# Nissan Leaf Motor ??



## sholland (Jan 16, 2012)

There are some pretty good DiY controller designs that are working with the Leaf motor. This one is the one I will be using...


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## zippy500 (Apr 3, 2017)

thanks for the link, some reading to get thru there.

Excellent work on your adaptor plate


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## Kevin Sharpe (Jul 4, 2011)

zippy500 said:


> So can the leaf motor be used in a DIY build mounted to the cars own gearbox using a third party controller.


This is a great open source controller;

http://www.diyelectriccar.com/forums/showthread.php/another-homebrew-ac-controller-45909.html

I don't know the status of Leaf motor support but it's worth asking


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## zippy500 (Apr 3, 2017)

thanks, I think i've come across his website.

Either way I don't think its for the faint hearted,

I also think that you need to be a doctor in reverse engineering to understand this stuff. not a weekend warrior like me 

Is there a idoits guide !!!


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## PZigouras (Jun 5, 2010)

sholland said:


> There are some pretty good DiY controller designs that are working with the Leaf motor. This one is the one I will be using...


Can you use the stock Leaf inverter, if you keep the stock throttle and sensors? I don't see why it wouldn't work, as long as the inverter thinks it's still in the original car.... plus this way, you can keep your regen.


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## sholland (Jan 16, 2012)

PZigouras said:


> Can you use the stock Leaf inverter, if you keep the stock throttle and sensors? I don't see why it wouldn't work, as long as the inverter thinks it's still in the original car.... plus this way, you can keep your regen.


You might be able to, but you'd likely have to keep the stock battery and BMS too, neither of which I am using.

Who says you can't have regen with a diy inverter? I also want more power than the stock inverter can provide.


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## brian_ (Feb 7, 2017)

PZigouras said:


> Can you use the stock Leaf inverter, if you keep the stock throttle and sensors? I don't see why it wouldn't work, as long as the inverter thinks it's still in the original car.... plus this way, you can keep your regen.


I'm certainly no expert in the Leaf, but I think you've touched on the problem: for the inverter to think it's still in the Leaf, there is a lot of communication with other components (or something pretending to be those components) is needed.

My understanding is that this is why the people working on the DIY Tesla controller have taken their approach: if you can't convince the original controller that it's still in the original car, and you can't reprogram it, you can build a controller that works with the original inverter but does what you want. Unfortunately, you have to build a controller...


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## CKidder (Dec 12, 2009)

brian_ said:


> I'm certainly no expert in the Leaf, but I think you've touched on the problem: for the inverter to think it's still in the Leaf, there is a lot of communication with other components (or something pretending to be those components) is needed.
> 
> My understanding is that this is why the people working on the DIY Tesla controller have taken their approach: if you can't convince the original controller that it's still in the original car, and you can't reprogram it, you can build a controller that works with the original inverter but does what you want. Unfortunately, you have to build a controller...


Yes, to make a stock inverter from a car work you need to fake a lot of traffic that would have come from other parts of the car - throttle, ECU, battery, etc. If it doesn't see the traffic it expects you get nothing. 

And, yeah, that is why people are even doing DIY Tesla controllers. We have gotten Tesla drive trains to work with the stock hardware but it was difficult and Tesla routinely changes the way traffic is constructed. That requires that you can then flash a known firmware version onto the inverter. That all is tough and complicated so other people make DIY boards to alleviate these issues. But, you get issues that way too - you probably will go through multiple board revisions, you need to code up inverter software yourself or modify something, you might never get things as tuned as Tesla or Nissan did, etc. 

For what it's worth, I will likely be trying to make a Leaf inverter and motor work outside of a car soon. It seems there is some interest in doing this and so far no one has managed to do it without a lot of cheating (read: using tons of other OEM parts from the car until it works). I want to do it just inverter/motor on a bench.


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## arber333 (Dec 13, 2010)

CKidder said:


> Yes, to make a stock inverter from a car work you need to fake a lot of traffic that would have come from other parts of the car - throttle, ECU, battery, etc. If it doesn't see the traffic it expects you get nothing.
> 
> And, yeah, that is why people are even doing DIY Tesla controllers. We have gotten Tesla drive trains to work with the stock hardware but it was difficult and Tesla routinely changes the way traffic is constructed. That requires that you can then flash a known firmware version onto the inverter. That all is tough and complicated so other people make DIY boards to alleviate these issues. But, you get issues that way too - you probably will go through multiple board revisions, you need to code up inverter software yourself or modify something, you might never get things as tuned as Tesla or Nissan did, etc.
> 
> For what it's worth, I will likely be trying to make a Leaf inverter and motor work outside of a car soon. It seems there is some interest in doing this and so far no one has managed to do it without a lot of cheating (read: using tons of other OEM parts from the car until it works). I want to do it just inverter/motor on a bench.


Hi Collin

Can you help me out here...? 
I have tried to use Macchina M2 and your interface Savycan. It worked on our 2012 Ampera the first time, bot not on my 2001 Peugeot 406 coupe 3.0 that i want to convert to Leaf motor. First i would like to have a solid CAN database so that i can simulate motor running to use all the gizmos in the car.

So when i connect M2 to 406c OBDII socket nothing happens. No LED nothing. Whilst on Ampera everything starts flashing and i can observe a lot of traffic even when the car is off.

Also i noticed something odd with M2. Usually when i connect M2 to USB and laptop i get "Arduino due hardware on com15" or similar. However sometimes i connect the same, but hardware says something like "bossac port on com16". When i connect Savycan i cant start communication. I have to unplug M2 and play with drivers to get Arduino Due back. 

What is your experience with CAN/OBDII, could the pins be switched on OBDII connector? Why would they do such a thing?

A


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