Dala's Leaf buildthread (2015 Nissan Leaf)

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Sammyboi
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Re: Dala's Leaf buildthread (2015 Nissan Leaf)

Post by Sammyboi » 23. Jan 2019 08:44

Dala wrote:
22. Jan 2019 12:21
I now have some capacity numbers to share, and time to make a decision.
Test, 5Amp discharge, from 4.1V -> 3.3V
USA cell: 39,77Ah
Italy cell: 43,30Ah

So presuming I have an USA cell from the same batch, If I upgrade to the Italy cell, I'd get a 9% range increase! I could also try looking for better cells, but most people just sell untested cells :/ Hmm...
Well that is truly a bummer..

There aren't that many wreckers around in Finland either, where you could go and test them yourself. You seem like a handy guy so make do and fit both of them :P

Really nice going through the troubleshooting. I have no clue about the procedures for these cars so this is definitely educational. Keep your head high!

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Re: Dala's Leaf buildthread (2015 Nissan Leaf)

Post by Dala » 10. Feb 2019 13:08

Status update on the Leaf!

I assembled the OpenEVSE unit. Now I need to decide where I mount it. I will most likely make it open to the public on all charging apps, since it probably goes in the middle of nowhere :D
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We have also had a fair bit of snow in Vaasa :D
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Due to the shitty weather, I decided to get some proper snowtires instead of the all-season ones that came with the car.

I settled on "Nokian Hakkapeliitta R3"
in the format: 205/55 R 16 94 R XL
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This is the tyre that Nokian primarily recommends for electric cars, since it's a low rolling resistance and wont impact the range. On the sticker they are branded as B on the economy gauge. The efficiency step between A - B - C goes something like 100% - 97% - 90%, so there is a huge benefit from stepping up from C to B. From B to A the 3% efficiency step is not as noticeable.

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Re: Dala's Leaf buildthread (2015 Nissan Leaf)

Post by Dala » 27. Mar 2019 15:30

I'm in the local paper!

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I'm currently in the process of starting up my own company, aiming to be the first in Finland to offer 3rd party EV battery service/swap/upgrades. It's gonna be a wild ride! :)

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Re: Dala's Leaf buildthread (2015 Nissan Leaf)

Post by Tuopponen » 28. Mar 2019 07:42

Good luck with the new business!
I think that you will made it, it's a right time for that kind of business. :thumbsup:
-Honda Civic EJ8 -97 B18C Projekti/Kesäauto
-Honda Civic MB6 -97 B16A1 tekeillä
-Honda CR-Z -13 Käyttis
-Instagram

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Dala
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Re: Dala's Leaf buildthread (2015 Nissan Leaf)

Post by Dala » 01. Apr 2019 16:15

I went and added the garage to the Plugshare map, in-case someone is close to getting stranded in the middle of the Kvarken world-heritage archipelago :D

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It sure is an EV dead-zone out here :D

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Re: Dala's Leaf buildthread (2015 Nissan Leaf)

Post by Dala » 26. Apr 2019 20:46

So, now that the weather is getting warmer, it is way more inviting to work on the car. First order of business, getting the undercoating tiptop.

This is what the stock rear wheel-well looks like
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Not very protective at all, when you run on gravel roads, the noise is awful when it slings small pebbles straight on the metal inner arch. So, I de-greased it, brushed it, rinsed it, let it dry, and applied some rust coating with a brush. It also doubles as sound deadener!
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One done, three more to go :D

Oh, and for my EV Repair company, I bought this essential tool, the 'EVs Enhanced HV Battery Paring Tool'
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Now I can swap batteries properly between cars :)

And if anyone is interested in following my FB page for my business (mods please remove if inappropriate ;) ) https://www.facebook.com/DalasEVrepair/

My end goal is to be able to sell battery upgrades, something Nissan has decided that older cars won't get at all!

