Very nice job! I am an Electrical Engineer (Analog IC design) with 35 years experience and am very impressed with your work. Thank you for your investigative work.
+Michal Elias Thank you too! And I'm a student with 0 years experience ... okay, I haven't had a proper electrical engineering job, but I've done many things already (circuit design and PCB design)! :)
+Stephen Hobrecht can anyone tell me if this build plan is legit? hopegirl2012.files.wordpress.com/2015/06/qeg-build-manual-5-jun-15.pdf add me facebook i am VERY interested facebook.com/chop.chop.58760
+pauljs75 my 88 honda civic fits your description perfectly. Its a whole 2038 pounds and under powered with a 1.5 liter 4 cylinder now but with a tesla motor it would be the next minnesota bullet lol.
+Maxxxshop what kind of lawn mower is that? maybe the one with spinning blade underneath it? I suggest you to flip it upside down and enjoy your new helicopter!
Wow, it's humbling to realise that there are 'mere' individuals out there capable to reverse-engineering something of that complexity, not to mention on top of that, then designing a 'universal' controller. Respect!
Wow. Amazing to see the beautiful engineering inside of the Tesla, as well as your passion. Keep it up. I'm looking forward to one day making my VW T2 Westy into a e-car! I'm going to need a UMC to do it, I bet.
29:55 ... I see plenty of much needed coffee cups lol ...good work man keep it up ...I work for Tesla now (previously worked for Mercedes-Benz) and I'm very excited to work here. The future is here and Tesla is pioneering the breakthrough.
I very much enjoyed your video. I had wondered how Tesla operated their motors. I have been playing with some ideas for ether disturbance electric current generation that would be fun to power this inverter-motor set. What fun we could have talking about this topic. Your work reminds me of my early days when I was attending Electrical Engineering University classes. I and some friends worked on several ideas involving circuits you use now for your controller. Nice work. I miss designing circuits. I was pretty clever at it then.
Hi Michal, I'm very impressed with your work and the UMC you have designed and built. EVTV as I suspect you are already aware are currently reverse engineering a Tesla drive train including trying to make sense of the various CAN bus signals that feed into the Tesla inverter to set various operation modes. They have a UA-cam channel where their work is video documented.
Really cool stuff! Here's a wacky idea... (yep a really wacky one, probably almost impossible anyway)... Find a FW drive car wich you put this motor in the rear (and that is the impossible I think... finding a car with the same measurement that you can fit this in... anyway)... The you make a big ass capacitor bank (suitcase or bigger)... Wich you charge with your normal car generator while you are driving... (or even by the "Tesla" engine itself...)... The either you get a "nitro" button or make your normal gas pedal with a kickdown sensor/switch or what ever... So you will drive normally on Autobahn... then you could just turbo/nitro for 1 minute or two (get like 4-6 times the normal power)... the kickdown mode have to disconnect the front gearbox maybe also... hmm... and some magic thing that can connect it again high gear matching revs to the front when the rpm/speed fits... hard I guess... Just an wacky idea... a 1000 Km car with gas and a 4-6 times the power nitro boost fun thing when overtaking or just showing of when you meet a biker or two :-) I wonder how many minutes you would get from the big ass capacitor banks also... maybe even more then a minute... who knows...
bypass the middleman and lose the transmission clutch etc and use the engine to drive the generator directly and use the power to charge the capacitor bank and the electric motor :D your engine revs control the output of the motor and the performance increase would be mental :P
Awesome, thanks for doing this. I have wondered about how easy or practical it would be to salvage a motor from a Model S or a Roadster, to reuse in a custom electric car. This is awesome
Great job Elias! You can actually stabilize your video with just 2 clicks when you open the ENHANCEMENT icon and then click STABILIZE - It's smooth as silk and is done within the hour in a long video like yours.
Jacques B. Poirier Thanks. I tried to do this in one of my youtube videos, but the image distortion just feels too weird.. The problem is that my "recording equipment" is a phone. Maybe in the future videos I can try to get something better.
It does wonders from my own videos from a cheap Samsung camera. Overcropping can be a problem if I shoot too close to subject. it actually compares well to Stabilizer in Adobe Premiere and After Effects that I also use. Elias your subject is so interesting that I bet no one even notices any shaking LOL.
Hooray for you! Your UMC is wonderful, allowing people everywhere to recycle, re-purpose, re-invent and create wonderful new designs! A new generation of "shade tree" home built electric hot-rods is on the near horizon as electronic drive trains become commonplace.
This guy has only 3 videos, this is the last one. That was 15 months ago. I'm sure since than he got a Job offer in a holy place! Dobra prace dobre kolace!!!
Man, you are a genius! I wonder if you continued your work or that UMC is the only version... it should ideally work with two-motor Tesla configuration, too!
I think your future will be bright an prosperous Michal Elias. The automotive electrical engineer will rule the future... The computer- geeks are no longer the designer of the end-product. Thank god.
Holy crap! that is awesome! So F1 or something like that should hire you! I wish I had 1% of your knowledge! When I win the lottery I'll have you build me a 4 motor Tesla
I live in San Jose, California and the Tesla factory is just down the road from me. I rent an old farm house in Spitzkuhn, Deutschland with my girl friend. I know you are not there anymore, but that's about 6 hour drive to Czech Republic. The picture at the Tesla station with the drive train laying sideways in the back of your Peugot is priceless! :D I like the idea that you are working on a technology that will help clean up the environment, the fact that electric motors DO make a ton of instant horsepower but most of all...when I heard that you spun a motor off its mount in your living room!!! That just had me laughing! It always seems to be that the things that can help people to save money can only be afforded by those that have money. I hope that maybe with your ideas and the combination of others that are willing to see something different "think out of the box" we can improve on this technology to the point that the cost of such vehicles will come down so that those that the common family can afford to purchase one. I've been racing since I was 16 and I ended up owning and driving my own jet dragster. Racers have a certain way of seeing things different, we work with what we can get and keep looking for ways to improve things. I don't think you're a racer, but you seem to think the same way. I DON'T CARE WHERE YOU ARE FROM! I like the way you work and I wish you all the best. By the way, I'm 63 :)
ha nice work mate... just got done using a prius motor and a FOC inverter (infineon) to convert a mx5 for my final year uni project. This looks even more fun though hahah.
