Watching this video made it much easier to change the charger on my 2013 Leaf. I swapped the 3.6KW unit for a 6.6 KW unit in about two hours. This was after Nissan claimed "it couldn't be done". Thanks for making this video!
High tech cutting edge technology that took millions of quid to research,design and build, all understood, taken apart and worked on by a bloke in a shed. God bless all those men in sheds not afraid to have a go.
@@RyukachooHi, the service guys are normally in at the design stage to make sure that it can be serviced and assembled correctly outside the factory with 5he tools they have. In interesting seeing how it breaks down into its 4 components. Charger, inverter, motor and reduction gearbox. It should be possible to split the motor, inverter and charger. CAN is the main control between all of them from the VCU. Interestingly once the BCU is providing the heartbeat via CAN the 12v DC to DC will come on, as dose the charger. Take care M.
This is excellent video.I have Nissan leaf 2013 and I was always wondering what's in it.Thanks a lot for this demonstration.Nissan leaf is brilliant piece of ingeneering,I never had a better car..The only problem I had,was the slight clicking noise coming out of the motor and gear box assembly,since new,first they replaced cotter pins thinking that was the origin of the noise,no it continued.The car was going fine,no problems,but it had that clicking noise only when take off and going to stop.Dealer's mechanic didn't know,they replaced the whole motor assembly for free.Clicking is gone and goes awesome again..They sent it to the Nissan lab to examinate it,what caused it.They told me that several new cars had that issue.I think my car was made in USA already.I have 17K miles on it and battery is still 100% capacity,driving mostly ECO mode.
It's amazing to me that this is really just a scaled up version of what I used in my radio controlled racing cars. Charger, lithium batteries, speed control, 3 phase motor. It's all there. The difference is my cat operates at peak power for 5-8 minutes of racing. These come with a little more endurance.
It's amazingly over-engineered but thanks so much for doing this vid. I've just bought a Leaf and trying to understand as much as possible. As soon as we saw the top was glued on I knew it was going to be tricky!
Congrats on your new Leaf EV purchase! This car was in bits because it was involved in an accident and had been 'totaled' aka 'written off'. Despite having been rolled with not a window left unbroken, the motor and all electrical and electronic systems survived in full working order. I think you've made a good investment. The engineering appears to be excellent and hopefully the car will last a good long time without any issues. I follow the Nissan Leaf owners club occasionally and I hear very few complaints about the reliability of the power train. There's a App (written by an acquaintance just down the road from me) called LeafSpy. It uses the OBDII port to extract useful information from the car's computer. Have a look at that App - it's well worth the small cost.
Thanks for the tip about the app. I've always liked Nissans for their reliability and good engineering and I'm hoping the Leaf will be great. I've followed the adventures of many a Tesla owner (out of my price league I'm afraid) and so many little faults seem to occur. I really don't like that kind of thing. I'm only just getting over running a 'classic' car! :)
Very cool video. Thanks for posting. I often wondered what all that metal was under the hood and that it's still ice cold after a one hour drive. Also, notice how clean it is. No nasty hands!
Fascinating, this is the first time I have seen the inside of my e-NV200s motor - thanks. I had no idea it was so full of stuff and complicated! I thought they were supposed to be simple compared to an ICE. You have some noisy ass birds there too.
@@badchefi ICE here ICE there your ICE my ICE...cant read that stupid acronym anymore, i am getting sick of it.... lets call them engines ok? electric motors are motors and combustion engines are engines...no ice involved except when its winter time here or when i want to drink some scotch with ice
Brilliant Design, all tied together like that in a compact package, easy to build and install and replace, this is a reason why the leaf is the lowest cost EV.
Thanks for putting the time and effort in to show the world this .It is electric for me in the future .Sick and tired of the internal combustion engine .Piles of shite .Non stop trouble .Egr valve .ecu filled with water .dmf clutch went..turbo went .main bearing in gearbox went.Dpf in exhaust is on its way out now .non stop .120000 miles .Enough is enough .Electric is the future......
would the motor controlled through an aftermarket inverter work in a RWD setup? like is this kind of motor suitable to stick a driveshaft on and go into a stock (or probably upgraded for torque) diff? i've also heard that these motors are frighteningly inverter limited in the actual leaf, that a much more powerful inverter delivering way more watts wakes this thing up into a 300hp pocket rocket
I know this is late but really if you just chucked this assembly in the back of a car you'd get a rwd setup also the Nissan leaf motor is rated for 400v so depending on what kind of amperage you can push before you get heat issues, you can make BIG numbers
I also believe that the trend is going towards the electric cars and I'm sure that new technologies and maybe in the future some kind of "charged liquid" will be developed so that it will be uneccessary to charge at all. Stay tuned and drive electric :-)
I know this is super late but one of the issues with the speed at which you can charge is heat generation so of that can be better managed through cooling techniques and more efficient chargers charging speeds can continue to be increased. Also liquid cannot store charge
I opened the charger and the inverter/controller unit open in this video watch?v=iD1O4mzZ3CA (put youtube . com / in front of that obviously). Haven't done the motor yet - but it's a good idea:)
+Gromitdog1 There are a few big capacitors inside especially in the charger module but the whole thing had been disconnected from the batteries for a long time and any charge would have dissipated. I was more concerned when we took the battery pack apart. Sadly no video, but the batteries are housed in a clamshell of two substantial pieces of steel (the whole thing weighs 600 pounds) and those clamshell pieces are glued together using the same sealant used for fitting windshields. I.E. it's really tough. We had to slice through that with really sharp knives with 400V of batteries behind those blades. However, of course, there was no danger - Nissan had designed in a lip so it was impossible for the blades to touch any batteries during the cutting process.
congratulations on the video. I was a little confused, I did not know if I watched the video or listened to the beautiful songs of the birds in the background. In what region is this? I'm from Brazil
Good video. I couldn't help but notice that Nissan couldn't stop themeselves making the motor unit into an engine like lump. Presumably, fitting into a fairly equally traditional engine bay, bar the absolute necessary EV differences.
That's certainly true of this year's model (2013). Previous years had the three components split up more. I think, in the 2011, model the charger was at the back of the car and the inverter was separate from the motor. This (previous) arrangement meant that there were several more high voltage wires traversing the car. With the newer, combined design, the high voltage connections are mostly internal to the big blob of aluminium. You can imagine that the newer arrangement makes for easier assembly in the factory.
To Hye L's question (which seems to have got lost) about weights - the charger unit weights 60 pounds, the inverter 33 pounds and the motor 180 pounds. FYI the batteries - just the battery modules themselves, not the box they're packed in, weigh 440 pounds. It would be interesting to find out how much of that battery weight is Lithium - my guess is about 30 pounds - possibly less.
m1aws It would be fun to actually measure the lithium content. Rip open a Leaf cell and find someone with a mass spectrometer to determine the chemical composition.
Hi Mike, would you be able to tell me the part number of the cable that you removed at 6:30? It's the black cable that goes from the controller to the inverter and the motor. Usually there is a part number tag on the cable. The Nissan leaf motor I bought from eBay is missing that cable, and I am having a tough time finding out what that part number is, so I can order it from Nissan USA. It's for my Ford Model A project. Many thanks.
