Nodge68
Well-Known Member
I'm sure it'll be fine Ali. I'm looking forward to you putting a good few miles on it.
Alibro
Well-Known Member
It's just I've had so many faults with it recently that I'm just waiting for another one.
I'm hopeful all will be well but until I get a few miles under the belt I'll be very nervous.
Alibro
Well-Known Member
Thanks mate.Good luck!β¦ fingers crossed
Yesterday I tidied up a few things including fitting the bumper and under tray. TBH I wasn't certain the under tray would fit with all the work I've done but happy to say it does.
Today I remembered I hadn't fitted the side protection covers so went and found them then realised I need to fit them before fitting the under tray.
So when I had the under tray off I also remembered I had planned to fit some weather protection for the battery boxes as I don't fancy them getting soaked by rain coming in the front of the car. I'm using plastic undertray from the Nissan Leaf but getting it in place meant removing the bumper I fitted yesterday.
I might have a go at blanking off the old bumper completely as the electrics shouldn't need much cooling but figured that was something I could do anytime and prepping the car for Sunday is the priority.Oh well, as all the fixings I used were new it was easy to remove and I took the opportunity to re-secure the plastic part of the under tray while it was off.
If you're wondering I still have the Nissan Leaf wheels on the car as they are the only ones I have with decent tyres. I'll see how they perform and how the car feels with the smaller diameter tyres but might spend some time prepping the best of the Freelander alloys for new tyres. We'll see what happens on Sunday.
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kernowsvenski
Well-Known Member
Having not been keeping up to date with LZ of late (just busy etc), catching up on this thread has filled me with anticipation for what will be a major milestone hopefully achieved. It's getting exciting now as this fantastic project is so close to fruition. Having followed your impressive approach to this conversion over the last couple of years I'm sure it'll all be fine. I can't wait to see a photo of a nice new MOT certificate.
GrumpyGel
Well-Known Member
Alibro
Well-Known Member
Not yet.I'm sure it will all go great.
But you do have AA membership yeh?
Alibro
Well-Known Member
TBH I'm not that concerned about the MOT as they have told me it will just be a standard test. If it fails on anything I have plenty of spares to sort it out and retests are very basic where they only check what failed before but it would be very nice to see it pass.
After that I need to get it taxed and let the DVA know of the change of engine and fuel but as far as I know it will be legal to drive so long as the forms are sent off.
Alibro
Well-Known Member
So as promised I had my first test drive a few minutes ago, only 5 miles but can confirm all good and I didn't break down. 
It was around the back roads where I live but on one straight I was able to get up to 60mph and the car feels very similar to a TD4 as far as acceleration is concerned.
Here are a few findings.
1. It will pull away in third gear but is happier from 2nd.
2. I will use 4th if over 30mph and probably will change up the gears as normal as the transmission becomes a bit noisy at high rpm.
3. Changing gears is very easy as I don't have regen yet. I just lift off the throttle as normal and the gears slip in nicely.
4. I need to tweak the brake boost as it is a little under boosted. This is easily done by an update to the Arduino that controls it, I had deliberately turned it down a lot after the previous problems and may have gone too far.
5. The motor temp rose to 25C at one point so that's something I need to keep an eye on. Maybe I should turn up the coolant pump a little as it is running around half speed atm. Tweaking the software on the same Arduino should fix this however I was driving slowly in high gears much of the time so maybe it is OK as it is. I'll try driving on main roads for a few miles and see what happens at higher speed.
6. The alternator motor driving the power steering is a little noisy. This is mostly due to the ebike controller running in square wave mode as I don't have hall effect sensors on the motor. This is something I knew about and should be able to resolve but that's a project in itself.
I took some video footage and will put up a link here just for Landyzoners.
It was around the back roads where I live but on one straight I was able to get up to 60mph and the car feels very similar to a TD4 as far as acceleration is concerned.
Here are a few findings.
1. It will pull away in third gear but is happier from 2nd.
2. I will use 4th if over 30mph and probably will change up the gears as normal as the transmission becomes a bit noisy at high rpm.
3. Changing gears is very easy as I don't have regen yet. I just lift off the throttle as normal and the gears slip in nicely.
4. I need to tweak the brake boost as it is a little under boosted. This is easily done by an update to the Arduino that controls it, I had deliberately turned it down a lot after the previous problems and may have gone too far.
5. The motor temp rose to 25C at one point so that's something I need to keep an eye on. Maybe I should turn up the coolant pump a little as it is running around half speed atm. Tweaking the software on the same Arduino should fix this however I was driving slowly in high gears much of the time so maybe it is OK as it is. I'll try driving on main roads for a few miles and see what happens at higher speed.
6. The alternator motor driving the power steering is a little noisy. This is mostly due to the ebike controller running in square wave mode as I don't have hall effect sensors on the motor. This is something I knew about and should be able to resolve but that's a project in itself.
I took some video footage and will put up a link here just for Landyzoners.
So as promised I had my first test drive a few minutes ago, only 5 miles but can confirm all good and I didn't break down.
It was around the back roads where I live but on one straight I was able to get up to 60mph and the car feels very similar to a TD4 as far as acceleration is concerned.
