I recognize a lot of this gear from work, I assume you are an industrial electrician like myself, I have lots of those small Siemens drives, never thought about using the brain and software to drive a larger IGBT have those also from corona treaters that throw lighting at plastic so you can print it. Cool build, I can appreciate all the problem solving that was required to make all the other components like AC and power steering work, Nice.
Me too! Specifically how he hacked the VFD. Basically, he didn't! He just upgraded the hardware and lied to it. If i knew that 10 years ago, i'd likely still have my EV that i scrapped because it was DC and junk.
Definitely not. There are semiconductor-controlled electric vehicle designs dating back to the 1960s. The change in technology pricing has moved from Nasa-level to hobby-level mostly due to advances in software control and advancements in semiconductor design.
Cool, the whole car is a nice build. Real working DIY. Even though you probably will never finish upgrading those minor things, it's a fully finished project, that makes it stand out from many others that went this way. Respect.
A lot of work in that project. Nicely done and something to be really proud of. IGBT technology is amazing these days. Such a small device that works very fast and reliable. The equivalent of a project like this would be to build and electronic fuel injected combustion engine using the majority off the shelf parts that were from a variety of other non-automotive industries. Yes, the efficiency will not be as great as possible, but it does the job it was intended to do just fine.
@@Kawka1122 Theory is one thing but putting the theory in practice is another. You can read a book about swimming but if you haven't been in some water and tried swimming, you know nothing about swimming. Talking the talk is easy but walking the walk is hard. What experience do you have regards to engineering since you categories his work as inferior and bad?
Hey Eric! My original plan was a roadster build. I got ahold of a rare RCT Systems oil cooled induction motor rated at like 250hp...the thing was beast for it's time.I used the PM600CLA to power the beast. I eventually got it spinning in sensorless vector. Sadly I have yet to drop it in the roadster. I started another build recently....an electric UTV using an open source inverter. I have some clips of my progress on my channel if you want to check it out. Been waiting a long time for this video and super glad you made it!
@@wessplasma6064 Awesome, looking forward to more of your videos in the future! What inverter design are you using on the UTV? Can that carry over to the larger RCT Systems motor?
@etischer Thanks man for checking out my channel! I picked up a Johannes Huebner inverter kit. I'm really liking this kit. The kit has lots of parameters to mess with to tune just about any induction motor. I build my own powerstage for the kit...cuz that's the fun part (:I have tested it on the RCT motor with great success. The RCT uses a resolver for feedback where as the kit needs encoder...I just used a analog to digital converter and motor ran like a champ. Right now I'm running the inverter on a Azure Dynamics AC24LS for my UTV project.
Have you considered being a shop teacher? Any student getting this level of knowledge from someone like you would do the world a lot of good. It's great that you show your mistakes but even better that you explain what happened. Fantastic!!!
If u could do more videos explain how all this was done I would be very interested because this is sheer genius. I’m an auto technician and I want to learn more stuff from you.Thank you!!
This is a nice off the shelf upgrade, with a lot of thinkering, it's a refreshing video after a ton of Tesla EV BS.If you want to stay in control of your project than this is the way to go! We do need EVs but without the self driving, scam scheme interlocking, data harvesting crap!
There are some pictures of the conversion here: www.evz3.com. I modified the car last year with a gs450h drivetrain, need better tyres to take advantage of the torque.
First time I've heard of use of 3phase in propulsion, so, it almost sounds like proprietary information to a novice like me. Would like to know more about IGBT selection/troubleshooting, as well as regenerative braking install. Interesting use of VFD adaptation. Five star installation and build process.
You can try ABB ACS880 drives too has advanced DTC( direct torque control) mode which can estimate the motor shaft position even without encoder so it can help you to hold vehicle from rolling backwards on a slope… also u can have torque and speed inputs to control as needed, it has a optional inbuilt codesys so it can handle plenty of logics u need to make
Thank you it was a good Video so competitive and first learning need keep watching , I have bought 150 kw Toyo Denki Vft want to build into ev . Not under stand how to do regenerative charging but V FD had breaking feature for mothor
Fantastic! Could you consider doing an electric drivetrain selection video? Personally, I am considering an electric swap in my 914. But questions arise like motor type (field winding waste in an induction motor vs. permanent magnet), motor type system costs, transmission vs. direct drive. I think you could shed some knowledgeable light on the subject.
Wow this is really cool stuff. thank goodness you work for Tesla, it would be such a waste otherwise. I played around with VESC in college with a good friend hoping to power a longboard with it but... Turns out engineering school's hard enough without side projects... Do you bring this car to cars and coffee/meetups? I'd love to see this thing in person especially since I live in the area.