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Re: Dala's Leaf buildthread (2015 Nissan Leaf)

Post by Dala » 29. Apr 2019 20:12

Another Sunday, now both rear wheelwells are protected against the elements.
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Re: Dala's Leaf buildthread (2015 Nissan Leaf)

Post by Dala » 13. May 2019 21:25

Soo, the Leaf developed a leak... quite a big one too! Not so fun to see it drip from the side airbag :D
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Tore the interior apart to investigate, it leaks on the top part
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Spread the rubber gasket with zipties, blowdried it
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Applied lots of clear silicone, let's see if it holds. If not, the windscreen needs to be resealed. Fingers crossed for an easy fix :)
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Started working on the looks. The front of this car is really "froggy". Eyelids should help the look quite significantly. Started by removing the rear piece, not used for anything.
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Wrapped the rear piece. Still need to wrap a slight amount on the upper headlight too, but let's see how the material hold up. It had a slight purple color, would have liked matt black more. Ohwell, I will iterate as I go
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Then I focused my attention to something more fun. The horn! On all the Leafs, the horn is pathetic. It sounds like a toy car. Lets fix that!

Started by removing the front splash shield, peeking up on the horn assembly from under the car
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Here is the stock Denso unit, compared to a 1991 Nissan NX horn setup. I really like 90s Nissans, so it felt like a perfect choice. The same horn setup is found in the S13 afaik!
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Horns mounted. The horns ground via the mounting bolt, so had to fashion a wiring adapter. Note the one pin that's not needed anymore.
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Here's a comparison

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Re: Dala's Leaf buildthread (2015 Nissan Leaf)

Post by Dala » 16. May 2019 12:36

The Man-in-the-middle attack CAN prototype boards from Muxsan arrived today. This thread is going to get quite technical soon...
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Re: Dala's Leaf buildthread (2015 Nissan Leaf)

Post by Dala » 23. May 2019 21:32

Now something completely different.

My friend Johan was bitten by the 3d-printing bug, and I am so intrigued! I searched thingiverse for a J1772 holder, and found this simple design:
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2481870

So I sent him a message, and little over an hour later, a prototype was printed.

Started
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Finished
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I was told this was a really fast prototype (Layer-height was 0.3mm), and if I wanted a better looking one it would take roughly 4.5h to print one. I am so excited by such a small piece of plastic :D Thanks Johan :)

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Re: Dala's Leaf buildthread (2015 Nissan Leaf)

Post by Dala » 31. May 2019 18:00

So let's talk wheels. Winter is long over and it's time for summer tires. This is the first car I've owned with a Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS). I got a new to me set of alloys, and naturally wanted to keep the TPMS functioning. First order of business was to order another set of pressure sensors, but the local Nissan dealership had these for 100€/sensor! So ebay was naturally the next place to look, and for 17€/sensor I won't complain.

Here are the wheels fitted, stock Bridgestone Ecopias, 16", 17.1kg rims. The exact same weight as the OEM steelwheels, so not very high quality rims these. But they look better than the steelies :)
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So, let's tackle the TPMS warnings. The Leaf warns you about the TPMS on both the lower and upper instrument cluster. It also flashes them for a solid few minutes, so you'll definitely notice it and want to fix it asap!
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The solution is LeafSpy Pro. The instructions are so simple that anyone can remap the sensors. It took me 10 minutes!
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After getting the car to accept the new sensors I let it cool down for 30mins. Then I filled the tires up to the eco-miling spec of 3.1bar front, 3.0 bar rear. Instrument cluster is happy again!
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My 3d-priting obsession continues, I wanted to personalize the wheels, so 3d printing center caps seemed like a perfect tiny project.

Started by modelling this "Toyota Prius Wheel Center Cap - Power Symbol" https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:44003 to fit my wheels, made new hooks. It's so easy to model, using sketchup since it's free.
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Printed a prototype, worked almost too good, now to print more in higher quality and paint them :)
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I promise I'll get back to the CAN stuff soon, just wait ;)

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Re: Dala's Leaf buildthread (2015 Nissan Leaf)

Post by Dala » 16. Jun 2019 14:12

Now here's some progress,

I took delivery of the first batterypack from Norway! It was dusty, came from a crashed 30kWh Leaf. Shipping from Norway->Finland was only 200€!
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After getting it home and cleaning it up, the label identifies it as a 30kWh pack made in the UK.
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After splitting the case open. You can already spot the big doublestacked modules! The complete battery weighs rougly 20-30kg more than a 24kWh battery!
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Next on the agenda is to extract all the modules! NOTE, I am not going into detail on the safety aspects since they will differ from country to country. 400VDC can kill, always get certified (SFS 6002 FIN), attend safety trainings and use the correct safety gear when dealing with high voltages.

