Dala's Leaf buildthread (2015 Nissan Leaf)

[Dala]

So here's a fun sideproject! With the help of some friends, we created a working prototype 'nag-deleter' for my friends LEAF, a 2014 24kWH AZE0


Those of you that have a higher spec LEAF knows how annoying it is to press OK every time you want to use the radio/nav system after starting the vehicle. Due to a recent discovery by one of my Patrons (kudos to Jonas Andersson!), my interest in the quite undocumented AV-CAN grew. Since my own car is a base model LEAF, and I already installed an Android headunit, I couldn't experiment directly with this. Thankfully one of my friends own a LEAF that has the higher spec navigation system, and we could experiment on it.

To bypass the nagscreen is quite easy. Just send some messages onto the AV-CAN (OBD2 pin 11 = H, pin 3 = L) roughly 9 seconds after the car is started. You can get it to go straight to FM, Nav or Status.

To get it to Status, send these 3x messages 100ms between each:

0x681 0x04 30 40 0d b1 ff ff ff

0x681 0x04 40 40 0d b1 ff ff ff

0x681 0x04 50 40 0d 31 ff ff ff

To get it to FM, send these 3x messages 100ms between each :

0x681 0x04 20 40 0d a3 ff ff ff

0x681 0x04 30 40 0d a3 ff ff ff

0x681 0x04 40 40 0d 23 ff ff ff

We then built a ESP32 based box with a MCP2551-IP CAN transceiver tacked onto it. We coded up a simple program that detects when CAN messages start to arrive, waits for X amount of seconds, and fires the desired selection onto the bus. The device is powered via OBD2 pin8, which is a switched 12V supply, so the device doesn't consume power when the car is off.

The finished product, tucked behind the OBD2 port


Here you can see it in action

[Dala]

I did a quick summary on my car as an intro to my channel, it's a bit rough but I'm slowly getting the hand of video editing

[Dala]

So I recently purchased a row house, that came with a garage and a small storage unit. I started to clean up and paint the garage, along with getting the electrical system up to spec for EV charging. I'm gathering some footage on this, and will make a video on the renovation. But here's a quick before shot on the storage unit, just moved in the printer to it since I needed to ramp up production on 3d-printed parts.



I already replaced the 60W bulb with a 10W LED to make it a bit brighter. I will remove the improvised bench, and add some insulation to the walls. Then rebuild the bench area. So much FUN! I am loving not living in a multistorey building anymore!

[Dala]

Here's a quick video showing where I mount the CAN-bridges when I do battery upgrades on the Nissan Leaf, and also this video contains a quick guide on how to update the software running on these CAN-bridges. The info here is really useful if you are planning to install a DIY CAN-bridge / MITM device on a Leaf!

[Dala]

I tweaked my energy subscription slightly.
I used to have a wind-power subscription, which cost 4,90 cent/kWh (+6cent transfer fee). That totals up to 10.9c/kWh. With this subscription, it would cost 4.24€ to fill up the car from 0-100% (40kWh).

I scoped the consumption on the new place, it was nice to see data from the few days I've lived here already. This is what it looks like:


The new agreement I signed is called "climate-electricity", and was 100% renewable energy. Renewable by their definition was solar,wind and nuclear. This I can agree with! I signed up for a lower fee during the night, that way I get 3.60 cent/kWh at night, and 4,24cent/kWh during the day (plus 6c transfer).

Since I normally only charge during the night, it would then cost 3.84€ to fill up the car from 0-100%. This is a cost reduction of 10%! I have a hot water heater that runs during the night, so the savings will be even greater over time. Feels good being able to help the power grid and run entirely of renewable!

Now if only I could get some solar panel action going here....

[Dala]

The final pieces of the stereo puzzle arrived! The fascia-plate and the reverse camera connector. Delivery time was 6months most likely due to the ongoing pandemic, but I wasn't in a rush with this


This is what the stereo looks like with the proper fascia plate surrounding it.


And now I have a functioning reverse camera! The adapter supplied the 12V->6V converter that is needed to power the camera. It is HUGE when blown up on the 2DIN display, compared to the old radio which had a tiny screen for it. Just need to enable the reverse lines now in the software...


Very satisfying to complete a side-project!

[Dala]

I still had an annoying rattle coming from the passenger door. Since I knew I had to open the interior again, I bought some STP soundproof mats. Since an EV doesn't emit any noise, creaks/drone/rattles are so much more annoying. I found the source of the creak, it was the sealing lip on the windows that rubbed the window frame. Once that was fixed I started with installing the sound deadening mats.


I put two sheets in one door, cut them into smaller pieces to be able to cover the whole length of the door.