12:24 I like how you explain this concept. I hadn't even thought about it before, but in my dive into the EV world, motor specs and control circuits I was bound to come across this and now I understand it a lot more. If previously asked to speculate, I would have assumed the field either had to be strong enough, or the motor would stall*; no idea "slip" was a thing with electromagnets. 13:03 * Like that, not "stall" like an engine, but I thought the field would not move unless the rotor moved, thus just letting you roll back. And thinking about it more... That MUST be how brushed motors work. And rolling back to the original idea to cement the concept forever: That is how a brush-less motor can achieve greater torque: though "slip", each time the field rotates, it imparts some energy, even if it's not enough to overcome the force, multiple rotations of the field add up. It's kind of like when I had a transmission fail where my clutch pedal was useless[jammed in some fashion, long(er)-story], I had to bypass the clutch switch, start in gear with the starter, then rev match to drive. I was thinking "How do I solve this? What if there was a way to slowly apply the rotational energy of the engine to the wheels?" I was thinking of buying a harbor freight motor to put in the trunk, welding a shaft to the rear-pass wheel and having a lever with a belt to engage the contraption. Then I realized, I was trying to reinvent the clutch. And ever since, I understood WAY better how a clutch works, and it's function. I knew before, pressure plate, throwout bearing, flywheel, how it comes together but it never made sense exactly why and how until putting it into context.
The idea of slip is also how a mechanical speedometer works. Theres a spinning magnet connected to the speedometer cable, and a stationary magnet on a torsion spring. The more slip, the more force will move the needle, further compressing the spring.
Really impressed,,,with direct torque control you can get away with the PID loops so it has a slightly faster response than your FOC and you can get away with PID stability problems There is a new type of rotor construction by ABB that gives you more oomf for your buck., so maybe more miles.
Wow, that was waaaay over my head, but interesting! I have a better idea of how my Bolt does what I want now. Great video, showing the mistake along the way was super important.
That lil tire mark half donut is cute but I'm referring to a standing still smoke the tires like a drag car then take off , leaving a cloud of smoke behind you Showing the true power of how powerful an electric car car unleash all at once
Really cool video. It would really be interesting to design more integrated solution, maybe a Raspberry Pi + few Arduino mini boards, all on one backplane, and Rasberry Pi showing everything on a nice touchscreen, and save telemetry and all that, and interface with the other boards to set new settings, etc. Maybe project for another time ;D
rkan2 While watching his videos I was wondering if he worked at Tesla or fisker! Imagine if he had access to a halback array motor when he made this! See a VW going warp speed 10 years would have been hilarious, actually it would be awesome to see today!
Bro. You are good! You ever think to use a 4-20ma for the throttle to the vfd? I bet a time delay or a PID in the micro controller could maybe work too. Great work all around! I got a 2015 tdi I wanna do the same too! Taking notes! 🫡
Thank you for the video. It will be cool if you can help newbie like me help with EV conversions. If we have enough people to rent a garage and meet there to work on an EV conversion project.
I like your way of delivering information, great videos. When shifting gears is there any issue with the rpm difference of the motor and the speed of the vehicle vs the gear you are going into (jerks or drive not liking the change in motor rpm that comes out of nowhere)? It doesn't appear from your videos this is an issue but i had a thought of something that sounded like a fun project (to me lol). You could feed a wheel speed sensor signal & a gear selector switch (tied to shift linkage) to a micro controller and have it match motor rpm to vehicle speed while the clutch pedal is depressed dependent on what gear you have selected.
The synchros in the transmission (for an ICE car) would normally speed up the clutch disc to the correct speed. In this case the motor is commanded to produce zero torque, so the syncros will speed up or slow down the rotor. The speed match light on the dash tells me when the speeds are matched, and the shift is super smooth, the synchros don't need to do much work to accel/decel the rotor. When down shifting the rotor naturally slows down. When up shifting, I have to bump the throttle, or wait till the rpm are low, so the synchros aren't trying to spin the rotor up to 8k rpm. I also had the idea to do electronic gearing so the RPM would be exactly speed matched for each gear. I've done industrial automation with the Parker 690 vfd using gearing (on the fly cutting/splicing, printing presses). It would require an additional encoder card for the VFD, and more processing power, but totally do-able.
