations of Nissan leaf with the old body style all use a slightly different way to calculate and display SOH in various places, this is a bit of a headache to properly fix. It is also fundamentally unfixable on the first generation (2010-13), so we employ a workaround that messes with Leaf Spy Pro data.
 
mux: Bottom line question: is it going to be possible to upgrade 24kWh Leafs via a simple 40kWh battery pack swap together w/ a gateway device?
 
Yes, we have already done this with 5 cars now and are working out the last few smaller issues. I'm sure there will be further minor issues down the line, but it's about as close to a plug&play solution as it gets considering you have to remount a 600lb battery.
 
Best news I've read this year! :mrgreen:
Is the gateway device easily upgradable should you need to make future tweaks? At least in the sense that it can upgraded some other way than device replacement.
 
Yes, it is reflashable with an AVR Isp programmer, and it has a serial port that will allow configuration or option selections, and some limited data logging (no storage, just collect data while connected).
 
I plan to try reflashing the bridge after Monday.  I have a longer trip to do, and with the big battery I don't need to stop for fast charging.  But also don't want to goof up the car before then.  I signed up for the next level of AAA towing insurance, free tows up to 100 miles, because I already paid for a 100 mile tow (youch!) after my PTC heater & precharge resistor adventures.  So I'm good to go for testing no matter what happens.       

I did figure out a solution for the battery covers that won't be too ugly and will be better splash protection than the OEM covers.  Using the old pack covers with some more modification, and added strips along the rocker panels.  Hope to finish it up tomorrow.    

I charged it until it stopped today.  I was underneath when the contactors clicked off.  The pack voltage was 395.0 after charging stopped, so the ending at 396 did worked as intended, I guess about 1V of sag back without charging current. 

Showed 89 pct, 213 miles on the GOM.  https://photos.app.goo.gl/pLBE47KmEiT7Re1dA
 
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