Hmm, unfortunately I created this video some years ago and now I no longer have all the parts from this motor unit. I would suggest finding a similar aged car and asking to have a look under the hood. Out on the internet are the workshop manuals for these cars. They are in pdf format (literally 1000+ pages) and quite comprehensive. Have a look for those. One would have thought a Nissan dealer would have access to that. The next step is to find a Leaf owners club (the San Francisco Bay Area has a big community) and they may be able to help you. And all the best with the project. Have a look at my Leaf on a peg board video and read the comments below - you might get some tips about using Leaf parts in donor cars projects.
This is fascinating. I took a look at the Silicon Production website, so you used the battery packs from two wrecked Leafs to make an electric MG-B? What did you do with these motor units? I'm very impressed that you can take them apart.
Jonathan Deller One of the motors is gathering dust in my shed but the other, plus all the wiring/computers etc., is being reused in yet another conversion of a Dodge Rampage truck. That conversion is more of a transplant - everything electrically important in the Leaf was extracted and will be used in the donor truck. After the motor unit and wiring were removed from the crashed Leaf we got it all running. You can see this (if you haven't already) on one of my other videos titled Nissan Leaf on a peg board.
Hi Mike, I'm trying to open the top lid on my unit and was hoping you could give me any extra hints on technique that you used for prying/cutting/lifting the top lid. Did you cut all the way around, or just to get the first corner started? Were you able to just pry all the other glue up after you got the first corner started? Did you edit out any hammering with a chisel? (I had to hammer with a putty knife for several hours to removing the battery lid...) Tips and tricks greatly appreciated! Thanks, Jay
Jay Summet Did you watch this video watch?v=iD1O4mzZ3CA The shells of aluminum are sealed together using (we believe) the same goop used to install windshields. Look at the video I just referenced and I think it will help. Some force is needed but be careful - it's only cast aluminum.
I think the first video (where you have it on the furniture dolly) is more useful. That is where you actually pry up the lid. (in the 2nd video it looks like the goop is already split open...) I was just wondering if you had any special techniques or if it was just a matter of cutting and prying...
Jay Summet Ah - the video I mentioned separates the inverter from the controller - very true. However, it's the same sealant. Look around the top of the charger cover and look for places where you can use the same techniques - I.E. slowly screwing a bolt in against a fixed surface to crack the two halves of the shell open. I'll have a look at my other motor and try to knock together another video for you.
thank you for the video. it seems like a pretty crammed package, probably wont need that much maintenance. does it have any frequent faults or common maintenance from your experience
I haven't heard any problems with the electronics. I don't study it much and there might be something written in the blogs about problems and failures. Overall I think they did an excellent job designing and building these units.
Good vid , thanks for posting. I just purchased a 2012 Nissan Leaf. Could you tell me about the gear box (transmission) attached to the motor? I am hoping it is attached to the motor with a shaft. Someone told me it was belt driven. Please let me know. Thanks
+robviolin1 I haven't yet taken the motor unit to bits. However I'd be astonished if the motor to differential linkage is belt driven. There's no cover you could remove to check on the condition of a belt. I think it's fair to say that the motor is connected to the diff via a simple reduction gear.
+mikeatyouttube +Leafman Leaf ok thanks. Someone had told me my 2012 leaf had a cvt type transmission. Post more vids. There are many of us that would like to see the motor and reduction gear taken apart and see how they are connected together. You should take apart a tesla too.
I found cut-away illustrations, probably from Nissan, that show a simple two stage, helical gear reduction system. I think the overall ratio from motor to diff is around 10:1. There are three main moving parts in the whole thing! The motor shaft with keyway slides into a bearing supported pinion gear upon assembling the motor onto the gear reduction and diff unit. The pinion gear drives a larger gear on a bearing supported shaft. Also on the shaft is a smaller gear, which drives the big gear on the differential. The differential drives the halfshafts, which turn the front wheels. It's splash lubricated with a little under two quarts of $8.30/quart Dexron 6 synthetic ATF. The whole thing is VERY simple, compact, and light! It should not give ANY problems for 300,000+ miles provided you don't somehow leak out the ATF, or put too much torque into it from a more powerful motor. I saw one on Ebay for $175 plus shipping.
Just for airconditioning (and heating) the main passenger cabin. It's a heat pump - run it one way you get cold air, run it the other and you get heating. It's more efficient a heater than the ceramic heater which is also present in the heating/cooling unit in the passenger compartment.
+Zazzle Delacruz I assume your set up would be single phase 277 V AC. It's a good question. When you charge the car, owners have either a unit on the wall in their garage which has the J1772 plug (which goes in to the car) or a portable unit which has 110V or 220V input on one side and the J1772 on the other. This just plugs in to a house wall socket and charging starts when the 1772 is plugged in to the car. There is some electronics involved too - handled by the EVSE components - and this determines charging power. So it's this wall unit or the portable unit that will need to handle the 277V . Someone on the Leaf forums would probably be able to answer your question.
+mikeatyouttube I think the Leafs in Europe charge at 240V, but it's wired exactly like America's 110V. With Neutral and Ground tied together. I was thinking it might work at 277V in America. Sometimes 277V is more easily available than 208-240. Teslas will charge on 277V. Maybe a Leaf will too.
No. The MG is already electric but I used a 3 phase induction motor with a Curtis controller. That runs on 100V. I have used the Leaf batteries for the MG. To use the Leaf motor in the MG you'd have to convert the rear suspension to independent rather than the old leaf-spring tech.
Seems like they should have used LiFePo4 for safety. Maybe not quite as dense but they don't flame. Maybe NMCs don't flame, if that's what Leafs use. Not sure?
I haven't heard of any Leafs going up in flames because of battery charging problems or in accidents. This doesn't really surprise me because the car that this engine came out of (in this video) had been rolled multiple times (the driver survived but there was quite a lot of blood in the car). The batteries, housed in a very solid steel structure under the car, were completely undamaged - and so was the motor. The one thing Nissan doesn't do, which i think they should, is actively cool the batteries especially while charging. They do get hot, particularly when fast charging. Tesla do a better job of temperature management. It is possible to damage the cells : we did. The wiring/charging error was entirely of our own making and we seriously overcharged several cells. Nevertheless there was no fire, just irreparably damaged cells. You can see that video here th-cam.com/video/2kHfJ1m_9lg/w-d-xo.html
I don't understand people saying it is ridiculous to build it as heavily as they have. Look at the state of the car it came out of. What you don't see are the charred corpses of the occupants, which is what you would be seeing if Nissan had made it using the same standards that are applied to building washing machines or games consoles! It only takes one horrific accident for the whole EV industry to go up in smoke (literally).