@@etischer I hadn't thought about the fact that it's probably much easier for the syncros to match rpm with the electric motor vs the ICE, and they would probably live a long time if used "responsibly". I have been doing some projects over the last year with Yaskawa VFD's & their Drive Works EZ software. While it's pretty handy to have plc(ish) functionality in the drives, it sure would be nice if they would give us some options besides function block style programming. I've found it to be a real pain to move from C style text programming to that.
@@jakesanchez3552 My VFD is programmed in Function Block format. For process control programming, I prefer FB over written text, as it's easy to trace the signals through all the blocks, but I'm a PLC programmer so I'm used to it. When shifting an ICE car, the synchro's only speed up the clutch disc, so it's a quite a bit more work for them to speed up the electric motor's rotor. For the most part, I just leave it in 2nd gear.
can you please do a video tutorial on what are the first things that you need to do to convert an electric? Something like 1. Motor, 2. batteries, 3. BMS etc...
Hi. Sorry if this is a dumb question but can you get a sc motor to work in a car in a basic format with less fine tuning than you did? ie if you have a ac motor do you think it would be hard to buy one of those generic controllers on Alibaba from China and run tour car in a basic but functional way?
Is it only using normal VFD with vector control,? Using DC bus voltage instead of AC input voltage ? (Normally VFD using AC input voltage to drive the induction motor in factory )
That is neat, so did you have to write all the software, or do you just choose different operating modes on the VFD after giving it the needed inputs? I have considered trying to connect an off the shelf IGBT setup to a VFD or perhaps something like a VESC. Would you did it again like this or would you just buy an off the shelf AC motor controller if you did it again?
Yes, I wrote the software in the VFD as well. Basically look up tables and slope/intercept/ taper functions for limiting regen braking, and field weakening the motor. Also programmed a shift light to allow speed matching revs during shifting, fault handling if the speed pot voltage falls out of range, fault recovery, logic to run the air conditioner... All in all about 10 pages of function block programming. At the time (2008) there were no inverter options so my only option was to build my own. If I were to do it again, I'd try using a Model 3 powertrain, or new generation leaf. I just recently bought a Model 3, that's an even better solution, though not the learning experience that this project has been.
Would you be willing to create a file on Github and post some of your software there? Wondering, if you wouldn’t mind sharing your BOM bill of materials, and technique, along with perhaps some CAD files on Instructables.com? Very fine work!
Wooow so amazing, i an really impressed!, i was working on smaller project in 2011, inbuit similar speed controller using PMW circuit it was supposed to be a basic one, but i burned tens of MOSFETs back then, trying to get it to work, sadly without success. I guess it was the inductance who caused the voltages spkies, after many attemepts it didn't work. Could help me know what i did wrong back then?
@@etischer well i had installed a set of capacitor on the mosfet ( not sute about the the low equivalent resistence u just mentioned) Here is a desc. Of the problem and the diagram i used forum.allaboutcircuits.com/threads/mosfet-and-igbt-fail-in-pwm-speed-control-for-260vdc-2200w-universal-motor.60972/
Desulfator would be used only on lead acid batteries. The way to increase life on Lithium batteries is to only charge to 70-80% and not let the state of charge drop below 10-20% Batteries are rated 3500 cycles charring to 80%, and 5000 cycles charring to 70%
So you configured the VFD to work with the j1772 pilot signalling? You mention something about a contingency against charging and driving while the connector is still plugged in around 2:08, is this separate from the j1772 handshake?
The trigger for J1772 is just a couple resistors and diode. etischer.com/awdev/charger/j1772/J1772.gif If there is power at the charge port, it energizes a relay that interlocks the motor, preventing it from running.
I found your inverter discussion a bit outside my parameters….I have used PVM and MMPT charge controllers off grid for the past 15 yrs but dread custom programming them…..farm is completely off grid but it’s still a leap to EV motion.
could you have amplified a sensorless brushless esc (like a mamba max) from an rc car in a similar fashion? i may be silly but they come with a lot of features and compatability. did you consider it?
@etischer How did you pick the drive? I would expect it to be an AC powered drive, but you powered it with 300+VDC. What range to DC power will it handle? Or does the power electronics run at lower voltage, with only the IGBT seeing the 330VDC?
All the VFDs that I've worked with convert the AC input into DC through a simple bridge circuit, and capacitor bank. The drive then PWMs the DC bus to generate the 3 phase AC output to run a motor. The control voltage internally running the logic in the VFD runs on 24vdc, supplied by an onboard DC-DC converter.
Instead of using igbt’s, MOSFETs would handle larger voltages, or so I’ve heard. (I’m not in the electronics field) correction (after researching a bit) newer mosfets have been developed to deal with higher power. Not necessarily higher than igbts but they apparently can deal better with higher switching rates, especially at lower voltages. And they’re allegedly cheaper.
