Boards for lincomatic's open source "LeafCAN"

[Nekota]

Schematic is referenced on lincomatic's site

Yeah, but the github repo is out of date. It has firmware version 1.2 but the boards shipped with 1.3 and it's missing the actual board layout. I connected 12v to the regulator 12v pin and after more trial and error got things working! For some reason my backlight - pin didn't have ground, fortunately there was one near by.

Just some tips that are probably obvious:
Follow the images and don't sandwich the large OBD cable between the LCD and the board, it doens't fit well.
Obviously smaller OBD cable would be nice but the one linked was easy.
When testing it be careful, thankfully accidently shorting one of the unused wires just resulted in a fuse blowing.
Don't forget to adjust the potentiometer for contrast
If I'm understanding correctly the original schematic is setup to read the various canbuses by switching jumpers, these boards don't need any jumpering to read the EV bus though.
Don't mix up the color and color/black OBD wires
Lincomatics 3d printed case is a lot better fit than the project box linked.
Plan how your OBD cable is going to exit the box. Exiting out what turned out to be the right side and not the left side was a bad idea.

My understanding of the numbers displayed:
The top row is the remaining pack capacity/state of charge displayed in 4 different formats. KW/H, GID count, percent where 100% is 281 GID, and Lincomatics fixed fuel bar.
The second row has pack voltage, unknown number? and instantaneous watts (pack voltage * instantaneous amps)

Thanks Lincomatic and Chris! Now to ponder how I feel about 4.6% loss after 10.5k miles and 1.25 years.

I just checked the board I have and Q2 is missing which is used to control the power to the LCD backlight . It's a surface mount and it is present on the boards in the first message pictures of the boards. Grounding to the nearby pad is an appropriate solution for those boards that don't have the transistor installed.

 

[QueenBee]

I just checked the board I have and Q2 is missing which is used to control the power to the LCD . It's a surface mount and it is present on the boards in the first message pictures of the boards. Grounding to the nearby pad is an appropriate solution for those boards that don't have the transistor installed.

Thanks for reviewing things. Nice to hear it wasn't just me and my solution was legit. The github schematic is clearly old since I don't see any mention of Q2. So was that just controlling the backlight via software? Would be a nice feature as it's very bright at night.

 

[chris1howell]

Most of the boards have shipped, I have just a few more to go... If you have not recieved your board yet, you will very soon...

Here are all the latest files....

http://code.google.com/p/open-evse/downloads/detail?name=LEAFCAN.zip&can=2&q=#makechanges

 

[QueenBee]

Most of the boards have shipped, I have just a few more to go... If you have not recieved your board yet, you will very soon...

Here are all the latest files....

http://code.google.com/p/open-evse/downloads/detail?name=LEAFCAN.zip&can=2&q=#makechanges

Thanks Chris! Shall I update the github repo? Any idea what happen to Q2 on the board I got?

 

[chris1howell]

Most of the boards have shipped, I have just a few more to go... If you have not recieved your board yet, you will very soon...

Here are all the latest files....

http://code.google.com/p/open-evse/downloads/detail?name=LEAFCAN.zip&can=2&q=#makechanges

Thanks Chris! Shall I update the github repo? Any idea what happen to Q2 on the board I got?

Sure you are welcome to update github.

Not sure what happened yet. I built 2 batches of 10 each so I may have missed it on one of two runs. Most boards shipped from batch 1 so hopefully I still have most of the boards with the error. I will have to check the boards to verify.

 

[lincomatic]

I updated github yesterday with the latest files. The code on github also has an option for display of "true" SOC % (via the 55B CAN bus message).

The firmware version that is on QueenBee's board displays:
top line: KWh remaining in pack , raw gids, gids/281*100 (gids %), fuel bars (same as in the dash .. fixed fuel bars have 1 extra decimal place of precision)
bottom line: pack voltage, pack current draw in amps, power draw in KW

The on properly assembled boards, the V2 firmware automatically turns off the backlight a few seconds after CAN bus activity ceases.
Unfortunately, the backlight dimming doesn't work properly, because the PWM frequency is too slow, so it flickers.
For the same reason, software-controlled contrast also doesn't work properly.
Unfortunately, I've been too busy to figure out how to increase the PWM frequency. If anyone has a fix, please let me know.

Chris has asked me to print a batch of V2 cases pictured here: http://blog.lincomatic.com/?p=831" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
I just received some light grey ABS, and I need to recalibrate my printer for the new plastic, as well as tweak the case design a bit.

 

[QueenBee]

I updated github yesterday with the latest files. The code on github also has an option for display of "true" SOC % (via the 55B CAN bus message).

The firmware version that is on QueenBee's board displays:
top line: KWh remaining in pack , raw gids, gids/281*100 (gids %), fuel bars (same as in the dash .. fixed fuel bars have 1 extra decimal place of precision)
bottom line: pack voltage, pack current draw in amps, power draw in KW

Thanks for updating github.

Just FYI the version of the firmware on my unit doesn't have a decimal on the fuel bar and the pack current draw in amps is not correct. As you can see 393 * 91.7 != -0.00. Whatever it's displaying seems to be related to the SOC.

 

[Nekota]

I updated github yesterday with the latest files. The code on github also has an option for display of "true" SOC % (via the 55B CAN bus message).