Motor windings can vary between applications. Ditto for the number and specification of power semiconductor devices (IGBT's in this case). Makers haven't settled on voltages yet either I don't think so those can vary thus motor windings and other component specs.
FYI the throttle commands to the original motor controller are _not_ on the CAN bus. It's connected directly to the pedal module with a 6-conductor cable.
James Rowland Yeah, I know :) Did I say that the throttle is over CAN? I don't recall that. Anyway, since the motor controller is replaced, you can use any throttle, make your own scaling, regeneration settings..
Yes, you do need to fake the CAN bus communication, just using the throttle is not enough. You have to tell the drivetrain to go out of park, what power and so on. CAN hacking is usually quite trivial to do, you just capture and replay the data. Too boring, I prefer having truly full control over the motor behaviour. Plus some motors are power limited in the firmware - this way you can break such limits
Michal Elias That might be the only way you'll have any luck with Tesla hardware, as they've been more paranoid than other manufacturers about safeguarding their systems against intrusion. It's confirmed that even the door handle controllers need to be flashed with an authentication code before the rest of the car will talk to them, and you need the Tesla service software to do it. I strongly suspect CAN playback techniques will not work as expected on the motor controller either.
+Dan Z I think you wouldn´t put it on a helicopter because the motor, plus the electronics to control the revelutions, plus battery packs and all insulation stuff would be nearly as heavy as a tesla XD Which would then bring us to the question is the power of the motor enough to let the whole construction take off? XD
+SLEVIN SHAFEL I did get some offers, but most of the time from small companies or startups. Things I do on this video are a big no-no for large corporations. Maybe they would hire me and I would release their well guarded tech online? Also word "hack" doesn't go very well with these guys.
+Michal Elias Actually I believe they don't mind the word "hack", just recall what the word "hackathon" means. It doesn't necessarily mean something bad. Just keep up the hard work and I'm sure you'll get an offer soon enough. May I ask though, how did you afford the engine? did you buy a whole Tesla car just to reverse engineer the engine? I'd sell my left testicle for a Tesla car ;D
+Marcus Ekström Thanks. I don't want too badly an offer from them. I prefer my own small company (work in progress). No, I do not own a Tesla car, just the motor. Bought it for reasonable money (still not cheap). My hobbies tends to be on the expensive side, but I try what I can to break even by reselling some stuff
Knowledge that applies to brushless DC motors or AC motor with builtin inverters, as like on drones and most RC stuff, will generally apply in most scenarios. This includes industrial motor drivers, DC to AC converters of all kinds, and cars. Learning the basics can be infinitely useful later on, when you least expect it. :D
it really is the same electronic principle except one has a gearbox the other propellers, and the voltages and amperages are scalled up. Heck a drone has flightmodes so maybe its just as complex. Both program by flashing through cpus and escs...
Jacques Lavoie I'v gotten Linux to run on a tablet by flashing a very custom Firmware ROM I made that dual boots Android and Linux. It's possible to run Windows inside of Linux using Kernel Virtual Machine (KVM), even though Windows dosen't support ARM hardware. A program called QEMU can translate between the ARM64 (ARM Cortex A7/A8) and X86_X64 (Intel/AMD PC) instruction sets. Let me tell you it's not easy to get working, but getting a full desktop OS running on a tablet is VERY satisfying. There's an app called Limbo PC Emulator that does the same thing, but not nearly as efficient. Still, seeing XP or 98 running on a tablet is just plain epic. Most tablets have just as good of specs as older PCs.
Nice work Michal! I'm still playing with petrol motor ECU's which is a completely different beast but wouldn't mind building another custom car using an electric motor in the future!
Drahá Michal , mám velký respekt pro české inženýry. (Blame Google if it was not Czech!) Excellent work, I'm very impressed. Good luck with your plans. All the best, Rob
Dear Rob, thank you!! And I appreciate the time you've put into translating that to my native language - it was (almost) correct :) Good luck to you too!
I worked at Era in Pardubice for a short time and have many friends there. It's another reason I have great respect for Czech engineers! All the best, Rob
How are things going with the UMC Drive motor controller? I have purchased a few salvage EVs with the hopes of being able to use the motor and inverter without having to reverse engineer the whole control system. Your UMC controller would make doing an EV conversion with AC as simple as using DC controllers.
Michal Elias I'd really like to discuss the possibility of buying several of your controller units and, likely, having you consulting a bit on the intended project. Gsxtasee@gmail.com. please let me know if you are interested. Great work!
The motor is a 3 phase induction AC motor, so you simply need to modulate a 3 phase induction to spin the motor. Its 360 volts at 100 amps max so I would assume it would be safe to induce 3 120 volt phases but dont quote me on that as fact. Those three components one on each side is 1/3 of a power supply AC modulator.
websuspect There is a big difference between power supply current and motor phase current. The motor phase RMS current for Tesla motor has it's max at 1200A if I recall correctly. Phase resistance is ~0.02Ohm
Okay so the motor can handle theoretically 10 times more power than the inverter. What you want to do is neatly sit that inverter power supply on the side and try and as you said reverse engineer it. So I would say you want to make 1 bread board with LOTS of mosfets that could maybe handle 100 amps and than try and modulate a phase frequency of 60 hz at 120 volts. Than make 3 of those and somehow make a master controller than can control or modulate a phase independently. Im going to go out on a limb and say they are using those little square chips are ARM controllers (orchestrators ) and they are talking to each other and modulate a phase. But you really need to orchastrate 3 independent phases with a modulated or graduated current. For your fuse you want to goto home depot and get 3 100 amp circuit breakers and 1 can be a double. So you could have 2 breakers. And your going to use your DC power in through a breaker as a safety. Tesla currently uses 1 use burn out disposable breakers.
