I guess if you can read the current voltage and mileage, you can figure out the rate of consumption per mile so if you know what your floor voltage is, it shouldn't be too difficult to estimate remaining mileage.
What devices are you using? I might do some Googling...
Yip, I know that I don't want to drop below 340V and I get approx 1.5m per volt when between 370V and 350V

What do you mean by devices?
 
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Yip, I know that I don't want to drop below 340V and I get approx 1.5m per volt when between 370V and 350V

What do you mean by devices?
Do you think the new PS pump will reduce the range by much? I'm guessing it'll be noticeable but negligible.
 
Nice video update Ali. I feel kinda guilty for suggesting the altermotor option now. :(
Thanks mate, if you're happy to take the blame for my stupidity I'll go with that. 😋

Do you think the new PS pump will reduce the range by much? I'm guessing it'll be noticeable but negligible.
I would need to monitor the current draw over a journey to be certain but if it draws 7A when idle and only briefly draws up to 50A when loaded then I'll guestimate average 15A while driving which is 14.4V x 15A = 216Wh or lets round it up to 1/4kWh
The max range is approx 100 miles or maybe 3 hours driving so in that time it will draw around .75kWh and will reduce the range by around 2 miles give or take.
So not negligible but not huge either.
 
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I mentioned earlier I installed an Android head unit in my car and I think I said the buttons for volume were poor.
In truth they are ridiculously bad requiring me to poke and prod several times to get them to respond so I've ordered this
I'll report back when it arrives.
 
Yes that is what I bought. Haven't had a chance to try it yet as it needs to be wired into my custom loom adaptor. It mentions Chinese programmable types and has the right number of wires so that's a start! The new Sport is hogging my time on such luxuries as remote controls!!
 
I mentioned earlier I installed an Android head unit in my car and I think I said the buttons for volume were poor.
In truth they are ridiculously bad requiring me to poke and prod several times to get them to respond so I've ordered this
I'll report back when it arrives.
Ali,
Most Chinese Android units don't need an adapter for resistive steering controls. The Joying unit in wife's 2005 FL1 just needed programming each steering button & works every time.

What brand & model did you buy ?
 
Ali,
Most Chinese Android units don't need an adapter for resistive steering controls. The Joying unit in wife's 2005 FL1 just needed programming each steering button & works every time.

What brand & model did you buy ?

This one

I used an adapter cable that was already in the car so maybe it is old and not compatible. I tried to program the steering wheel controls but it didn't work.
 
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Hmmm. [EDIT] It should just be a case of connecting one side of the resistive ladder to Pin-14 (brown-black) on the ATOTO, and the other side of the ladder to Pin-5 (orange-black).

1706964312939.png
1706964280869.png


1706964351944.png
 
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Hmmm. It should just be a case of connecting one side of the resistive ladder to Pin-14 on the ATOTO, and the other side of the ladder to either ground or maybe 12V. It depends if Pin-14 on the head unit has internal pull-up or not.

View attachment 309555View attachment 309554

View attachment 309556
Thanks mate, I've never looked at car head unit connections before so will need to figure out what I've done already. All I did was plug the leads into the Atoto and sound magically started coming from the speakers.
I'll have a look at this later this week and if I can get it working I'll just return the unit I bought.

Today I'm working on the heater which is a slightly higher priority. 😋
 
Update to my comments above: (also edited the post above for future reference)

Connect the two Freelander steering wires to Pin-14 (brown-black) and Pin-5 (orange-black). Then it should program correctly.
 
Thanks mate, I've never looked at car head unit connections before so will need to figure out what I've done already. All I did was plug the leads into the Atoto and sound magically started coming from the speakers.
I'll have a look at this later this week and if I can get it working I'll just return the unit I bought.

Today I'm working on the heater which is a slightly higher priority. 😋
The FL1 uses a simple resistive ladder for the steering wheel controls. Most aftermarket audio systems can be programmed to allocate a particular resistance to a particular function. ;)
 
This is great stuff, thanks guys, hopefully it should be simple to get the switches working then.
Atm I'm working on something much simpler. 😳

This is a test setup for a new (to me) Outlander PHEV water heater

IMG_20240203_133204081.jpg


I'm trying to get software to control it installed on an Arduino.