And oh what a difference! When you close the door, it makes a more satisfying THUD instead of the factory THUNGGG noise. Now I just need to do 3 more doors

[Dala]

I got my new parking space all cleaned up over my vacation Overnight charging with 240V 8A is just on the edge what a 40kWh battery needs, so if I get the bigger 62kWh battery in the future I'm gonna have to upgrade the charger

[Dala]

Okay so this is something really cool. As some of you may already know the 24kWh pack in the LEAF doesn't actually let you use all those kWh. It keeps a buffer on top, and limits the charge voltage to 4.10->4.13V depending on model year. This means you get roughly 21kWh of usable capacity. But what if there was some way to unlock that buffer? Take a look at the attached picture



That is precisely what I did on this customer car(and have already been doing on battery swapped cars). The difference here is that I ported this software, and made it specifically for non-upgraded LEAFs. I would love to share the code, but since I didn't write it by myself, I cant. But I can give you the gist of how it works.

So when charging is ongoing, the bridge starts to send cell-voltage requests, same thing that Leafspy would do. It keeps track of all the 96 voltage measurements, and makes sure no cell goes above 4200mV. The can-bridge hijacks the charge current requests that the battery is sending to the charger, and keeps requesting current. When battery is closing in on the desired voltage, the power is lowered gracefully until it hits 400W and charging is stopped by sending battery full messages.

Regarding safety, the engineering documents for the LMN02 cells specify 4222mV as maximum charge voltage, and the system will throw overvoltage codes if a cell goes above 4260-4400mV(depending on model) , so even long regen braking events with a fully charged car is unlikely to cause DTCs. Regen is heavily reduced with the battery this charged, so no worries there. Funfact, the on board charger in the LEAF acts like a lab power supply, and can deliver up to 440V!

[Dala]

Exciting news! I am opening up the ChargeCurrent repository to the public! The functionality has been confirmed working, here is an excerpt from my Patreon:

"The project started a few months when I was contacted about an issue. The problem was that a person had access to a workplace charging station, that was incorrectly sized off with a 110V 25A fuse (2.75kW absolute max). This led to the fuse tripping when a car was connected and tried to charge with 3.3kW. Maintenance couldn't do anything about it, other than reset the fuse. But we can solve this hardware issue with software! A CAN-bridge was installed onto the vehicle, and CurrentControl loaded onto it. The software was set to max allow 1.6kW via the onboard charger and the charger didn't trip! Quite the success!"

https://github.com/dalathegreat/Nissan- ... rgeCurrent

[Dala]

Today I went mobile . A customer needed help with a battery repair (HV contactor replacement). Here are some thoughts about acting as a mobile-tech. Due to the current ongoing pandemic, I packed lunch and lots of coffee, so I didn't have to shop anywhere. Oh, and hand sanitizer! The total roundtrip was 500km, so I had to stop two times for a quick zap. I successfully avoided people altogether! The entire deal was zero-waste, made with 100% renewable energy (Fortum C&D wind-power), and 100% vegan. I'm serious about sustainability

[Dala]

So some updates of what I've been up to.

I bought a new LEAF! Or rather, I bought an older Leaf. My current black -15 AZE0 only allowed me to develop the software so far, so I needed access to the older ZE0 Leaf. So I went and picked up Finlands cheapest one It's a white -12 ZE0, with the cold weather package. This will allow me to fix the remaining bugs in my software. You'll be seeing more of this car soon

[Tuopponen]

Nice,
I noticed when those two cars are side by side that side blinker looks more aerodynamic in the older white car, it might be the colour of the car that's making the trick.
It's odd that blinkers are not in the side mirrors like in many cars. Maybe there is very minor place to catch a little more aero efficiency?

[Dala]

Nice,
I noticed when those two cars are side by side that side blinker looks more aerodynamic in the older white car, it might be the colour of the car that's making the trick.
It's odd that blinkers are not in the side mirrors like in many cars. Maybe there is very minor place to catch a little more aero efficiency?

Well spotted!
The older car on the left is Japanese-built, for EUDM. The car on the right is built in NA, USDM, and in the US they don't need side-blinkers! So when the car was imported to EU, they just went to motonet and picked up a random set of side blinkers and slapped them on, so it would pass katsastus

[Dala]

Some more exciting stuff going on,

I recently released a Demo version of my upcoming software LeafEnhancer, to all my Patreon supporters.


The Demo version includes CapacityBoost(AZE0), BatterySaver & GlideInDrive. I'm gonna be making some youtube videos on the new GlideInDrive functionality soon More on this software later on, and if you're a Leaf owner and eager for more info, do check out the Patreon page