miscrms
Well-known member
Hello all!
I'm hoping you might be so kind as to help me get up to speed on the Leaf systems, as I delve into this new project!
I've been very active in the Prius community for many years now, but my dream has always been to drive an EV. I've come pretty close to jumping into a conversion several times, but just never could make the design work out the way I wanted on a "reasonable" budget. It finally feels like the technology maturity and my personal finances are aligning to where this could really happen!
I've already purchased the intended subject of the project, a 1973 Saab Sonett. I've had a long fascination with them, in no small part due to their light weight and miniscule CdA. This one was already converted to a 96V DC electric drive system in the early 90's which is still operable today, making it a nice rolling chassis with the added benefit of some early EV grins
I'm pretty impressed with what I've seen of the drive system that Nissan has come up with for the Leaf, and am seriously intrigued with idea of finding a wrecked Leaf and freeing its drive train from its "fleshy bonds." My assumption is this is no easy task, as I assume that like the Prius that I'm much more familiar with, the Leaf likely has a whole lot interaction going on between controllers and a million and one ways of freaking out if it thinks anything is amiss. My going in position would be to bring over as much of the Leaf's internals as necessary to lull the system into believing that its still safe and sound inside a Leaf, and then maybe see what can be gotten rid of or spoofed into compliance.
So that brings me (finally) to my questions:
1) Does anyone have a good sense of just how many systems would have to be brought over to keep the drive system happy, or at least keep it out of any significant degraded performance / error modes? I would be planning to use the whole drive system intact, motor, inverter, charger, bms, battery, controllers, probably cooling, etc. So what else likely has to be there to keep things copacetic? ABS, traction control, brakes and wheel sensors? Steering?
2) In terms of dealing with whatever issues the donor ex-Leaf may have and issues that come up during the project, what sort of diagnostic options are available? Is Leaf Spy powerful enough that I might get by with it? For the Prius I was able to pick up a generic "mini-VCI" interface for about $30 that gives me full access to the dealership diagnostic software, which has been invaluable. I'm guessing I won't be so lucky on the Leaf, as it looks like even the generic version of the Consult 3+ is around $1500? Has anyone actually tried one of those? Its not out of the question, but that's a lot of money to drop if it ends up not working very well
Thanks very much for any insights you can provide to get me on the right track!
Rob
I'm hoping you might be so kind as to help me get up to speed on the Leaf systems, as I delve into this new project!
I've been very active in the Prius community for many years now, but my dream has always been to drive an EV. I've come pretty close to jumping into a conversion several times, but just never could make the design work out the way I wanted on a "reasonable" budget. It finally feels like the technology maturity and my personal finances are aligning to where this could really happen!
I've already purchased the intended subject of the project, a 1973 Saab Sonett. I've had a long fascination with them, in no small part due to their light weight and miniscule CdA. This one was already converted to a 96V DC electric drive system in the early 90's which is still operable today, making it a nice rolling chassis with the added benefit of some early EV grins
I'm pretty impressed with what I've seen of the drive system that Nissan has come up with for the Leaf, and am seriously intrigued with idea of finding a wrecked Leaf and freeing its drive train from its "fleshy bonds." My assumption is this is no easy task, as I assume that like the Prius that I'm much more familiar with, the Leaf likely has a whole lot interaction going on between controllers and a million and one ways of freaking out if it thinks anything is amiss. My going in position would be to bring over as much of the Leaf's internals as necessary to lull the system into believing that its still safe and sound inside a Leaf, and then maybe see what can be gotten rid of or spoofed into compliance.
So that brings me (finally) to my questions:
1) Does anyone have a good sense of just how many systems would have to be brought over to keep the drive system happy, or at least keep it out of any significant degraded performance / error modes? I would be planning to use the whole drive system intact, motor, inverter, charger, bms, battery, controllers, probably cooling, etc. So what else likely has to be there to keep things copacetic? ABS, traction control, brakes and wheel sensors? Steering?
2) In terms of dealing with whatever issues the donor ex-Leaf may have and issues that come up during the project, what sort of diagnostic options are available? Is Leaf Spy powerful enough that I might get by with it? For the Prius I was able to pick up a generic "mini-VCI" interface for about $30 that gives me full access to the dealership diagnostic software, which has been invaluable. I'm guessing I won't be so lucky on the Leaf, as it looks like even the generic version of the Consult 3+ is around $1500? Has anyone actually tried one of those? Its not out of the question, but that's a lot of money to drop if it ends up not working very well
Thanks very much for any insights you can provide to get me on the right track!
Rob