IMG_20240203_141102052_HDR.jpg

The arduino Nano has a sketch installed that I hope will control the heater using a 10k pot. It is connected to a MCP2515 CAN interface.
The black box has an Arduino Due (and a CAN transceiver) in it with firmware installed to interface with Savvycan software so I can see the output from the Nano. I setup the Due last week and intend to keep it as a CAN sniffer tool.
 
How many Arduino's in the car now ??
Currently 2 plus the VCU which is basically a Due with high power outputs.
Another Due is controlling charging and which I hope to upgrade to automate the charging start and stop.
An Uno is controlling the brake boost and pumping rate of the Nissan Leaf coolant pumps.

If I ever figure out how I'll probably add the firmware in the Nano to the Uno
 
Great news guys!
The heater works a treat and the software posted in the Openinverter forum seems to be spot on.

This is the setup
IMG_20240205_132823917.jpg


The batteries in the background are all wired in series giving around 250V.
The batteries on the far left are supplying 12V to the heater and coolant pump plus a contactor I'm using to switch the HV.
The coolant is just going around a small loop and through the heater.
The meter to the right of the heater is reading current from the HV battery. The most I saw was 10A but I'm not sure what will happen when it is in the car feeding through the heater matrix. In theory it is a 4kW heater so could draw 10A or more from the pack.
The laptop is monitoring requested and actual coolant temperature plus powering the Arduino.
The POT is used for turning up or down the requested water temperature.

Then today I managed to hook up a display so that the laptop is no longer needed.
The number on the left is actual temp and the one on the right is requested temp, plus a little line appears on the left to indicate if the heater is on or not.

IMG_20240207_133836357_BURST000_COVER.jpg


One thing I'm not happy about is how hot the casing of the heater gets. It seems to be a lot of wasted heat but I don't think there is much I can do about that unless there is a way to route the inlet for the heater fan past the hot heater.

Now I just need to install it. :oops:
 
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Great news guys!
The heater works a treat and the software posted in the Openinverter forum seems to be spot on.

This is the setup
View attachment 309870

The batteries in the background are all wired in series giving around 250V.
The batteries on the far left are supplying 12V to the heater and coolant pump plus a contactor I'm using to switch the HV.
The coolant is just going around a small loop and through the heater.
The meter to the right of the heater is reading current from the HV battery. The most I saw was 10A but I'm not sure what will happen when it is in the car feeding through the heater matrix. In theory it is a 4kW heater so could draw 10A or more from the pack.
The laptop is monitoring requested and actual coolant temperature plus powering the Arduino.
The POT is used for turning up or down the requested water temperature.

Then today I managed to hook up a display so that the laptop is no longer needed.
The number on the left is actual temp and the one on the right is requested temp, plus a little line appears on the left to indicate if the heater is on or not.

View attachment 309871

One thing I'm not happy about is how hot the casing of the heater gets. It seems to be a lot of wasted heat but I don't think there is much I can do about that unless there is a way to route the inlet for the heater fan past the hot heater.

Now I just need to install it. :oops:
Heaters seem to be a lot of bover in an EV.

If I ever do convert a motor to electric, I'm pretty sure I'll just bung in a diesel heater from a camper van :D
 
Heaters seem to be a lot of bover in an EV.

If I ever do convert a motor to electric, I'm pretty sure I'll just bung in a diesel heater from a camper van :D
I could have used the diesel heater that is already in the car but didn't want to. They're horrible noisy smelly things.
 
I could have used the diesel heater that is already in the car but didn't want to. They're horrible noisy smelly things.
I suppose in an EV you don't have the noise of an engine masking the sound.

The ones in camper/caravans are a lot quieter, they are built to be run overnight while you sleep, and they are mounted inside the van as well. If it was mounted outside of the cabin, you wouldn't hear them.

They are obviously exhausted outside! In general they don't, but they can create quite a bit of fumes/smoke at times.
 
Environmentally it's probably just as green to use a decent diesel heater, as they're about 60% efficient. If the electricity used to charge an EV comes from the grid, then that's about 50% renewable, so there's really not much in it.
Obviously a diesel heater does make some noise and is going to be smelly, but it won't effect the range of the vehicle to any great degree.
There are a multitude of cloned Webasto space heaters available for about £100, which are very efficient and cheap to run if kerosene is used as the fuel.

I'd not feel overly concerned about the Environmentally impact of a tiny space heater, especially if it's little different to using mains electricity to charge the batteries.
 

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