websuspect I'm sorry, but it is a bit more complicate than that. You cannot have 1200A at full phase voltage, as at that moment the back EMF voltage of the motor is already so high that your motor "produces" as much voltage as your power supply -> current goes to 0. That's why you cannot spin a 400V motor to high RPM just by applying 10V to it and "endless" current. The mosfet transistors (at least the standard ones) cannot handle very high voltages, that's why IGBTs are used here Home depot fuse is AC rated, they will not break the rated DC current. The same goes for contactors and breakers. They are AC equipment and will fail on DC. There are many good websites to read about motor control explaining the theory behind control, back EMF voltage and many other topics.
Michal Elias I believe you would have to regulate the motor by current. That's how the Tesla power meter works and its the same engine as the car. The power meter is driven by the current flowing Into the house and induced into the aluminum disk through induction. I think that breaker might still work. Your just talking ac power vs DC. Your primary voltage coming into the motor is going to be 120 volts DC so your going to have some step downs from 360/120/3 and than from DC to ac. That's how I believe Tesla regulates its power but you can research on your own . there's a few ways to do this. For example you could build 3 120 volt DC battery banks.
websuspect What are you yammering about? You have no idea how this motor is controlled, that is obvious. Michal will forget more about motor control than you will ever know. You are showing gross ignorance with your immature posts. And your knowledge of AC versus DC power and the difference in overcurrent management is totally incorrect. You state "Your (the correct word is you're) just talking ac power vs DC." Wrong, wrong, wrong. Learn some basic electricity technology before acting the expert.
John Benton Hahaha, I recommend actually reading them :) I did. There is nothing that could help you build a car, or knowing how superchargers operate. They were very careful about that.
John Benton Don't believe everything someone says; check it out for yourself! Elon has not lied about sharing his patents for certain things. He never said ALL of his patents were available. Some people do not comprehend what they read, so they put words in other people's mouths when relating what they 'read'. I see it happening very often in YT comments especially.
John Benton The real waste of time is you coming here to tell him it was a waste of time. He clearly enjoys taking things apart, and clearly didn't do this to figure out what the patents stated.
Great Work Michal. Making a UniversalMotorController is such a great thing, for all those people who want to make conversions, using salvaged parts. I hope you intend to put it on the market ? I am comtemplating making a company, doing conversions, and your UMC would fit in nicely. Keep it comming Dude. 👍AXLdog 🇩🇰
I have a 1991 VW Passat 3b estate that is converted by myself here in the UK maybe 6 years ago. I drove it and after having problems with batteries I lost interest. I need to get this project finished.
I love your work. I am a RF engineer so this is a little out of my area but love to see some white papers if you can on how you were able to hack the controller. I would like to one day get a crashed tesla and take the drive and install it in a small car and make a sleeper "A car that looks slow but is in fact very fast". Thanks for you effort.
Yeah I heard about that place but never tried it. used to find some interesting stuff in the computer trash bins. Oh well, I am not at CERN anymore :(. But I did get a few souvenirs ;).
Here's the big question though: Can you overclock it? Can you improve on the factory power? Can you improve cooling and stack inverter/battery combos to create modded ecars?
Using a controller, to control an inverter and spin an electric motor, is not what I call hacking. It's nothing at all, except using a different controller that works with the inverter. Where was any 'hacking' in this? It's like using an universal part on something, or an universal remote control for your electronics. No 'hacking' involved. *sigh*
In case you missed the last half, he used a Chevy Volt inverter to spin the Mercedes motor. This was to prove that his controller design was truly as universal as he had claimed it to be, unlike their respective originals.
ok so you're my idol now. I bought a 2013 Prius new and have been less than satisfied with its performance. It constantly runs the engine just to warm it up and wastes gallons of gas doing it. So, wanted to investigate some ways to modify or adapt the CAN messages or replace it with a different UMC (I like your acronym). Let me know if you are interested in that project as you've done a lot with your investigations. Keep up the great work.
I need your help, I have a fisher and paykel washing machine motor that is 3 phase and I can't find a driver controller that will run it. If you will heck their controller and build me one that will run these motors with adjustable speed, I will pay greatly for your efforts you can find these motors cheaply at scrap yard people just through them away, the whole washing machine and buy a new one. They can be reused for other things. I can't get anyone here to help me. something simple and low cost, but durable that will last along time. I've asked lots of people for help and they're to important to fool with such nonsense as some have said! I see a market for them world wide, but without the controller, no one can use them. they are a pancake 3 phase motor with a hall effect sensor, with an out runner rotor, they're very powerful and they're going to the junkyards by the thousands, Please help!
Rob Rose Contact Gerard Morin, he's got videos posted on youtube. He has located a three phase motor controller that will probably do what you want done.
Quantum Leap I contacted Gerard Morin about the model number of that controller, He never got back to me and in his video he said he needed a three sensor hall effect sensor and I had one and gave him the part number for it and still no response, but he says he wants to keep all the info out there for everyone to have , but I haven't heard back from him yet
+Rob Rose ABB Allen Bradley and many others make single phase to phase VFD inverters. Do a google search there are many many matches. (VFD is variable frequency drive) If you're less than 3 HP you're good to go, the bigger ineverters get kinda pricey. Hope this helps.
I tried a VFD that I got from Temco and it didn't work these types of motors use a hall effect sensor. They work good on the 3 phase motor that I have, but wouldn't work at all on this Fisher and Paykel type motor. This is why I put it out there that I need some one to hack the washing machine controller and build me a controller that will do the job. thanks for your consideration and input.
Great Video ... Congrats on Your Successful Engineering design and build!! Are you selling the PCB for the UMC drive? And if so how and where? All the Best to You!