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Re: Dala's Leaf buildthread (2015 Nissan Leaf)

Post by Dala » 27. Jun 2019 17:42

So, I've run some capacity tests on a few cells, here are the results
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Antimatter Test, 5Amp discharge, from 4.1V -> 3.3V
USA 24kWh cell: 39,77Ah
Italy 24kWh cell: 43,30Ah
30kWh cell: 59,0Ah

So if I have a USA cell in my pack now, I would get a 48% capacity increase by installing the 30kWh cells. My summer vacation starts on Friday, so then I can start working on this fulltime!

Sideproject, printed grocery bag hooks for the luggage space
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Worked really well! Found them on thingiverse: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:361948

Oh, and I started modeling my own creation for another sideproject on the Leaf :) More on that later!

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Re: Dala's Leaf buildthread (2015 Nissan Leaf)

Post by Dala » 04. Jul 2019 14:29

After completing the pilot project upgrade on my personal car, here are some random thoughts and info for the bruteforce 24-30kWh upgrade.

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Here are the two battery management systems. Nissan refers to these boxes as LBCs, (Lithium Battery Controller) The top is from the 24, bottom 30.

Serial 24: 293A09RB3A
Serial 30: 293A04NR5B

They are mechanically very similar, but you cannot use the 24 LBC with a 30 Busbar. There are people on the forums who tried this, and supposedly it will short the module, since a pin or two are not the same. It would be good to document this later on, since it takes quite some time to do a busbar swap, but I am playing it safe this time.

Oh, and the 30 box speaks kind of the same language, but pairing it with an 24 vehicle control module will result in a whole can of worms in the form of DTCs and turtle mode, since the bootup handshake afaik is different. This is being worked on by multiple people, so this will change soon.

Speaking about busbars, here is the rear stack of modules.
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These are 30kWh modules, identified as "16B70 04###". You can also see the busbars, along with the tiny sensoring and balancing leads. These will only shunt 9mA, so it is OK for them to be such a tiny diameter. I am pairing the 30 cells with the 24 busbars.

Funfact, the 24 pack has 2/3 temperature measurements on the outside edge of the cells, but the 30 pack has temperature measurements directly on the busbars. Measuring it directly on the busbars will for sure result in higher and more responsive temperature measurements, so I guess that is why the 24 pack also "measures" colder than 30/40 packs.

Another thing I dediced to play safe was the contactors
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The contactors had slightly different serial numbers, but they probably would have been interchangable. Didn't feel like this was the correct time to gamble :D

Getting the 30kWh cells to fit presented a few minor problems. First, the rear stack's support beams wouldn't fit onto the cells. The cutouts at the end had to be made oval instead of round to fit the stack. Nothing a saw can't fix.
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Then, the mounting holes for the rear stack did not align properly with the bottom shell
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So I had to lift out the rear stack again (heavy!) and carefully file the holes to the proper shape. After that the bolts could be installed.
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After everything was swapped over, I installed the hybrid 24/30 pack into the car, and it happily booted up with the lovely startup sound. After having the 12V battery disconnected the car always goes into miles/Fahrenheit mode, minor annoyance :P
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I will now do a shakedown of the car before diving into correcting the instrument-cluser with the CAN-bridge.
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Re: Dala's Leaf buildthread (2015 Nissan Leaf)

Post by Dala » 08. Jul 2019 17:54

I now have some data! Did a lot of driving over the past days to get a feel for the new pack. I managed a comfortable 205km at 15-13*C with no AC or heat. I averaged 7.3km/kWh, due to me slowing down after going past 0.0% SOC.

The first 100km I drove 85-100km/h. The second 100km I drove between 70-85km/h. Here is what the 24 LBC instrumentation said:

16% dash, 114km travelled. Low battery warning!
8% dash, 135km travelled. - - - km remaining
- - -% dash, 142km travelled, - - - 3.66V min cell voltage (Leafspy 12.3% SOC)
150km travelled, 3.64V min voltage (3.61V under load), (Leafspy 7.6% SOC)
165km travelled, 3.58V min voltage (3.53V under load), (Leafspy 0.0% SOC)
205km travelled, 3.37V min voltage (3.30V under load) (Leafspy gave up a long time ago...)

I could probably have kept driving until turtle, and waited for the contactors to open, but I really didn't want to strand myself. Taking it slow, it would probably been possible to drive 220-230km on a single charge. I love the 30kWh battery, but the instrumentation needs fixing asap, Half of the range is left after it indicates the first low battery voltage lol!

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