The IGBTs I'm using are 600V rated, they make a 1200V version but there's no need for higher voltage rating, I'm only at 350VDC. I don't ever see MOSFETs used in industrial inverters.
can you suggest videos here on youtube or books to understand "practically" all the implementation? I have a degree but I am rusty on a practical level
So you connected those 6 high and low drive wires coming out from vfd and connected those to big and more igbt's. And Vfd's potentiometer is your throttle pedal. Right.
I had done a few shows back in the day, but not so much any more. I started parting the car out, and wanted to get these videos done before I did. Welcome to come over and check out the parts scattered around the garage if you like. You can find my email on my webpage, etischer.com
@@mrmeiii There's too much liability in trying to sell a car like this. I can imagine 5 years down the road, it's involved in an accident and I will be blamed. Not to mention the high voltage hazards associated wth the car, I can't just hand over the keys to some random person that doesn't know what they are doing. The profit from selling the car isn't worth the worry. I have parted it out, and sold the bulk of the parts already (batteries, charger, motor, spare motors). In all, I expect to get about $5k.
That tidy workshop tells you everything about the man.
To me it tells about "moving on" :)
You were ahead of your time
I think he was there just at the right time ;)
Not good engineering. Design is awful. He is not good at engineering. Even kid would do it better.
@@Kawka1122 Yeah, maybe today... I suggest you go check out his Linkedin lol
@@Kawka1122 Let's see your EV conversion...? Thought so
@@bromdulasta my designs are far superior from engineering point of view
I recognize a lot of this gear from work, I assume you are an industrial electrician like myself, I have lots of those small Siemens drives, never thought about using the brain and software to drive a larger IGBT have those also from corona treaters that throw lighting at plastic so you can print it.
Cool build, I can appreciate all the problem solving that was required to make all the other components like AC and power steering work, Nice.
He is a mechatronics engineer I believe.
@@cothfi thats where im headed
@@timgoodliffe do your own ev
Thanks! I have been waiting 10 years for these details :-) I followed the project.
Me too! Specifically how he hacked the VFD. Basically, he didn't! He just upgraded the hardware and lied to it. If i knew that 10 years ago, i'd likely still have my EV that i scrapped because it was DC and junk.
Definitely not. There are semiconductor-controlled electric vehicle designs dating back to the 1960s.
The change in technology pricing has moved from Nasa-level to hobby-level mostly due to advances in software control and advancements in semiconductor design.
wow I remember following this back in the day and it's so cool to see a modern day youtube video going into all the little details.
Great stuff. Keep the vids coming. You should do another build with current tech and make a series.
Well, I'm really loving my Model 3 AWD, I might start making videos on upgrades to it as they come along.
I agree with andrew
There still hasn't been a proper teardown of a Model 3! Someone should do one
Since it is Apparent he works for Tesla, I think he's already done plenty with current tech. ;) The rest is probably behind an NDA :/
rkan2 I was referring to more current ways of building a diy electric car conversion an affordable way.. people who can’t/don’t want to buy a Tesla..
Nice, high-quality work there. I work a lot with industrial Drives myself, but never thought of using the brains alone. This has inspired me!
Love it i saw your previous video it has more electrical engineering then what is taught in 4 years in an engineering college
Cool, the whole car is a nice build. Real working DIY. Even though you probably will never finish upgrading those minor things, it's a fully finished project, that makes it stand out from many others that went this way. Respect.
A lot of work in that project. Nicely done and something to be really proud of. IGBT technology is amazing these days. Such a small device that works very fast and reliable. The equivalent of a project like this would be to build and electronic fuel injected combustion engine using the majority off the shelf parts that were from a variety of other non-automotive industries. Yes, the efficiency will not be as great as possible, but it does the job it was intended to do just fine.
I think you'd be able to make even superior gasoline engine computers with off-the-shelf components. It's not rocket science :)
You put some quality work in that passat, nice video.
Not good engineering. Design is awful. He is not good at engineering. Even kid would do it better
@@Kawka1122 Theory is one thing but putting the theory in practice is another. You can read a book about swimming but if you haven't been in some water and tried swimming, you know nothing about swimming. Talking the talk is easy but walking the walk is hard. What experience do you have regards to engineering since you categories his work as inferior and bad?
Followed your DIY forum back in day. I learned a lot from your work and accomplished hacking my own 690 drive. You are a legend bro!!!