Excellent video, Michal. Have you taken apart the motor? The video on Tesla motor car says that instead of coils of enamelled wire a cylindrical copper tube is used. Is that so? Why would they do such? Is the heat carried away by oil or water? Thanking you, once again, for exposing the heart of Tesla motor car.
Have you heard of BLHELI, and oneshot 125 protocol? it's a firmware for racing multirotors. The protocol increases the communication speed between the motor and the ESC in sensorless setups to a insanely fast speed.
deathpony698 what's important is the one shot 125 protocol and the communication speed from the motor back to the ESC. When you start messing with that all kinds of magic happens.
Thanks for sharing, some hardcore hack you tried there. However do bear in mind that most software is designed for efficient energy consumption without excessive energy output. You have to check on the motor output curve, most electric cars' motors are over spec so you can get optimum power-consumption.
which other cars do the tesla driveline share? want to see whether they'd be local in Australia as i would love an awd festiva.. something the car should have been to begin with.
You are one smart person u are dayum ! :-) I would like to see the tesla motor with a gearbox ratio 1 - 7 or 1-5 on a motorbike convertion ! would give incredible results ! Nice work ;-)
Very nice job! I am an Electrical Engineer (Analog IC design) with 35 years experience and am very impressed with your work. Thank you for your investigative work.
+Stephen Hobrecht Thank you!!
+Michal Elias
Thank you too!
And I'm a student with 0 years experience ... okay, I haven't had a proper electrical engineering job, but I've done many things already (circuit design and PCB design)! :)
+Stephen Hobrecht
can anyone tell me if this build plan is legit? hopegirl2012.files.wordpress.com/2015/06/qeg-build-manual-5-jun-15.pdf add me facebook i am VERY interested facebook.com/chop.chop.58760
xD
set-on-world-peace -_- Appears to be a ruminant busy work application. Or cow pie.
Next step is to shove this in a small lightweight '80s car that's typically underpowered and go trolling on the streets with this.
+pauljs75 LMAO! Yes! Put it in a Ford Pinto!
+Network126 or a Smart! :D though it would probably convert into a small plane... One time use whatsoever :D
+pauljs75 my 88 honda civic fits your description perfectly. Its a whole 2038 pounds and under powered with a 1.5 liter 4 cylinder now but with a tesla motor it would be the next minnesota bullet lol.
+pauljs75 It needs electric power to run.
If you managed to get that, I'm sure you can figure out how to fit the batteries too.
I'm an electronics tech and I have to say.... Impressive work!
Loved the video.
What a great tutorial. Now I was able to build a lawn mower by using a Tesla motor.
+Maxxxshop what kind of lawn mower is that? maybe the one with spinning blade underneath it? I suggest you to flip it upside down and enjoy your new helicopter!
+Jėzaus Tėvas Man, are you crazy? Without any kind of anti-torque control? This is not *jackass*! :=)
Would make a great episode though :D
+Maxxxshop How many Amps are you feeding it
Very cool man, wish I had your skills
+jehugarcia and money, to just throw at projects like this
+Peter Schmidt If you have this guy's skills, you won't have a problem making money.
+jehugarcia Hey I'm the battery isolater guy on your channel Why don't you ask this guy about the battery charging?
you are doing great job too learning a lot from your streaming
wish I had your skills both :D
Everyone would be physicists if skills were gained by wishing alone! LOL
Wow, it's humbling to realise that there are 'mere' individuals out there capable to reverse-engineering something of that complexity, not to mention on top of that, then designing a 'universal' controller. Respect!
Everything run off of DC...... :P Super easy to controller it's nothing more then a big hand drill...
Can I run this motor directly from one of the pwm pins on my Arduino?
+SirArghPirate You'll need a heavy duty power supply.
LOL you are the best !
you need resistors Arduino is quite heavey voltage.
short answer is yes
SirArghPirate Jajajaja you very funny 🤣
Wow. Amazing to see the beautiful engineering inside of the Tesla, as well as your passion. Keep it up. I'm looking forward to one day making my VW T2 Westy into a e-car! I'm going to need a UMC to do it, I bet.
I'm sure your neighbours must really love you and your Tesla labouratory.
Re: sensorless setups 'I have a VW golf that doesn't know this' - heh, awesome :p
29:55 ... I see plenty of much needed coffee cups lol ...good work man keep it up ...I work for Tesla now (previously worked for Mercedes-Benz) and I'm very excited to work here. The future is here and Tesla is pioneering the breakthrough.
"especially the wooden floor does not like square rotating objects" lmao. You made my day :D
Thanks for sharing this. Nice to see that someone experiments with these big motors / drivers :)
I very much enjoyed your video. I had wondered how Tesla operated their motors. I have been playing with some ideas for ether disturbance electric current generation that would be fun to power this inverter-motor set. What fun we could have talking about this topic. Your work reminds me of my early days when I was attending Electrical Engineering University classes. I and some friends worked on several ideas involving circuits you use now for your controller. Nice work. I miss designing circuits. I was pretty clever at it then.
I think the best upgrade you can do for an electric motor would be to install a gen 3 Mr. Fusion.
Nice love the setup you are basically showing people something that the Companies do not want people to know about be safe and love your work
That room is a house fire waiting to happen lol
Hi Michal,
I'm very impressed with your work and the UMC you have designed and built. EVTV as I suspect you are already aware are currently reverse engineering a Tesla drive train including trying to make sense of the various CAN bus signals that feed into the Tesla inverter to set various operation modes. They have a UA-cam channel where their work is video documented.
Really cool stuff!
Here's a wacky idea... (yep a really wacky one, probably almost impossible anyway)...
Find a FW drive car wich you put this motor in the rear (and that is the impossible I think... finding a car with the same measurement that you can fit this in... anyway)... The you make a big ass capacitor bank (suitcase or bigger)... Wich you charge with your normal car generator while you are driving... (or even by the "Tesla" engine itself...)... The either you get a "nitro" button or make your normal gas pedal with a kickdown sensor/switch or what ever...
