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.
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.
@@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?
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.
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.
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!!!
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.
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!!
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.
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!
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
i work on an inverter in a uni student team and we've been at it for years and are now very close to getting it fully functional, so the fact that by yourself you were able to figure all this out and get it to work is an insane feat. also funny to see many of the mistakes that we've come across you've also experienced, like the inductance to the caps causing voltage spikes when switching with high current. when you say you had drive faults what sort of faults do you mean?
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.
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
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
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 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.
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 )
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.
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.
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
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
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! 🫡
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 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...
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.
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!
Just didn't have the capacitor/snubber close enough to the IGBT to absorb the voltage spikes when current is shut off (PWM) to each motor winding (inductor).
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.
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!
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?
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.
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?
100kw corresponde to 150% current. I'm using the I^2T (Current squared * Time) function to prevent the motor from over heating, so it will do 100kw for 60 seconds then ramp down to 66kw. In daily driving, even climbing steep grades for several minutes, it doesn't throttle back current, only if I intentionally bog it down by selecting too high a gear, like 4th. The motor is technically rated 67kw peak, 33kw continuous.
@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.
That hot Australian hurdler girl also got her degree in MechTronics... Maybe connect and encourage her to do an EV conversion, and watch catch the world go electric rather quickly!
You told in the video, at the time of the first test, you blow up th IGBT beause between the DC-Bus and the Transistors there was a large inductance, and the voltage spikes killed the transistors. What did you change to avoid or reduce these voltage spikes?
I previously had the capacitors and snubbers connected to the IGBT using wires. Attaching the capacitors directly to the IGBT module using copper bus bar helped absorb the voltage spikes.
@@etischer You mean the gray boxes on the copper plate at video time 5:22? A snubber contains normally a resistor also. Did you calculated the ESR of the capacitor within, and that's why no resistor present?
@@johnhajdu4276 The snubbers I'm using are film capacitors. I'm also using electrolytic caps. I didn't calculate the capacitor requirements, I just looked at what other inverters were using, and doubled it for good measure.
@@etischer Can you tell me how much Farad and what is the Voltage (written on) of one blue capacior on the DC busbar? And the film capacitors, what U and F values one unit has? I tried to read the written on values on photo I found on your website, but the resolution was not that high.
@@johnhajdu4276 Sorry, I don't have that info handy. I believe the voltage rating on the electrolytics are 400V, and the snubbers 450V (from memory). You can probably look up the data sheet or white papers for snubbers, and they will have recommendations for sizing them for your IGBTs.
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/
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.
IPM Igbt module has the gate drivers built into one package. The vfd etischer utilizes has all the high and low signals the IPM module is looking for. Not to say you couldn't just use discrete gate drivers but why do that when the IPM has it all built in.
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
@@propsmear 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
You're an awesome Electrical Engineer! Thank you.
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.
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..
Just found your channel today, and you've already become my role model. Greetings from Romania.
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.
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
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.
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?
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 :)
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.
Very impressive. Everything was very professionally layed out and installed. Great job.
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!!!
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.
You are a Genius! Thanx for the video. Cheers from Hungary
I love your sharing experience. Well done. You're the dope, man!
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!!
Beautifully done and explained in a way that simple mechanical engineers like me can actually understand! Thank you.
I think your idea to use the one horse drive is brilliant.
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.
That car is so cool. Totally badass. Good job.
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!
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
What a legend, awesome work, very smart.
Thank you for uploading this, it's quite insightful and educational!
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
Nice stuff there. Thanks for the upload.
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
Great job dude...keep the videos coming!
Lots of engineering. Nice work.
i work on an inverter in a uni student team and we've been at it for years and are now very close to getting it fully functional, so the fact that by yourself you were able to figure all this out and get it to work is an insane feat. also funny to see many of the mistakes that we've come across you've also experienced, like the inductance to the caps causing voltage spikes when switching with high current. when you say you had drive faults what sort of faults do you mean?
This is so cool!!!
(I have no idea what he said, but still cool)
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.
WOW!! Very cool sir! Nicely done!
"garden hose to keep the heat sink cool" - macguyver
Nah, an engineer.