The firmware version that is on QueenBee's board displays:
top line: KWh remaining in pack , raw gids, gids/281*100 (gids %), fuel bars (same as in the dash .. fixed fuel bars have 1 extra decimal place of precision)
bottom line: pack voltage, pack current draw in amps, power draw in KW

The on properly assembled boards, the V2 firmware automatically turns off the backlight a few seconds after CAN bus activity ceases.
Unfortunately, the backlight dimming doesn't work properly, because the PWM frequency is too slow, so it flickers.
For the same reason, software-controlled contrast also doesn't work properly.
Unfortunately, I've been too busy to figure out how to increase the PWM frequency. If anyone has a fix, please let me know.

Chris has asked me to print a batch of V2 cases pictured here: http://blog.lincomatic.com/?p=831" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
I just received some light grey ABS, and I need to recalibrate my printer for the new plastic, as well as tweak the case design a bit.

I think the bottom line shows the pack voltage, the new SOC% (55B), and the pack amps. I have noticed the regen current can go to -240A which doesn't seem right but the automatic decimal point on the current is nice to have.

 

[lincomatic]

I think the bottom line shows the pack voltage, the new SOC% (55B), and the pack amps. I have noticed the regen current can go to -240A which doesn't seem right but the automatic decimal point on the current is nice to have.

I don't know what version Chris is shipping. The one in QueenBee's photo has 4 numbers on the top line, so it's as I described.
If yours has SOC% on in the middle of the bottom line, it's running a version that I quickly hacked up for testing.
That one has voltage, SOC% (55B), power (KW)
but there is a bug in the display of the KW value, which I fixed in the latest version that's in github.

I'm ordering some encoders that have a knob that doubles as a pushbutton, similar to this one: https://www.sparkfun.com/products/9117" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
There's just too much information to display on one screen.
I want to add a GOM screen where it shows miles to VLB for various miles/KWh values, like WattsUp does.

 

[QueenBee]

I think the bottom line shows the pack voltage, the new SOC% (55B), and the pack amps. I have noticed the regen current can go to -240A which doesn't seem right but the automatic decimal point on the current is nice to have.

I don't know what version Chris is shipping. The one in QueenBee's photo has 4 numbers on the top line, so it's as I described.
If yours has SOC% on in the middle of the bottom line, it's running a version that I quickly hacked up for testing.
That one has voltage, SOC% (55B), power (KW)
but there is a bug in the display of the KW value, which I fixed in the latest version that's in github.

I'm ordering some encoders that have a knob that doubles as a pushbutton, similar to this one: https://www.sparkfun.com/products/9117" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
There's just too much information to display on one screen.
I want to add a GOM screen where it shows miles to VLB for various miles/KWh values, like WattsUp does.

Yep, it's definitely seems like SOC%(55B). Sounds like I'll need to get a programmer

 

[garygid]

I strongly suggest showing the firmware version number for
a fraction of a second whenever the "meter" wakes up.

Then, do not put out two different versions with the same
firmware version number.

 

[chris1howell]

I strongly suggest showing the firmware version number for
a fraction of a second whenever the "meter" wakes up.

Then, do not put out two different versions with the same
firmware version number.

The firmware version currently does show on boot up.

Boards were shipped with version 1.3.

 

[lincomatic]

I strongly suggest showing the firmware version number for
a fraction of a second whenever the "meter" wakes up.

Then, do not put out two different versions with the same
firmware version number.

The firmware version currently does show on boot up.

Boards were shipped with version 1.3.

I didn't know that test build was going out to the public. The "official" 1.3 is now in github.

 

[Nekota]

I just checked the board I have and Q2 is missing which is used to control the power to the LCD . It's a surface mount and it is present on the boards in the first message pictures of the boards. Grounding to the nearby pad is an appropriate solution for those boards that don't have the transistor installed.

Thanks for reviewing things. Nice to hear it wasn't just me and my solution was legit. The github schematic is clearly old since I don't see any mention of Q2. So was that just controlling the backlight via software? Would be a nice feature as it's very bright at night.

Controlling the brightness of the backlight will require a light sensor to be added to the board. There are a number of analog input pins available so what you describe could be patched in. The backlight code provided for v1.3 shows the backlight gets turned off after 5 seconds with no CAN messages if you have the unit wired to the always on 12V pin. I used switched 12V so the feature would not 'fire' since power is removed before the 5 second window becomes true. As for the power savings, the LCD from Adafruit (181) draws 16.5 mA while the LCD logic module consumes 1 mA.

 

[garygid]

So, there are two different 1.3 versions?

Perhaps to avoid confusion the second one should be 1.3.1 or 1.4?

 

[lincomatic]

So, there are two different 1.3 versions?

Perhaps to avoid confusion the second one should be 1.3.1 or 1.4?

It's too late to change it, since some may already have downloaded the latest from github.
I uploaded the official 1.3 before I realized that the test version was out in the wild.
The test version wasn't for public consumption.
If I change the github version to 1.4, then it will cause even more confusion, if some have already downloaded it.

 

[chris1howell]

So, there are two different 1.3 versions?

Perhaps to avoid confusion the second one should be 1.3.1 or 1.4?

It was totally my fault... I built 2 batches of 10. In between, I tested the new code. I forgot to change out the hex file in my script that set fuse bits and uploads the code...

 

[DaveEV]

It's too late to change it, since some may already have downloaded the latest from github.
I uploaded the official 1.3 before I realized that the test version was out in the wild.
The test version wasn't for public consumption.
If I change the github version to 1.4, then it will cause even more confusion, if some have already downloaded it.

No big deal for now, just means that some of us will have to buy programmers and reflash the board.

One way to avoid this in the future is to add some version modifier (like -dev or something) to what ever trunk is and then update the version appropriately when you tag releases.

 

[Deleted member 3147]

.

 

[garygid]

So, how does one distinguish the old 1.3 firmware from the new 1.3?