So you will drive normally on Autobahn... then you could just turbo/nitro for 1 minute or two (get like 4-6 times the normal power)... the kickdown mode have to disconnect the front gearbox maybe also... hmm... and some magic thing that can connect it again high gear matching revs to the front when the rpm/speed fits... hard I guess...
Just an wacky idea... a 1000 Km car with gas and a 4-6 times the power nitro boost fun thing when overtaking or just showing of when you meet a biker or two :-)
I wonder how many minutes you would get from the big ass capacitor banks also... maybe even more then a minute... who knows...
bypass the middleman and lose the transmission clutch etc and use the engine to drive the generator directly and use the power to charge the capacitor bank and the electric motor :D your engine revs control the output of the motor and the performance increase would be mental :P
Awesome, thanks for doing this. I have wondered about how easy or practical it would be to salvage a motor from a Model S or a Roadster, to reuse in a custom electric car. This is awesome
Call me when you can make it turn into Optimus Prime.
I've done it... What's your Phone Number so I can call you?
Jeremy Lawrence 1-800-GO-GUARD or alternatively 1-888-550-ARMY
This is the next generation of "hot rod." Keep up the awesome research! You are making mods for the future possible.
Great job Elias! You can actually stabilize your video with just 2 clicks when you open the ENHANCEMENT icon and then click STABILIZE - It's smooth as silk and is done within the hour in a long video like yours.
Jacques B. Poirier Thanks. I tried to do this in one of my youtube videos, but the image distortion just feels too weird.. The problem is that my "recording equipment" is a phone. Maybe in the future videos I can try to get something better.
Michal Elias Never use it, it doesnt work right, give it a year or 2
It does wonders from my own videos from a cheap Samsung camera. Overcropping can be a problem if I shoot too close to subject. it actually compares well to Stabilizer in Adobe Premiere and After Effects that I also use. Elias your subject is so interesting that I bet no one even notices any shaking LOL.
Jacques B. Poirier dont use it as it makes your videos look like they have a ppi of 4
Hooray for you! Your UMC is wonderful, allowing people everywhere to recycle, re-purpose, re-invent and create wonderful new designs! A new generation of "shade tree" home built electric hot-rods is on the near horizon as electronic drive trains become commonplace.
Great work! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for posting this. Very useful info. I see lots of room for simplification which should improve the overall reliability.
This guy has only 3 videos, this is the last one. That was 15 months ago.
I'm sure since than he got a Job offer in a holy place!
Dobra prace dobre kolace!!!
praca i kanapa...considering he has a tesla motor to fry i'm sure he's doing well. probably flipping them.
That or Tesla murdered him, they really don’t like people working on their cars.
Man, you are a genius! I wonder if you continued your work or that UMC is the only version... it should ideally work with two-motor Tesla configuration, too!
I think your future will be bright an prosperous Michal Elias. The automotive electrical engineer will rule the future... The computer- geeks are no longer the designer of the end-product. Thank god.
As an expat in Czech Republic, I must congratulate you. Good luck!
Thats an actual Tesla cradle, we manufacture them at our facility.
Smokey Jones hi there. What model is this subframe from?
Holy crap! that is awesome! So F1 or something like that should hire you! I wish I had 1% of your knowledge!
When I win the lottery I'll have you build me a 4 motor Tesla
I'm waiting for a Dyson car, as I can do some vacuuming in the garage.
This so a beautiful comment
John Brogan
Thank you.
Fender Blues
Perhaps something your wife could drive 😀
Steve Gould
Yes save me doing it.
By the way Dyson generally uses SRMs. IIRC.
I live in San Jose, California and the Tesla factory is just down the road from me.
I rent an old farm house in Spitzkuhn, Deutschland with my girl friend.
I know you are not there anymore, but that's about 6 hour drive to Czech Republic.
The picture at the Tesla station with the drive train laying sideways in the back of your Peugot is priceless! :D
I like the idea that you are working on a technology that will help clean up the environment, the fact that electric motors DO make a ton of instant horsepower but most of all...when I heard that you spun a motor off its mount in your living room!!!
That just had me laughing!
It always seems to be that the things that can help people to save money can only be afforded by those that have money.
I hope that maybe with your ideas and the combination of others that are willing to see something different "think out of the box" we can improve on this technology to the point that the cost of such vehicles will come down so that those that the common family can afford to purchase one.
I've been racing since I was 16 and I ended up owning and driving my own jet dragster.
Racers have a certain way of seeing things different, we work with what we can get and keep looking for ways to improve things.
I don't think you're a racer, but you seem to think the same way.
I DON'T CARE WHERE YOU ARE FROM!
I like the way you work
and I wish you all the best.
By the way,
I'm 63 :)
ha nice work mate... just got done using a prius motor and a FOC inverter (infineon) to convert a mx5 for my final year uni project. This looks even more fun though hahah.
+sn0wchyld Thanks! Enjoy driving your electric MX5 :)
I wanna see this mx5 build and link to videos
Which Field's final year Automobile??
Motor windings can vary between applications. Ditto for the number and specification of power semiconductor devices (IGBT's in this case). Makers haven't settled on voltages yet either I don't think so those can vary thus motor windings and other component specs.
you did an amazing work. by the way can anyone buy a motor from mercedes? or you got some connections with mercedes?
13:00 =D Washing machine sound was so distracting and I was like WHAAT! =D thank you for telling us it was the washing machine
Apple cars are just waiting to hire you !
More like Rimac
stunning work man! you should step up DC power bus, and show the duty cycle legs to show your personal FOC control..
We're gonna need propellers and massive batteries, make the world largest quadcopter :D
they already have developed electric planes!!! check that out! by siemens
FYI the throttle commands to the original motor controller are _not_ on the CAN bus. It's connected directly to the pedal module with a 6-conductor cable.