Nice
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.
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.
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
This guy's a genius
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 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!
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 )
Hey.. A quick list of all components used would be great if possible?
I have more info here: etischer.com/awdev/
I wish I could do all that l. Amazing job
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.
Brilliant, thanks for sharing, Truly innovative.
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.
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.
Genius. Tesla needs to hire you asap.
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
well done! thank you for sharing!
Very nice work!
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! 🫡
Wow very impressed. Great job.
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.
Great project!
Awesome build I love how you're using the small drive as a gate driver )? for your Igbt stack...
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
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.
Big appreciation
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
Min 4:36 Are you saying you had an imbalanced tank circuit??????????????
Just didn't have the capacitor/snubber close enough to the IGBT to absorb the voltage spikes when current is shut off (PWM) to each motor winding (inductor).
Very good info thank you!
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
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.
You a jenius man!
New Subscriber here in the UK!.
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 😂
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.
Sar please explain how to make high voltage controller with IGBT thanks
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.
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
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 =)
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?
looks like you were able to pull over 100kw out of that inverter peak 102kw for 1-3 seconds.. can it do 90kw continuous?
100kw corresponde to 150% current. I'm using the I^2T (Current squared * Time) function to prevent the motor from over heating, so it will do 100kw for 60 seconds then ramp down to 66kw. In daily driving, even climbing steep grades for several minutes, it doesn't throttle back current, only if I intentionally bog it down by selecting too high a gear, like 4th. The motor is technically rated 67kw peak, 33kw continuous.
Great idea
Good project for EV!
My aunt started electric conversions in the same time as you.
She is still building her fat Pooh ?
Such a 'Shocking' news....
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.
Awesome stuff :)
What is your background!? Do you have a PHD in badass?
Bachelors degree in Mecatronic Engineering, Chico State (party!!!)
That hot Australian hurdler girl also got her degree in MechTronics... Maybe connect and encourage her to do an EV conversion, and watch catch the world go electric rather quickly!
Inspected for what reason ?
You told in the video, at the time of the first test, you blow up th IGBT beause between the DC-Bus and the Transistors there was a large inductance, and the voltage spikes killed the transistors.
What did you change to avoid or reduce these voltage spikes?
I previously had the capacitors and snubbers connected to the IGBT using wires. Attaching the capacitors directly to the IGBT module using copper bus bar helped absorb the voltage spikes.
@@etischer You mean the gray boxes on the copper plate at video time 5:22?
A snubber contains normally a resistor also. Did you calculated the ESR of the capacitor within, and that's why no resistor present?
@@johnhajdu4276 The snubbers I'm using are film capacitors. I'm also using electrolytic caps. I didn't calculate the capacitor requirements, I just looked at what other inverters were using, and doubled it for good measure.
@@etischer Can you tell me how much Farad and what is the Voltage (written on) of one blue capacior on the DC busbar? And the film capacitors, what U and F values one unit has? I tried to read the written on values on photo I found on your website, but the resolution was not that high.
@@johnhajdu4276 Sorry, I don't have that info handy. I believe the voltage rating on the electrolytics are 400V, and the snubbers 450V (from memory). You can probably look up the data sheet or white papers for snubbers, and they will have recommendations for sizing them for your IGBTs.
What's the range of the car?
In the 1990's the Ferrari 355 had electronic paddle shifters.
subscribed to see what it is you dream up next.
Are you on endless sphere?
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/
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.
Wow amazing.....
How does one go about reaching you for questions or help with a simple conversion?
Ask away =)
etischer what’s a good email for ya?
@@rocketscienceev306 etischer@etischer.com
etischer got it👍🏾
Why didn't you use the 1200 volt igbts they use in large inverters.
IPM Igbt module has the gate drivers built into one package. The vfd etischer utilizes has all the high and low signals the IPM module is looking for. Not to say you couldn't just use discrete gate drivers but why do that when the IPM has it all built in.
Excelent work, do you have any courses , I want to learn
I have some additional info here etischer.com/awdev/ but sorry, no courses
How much did this inverter cost you to build? I genuinely curious and love the ingenuity of yours in designing your own like this