the rate of spontaneous fires on automobiles atleast here has never been so high since the 60's where broken fuel lines and carburettors spat fuel everywhere
I know this is a little late but the components seen in the video are not explosive and in the event of a crash the fires we see on the news are the result of the flammable electrolyte used in Li-ion batteries
Thinking about using a 1970 mini for conversion, was wondering if you took measurements of all three components while they were together. Height/width//depth/weight? Thanks
There are some comments below with advice. In a nutshell you would be wise to use the motor by itself and find a third-party motor controller. The reason is all the proprietary software used to operate the Leaf controller/inverter. I believe it would fit in a mini and the lightweight 1970's version will be like a rocket with this motor. You will have to find a battery pack capable of providing 388V or so (actually unimportant as far as the motor is concerned). The Leaf pack can be used. Those batteries will weigh between 400 and 600 pounds depending on how much of the metal box you use. My guess is you will fitting the batteries somewhere in the mini. See some of my other videos concerning converting an mgb and mgb-gt. (These conversations did not use the Leaf motor, just the batteries)
good video congratulations!! I need to know if I can use this motor and all parts to make and ev conversion. put all this staff in a dacia logan car. thanks
Some people have succeeded in doing what you suggest. Your biggest issue is making sure the Leaf computers believe that all the components are present and that there are no electronic 'errors' occurring anywhere. As you can see from my other video, Leaf on a peg board, it is possible to get everything working. Another way of going about things is to get another motor controller for driving the motor. That way you can design your own battery / charging / BMS system and be free of all the Leaf computers - of which there are many. The difficulty of doing what you want is not the mechanical installation of the motor etc. The complicated bit is the electronics and dealing with the computers.
Yes - that would be the best start - get a whole Leaf. One of the key things is the BMS - Battery Management System module (which is physically in the big battery box under the car) has a code which mush match the code in the VCU - the Vehicle Control Unit. The battery will drive the car with the correct code in the VCU but not any other car. (a security feature, I suppose). However, this is not really a big constraint because you can get the codes reprogrammed (by Nissan). Note that it is the BMS unit that has that code, NOT the battery cells themselves. You could swap the individual cells out for new ones - just keep the original BMS. Other components in the original Leaf may be needed - or they may not. I've seen videos where people have gradually removed components until the 'car-on-the-bench' doesn't work any more. They got down to the minimum component count. Search for those videos.
What I'd really like to see is converting a write-off with working battries being wired up to a house for overnight charge and daytime discharge. 24kWh should last the average house about two days. Basically running @ ~6p/kW that would give the power companys pause for thought!
Both cars were crashed and totaled (written-off) by the insurance company. One was rolled and was all smashed up. The other was in better shape so that body shell could be sold. In both cases the motors and batteries were in good shape. One motor + all the wiring was sold and is being used in an EV conversion. The batteries from the two cars are being used in two other EV conversions and in a home solar storage project. 12kWh of one of the Leaf packs (half of it) is being used in a solar storage project (could easily be charged with off-peak electricity rather than solar). The issue is you need and inverter and charger. You could use the whole pack (24kWhrs) which is wired up as 400V (nominal) and then used the Leaf charger and also the built in DC-DC converter which would charge a 12V DC battery. Once you have that 12V, you could then convert that to 110V or 240V AC - those inverters are cheap. The issue is how much power you want to draw from the batteries through the inverter. The batteries could be charged using the standard 110V or 240V mains charger. If you want some decent power OUT you might want to get a 400VDC to 240V AC inverter because going through a 12V DC battery is not particularly efficient.
This was a 2013. The 2012s were different for sure. As you can see from the dismantling video watch?v=iD1O4mzZ3CA the charger and the DC-DC are in the same unit in the 2013. It's pretty hard to tell which components are for the DC-DC and which are for the charger. It's all rather complex. Any reason you need to know what's inside the DC-DC?
mikeatyouttube Hi Mike, Just curious as my Leaf's DC - DC converter j/b has a short somewhere tripping the RCD when trying to charge. Waiting for a replacement coming from Japan (being fixed under warranty). Australia being the arse end of the world they don't keep spare parts here!!! for the Leaf.
Surely they could come up with a more compact design to free up space for storage under the bonnet instead of having the electricals and compressor inside an "engine block"
Did you eventually put this motor in another wehicle? If not, do you think it would be a great conversion kit, if the controller wouldn´t been burned up with the rest of the car? I mean, schematics probably exist on internet, right? for throttle input e.t.c.
Did you get the charger to work without the cars computer. I have just bought a nissan leaf battery and motor. I want to use the battery to power my house. Everyone who has done this takes the battery apart then reassemble it. I would like to leave it all in the existing case, use the nissan charger to power the battery then run the battery through an inverter for the house. Regards Paul
It seems like that you know a whole lot more than I do, so I like to ask you a question. Since the leave is not suitable for long trips my idea was to hook up trailer with a 5kw generator to a leave and while driving charge the batteries. Is this possible and what have someone to do to make it work?
In the current configuration I dont believe it is possible to charge the Leaf batteries while you are driving (too many safety interconnects and software challenges to over come). Theoretically you could get a 400V DC power supply and parallel this up with the battery pack (by literally joining two wires to the existing two high voltage wires connecting the pack to the motor controller) . So you could get a generator and a AC to 400V DC converter and provide extra energy to the motor while driving. However you would need more than 5kW. 15 to 25kW is the minimum you'd need to drive the car at a reasonable speed. It's not a dumb idea but sourcing the parts and doing the engineering could be challenging.
mikeatyouttube I was afraid that this was not that easy. It is not complicated to do what you said, it is just some more work involved. So, I could hook up a generator that is sitting on a small trailer that feeds a Ac-DC inverter and then hook the wires from the AC-DC inverter output to the battery cable that feeds the drive inverter. A voltage sensor could start and stop the generator, this way the battery would not get over charged and would not go to low on the charge. Would you know the voltage of the batteries when the battery is properly charged up and when the battery is half way charged? That would be a good starting point. And thank you for commenting back.
Bonnie Flory Absolutely fully charged the pack is at 403Volts. However with lithium batteries it's best to never charge them fully. The best range to use them is between 20% to 80-90% charged. I don't know off hand what the lower voltage limit would be. I will find out. However you would do well to start the generator when the voltage drops to about 370 volts or maybe a bit higher. If you're driving the car you wont have to worry about over charging the batteries. That is the least of your worries. The bigger issue is finding a DC generator aka dynamo at the 15 to 20kW size - at 400V (that's a nominal voltage). Then you need a 15kW+ gas motor to drive the dynamo. You will find it difficult to find an AC charger capable of delivering the power needed. Remember that even using 220V the Leaf takes several hours to charge up. You couldn't drive the car with the power coming through it's own charger - there's just not enough current being delivered.
Hi Zed, No, not really. I need to keep this one in tact. But there must be many around from junked cars. Good luck with finding one - try a car dismantler?
Great video Mike. Thanks for posting. Quick question: Can the onboard charger/BMS and battery work on their own? Meaning, if all the other extraneous wiring is disconnected (especially the safety stuff like airbags), will an error prevent the charger/BMS from charging the battery pack? It would be interesting to know if the top section (i.e. charger) was removed, reconnected to the battery, and plugged into a level1 or level 2 charger, if the battery could be made to charge as normal.