James Rowland Yeah, I know :) Did I say that the throttle is over CAN? I don't recall that. Anyway, since the motor controller is replaced, you can use any throttle, make your own scaling, regeneration settings..
Michal Elias
You did mention capturing and playing back CAN traffic at around 7:30.
Yes, you do need to fake the CAN bus communication, just using the throttle is not enough. You have to tell the drivetrain to go out of park, what power and so on. CAN hacking is usually quite trivial to do, you just capture and replay the data. Too boring, I prefer having truly full control over the motor behaviour. Plus some motors are power limited in the firmware - this way you can break such limits
Michal Elias
That might be the only way you'll have any luck with Tesla hardware, as they've been more paranoid than other manufacturers about safeguarding their systems against intrusion.
It's confirmed that even the door handle controllers need to be flashed with an authentication code before the rest of the car will talk to them, and you need the Tesla service software to do it. I strongly suspect CAN playback techniques will not work as expected on the motor controller either.
WOW, this guy is fantastically smart as fuck!! Great job man, this video and your abilities are very impressive to say the least!
Brilliant piece - great to see - Well Done Fella
This is perfect as a boat engine..
***** There is nothing like a bit electrocution on top on a wave
+Farfull Kenobly HAHAHA! IT"S FUNNY CAZ DERP DERP DERP ELECTRICS AND WATER NEVER WORK DERP!
***** For your information all engines are started with an electric engine powered by a battery..even boat engines..
Sidowse l?
+Dan Z
I think you wouldn´t put it on a helicopter because the motor, plus the electronics to control the revelutions, plus battery packs and all insulation stuff would be nearly as heavy as a tesla XD
Which would then bring us to the question is the power of the motor enough to let the whole construction take off?
XD
Very nice work. As a Model S owner, this really helps me appreciate my car even more.
you still hear no offert from Tesla or others makers?
+SLEVIN SHAFEL I did get some offers, but most of the time from small companies or startups. Things I do on this video are a big no-no for large corporations. Maybe they would hire me and I would release their well guarded tech online? Also word "hack" doesn't go very well with these guys.
+Michal Elias Actually I believe they don't mind the word "hack", just recall what the word "hackathon" means. It doesn't necessarily mean something bad. Just keep up the hard work and I'm sure you'll get an offer soon enough.
May I ask though, how did you afford the engine? did you buy a whole Tesla car just to reverse engineer the engine? I'd sell my left testicle for a Tesla car ;D
+Marcus Ekström Thanks. I don't want too badly an offer from them. I prefer my own small company (work in progress). No, I do not own a Tesla car, just the motor. Bought it for reasonable money (still not cheap). My hobbies tends to be on the expensive side, but I try what I can to break even by reselling some stuff
+Marcus Ekström Listen to what he says @ 3:42.. He says its from Mercedes.
Atis Bariss Thanks mate
Combustion Motor OUT, Electric Motor IN!
Tesla is changing the world. Great video, Knowledge is true power.
By learning about how to hack my quadcopter. I understandish this stuff. OMG!
Knowledge that applies to brushless DC motors or AC motor with builtin inverters, as like on drones and most RC stuff, will generally apply in most scenarios. This includes industrial motor drivers, DC to AC converters of all kinds, and cars. Learning the basics can be infinitely useful later on, when you least expect it. :D
Im going to learn as much as I can. I luv da internet.
it really is the same electronic principle except one has a gearbox the other propellers, and the voltages and amperages are scalled up. Heck a drone has flightmodes so maybe its just as complex. Both program by flashing through cpus and escs...
I luv flashing Firmware. It make me feel powerful. Cant wait to hack a car. But first i want to build a flyboard air..
Jacques Lavoie
I'v gotten Linux to run on a tablet by flashing a very custom Firmware ROM I made that dual boots Android and Linux. It's possible to run Windows inside of Linux using Kernel Virtual Machine (KVM), even though Windows dosen't support ARM hardware. A program called QEMU can translate between the ARM64 (ARM Cortex A7/A8) and X86_X64 (Intel/AMD PC) instruction sets. Let me tell you it's not easy to get working, but getting a full desktop OS running on a tablet is VERY satisfying.
There's an app called Limbo PC Emulator that does the same thing, but not nearly as efficient. Still, seeing XP or 98 running on a tablet is just plain epic. Most tablets have just as good of specs as older PCs.
Nice work Michal! I'm still playing with petrol motor ECU's which is a completely different beast but wouldn't mind building another custom car using an electric motor in the future!
hmm how about a tesla motor powering a WASHING machine:))))
u get clean clothes in 5 seconds lol
well yeah, but who wouldnt want a washing machine that accelerates under 3s to 100kph:) I would want one certainly:) but Im a car guy:)))
Maybe a Nissan GTR powered washing machine would be cool too:) but the consumption:))
Laundry done in 2 minutes flat.
great science...ffs
Drahá Michal , mám velký respekt pro české inženýry. (Blame Google if it was not Czech!) Excellent work, I'm very impressed.
Good luck with your plans. All the best, Rob
Dear Rob, thank you!! And I appreciate the time you've put into translating that to my native language - it was (almost) correct :)
Good luck to you too!
I worked at Era in Pardubice for a short time and have many friends there. It's another reason I have great respect for Czech engineers! All the best, Rob
Cool! I know that company quite well (I'm also in RF business as my main job). Plus Pardubice is my home town..
Ah - that explains Eldis... I'm in the air surveillance business... All the best, Rob
How are things going with the UMC Drive motor controller? I have purchased a few salvage EVs with the hopes of being able to use the motor and inverter without having to reverse engineer the whole control system. Your UMC controller would make doing an EV conversion with AC as simple as using DC controllers.
+Ele Truk Yes, it's going to be for sale. Write me a PM with what you've got, let's see if we can make something out of it.