Awesome!! How far along are you with the conversion? Cheers, welcome to the 690
club =)
Hey Eric! My original plan was a roadster build. I got ahold of a rare RCT Systems oil cooled induction motor rated at like 250hp...the thing was beast for it's time.I used the PM600CLA to power the beast. I eventually got it spinning in sensorless vector. Sadly I have yet to drop it in the roadster. I started another build recently....an electric UTV using an open source inverter. I have some clips of my progress on my channel if you want to check it out. Been waiting a long time for this video and super glad you made it!
@@wessplasma6064 Awesome, looking forward to more of your videos in the future! What inverter design are you using on the UTV? Can that carry over to the larger RCT Systems motor?
@etischer Thanks man for checking out my channel! I picked up a Johannes Huebner inverter kit. I'm really liking this kit. The kit has lots of parameters to mess with to tune just about any induction motor. I build my own powerstage for the kit...cuz that's the fun part (:I have tested it on the RCT motor with great success. The RCT uses a resolver for feedback where as the kit needs encoder...I just used a analog to digital converter and motor ran like a champ. Right now I'm running the inverter on a Azure Dynamics AC24LS for my UTV project.
Brilliant videos. Thank you for the free information and detailed experience. I'm now more inspired to complete an EV project of my own. Thanks
I love your sharing experience. Well done. You're the dope, man!
Thank you for uploading this, it's quite insightful and educational!
Have you considered being a shop teacher? Any student getting this level of knowledge from someone like you would do the world a lot of good.
It's great that you show your mistakes but even better that you explain what happened. Fantastic!!!
You are a Genius! Thanx for the video. Cheers from Hungary
Nice stuff there. Thanks for the upload.
Very impressive. Everything was very professionally layed out and installed. Great job.
What a legend, awesome work, very smart.
That car is so cool. Totally badass. Good job.
WOW!! Very cool sir! Nicely done!
"garden hose to keep the heat sink cool" - macguyver
Nah, an engineer.
Nice
If u could do more videos explain how all this was done I would be very interested because this is sheer genius. I’m an auto technician and I want to learn more stuff from you.Thank you!!
This is a nice off the shelf upgrade, with a lot of thinkering, it's a refreshing video after a ton of Tesla EV BS.If you want to stay in control of your project than this is the way to go! We do need EVs but without the self driving, scam scheme interlocking, data harvesting crap!
Great to see you post a video ! You inspired me to convert the Z3 in 2011!
That's great to hear! Have a webpage or video? I'll check it out
There are some pictures of the conversion here: www.evz3.com. I modified the car last year with a gs450h drivetrain, need better tyres to take advantage of the torque.
First time I've heard of use of 3phase in propulsion, so, it almost sounds like proprietary information to a novice like me. Would like to know more about IGBT selection/troubleshooting, as well as regenerative braking install. Interesting use of VFD adaptation.
Five star installation and build process.
Great job dude...keep the videos coming!
Lots of engineering. Nice work.
I wish I could do all that l. Amazing job
I think your idea to use the one horse drive is brilliant.
Very nice work!
Brilliant, thanks for sharing, Truly innovative.
Beautifully done and explained in a way that simple mechanical engineers like me can actually understand! Thank you.
Wow very impressed. Great job.
New Subscriber out in Iowa. Your channel was reccomend on my home tab from UA-cam. I love EE stuff, even though I am a layman.
Very good info thank you!
Great project!
Wow amazing.....
Great idea
Impressive...but I'm lost in all the terminology. Well done with your ev conversion and thanks for showing it to the public.
it is just driver frequency control for DC motor, and current peaks control too, nice work, my respects.
You should check out "great Scott!"
He doesn't make cars, but a lot of the motor control theory scales up
well done! thank you for sharing!
This is so cool!!!
(I have no idea what he said, but still cool)
New Subscriber here in the UK!.
This guy's a genius
You can try ABB ACS880 drives too has advanced DTC( direct torque control) mode which can estimate the motor shaft position even without encoder so it can help you to hold vehicle from rolling backwards on a slope… also u can have torque and speed inputs to control as needed, it has a optional inbuilt codesys so it can handle plenty of logics u need to make
You a jenius man!
Thank you it was a good Video so competitive and first learning need keep watching , I have bought 150 kw Toyo Denki Vft want to build into ev . Not under stand how to do regenerative charging but V FD had breaking feature for mothor
Big appreciation
Good project for EV!
Awesome stuff :)
Awesome build I love how you're using the small drive as a gate driver )? for your Igbt stack...
Fantastic!
Could you consider doing an electric drivetrain selection video?