Here are a few findings.
1. It will pull away in third gear but is happier from 2nd.
2. I will use 4th if over 30mph and probably will change up the gears as normal as the transmission becomes a bit noisy at high rpm.
3. Changing gears is very easy as I don't have regen yet. I just lift off the throttle as normal and the gears slip in nicely.
4. I need to tweak the brake boost as it is a little under boosted. This is easily done by an update to the Arduino that controls it, I had deliberately turned it down a lot after the previous problems and may have gone too far.
5. The motor temp rose to 25C at one point so that's something I need to keep an eye on. Maybe I should turn up the coolant pump a little as it is running around half speed atm. Tweaking the software on the same Arduino should fix this however I was driving slowly in high gears much of the time so maybe it is OK as it is. I'll try driving on main roads for a few miles and see what happens at higher speed.
6. The alternator motor driving the power steering is a little noisy. This is mostly due to the ebike controller running in square wave mode as I don't have hall effect sensors on the motor. This is something I knew about and should be able to resolve but that's a project in itself.
I took some video footage and will put up a link here just for Landyzoners.
Well done you! Thatβs quite some achievement
GrumpyGel
Well-Known Member
Wicked result Ali.So as promised I had my first test drive a few minutes ago, only 5 miles but can confirm all good and I didn't break down.
It was around the back roads where I live but on one straight I was able to get up to 60mph and the car feels very similar to a TD4 as far as acceleration is concerned.
Here are a few findings.
1. It will pull away in third gear but is happier from 2nd.
2. I will use 4th if over 30mph and probably will change up the gears as normal as the transmission becomes a bit noisy at high rpm.
3. Changing gears is very easy as I don't have regen yet. I just lift off the throttle as normal and the gears slip in nicely.
4. I need to tweak the brake boost as it is a little under boosted. This is easily done by an update to the Arduino that controls it, I had deliberately turned it down a lot after the previous problems and may have gone too far.
5. The motor temp rose to 25C at one point so that's something I need to keep an eye on. Maybe I should turn up the coolant pump a little as it is running around half speed atm. Tweaking the software on the same Arduino should fix this however I was driving slowly in high gears much of the time so maybe it is OK as it is. I'll try driving on main roads for a few miles and see what happens at higher speed.
6. The alternator motor driving the power steering is a little noisy. This is mostly due to the ebike controller running in square wave mode as I don't have hall effect sensors on the motor. This is something I knew about and should be able to resolve but that's a project in itself.
I took some video footage and will put up a link here just for Landyzoners.
25c doesn't sound like anything to worry about - in summer it will be impossible to keep it lower! I was looking at specs for a motor the other day and its max operating temp was 180c - dunno about the Nissan.
Alibro
Well-Known Member
I know 25c is nothing but I didn't like the fact it rose 12 or 13c in just 5 miles. It might be perfectly normal but until I've been driving it for a while I won't know what normal is.
I did 6 more miles tonight to test the brakes and lights and all still OK.
The pack voltage has dropped from 390V to 376V but I haven't worked out what that will mean for range. It's hard to tell as with li-ion batteries it's normal for them to drop quickly initially then more gradually. I'll do a few more miles before coming to any conclusions.
Alibro
Well-Known Member
Yes mate, I slammed on the brakes while on a muddy road and could feel the percussion of the ABS through my foot.
GrumpyGel
Well-Known Member
Presumably 390v is full/100%, at what voltage would they be considered empty/0%?
Alibro
Well-Known Member
I need to do a bit more research on the battery modules I'm using to be 100% certain for but normal for Li-ion cells 4.2V is full and around 3V is empty but they have already fallen off a cliff at that point so 3.2V to 3.3V should be counted as empty.
I don't want to reach either extreme voltage if I can help it so only charged to 390V total which is just under 4.1V per cell.
I'll be calling 315V (Around 3.3V per cell) empty
The image below is very simplified and generic but gives a good idea of what I mean.
Nodge68
Well-Known Member
NMC lithium has a nominal voltage of 3.7 V per cell, which is also where it spends most of its time while discharging. I forget the number of cells in Ali's pack (96 maybe?), in which case the pack should sit at around 355 Volts for most of its discharge period. Dropping from 390 V to 376 V would represent under 10% of the energy has been used up.
Alibro
Well-Known Member
I'd say that's fairly accurate however you have to factor in the shape of the curve down to 3.7V so it's not quite that simple.
At 376V pack voltage I have over 3.9V per cell which still is on the steep fall down to 3.7V. I don't believe the discharge curve will be as simple or flat as the graph above shows but if it's even close then I've used under 10% to drive 11 miles.
It's funny, sometimes you don't really understand something yourself until you try to explain it.
It just occurred as I was writing the previous post that the maximum usable number of volts for a li-ion cell is 1V ie from 4.2V down to 3.2V.
If I multiply this by 96 (the number of cells in my car) then in theory I have a usable voltage of 96V.
In reality I will be charging to 4.1V or approx 90% full and discharging down to 3.4V or 3.5V so this is not totally accurate but will be something I can watch for.