The BMS module will work by itself, monitoring and balancing the cells in the pack. It needs a 12V supply (and ground) and you can connect an OBDII socket, connect a bluetooth OBDII reader to it and monitor the battery state using the LeafSpy app. I'll be putting up a video on how I use the BMS to monitor/balance by modified pack in my MG. Having said that, actually charging the batteries is a function of the charger which uses the BMS readings to monitor battery state. The charger needs other components on the car to be present - specifically the VCU (vehicle control unit) AKA the car computer. Unfortunately this is where my knowledge ends. Have a look around on youtube and search for 'minimal leaf components'. Someone has determined the minimum component count needed to run the motor and, by inference, how to charge the batteries too. When you do get some concrete information on using the Leaf charger - please share!
Is it me or it feels like nissan overly built these components. I don't see the need for huge metal boxes. But I don't understand much so that might be why.
It's for weather protection and reinforcement. some of the key components used in electric drives are fragile and need to be protected from the elements. But that is not all it does. The metal shell encloses the entire engine as one unit to allow for better mounting points to the inside of the engine. No offense but Bell's argument is bs because mounting the engine as one unit is actually lighter than individually mounting each component to the frame; and besides, a Japanese company like Nissan wouldn't have any incentive to listen to the American or middle-eastern oil companies. Nissan did a good job with this one even if the body is strange.
They run positive and negative from the battery pack to the controller and then the output to the motor is 3 phase AC. To the best of my knowledge, the negative of the battery pack is NOT connected to the car's earth. The car has its own 12V system (and normal lead acid battery) and this is electrically isolated from the traction (main) battery.
Hi Mike, I own a 2013 leaf that was in a fender-bender that has set off the front airbag. The front airbag going off has apparently engaged the EmergencyShut-down system, which is keeping me from being able to charge or move the vehicle, which is becoming quite a pain while working on it. Do you have any idea if it is possible to reset this system without going to a dealer. (The dealer wants me to finish all work and have it towed to them, but I live quite a distance from the nearest one). Thank you!
The two Leafs I pulled apart to get the motors and batteries had been totaled with multiple airbags deployed. One of the cars had been rolled. Yet this didn't stop me getting the systems running. I did nothing to the VCU (vehicle control unit). Your comment is the first time I've heard of this Emergency Shutdown system. Ask your question on the nissan leaf forums - there will be people there who are much more knowledgeable than me on this matter.
mikeatyouttube Hi Mike, Thanks for your prompt reply. I found out about the emergency shutdown system by accident, while reading through the First Responder's Guide. It says: "In the case of a collision (front and side collisions in which the air bags are deployed, certain rear collisions) or certain system malfunctions this system is designed to shut off the high voltage from the Li-ion battery." It is very interesting that you didn't run in to any problems with this. I assume that it must be a Relay, very near the power source, (the battery pack), in order to make the car safe for rescue personel. Something like the "service plug" which they can pull manually to accomplish the same thing. If you didn't see anything like this, though, then I must be wrong about where or what it is.
Eli barton It's possible that the 'service plug' or first responders plug or shut-off plug has been removed! Check in the center floor between just in front of the back seats (behind the front seats) there will be a cover and under that cover another cover which you'll have to remove with a 10mm socket wrench to remove the bolts. Under that you'll see an orange and green complicated looking thing which, I will tell you, is all but impossible to remove if you have firemans gloves on (or any gloves!). If you open this cover up and see no orange/green thing but just the white connector then they have, in fact, removed the shut-off connector and you want it back! There is a plastic device I found when dismantling the car which was in the middle of the car near the drivers and passenger's legs and it said 'do not drop' on it - so that could be a crash sensor. But in my case, if it hadn't 'gone off' given the force of the impacts the car had experienced then it would be next to useless. So one thing you could do is to disconnect the 12V lead acid battery and leave it disconnected for a day. That might result is resetting the computer. It's just a thought. More: check out the android app Leaf Spy - that will read some (but not all) codes and status of the car - you'll need an android phone and a blue tooth OBDII gizmo which are easy to get. Check google play for the app and amazon for the obdii gizmo. And check out my other Leaf videos particularly the one where I have the motor running on my garage floor with all the wiring. There you'll see the shut-off connector which I connect right at the start of the video. th-cam.com/video/McvDjpdcBw0/w-d-xo.html
Eli barton I purchased a 2013 Nissan leaf at a salvage auction and it also would refuse to charge or move into ready mode. I used a bluetooth ODBII port adapter and the "LeafSpy Pro" application to remove the trouble codes, and that allowed me to charge and drive the leaf. You could probably use any ODBII tool capable of clearing trouble codes.
Jay Summet Yes, indeed. In fact Jim P who wrote and maintains the LeafSpy application used this very motor and system to write and debug the LeafSpy Pro program. I have a photo of him using the top motor cover as his mouse pad with his laptop on a stool! If you look at this video watch?v=McvDjpdcBw0 you'll see the motor operating with all the car wiring pegged out on a 4x8 pegboard. I dont think your last statement is accurate, however. We tried several OBDII devices and none of them would read the EV codes. The only luck we had was with Jim's LeafSpy app. It's certainly a good diagnostic tool. And congrats on getting an EV back on the road! The motor/electronics shown here and in the pegboard-leaf video are currently being used in another conversion. So soon that motor will be driving a car again.
I think you're right. A bit like trying to repair a PC computer, my guess is there might be non-OEM circuit boards made in future to fix or repair broken Leafs - but they're likely to be whole board replacements - just like swapping out a PC mother board. I haven't heard of any Leafs dying because of a circuit board problem. I guess they've designed the components to be very robust and it certainly looks like the aluminum casing and connections are built to last.
The motor is a 3 phase permanent magnet synchronous motor with a position sensor on the shaft. The truth is that all you need to do is apply a set of voltages to the three big copper connectors in the appropriate order and the motor will turn - there is no magic. Even the voltage doesn't matter that much - it will work on 100V or 500V - but don't go too low because the currents will be high and the motor windings might get too hot and dont go too high because you might get arcing. What you do need is a controller which will take the DC battery voltage and switch it on and off on the three copper inputs using a computer and some really big transistors - the only feed back you need is the position sensor on the shaft feeding the computer to control WHEN the big transistors need to turn on and off. The computer could be an arduino or a raspberry pi - or your smart phone or a PC.
datasilo uk I used to have a calculator like that! The compressor is used only for aircon. It can run either way for cooling and heating. Using a compressor to heat is more efficient than using the electrically heated core which the Leaf also has in the cabin central unit. You need a compressor for cooling of course. The steering is assisted using an electric motor, likewise the brakes. The batteries are not cooled (which is a shame) but they are heated when necessary. This heating is done electrically, not with the compressor.
You might get the motor from a car scrap or recycling yard. The controller is more difficult. You will find it complex to use the controller in the Leaf - it's tightly integrated with the rest of the car. (See my Leaf on a pegboard video,). A third party might have designed a simpler controller for the motor - look for that. Two things to bear in mind: the motor is quite heavy (in one of my other videos I weigh the components) and two: the motor WILL work at lower voltage but it is designed for about 388volts - anyway you look at it, that's a lot of batteries.
Thanks for the answer, PCT (electric resistor) is the cheap version of the heat pump, takes 3-4 time more energie to heat up, so reduces the range much more, I need to upgrade my car, if you find another one please let me know, tx have a good one.
