Motor Inverter part 2

There was some headway but not a great deal. Looking at the parameters and trying everything. Lots to play with. Some things are not connected so not an issue right now. Trying to smooth it out and trying to get the regen back.


Pete :)

Motor & Inverter

Well, well, well. I finally got the inverter fixed and got the inverter re-programmed. Now I can re-program if any updates come available. There was one thing stumping me and that was the emergency stop function. It kept coming up as zero and it needs to be a 1. 1 means the inverter has not been stopped and is good to go. The original inverted I purchased did not have that wire connected and it needed to be connected to a high voltage of 7 volts or higher. God only knows how it ever ran with that always being in emergency stop mode. The wire was never connected at all. So, I got it connected now to 12 volts to keep it high. No need for an emergency shut down. Well, maybe I can setup a 12 volt switch and use that for a table top emergency shut down if I happen to have to shut it down fast. That should be an easy thing to wire up. So with that, I was able to get the motor to run again and even run in Start Mode 2 which I was never able to do before. I now have to re-charge my battery so I can do some more testing. Its on the charger now and happily charging at 15 amps. Once I have that done I will need to get the inverters heat sink working. Its a water cooled sink and it got hot doing a bit of running at 37 amps. Now to move along and set some parameters to tweak the inverter to the motor. Im only running 12 volts so that will have to change soon. I need to get a good 12 volt pump for the cooling system. Time to hit Jack up for one of his pumps for folks who have water cooled sinks. So I did a quick video with the motor running albeit roughly in Start 1 Mode and Start 2 Mode. I am moving forward once again and have learned a crap load of stuff about flashing a chip with software. It took a bit but I got through it with the help of Johannes Huebner.

Pete :)

SMA Inverter

Well, well, well! Our SMA Grid Tie Inverter crapped out again. Our 4th since we installed the solar panel system in 2005. All were from SMA and all were the 6000U models. The current one lasted a whopping 9 months. It was used but just crapped out. This one is giving a frequency error but it has not resolved in a week and as far as I can tell the power is just fine here. Usually the frequency issues resolve and the system comes back on its own. No go with this one. I was reluctant to go with SMA again and at this point I will no longer recommend them. I can't with this track record. So, I went hunting and decided on a new Aurora 6KW transformerless inverter. More or less a solid state inverter. It has a much better warranty than SMA and it is known to be a good brand. Very well known. It will be here in a few days. I hate being with out an inverter. I hate giving our utility our money.

Earth Day

Did not do a whole bunch on Earth Day but I did get some tomato plants planted. I watered our trees and found our solar panel inverter is dead again. This is the 4th inverter that has died since 2005. We have been using the SMA Sunny Boy inverters. I am looking for another replacement. Not to earth friendly to have inverters die so quickly. We are no longer being protected by a warranty. Have no clue why the inverters are dying. They are in a safe place so its not a weather related issue.

I also have my Olimex programmer/debugger device but having no luck figuring out how to use the dang thing to upload the program onto the Olimex board. Awaiting some feed back from Johannes. Can't wait to get back to playing with my motor and controller.

Leaf

Well, I got me a new 2015 Leaf. I leased this one and they paid off my old one. No money out of pocket and payments less than before. So far the car is good except the new foot operated e-brake. If the capacity goes to shit this time around it will be the last Leaf I get. The foot brake and the little head light adjustment has been removed. Those I used on my other Leaf. Im getting good mileage per charge even in the cold. Well our cold is quite subjective compared to the rest of the country. Im pleased.

Pete :)

Leaf Distance

I had once again taken my Leaf in for a checkup and had them check the health of my pack. I had tried to get that Leaf Spy program so I could see for myself. I finally got a properly working OBDII device to plug into the car and use the Android Leaf Spy program to view the battery and some other goodies. It looks as though I have lost 24% of my capacity and if I reach the 33% loss before the 8 years is up I will be getting a new replacement pack. I can however drive further than what might be expected so I am going to try that. I have not been driving the Leaf to work but only around town locally. I did not want to get stranded. Since I am still able to do some decent drives I will continue but I will be for sure on the Range Anxiety Wall. I'll just bide my time until I loose that capacity enough to get a new pack replacement.

So right now I am down on bar but have been told I should be down 3. Maybe the software updates have changed the way the bars show up missing. The bars that go missing are the small ones on the right. Not the longer ones on the left.

Profit

An intersting item was mentioned in a recent rendition of electric vehicle talking heads. An electric air conditioning unit. Motor, pump and inverter all in one neat small package. However I am always leery of the sale prices quoted from this group of ev builders. So I decided to go find that item. Since it is from China it's going to be found on Alibaba. From Alibaba the quoted prices are from $300 to $500 for the very same item mentioned. That sounds fair if the product is good. So I decided then to send an inquiry for prices for multiple units. I asked what it would cost if I purchased 5 units. At 5 units the individual price would be $350 bucks. Even less if I were to get more. So if the going price of $799 bucks that would be over 100% profit. The average company in the US is making about 8% profit. Give or take some. I find it interesting that he talks about car dealers going the way of the dinosaur and yet he continues to be a middle man dealer on items we can get directly from the source or at least like Alibaba or Amazon or direct from the manufacturer. At those prices I can save whopping crap load of ducats. I could buy from him and waste my money or I can buy from Alibaba and save myself $449 bucks. Or I can spend less and get two. You know, $449 bucks is not chump change.

What is also interesting is that this guy keeps coming to the DIY yet continues to bash the DIY. Really!

Good luck.

Profit is one thing, gouging is entirely another.
Lucky for us we can go to the source directly.

Also be a bit leery because many times when he mentions something others run out and get the item before its been tested to see if it will work like you want and to see if it may last. If the item proves to be a good alternative then buy direct from Alibaba. Buy through one middle company vs going through a few and paying out your ass.

http://chinabenling.en.alibaba.com/c...lar_air/1.html

Pete :)

AC PDF - http://greenev.zapto.org/PDF/DCAC.pdf