Personally, I am considering an electric swap in my 914. But questions arise like motor type (field winding waste in an induction motor vs. permanent magnet), motor type system costs, transmission vs. direct drive. I think you could shed some knowledgeable light on the subject.
Wow this is really cool stuff. thank goodness you work for Tesla, it would be such a waste otherwise.
I played around with VESC in college with a good friend hoping to power a longboard with it but... Turns out engineering school's hard enough without side projects...
Do you bring this car to cars and coffee/meetups? I'd love to see this thing in person especially since I live in the area.
Holy shit... I first heard about this guy's Passat around 2011.. Only now realized he has been working at Tesla since then!
12:24 I like how you explain this concept. I hadn't even thought about it before, but in my dive into the EV world, motor specs and control circuits I was bound to come across this and now I understand it a lot more. If previously asked to speculate, I would have assumed the field either had to be strong enough, or the motor would stall*; no idea "slip" was a thing with electromagnets. 13:03 * Like that, not "stall" like an engine, but I thought the field would not move unless the rotor moved, thus just letting you roll back. And thinking about it more... That MUST be how brushed motors work. And rolling back to the original idea to cement the concept forever: That is how a brush-less motor can achieve greater torque: though "slip", each time the field rotates, it imparts some energy, even if it's not enough to overcome the force, multiple rotations of the field add up.
It's kind of like when I had a transmission fail where my clutch pedal was useless[jammed in some fashion, long(er)-story], I had to bypass the clutch switch, start in gear with the starter, then rev match to drive. I was thinking "How do I solve this? What if there was a way to slowly apply the rotational energy of the engine to the wheels?" I was thinking of buying a harbor freight motor to put in the trunk, welding a shaft to the rear-pass wheel and having a lever with a belt to engage the contraption. Then I realized, I was trying to reinvent the clutch. And ever since, I understood WAY better how a clutch works, and it's function. I knew before, pressure plate, throwout bearing, flywheel, how it comes together but it never made sense exactly why and how until putting it into context.
The idea of slip is also how a mechanical speedometer works. Theres a spinning magnet connected to the speedometer cable, and a stationary magnet on a torsion spring. The more slip, the more force will move the needle, further compressing the spring.
Really impressed,,,with direct torque control you can get away with the PID loops so it has a slightly faster response than your FOC and you can get away with PID stability problems
There is a new type of rotor construction by ABB that gives you more oomf for your buck., so maybe more miles.
subscribed to see what it is you dream up next.
Genius. Tesla needs to hire you asap.
Wow, that was waaaay over my head, but interesting! I have a better idea of how my Bolt does what I want now. Great video, showing the mistake along the way was super important.
That lil tire mark half donut is cute but I'm referring to a standing still smoke the tires like a drag car then take off , leaving a cloud of smoke behind you
Showing the true power of how powerful an electric car car unleash all at once
It's not a dragster, or a race car, it's a 90kw (120hp) commuter car. This is why I don't want to sell my car to you.
Really cool video. It would really be interesting to design more integrated solution, maybe a Raspberry Pi + few Arduino mini boards, all on one backplane, and Rasberry Pi showing everything on a nice touchscreen, and save telemetry and all that, and interface with the other boards to set new settings, etc. Maybe project for another time ;D
Elon musk got his idea of tesla from this guy 😂
Nope but kind of, but he works for Tesla since before the Model S was announced (2011-
rkan2 While watching his videos I was wondering if he worked at Tesla or fisker! Imagine if he had access to a halback array motor when he made this! See a VW going warp speed 10 years would have been hilarious, actually it would be awesome to see today!
With current gas prices I need my mk6 jetta to be like this 😂
Bro. You are good! You ever think to use a 4-20ma for the throttle to the vfd? I bet a time delay or a PID in the micro controller could maybe work too. Great work all around! I got a 2015 tdi I wanna do the same too! Taking notes! 🫡
Thank you for the video. It will be cool if you can help newbie like me help with EV conversions. If we have enough people to rent a garage and meet there to work on an EV conversion project.
My aunt started electric conversions in the same time as you.
She is still building her fat Pooh ?
Such a 'Shocking' news....
In the 1990's the Ferrari 355 had electronic paddle shifters.
thats good
absolutely incredible sir! you should be so proud of what you have achieved! wow. may i ask, what is your ethnicity?
Half German, Half Filipino, thanks =)
I like your way of delivering information, great videos. When shifting gears is there any issue with the rpm difference of the motor and the speed of the vehicle vs the gear you are going into (jerks or drive not liking the change in motor rpm that comes out of nowhere)? It doesn't appear from your videos this is an issue but i had a thought of something that sounded like a fun project (to me lol). You could feed a wheel speed sensor signal & a gear selector switch (tied to shift linkage) to a micro controller and have it match motor rpm to vehicle speed while the clutch pedal is depressed dependent on what gear you have selected.