Michal Elias I'd really like to discuss the possibility of buying several of your controller units and, likely, having you consulting a bit on the intended project. Gsxtasee@gmail.com. please let me know if you are interested. Great work!
Wonder if you can diagnose a high pitch rear motor whine that occurs at 45 Mph in my Tesla MS 70? Tesla service is baffled
Harvey Friedman there someone online solved this issue. I saw the video 2 days ago. Will try to get it and feedback..
The motor is a 3 phase induction AC motor, so you simply need to modulate a 3 phase induction to spin the motor. Its 360 volts at 100 amps max so I would assume it would be safe to induce 3 120 volt phases but dont quote me on that as fact. Those three components one on each side is 1/3 of a power supply AC modulator.
websuspect There is a big difference between power supply current and motor phase current. The motor phase RMS current for Tesla motor has it's max at 1200A if I recall correctly. Phase resistance is ~0.02Ohm
Okay so the motor can handle theoretically 10 times more power than the inverter. What you want to do is neatly sit that inverter power supply on the side and try and as you said reverse engineer it. So I would say you want to make 1 bread board with LOTS of mosfets that could maybe handle 100 amps and than try and modulate a phase frequency of 60 hz at 120 volts. Than make 3 of those and somehow make a master controller than can control or modulate a phase independently. Im going to go out on a limb and say they are using those little square chips are ARM controllers (orchestrators ) and they are talking to each other and modulate a phase. But you really need to orchastrate 3 independent phases with a modulated or graduated current. For your fuse you want to goto home depot and get 3 100 amp circuit breakers and 1 can be a double. So you could have 2 breakers. And your going to use your DC power in through a breaker as a safety. Tesla currently uses 1 use burn out disposable breakers.
websuspect I'm sorry, but it is a bit more complicate than that. You cannot have 1200A at full phase voltage, as at that moment the back EMF voltage of the motor is already so high that your motor "produces" as much voltage as your power supply -> current goes to 0. That's why you cannot spin a 400V motor to high RPM just by applying 10V to it and "endless" current.
The mosfet transistors (at least the standard ones) cannot handle very high voltages, that's why IGBTs are used here
Home depot fuse is AC rated, they will not break the rated DC current. The same goes for contactors and breakers. They are AC equipment and will fail on DC.
There are many good websites to read about motor control explaining the theory behind control, back EMF voltage and many other topics.
Michal Elias I believe you would have to regulate the motor by current. That's how the Tesla power meter works and its the same engine as the car. The power meter is driven by the current flowing Into the house and induced into the aluminum disk through induction. I think that breaker might still work. Your just talking ac power vs DC. Your primary voltage coming into the motor is going to be 120 volts DC so your going to have some step downs from 360/120/3 and than from DC to ac. That's how I believe Tesla regulates its power but you can research on your own . there's a few ways to do this. For example you could build 3 120 volt DC battery banks.
websuspect What are you yammering about? You have no idea how this motor is controlled, that is obvious. Michal will forget more about motor control than you will ever know. You are showing gross ignorance with your immature posts. And your knowledge of AC versus DC power and the difference in overcurrent management is totally incorrect. You state "Your (the correct word is you're) just talking ac power vs DC." Wrong, wrong, wrong. Learn some basic electricity technology before acting the expert.
Anyone else want to see this in an Ariel Atom? No? Just me? Okay.
Wow,well done to you! I'm sure this will be of use to those of us thinking of re-engineering our petrol cars to electric.Bravo!
What a waste of time. Elon's already stated that all Tesla's patents are available to all, free of charge.
John Benton Hahaha, I recommend actually reading them :) I did. There is nothing that could help you build a car, or knowing how superchargers operate. They were very careful about that.
The bastard! Fancy lying like that.
John Benton It's true, Elon keeps the software a closely held secret. He said he does that to keep it from getting hacked. lol
John Benton
Don't believe everything someone says; check it out for yourself! Elon has not lied about sharing his patents for certain things. He never said ALL of his patents were available. Some people do not comprehend what they read, so they put words in other people's mouths when relating what they 'read'. I see it happening very often in YT comments especially.
John Benton The real waste of time is you coming here to tell him it was a waste of time. He clearly enjoys taking things apart, and clearly didn't do this to figure out what the patents stated.
Great Work Michal. Making a UniversalMotorController is such a great thing, for all those people who want to make conversions, using salvaged parts. I hope you intend to put it on the market ? I am comtemplating making a company, doing conversions, and your UMC would fit in nicely. Keep it comming Dude. 👍AXLdog 🇩🇰
You are one smart feller
Hey Michal, thanks for the very interesting thing... Hope one day this will be as current, simple and easy to buy as combustion engines...
where did you get that engine? I WANT ONE!!!! although I don't want to sell my kidney of half of my liver :)) (price?)
just stumbled over this video, and amazing work!
Scientists everywhere
I have a 1991 VW Passat 3b estate that is converted by myself here in the UK maybe 6 years ago. I drove it and after having problems with batteries I lost interest. I need to get this project finished.
best production car : Rimac Concept One
I love your work. I am a RF engineer so this is a little out of my area but love to see some white papers if you can on how you were able to hack the controller. I would like to one day get a crashed tesla and take the drive and install it in a small car and make a sleeper "A car that looks slow but is in fact very fast". Thanks for you effort.
Dude did you take a $100,000 dollar car apart to make this video? You Tube must pay pretty good.
+parker374 I wish. Actually I didn't even sign up for the pay option. And no, didn't take a 100k car apart to do this.
I was just being sarcastic you do an excellent job on your videos but a little over my head.
No worries - thanks!
+Michal Elias parker374 isn't the only one wondering how you came into possession of this component.
+John Ratko I got it from a Tesla souvenir shop
18:42 - The relief of headphone users xD
Nice works there BTW :)
Where the hell did you get a CERN power supply ? !!!!!!! looooool
+Mohammed MHE Bought it there from the recuperation center, give it a try - sometimes they have cool stuff!