+sinephase You're right; control and reliability is the name of the game. You CAN drive vehicles with DC power directly from the batteries and the controllers are a bit simpler. But DC motors have disadvantages compared with AC motors. The main disadvantage is in a standard DC motor you have brushes to physically connect the battery to the windings of the rotating part of the motor. In an AC induction motor the battery power is fed to the stationary part of the motor (stator) and the rotor is 'induced' to rotate by altering the electrical fields in the stator. These alternating electrical fields create magnetic fields that interact with actual magnets or magnet fields created in the rotor's aluminum core. There are other motor types including so-called brushless DC motors but all require some switching of electrical current to get the desired rotating magnetic field (which, in the end, is the field that actually drives the motor and the car). This thing that switches the electrical current is called an inverter - I dont know why it's called an inverter - it's not inverting anything - it's CONverting DC voltage and current to some form of alternating voltage and current using capacitors and inductors and a bunch of control electronics.
+sinephase To provide power to an AC load (such as the AC induction motor shown here) from a DC power source (such as the Li-ion batteries in the vehicle), an inverter is required because an inverter converts DC to AC, right?
+Question everything. You're quite right. The batteries will provide a Zero Frequency potential (a more technical way of saying DC voltage). You have to use that voltage to charge a capacitor which introduces a time component in to the equation as the capacitor will take some time to absorb the DC electrons. After a time the voltage across the capacitor will reach the DC voltage BUT if you disconnect the capacitor from the battery before this 'saturation' then the capacitor can discharge through a resistive load down to zero volts again. So fundamentally this is how you can produce an alternating non-zero frequency potential AKA an AC voltage. With an AC voltage, you can make a rotor on a motor rotate because the moving AC electrons create a variable magnetic field. This magnetic field interacts with either a static magnetic field (created by permanent magnets) or another alternating magnetic field (created by another AC source) or it can interact with an induced magnetic field (created in a carefully designed chunk of aluminum). So there you have it - electric cars are actually propelled using rotating magnetic fields. The electrons stored in batteries are just a convenient way of storing energy which gets converted to rotating magnetic 'energy'. The discussion we were having was really about why the thing that does the DC to AC conversion is called an 'inverter' - more of discussion about linguistics.
+sinephase AC motors have more torque, lighter and smaller for DC equivalent size and frequency rather than voltage allows for better speed regulation and control.
Hi man it's been nearly a year just curious if you were able to move all this to another type of car. Any problems that we should know about because people are thinking of doing the same thing you doing thanks.
+Wesley Gakuo The motor and all the wiring is being installed in a Dodge Rampage (suspect you'll have to look that car up in the archives!). The chap is having some difficulty with the batteries he bought, so it is a work in progress. Not much documentation from him currently but if there is any info I'll send it on or post another video. These would be my recommendations: Try to limit yourself to mechanical tasks like fitting the motor in the conversion car. The Leaf has several computers in all that wiring and lots of CAN messages get passed around. If you are a CAN bus expert then by all means mess with the configuration. My advice, however, would be take every bit of wiring out of the Leaf and get the motor turning on the garage floor. Then put the whole wiring harness in to the conversion car and work on the mechanics of connecting drive shafts to existing suspension. In this way you'll most likely end up with a working vehicle and not one that you'll spend ages debugging.
Not yet. Electric motors are generally simple in design. The Leaf motor is a synchronous AC motor with permanent magnets. High voltage (400V) allows for high power in a small space. It would be interesting to see the drive reduction gear - there is probably only one and there's no 'gear box' as such - in then sense that the driver can select gears. Even reverse is done electronically by spinning the motor backwards. There will be a differential so that the output of the drive reduction gear can spin two wheels just as in a normal car. One day I'll have a go at looking at the inside.
It must be possible since Nissan are unlikely to have a completely different design for cars with and without the DC charging. This issue is how to do it? There would be some (probably simple) connections to make and then some fairly complicated interaction with the charging software to make it work and not permanently damage the electronics. Someone out there might have done this conversion but I'm not familiar with the process. Good luck and if you do the job, take some video:)
I wonder if that would fit my wife's ancient X reg Suzuki Supercarry. She rarely goes further that 20 miles so range anxiety wouldn't be a problem. In fact between MOT tests she has rarely done more that 3K miles a year. Lol. It would be fun to electrify it.
The Super carry would be an excellent conversation candidate! It's lightweight, simple and roomy. The leaf motor is only about 12 to 13 inches tall and has the drive shafts built-in. The leaf motor is plenty powerful enough to drive a 3500pound car around as it is with the 1600pound Suzuki your wife will be burning rubber for all her 3000 miles- with a huge EV grin on her face:)
Well, I don't know for sure. It would be odd if Nissan omitted a fuse for the battery charger. However, there are many fuses in that circuit board. Clearly Nissan were not expecting a DIY person to go in and swap out a blown fuse. There are no published circuit diagrams for these boards. We are definitely on our own, voiding our own warranty, as soon as we open up the aluminum casings.
I did some measurements for someone else. Check out this unlisted youtube video (LMK if it works). th-cam.com/video/_s2VEk-W0cA/w-d-xo.html The dimensions are for the motor bit but in the video you can briefly see the inverter bit which will give you some idea of its dimensions. Unfortunately I am many thousands of miles away from the kit now so cant give you dimensions of the inverter (the middle block) or the charger (the top block) - but if you went to the dealer you could measure these things fairly accurately by just leaning under the hood. Things to note: 1) the charger (the top bit), the inverter (middle) and the motor are separable - There's some cooling pipes and some external control signal wiring between them but the big chunky copper power lines (three of them) are easily disconnected and you could easily rewire those with some 00-size welding cable (or copper bus-bar). 2) there are quite a few computers controlling everything and all those are proprietary. Yes, I managed to get the whole thing running - see my leaf on a peg-board video - but many components (not least the main CPU) - a box in the passenger footwell) and the battery management system have to all be 'electronically keyed' together. You will find (I hope) that the leaf motor is just about perfect for the bug (driveshafts and diff are all connected to the motor) however, I would suggest that you look for alternative controllers for the motor (it's just a synchronous permanent magnet 3 phase motor - controllers are available). Trying to use all the Leaf computers might prove troublesome. Best of luck. Please video your project :)
i would probs be bolting the leaf motor to the original bug gearbox with a new plate and flywheel ...why would using the computers be troubles some as i thought it would be better to use every thing from one car rather than try and get other parts to work together can you e mail me as would be easier to ask/answer questions thanks fish fishanderson@hotmail.com
I think you'll find the mechanical side of this project (fitting and aligning) will be the easiest part. There's a video by MPaulHolmes where he takes the motor apart (removes the gearing) and builds his own controller. The motor in the Leaf configuration has its own reduction gear (don't know how big) and its own differential. I would have thought that using the motor unit + gearing and drive shafts might be the way to go. Other people have done bug conversions and the ones I know use a 3 phase motor from HPEVS (hpevs.com) (Ontario, California) . There are people who make the adaptor plate that allows you to mount the motor to the bell housing. Some people use the clutch - others do not. You buy the motor and controller together and find yourself some batteries. Good luck with the project - my only advice is to keep things as simple as possible in the beginning because it always gets more complicated as the project proceeds!