The synchros in the transmission (for an ICE car) would normally speed up the clutch disc to the correct speed. In this case the motor is commanded to produce zero torque, so the syncros will speed up or slow down the rotor. The speed match light on the dash tells me when the speeds are matched, and the shift is super smooth, the synchros don't need to do much work to accel/decel the rotor. When down shifting the rotor naturally slows down. When up shifting, I have to bump the throttle, or wait till the rpm are low, so the synchros aren't trying to spin the rotor up to 8k rpm.
I also had the idea to do electronic gearing so the RPM would be exactly speed matched for each gear. I've done industrial automation with the Parker 690 vfd using gearing (on the fly cutting/splicing, printing presses). It would require an additional encoder card for the VFD, and more processing power, but totally do-able.
@@etischer I hadn't thought about the fact that it's probably much easier for the syncros to match rpm with the electric motor vs the ICE, and they would probably live a long time if used "responsibly".
I have been doing some projects over the last year with Yaskawa VFD's & their Drive Works EZ software. While it's pretty handy to have plc(ish) functionality in the drives, it sure would be nice if they would give us some options besides function block style programming. I've found it to be a real pain to move from C style text programming to that.
@@jakesanchez3552 My VFD is programmed in Function Block format. For process control programming, I prefer FB over written text, as it's easy to trace the signals through all the blocks, but I'm a PLC programmer so I'm used to it. When shifting an ICE car, the synchro's only speed up the clutch disc, so it's a quite a bit more work for them to speed up the electric motor's rotor. For the most part, I just leave it in 2nd gear.
can you please do a video tutorial on what are the first things that you need to do to convert an electric? Something like 1. Motor, 2. batteries, 3. BMS etc...
You can check out my webpage, I have all the steps laid out there: etischer.com/awdev
Hi. Sorry if this is a dumb question but can you get a sc motor to work in a car in a basic format with less fine tuning than you did? ie if you have a ac motor do you think it would be hard to buy one of those generic controllers on Alibaba from China and run tour car in a basic but functional way?
Is it only using normal VFD with vector control,? Using DC bus voltage instead of AC input voltage ? (Normally VFD using AC input voltage to drive the induction motor in factory )
wow
Sar please explain how to make high voltage controller with IGBT thanks
That is neat, so did you have to write all the software, or do you just choose different operating modes on the VFD after giving it the needed inputs? I have considered trying to connect an off the shelf IGBT setup to a VFD or perhaps something like a VESC. Would you did it again like this or would you just buy an off the shelf AC motor controller if you did it again?
Yes, I wrote the software in the VFD as well. Basically look up tables and slope/intercept/ taper functions for limiting regen braking, and field weakening the motor. Also programmed a shift light to allow speed matching revs during shifting, fault handling if the speed pot voltage falls out of range, fault recovery, logic to run the air conditioner... All in all about 10 pages of function block programming. At the time (2008) there were no inverter options so my only option was to build my own. If I were to do it again, I'd try using a Model 3 powertrain, or new generation leaf. I just recently bought a Model 3, that's an even better solution, though not the learning experience that this project has been.
@@etischer Wow, that is impressive. Very neat that you did that so long ago before all this became common off the shelf tech like today.
Would you be willing to create a file on Github and post some of your software there? Wondering, if you wouldn’t mind sharing your BOM bill of materials, and technique, along with perhaps some CAD files on Instructables.com? Very fine work!
@@PhilipX2030 Maybe the NDA he has with Tesla prevents sharing even some details of this car? :) (just speculating) :P
Wooow so amazing, i an really impressed!, i was working on smaller project in 2011, inbuit similar speed controller using PMW circuit it was supposed to be a basic one, but i burned tens of MOSFETs back then, trying to get it to work, sadly without success. I guess it was the inductance who caused the voltages spkies, after many attemepts it didn't work. Could help me know what i did wrong back then?
Omar Mohamed Kandil Did you have real stiff (low equivalent resistance) film caps mounted on your IGBTs?
@@etischer well i had installed a set of capacitor on the mosfet ( not sute about the the low equivalent resistence u just mentioned)
Here is a desc. Of the problem and the diagram i used forum.allaboutcircuits.com/threads/mosfet-and-igbt-fail-in-pwm-speed-control-for-260vdc-2200w-universal-motor.60972/
Impressive sir!! How do you keep the batteries strong? Have ever used Desulfator?