Yeah I heard about that place but never tried it. used to find some interesting stuff in the computer trash bins. Oh well, I am not at CERN anymore :(. But I did get a few souvenirs ;).
Here's the big question though: Can you overclock it? Can you improve on the factory power? Can you improve cooling and stack inverter/battery combos to create modded ecars?
Tesla blender anybody?
Very nice, also like the fold up crane, picker.
GOING TO USE IT FOR A HELICOPTER/PLANE THAT CAN GO BOTH UNDERWATER AND IN THE AIR.
And use a stealth Coast Guard cutter for the chassis because if it's "not hacking", you're lacking.
congrats on getting it out of park! I want one of these in a van.
Using a controller, to control an inverter and spin an electric motor, is not what I call hacking. It's nothing at all, except using a different controller that works with the inverter. Where was any 'hacking' in this? It's like using an universal part on something, or an universal remote control for your electronics. No 'hacking' involved. *sigh*
+Astrogirl1usa Such ignorance fits you pretty well doesn't it?
In case you missed the last half, he used a Chevy Volt inverter to spin the Mercedes motor. This was to prove that his controller design was truly as universal as he had claimed it to be, unlike their respective originals.
Michal your a genius.Anyone who can do the complex hack is very smart.
You need to go work for Tesla.
Hacking an AC motor.. Wp
PWMed
ok so you're my idol now. I bought a 2013 Prius new and have been less than satisfied with its performance. It constantly runs the engine just to warm it up and wastes gallons of gas doing it. So, wanted to investigate some ways to modify or adapt the CAN messages or replace it with a different UMC (I like your acronym). Let me know if you are interested in that project as you've done a lot with your investigations. Keep up the great work.
Ls swap it.
please stop :-(
You are a pioneer leading us into the future of engineering. Awesome reverse engineering!
I need your help, I have a fisher and paykel washing machine motor that is 3 phase and I can't find a driver controller that will run it. If you will heck their controller and build me one that will run these motors with adjustable speed, I will pay greatly for your efforts you can find these motors cheaply at scrap yard people just through them away, the whole washing machine and buy a new one. They can be reused for other things. I can't get anyone here to help me. something simple and low cost, but durable that will last along time. I've asked lots of people for help and they're to important to fool with such nonsense as some have said! I see a market for them world wide, but without the controller, no one can use them. they are a pancake 3 phase motor with a hall effect sensor, with an out runner rotor, they're very powerful and they're going to the junkyards by the thousands, Please help!
Rob Rose Contact Gerard Morin, he's got videos posted on youtube. He has located a three phase motor controller that will probably do what you want done.
Quantum Leap I contacted Gerard Morin about the model number of that controller, He never got back to me and in his video he said he needed a three sensor hall effect sensor and I had one and gave him the part number for it and still no response, but he says he wants to keep all the info out there for everyone to have , but I haven't heard back from him yet
+Rob Rose ABB Allen Bradley and many others make single phase to phase VFD inverters. Do a google search there are many many matches. (VFD is variable frequency drive) If you're less than 3 HP you're good to go, the bigger ineverters get kinda pricey. Hope this helps.
+Major Pain that's supposed to read single phase to three phase VFD
I tried a VFD that I got from Temco and it didn't work these types of motors use a hall effect sensor. They work good on the 3 phase motor that I have, but wouldn't work at all on this Fisher and Paykel type motor. This is why I put it out there that I need some one to hack the washing machine controller and build me a controller that will do the job. thanks for your consideration and input.
Holy crap .
I was wondering about how the tesla motor worked and how it was phased and inverted .
very interesting . I learned something new.
Great Video ... Congrats on Your Successful Engineering design and build!! Are you selling the PCB for the UMC drive? And if so how and where? All the Best to You!
Could you please tell more about rotor cooling.
Great video!
Very well done and impressive. Really enjoyed watching and learning.
Excellent video! Expanding your knowledge. That's what life is all about!
perfect timing for a washer machine! =D
bravo!!im also electric engineer and I found your video superb!! THANKS!!
Are you working at Tesla now? Looks like you have the knowledge. Good job of doing this incredibly detailed video.
You have mad hacking skillz!
Great video!
Great video and great catch phrase: Let's spin it!
Excellent video, Michal. Have you taken apart the motor? The video on Tesla motor car says that instead of coils of enamelled wire a cylindrical copper tube is used. Is that so? Why would they do such? Is the heat carried away by oil or water? Thanking you, once again, for exposing the heart of Tesla motor car.
Is the control electronics maybe some TI launch pad? with Control suite?
Have you heard of BLHELI, and oneshot 125 protocol? it's a firmware for racing multirotors. The protocol increases the communication speed between the motor and the ESC in sensorless setups to a insanely fast speed.
+Adam Sparrow afro simonK master race
deathpony698 what's important is the one shot 125 protocol and the communication speed from the motor back to the ESC. When you start messing with that all kinds of magic happens.
Isn't oneshot between the FC and the ESC? What kind of motors are you using that don't use back emf for timing?
+deathpony698 I don't know what I'm talking about.
alrighty then
Congratulations! Inspiring video! Inverters are awesome!
Thanks for sharing, some hardcore hack you tried there. However do bear in mind that most software is designed for efficient energy consumption without excessive energy output. You have to check on the motor output curve, most electric cars' motors are over spec so you can get optimum power-consumption.
which other cars do the tesla driveline share?
want to see whether they'd be local in Australia as i would love an awd festiva.. something the car should have been to begin with.
You are one smart person u are dayum ! :-) I would like to see the tesla motor with a gearbox ratio 1 - 7 or 1-5 on a motorbike convertion ! would give incredible results ! Nice work ;-)
Excellent video -- excellent work! You are one smart guy.
Amazing work. It is a shame that you didn´t post any more videos. Or maybey an schematic of your motor controller ;)