The reason for the orange wires is for a specific need to alert rescue personnel and First Responders to what wires are carrying high voltage. But look at most any other car and the wires looms are always black. Nothing helpful in that situation either. LOL
This is very interesting, and informative, especially in contrast to the first generation Leaf Motor assembly. Also interesting is the engineering of every aspect from plastic connectors, to aluminum castings, and copper bus with plastic insulator/supports. Frankly, this makes the Tesla drive train and electronic look like crap.. particularly with regard to weather protection. Now if I could shoe horn this into my VW New Beetle...
:-) actually, the MGB is already electric (hence the license plate). You're completely right that the Leaf motor would be awesome in a car as light as the MG. As it is, I have plans to turn my Subaru wagon in to a hybrid of some sort. With the MG there is quite a lot of suspension alterations necessary to get a Leaf motor in.
As with any car, finding small electrical faults causing the 12V battery to drain is often very difficult. Something must be 'on' all the time when it should be off (like a light). In the Leaf there are some sensors that detect the key and they are powered all the time. There's also the remote door opening which must be powered. So unless it's obvious that a light has been left on it will be very tricky to find a fault. It could be that the battery is just old. The lead acid 12v battery is small and usually only last 7 years maximum. So you could just try replacing that. And buy a small 12V battery trickle charger to gently charge the battery while you are changing the main pack.
The motor itself is pretty small and with a bit of mechanical engineering it would probably fit in most donor cars. However, the mechanical fitting of the motor and the batteries is probably the easiest part of the project. The hard part is the electronics and software system which is largely a proprietary black box. There will be solutions to get the original controller/inverter to work but if I were using the motor to drive another car I'd be looking to use a third-party motor controller. I believe that would be most likely to succeed.
"Talk" you mean? Here are some general tips on charging batteries: It's best to charge them as slowly as possible; keep them cool while doing so; only charge them to about 80% - unless you intend to use the charge immediately; don't let them discharge below 20% capacity (unless you indent to charge immediately). Batteries are, for the most part, charged (and discharged) in series and therefore the weak cells can often determine the performance and longevity of the entire pack of batteries. Therefore having a battery cell balancing system is essential. Nissan has one, of course. My impression of their BMS (battery management system) is that it tries to even out (balance) the voltages across all the cells by, very gently, discharging 'high' cells through a resistor. So gentle is this process, that they don't even have heat sinks on those discharge resistors. I think they could have done a better job with the BMS - but honestly the best upgrade would be a system to air-cool the batteries (with an AC system) while charging - something that Tesla does (theirs is water-cooled, I think).
+cosgrove notts It's fully working and it would all run again however there is an 'if'. The 'if' is if all the other necessary components of the car are present. The most important one is the VCU (the main computer). Seems all is CAN bus controlled these days and without some serious CAN bus debugging getting the controller to actually run the motor is tricky. The motor came out of a crashed Leaf and the main consideration for buying the car was to extract the batteries; so now the motor is languishing in my shed and is up for sale if someone want it.
![Performance upgrade for the LEAF, [Part 1] Inverter upgrade](/img/n.gif)
Watching this video made it much easier to change the charger on my 2013 Leaf. I swapped the 3.6KW unit for a 6.6 KW unit in about two hours. This was after Nissan claimed "it couldn't be done". Thanks for making this video!
Congratulations on your successful upgrade! I'm very pleased this video helped you.
What is the benefit of doing that? Does that mean it will charge faster at a level 2 or level 3 charger?
@@Hizenbird halving the charging time at home is the benefit. you're welcome :)
At home I am charging at level 2 (240V). So does this halve the time that it would take to charge at any commercial level 2 charger?
@@Hizenbird as far as I know level one is up to 3kw/h level 2 is the 7-22kw/h and level 3 is everything above 50.
High tech cutting edge technology that took millions of quid to research,design and build, all understood, taken apart and worked on by a bloke in a shed.
God bless all those men in sheds not afraid to have a go.
From Texas, I cannot agree more. It's the crazies that have gotten us this far. Sailed the oceans. Flown into outerspace.
MrAlphapapa ,
To be fair these things are design to be serviceable, so the fact it can be easily diassembled means the service engineers did a good job
A solid % of the people that design these also work in sheds
@@RyukachooHi, the service guys are normally in at the design stage to make sure that it can be serviced and assembled correctly outside the factory with 5he tools they have.
In interesting seeing how it breaks down into its 4 components.
Charger, inverter, motor and reduction gearbox.
It should be possible to split the motor, inverter and charger. CAN is the main control between all of them from the VCU.
Interestingly once the BCU is providing the heartbeat via CAN the 12v DC to DC will come on, as dose the charger.
Take care M.
This is excellent video.I have Nissan leaf 2013 and I was always wondering what's in it.Thanks a lot for this demonstration.Nissan leaf is brilliant piece of ingeneering,I never had a better car..The only problem I had,was the slight clicking noise coming out of the motor and gear box assembly,since new,first they replaced cotter pins thinking that was the origin of the noise,no it continued.The car was going fine,no problems,but it had that clicking noise only when take off and going to stop.Dealer's mechanic didn't know,they replaced the whole motor assembly for free.Clicking is gone and goes awesome again..They sent it to the Nissan lab to examinate it,what caused it.They told me that several new cars had that issue.I think my car was made in USA already.I have 17K miles on it and battery is still 100% capacity,driving mostly ECO mode.
It's amazing to me that this is really just a scaled up version of what I used in my radio controlled racing cars. Charger, lithium batteries, speed control, 3 phase motor. It's all there. The difference is my cat operates at peak power for 5-8 minutes of racing. These come with a little more endurance.
I have a new appreciation for my Leaf...pretty complex.....thank you.
It's amazingly over-engineered but thanks so much for doing this vid. I've just bought a Leaf and trying to understand as much as possible. As soon as we saw the top was glued on I knew it was going to be tricky!
Congrats on your new Leaf EV purchase! This car was in bits because it was involved in an accident and had been 'totaled' aka 'written off'. Despite having been rolled with not a window left unbroken, the motor and all electrical and electronic systems survived in full working order. I think you've made a good investment. The engineering appears to be excellent and hopefully the car will last a good long time without any issues. I follow the Nissan Leaf owners club occasionally and I hear very few complaints about the reliability of the power train.
There's a App (written by an acquaintance just down the road from me) called LeafSpy. It uses the OBDII port to extract useful information from the car's computer. Have a look at that App - it's well worth the small cost.
Thanks for the tip about the app. I've always liked Nissans for their reliability and good engineering and I'm hoping the Leaf will be great. I've followed the adventures of many a Tesla owner (out of my price league I'm afraid) and so many little faults seem to occur. I really don't like that kind of thing. I'm only just getting over running a 'classic' car! :)
Gotta love a power plant that you can disassemble and not get dirty
Very cool video. Thanks for posting. I often wondered what all that metal was under the hood and that it's still ice cold after a one hour drive. Also, notice how clean it is. No nasty hands!