Desulfator would be used only on lead acid batteries. The way to increase life on Lithium batteries is to only charge to 70-80% and not let the state of charge drop below 10-20% Batteries are rated 3500 cycles charring to 80%, and 5000 cycles charring to 70%
This guy is the Elon Musk of DIY
Hey.. A quick list of all components used would be great if possible?
I have more info here: etischer.com/awdev/
What type of suburb 6 cylinder did you put in your 914 and transmission. I am thinking of doing the same on my 914 Thanks
How much did this inverter cost you to build? I genuinely curious and love the ingenuity of yours in designing your own like this
Dude you're like Goldie Wilson the 3rd from Back to the Future II, your car is the closest thing to having a Hover Conversion.
So you configured the VFD to work with the j1772 pilot signalling? You mention something about a contingency against charging and driving while the connector is still plugged in around 2:08, is this separate from the j1772 handshake?
The trigger for J1772 is just a couple resistors and diode. etischer.com/awdev/charger/j1772/J1772.gif If there is power at the charge port, it energizes a relay that interlocks the motor, preventing it from running.
How did you achieve such a high RPM on a electric motor?
I found your inverter discussion a bit outside my parameters….I have used PVM and MMPT charge controllers off grid for the past 15 yrs but dread custom programming them…..farm is completely off grid but it’s still a leap to EV motion.
could you have amplified a sensorless brushless esc (like a mamba max) from an rc car in a similar fashion? i may be silly but they come with a lot of features and compatability. did you consider it?
You could, but you wouldn't be able to run a induction motor.
Awesome video! How difficult would it be to DIY autopilot? 🤣
Imagine how much range you would gain from the weight savings if you switched to a Lithium based battery vs Lead Acid.
Nice retrofit. Do you know the top speed of the car with the current motor capable of 9000 rpm?
Only limited by gearing and power I think. (probably around 180km/h)
@etischer How did you pick the drive? I would expect it to be an AC powered drive, but you powered it with 300+VDC. What range to DC power will it handle? Or does the power electronics run at lower voltage, with only the IGBT seeing the 330VDC?
All the VFDs that I've worked with convert the AC input into DC through a simple bridge circuit, and capacitor bank. The drive then PWMs the DC bus to generate the 3 phase AC output to run a motor. The control voltage internally running the logic in the VFD runs on 24vdc, supplied by an onboard DC-DC converter.
Instead of using igbt’s, MOSFETs would handle larger voltages, or so I’ve heard. (I’m not in the electronics field) correction (after researching a bit) newer mosfets have been developed to deal with higher power. Not necessarily higher than igbts but they apparently can deal better with higher switching rates, especially at lower voltages. And they’re allegedly cheaper.
The IGBTs I'm using are 600V rated, they make a 1200V version but there's no need for higher voltage rating, I'm only at 350VDC. I don't ever see MOSFETs used in industrial inverters.
can you suggest videos here on youtube or books to understand "practically" all the implementation? I have a degree but I am rusty on a practical level
You should check out diyelectriccar forum. The forum has tons of resources for building your own EV. Also you can check out etischer build there.
Excelent work, do you have any courses , I want to learn
I have some additional info here etischer.com/awdev/ but sorry, no courses
So you connected those 6 high and low drive wires coming out from vfd and connected those to big and more igbt's.
And
Vfd's potentiometer is your throttle pedal. Right.
Basically yes, and throw in a few months of programming.
Are you on endless sphere?
What's the range of the car?
What software did you use to create the schematic shown at 1:50?
Just basic AutoCAD, I have a copy of it on my website, etischer.com/awdev/drive/schematics/Drawing6-Model.gif
Inspected for what reason ?
Hey I'm an EE and am in Livermore. Do you bring this to any shows? I would like to meet you and see this awesome car.
I had done a few shows back in the day, but not so much any more. I started parting the car out, and wanted to get these videos done before I did. Welcome to come over and check out the parts scattered around the garage if you like. You can find my email on my webpage, etischer.com
etischer why did you dismantle it after all that work to get it like it was ??
I would have bought it all whole like you had it in videos
@@mrmeiii There's too much liability in trying to sell a car like this. I can imagine 5 years down the road, it's involved in an accident and I will be blamed. Not to mention the high voltage hazards associated wth the car, I can't just hand over the keys to some random person that doesn't know what they are doing. The profit from selling the car isn't worth the worry. I have parted it out, and sold the bulk of the parts already (batteries, charger, motor, spare motors). In all, I expect to get about $5k.