Fascinating, this is the first time I have seen the inside of my e-NV200s motor - thanks. I had no idea it was so full of stuff and complicated! I thought they were supposed to be simple compared to an ICE. You have some noisy ass birds there too.
What you are actually seeing here is 3 separate components, the motor being on the bottom of the 3
A fuse under a bolted and glued cover! How easy is that to change? And how to know it needs to be changed?
+Moi MacArt that is what the "dealer-network" is for... so they can up-sell you on all sorts of other things you did not really need.
Moi MacArt about as easy as the main fuse in your ICE electrical system -
@@badchefi ICE here ICE there your ICE my ICE...cant read that stupid acronym anymore, i am getting sick of it.... lets call them engines ok? electric motors are motors and combustion engines are engines...no ice involved except when its winter time here or when i want to drink some scotch with ice
Fuses blow for a reason! Am sure some loss of function or other will make the loss clear :)
Always wanted to see one taken apart.. ofcourse I can't do it... Bravo for those who dare... Excellent video two thumbs up...
Brilliant Design, all tied together like that in a compact package, easy to build and install and replace, this is a reason why the leaf is the lowest cost EV.
why would anyone give this video a thumbs down, I'm talking to you ONE person
It was his wife after she saw what he did to her brand new Leaf.
Thanks for sharing the video , anyone knows the motor H x W with the gear reduction assembly ?
Let's see if I can add a link...
th-cam.com/video/_s2VEk-W0cA/w-d-xo.htmlsi=f7MOt9fI0FxVbaCq
nice piece of engineering, where is the Nissan Tree so i can get a motor for myself?
Thanks for putting the time and effort in to show the world this .It is electric for me in the future .Sick and tired of the internal combustion engine .Piles of shite .Non stop trouble .Egr valve .ecu filled with water .dmf clutch went..turbo went .main bearing in gearbox went.Dpf in exhaust is on its way out now .non stop .120000 miles .Enough is enough .Electric is the future......
would the motor controlled through an aftermarket inverter work in a RWD setup?
like is this kind of motor suitable to stick a driveshaft on and go into a stock (or probably upgraded for torque) diff?
i've also heard that these motors are frighteningly inverter limited in the actual leaf, that a much more powerful inverter delivering way more watts wakes this thing up into a 300hp pocket rocket
I know this is late but really if you just chucked this assembly in the back of a car you'd get a rwd setup also the Nissan leaf motor is rated for 400v so depending on what kind of amperage you can push before you get heat issues, you can make BIG numbers
Neat little motor, so little as far as moving parts go.
Send it to aVe , he will take a proper look at it no doubt.
I also believe that the trend is going towards the electric cars and I'm sure that new technologies and maybe in the future some kind of "charged liquid" will be developed so that it will be uneccessary to charge at all. Stay tuned and drive electric :-)
I know this is super late but one of the issues with the speed at which you can charge is heat generation so of that can be better managed through cooling techniques and more efficient chargers charging speeds can continue to be increased. Also liquid cannot store charge
I wonder when we'll be able to purchase one of those
Excellent Excellent video. Can you please put a Chevy Volt on your take apart list? I'd be so excited, I would need tranquilizers while watching that.
You're a brave man. Oh wait. Then I saw the totaled car. Still, very cool.
Gorgeous bird whistling!
Lovely! Any chance you'll crack the motor and inverter open?
I opened the charger and the inverter/controller unit open in this video watch?v=iD1O4mzZ3CA (put youtube . com / in front of that obviously). Haven't done the motor yet - but it's a good idea:)
mikeatyouttube Thanks!
Like the casting quality. Weren't you worried poking your fingers around and possibly contacting something with a charge and getting zapped?
+Gromitdog1 There are a few big capacitors inside especially in the charger module but the whole thing had been disconnected from the batteries for a long time and any charge would have dissipated. I was more concerned when we took the battery pack apart. Sadly no video, but the batteries are housed in a clamshell of two substantial pieces of steel (the whole thing weighs 600 pounds) and those clamshell pieces are glued together using the same sealant used for fitting windshields. I.E. it's really tough. We had to slice through that with really sharp knives with 400V of batteries behind those blades. However, of course, there was no danger - Nissan had designed in a lip so it was impossible for the blades to touch any batteries during the cutting process.
Taken out and apart for the fun of it? WOW..now that is Major League tinkering!!
congratulations on the video. I was a little confused, I did not know if I watched the video or listened to the beautiful songs of the birds in the background. In what region is this? I'm from Brazil
This is sunny Silicon Valley, California:-) I think the bird is a mockingbird.
Good video. I couldn't help but notice that Nissan couldn't stop themeselves making the motor unit into an engine like lump. Presumably, fitting into a fairly equally traditional engine bay, bar the absolute necessary EV differences.
That's certainly true of this year's model (2013). Previous years had the three components split up more. I think, in the 2011, model the charger was at the back of the car and the inverter was separate from the motor. This (previous) arrangement meant that there were several more high voltage wires traversing the car. With the newer, combined design, the high voltage connections are mostly internal to the big blob of aluminium. You can imagine that the newer arrangement makes for easier assembly in the factory.
Thanks for teaching Electronics how it works
To Hye L's question (which seems to have got lost) about weights - the charger unit weights 60 pounds, the inverter 33 pounds and the motor 180 pounds. FYI the batteries - just the battery modules themselves, not the box they're packed in, weigh 440 pounds. It would be interesting to find out how much of that battery weight is Lithium - my guess is about 30 pounds - possibly less.
The Lithium is about 10 pounds
mikeatyouttube that botch job (small pcb with capacitor and dual coil) is a RF filter, probably for tha mains when connected.
mikeatyouttube I seem to recall lithium is only around 1.5% of the weight of cells. Only around 3kg in the Leaf pack. Rather insignificant.
m1aws I don't believe that's true. Neither of it.
m1aws It would be fun to actually measure the lithium content. Rip open a Leaf cell and find someone with a mass spectrometer to determine the chemical composition.
Hi Mike, would you be able to tell me the part number of the cable that you removed at 6:30? It's the black cable that goes from the controller to the inverter and the motor. Usually there is a part number tag on the cable. The Nissan leaf motor I bought from eBay is missing that cable, and I am having a tough time finding out what that part number is, so I can order it from Nissan USA. It's for my Ford Model A project. Many thanks.
Hmm, unfortunately I created this video some years ago and now I no longer have all the parts from this motor unit. I would suggest finding a similar aged car and asking to have a look under the hood. Out on the internet are the workshop manuals for these cars. They are in pdf format (literally 1000+ pages) and quite comprehensive. Have a look for those. One would have thought a Nissan dealer would have access to that. The next step is to find a Leaf owners club (the San Francisco Bay Area has a big community) and they may be able to help you.
And all the best with the project. Have a look at my Leaf on a peg board video and read the comments below - you might get some tips about using Leaf parts in donor cars projects.
Thank you, Mike!
This is fascinating. I took a look at the Silicon Production website, so you used the battery packs from two wrecked Leafs to make an electric MG-B? What did you do with these motor units? I'm very impressed that you can take them apart.
Jonathan Deller One of the motors is gathering dust in my shed but the other, plus all the wiring/computers etc., is being reused in yet another conversion of a Dodge Rampage truck. That conversion is more of a transplant - everything electrically important in the Leaf was extracted and will be used in the donor truck. After the motor unit and wiring were removed from the crashed Leaf we got it all running. You can see this (if you haven't already) on one of my other videos titled Nissan Leaf on a peg board.
Hi Mike,
I'm trying to open the top lid on my unit and was hoping you could give me any extra hints on technique that you used for prying/cutting/lifting the top lid. Did you cut all the way around, or just to get the first corner started? Were you able to just pry all the other glue up after you got the first corner started? Did you edit out any hammering with a chisel? (I had to hammer with a putty knife for several hours to removing the battery lid...) Tips and tricks greatly appreciated!
Thanks, Jay
Jay Summet Did you watch this video watch?v=iD1O4mzZ3CA
The shells of aluminum are sealed together using (we believe) the same goop used to install windshields. Look at the video I just referenced and I think it will help. Some force is needed but be careful - it's only cast aluminum.
I think the first video (where you have it on the furniture dolly) is more useful. That is where you actually pry up the lid. (in the 2nd video it looks like the goop is already split open...) I was just wondering if you had any special techniques or if it was just a matter of cutting and prying...
Jay Summet Ah - the video I mentioned separates the inverter from the controller - very true. However, it's the same sealant. Look around the top of the charger cover and look for places where you can use the same techniques - I.E. slowly screwing a bolt in against a fixed surface to crack the two halves of the shell open. I'll have a look at my other motor and try to knock together another video for you.
Sounds good, I'll check to see if there are any bolt holes under the top cover where I can insert a longer bolt or shim, thanks!
Jay Summet I just made this video - hopefully it will help you.
watch?v=KO_bNsozcc8
thank you for the video. it seems like a pretty crammed package, probably wont need that much maintenance. does it have any frequent faults or common maintenance from your experience
I haven't heard any problems with the electronics. I don't study it much and there might be something written in the blogs about problems and failures. Overall I think they did an excellent job designing and building these units.
Good vid , thanks for posting. I just purchased a 2012 Nissan Leaf. Could you tell me about the gear box (transmission) attached to the motor? I am hoping it is attached to the motor with a shaft. Someone told me it was belt driven. Please let me know. Thanks
+robviolin1 I haven't yet taken the motor unit to bits. However I'd be astonished if the motor to differential linkage is belt driven. There's no cover you could remove to check on the condition of a belt. I think it's fair to say that the motor is connected to the diff via a simple reduction gear.
+mikeatyouttube +Leafman Leaf ok thanks. Someone had told me my 2012 leaf had a cvt type transmission. Post more vids. There are many of us that would like to see the motor and reduction gear taken apart and see how they are connected together. You should take apart a tesla too.
I found cut-away illustrations, probably from Nissan, that show a simple two stage, helical gear reduction system. I think the overall ratio from motor to diff is around 10:1. There are three main moving parts in the whole thing!
The motor shaft with keyway slides into a bearing supported pinion gear upon assembling the motor onto the gear reduction and diff unit. The pinion gear drives a larger gear on a bearing supported shaft. Also on the shaft is a smaller gear, which drives the big gear on the differential. The differential drives the halfshafts, which turn the front wheels. It's splash lubricated with a little under two quarts of $8.30/quart Dexron 6 synthetic ATF.
The whole thing is VERY simple, compact, and light! It should not give ANY problems for 300,000+ miles provided you don't somehow leak out the ATF, or put too much torque into it from a more powerful motor. I saw one on Ebay for $175 plus shipping.
Hi do you have front body parts like fenders bumper cover etc.
What's the compressor used for?
Just for airconditioning (and heating) the main passenger cabin. It's a heat pump - run it one way you get cold air, run it the other and you get heating. It's more efficient a heater than the ceramic heater which is also present in the heating/cooling unit in the passenger compartment.
Do you think the Leaf's on-board charger would function at 277Vac? Wiring confg would be same as for 110V charging.
+Zazzle Delacruz I assume your set up would be single phase 277 V AC. It's a good question. When you charge the car, owners have either a unit on the wall in their garage which has the J1772 plug (which goes in to the car) or a portable unit which has 110V or 220V input on one side and the J1772 on the other. This just plugs in to a house wall socket and charging starts when the 1772 is plugged in to the car. There is some electronics involved too - handled by the EVSE components - and this determines charging power. So it's this wall unit or the portable unit that will need to handle the 277V . Someone on the Leaf forums would probably be able to answer your question.
+mikeatyouttube
I think the Leafs in Europe charge at 240V, but it's wired exactly like America's 110V. With Neutral and Ground tied together. I was thinking it might work at 277V in America. Sometimes 277V is more easily available than 208-240. Teslas will charge on 277V. Maybe a Leaf will too.
Very useful video ... Gona fit in that MG ?
No. The MG is already electric but I used a 3 phase induction motor with a Curtis controller. That runs on 100V. I have used the Leaf batteries for the MG. To use the Leaf motor in the MG you'd have to convert the rear suspension to independent rather than the old leaf-spring tech.
Seems like they should have used LiFePo4 for safety. Maybe not quite as dense but they don't flame. Maybe NMCs don't flame, if that's what Leafs use. Not sure?
I haven't heard of any Leafs going up in flames because of battery charging problems or in accidents. This doesn't really surprise me because the car that this engine came out of (in this video) had been rolled multiple times (the driver survived but there was quite a lot of blood in the car). The batteries, housed in a very solid steel structure under the car, were completely undamaged - and so was the motor. The one thing Nissan doesn't do, which i think they should, is actively cool the batteries especially while charging. They do get hot, particularly when fast charging. Tesla do a better job of temperature management.
It is possible to damage the cells : we did. The wiring/charging error was entirely of our own making and we seriously overcharged several cells. Nevertheless there was no fire, just irreparably damaged cells. You can see that video here th-cam.com/video/2kHfJ1m_9lg/w-d-xo.html
Thanks for doing this. It's very helpful.
I don't understand people saying it is ridiculous to build it as heavily as they have. Look at the state of the car it came out of. What you don't see are the charred corpses of the occupants, which is what you would be seeing if Nissan had made it using the same standards that are applied to building washing machines or games consoles! It only takes one horrific accident for the whole EV industry to go up in smoke (literally).
the rate of spontaneous fires on automobiles atleast here has never been so high since the 60's where broken fuel lines and carburettors spat fuel everywhere
I know this is a little late but the components seen in the video are not explosive and in the event of a crash the fires we see on the news are the result of the flammable electrolyte used in Li-ion batteries
Thinking about using a 1970 mini for conversion, was wondering if you took measurements of all three components while they were together. Height/width//depth/weight? Thanks
There are some comments below with advice. In a nutshell you would be wise to use the motor by itself and find a third-party motor controller. The reason is all the proprietary software used to operate the Leaf controller/inverter. I believe it would fit in a mini and the lightweight 1970's version will be like a rocket with this motor. You will have to find a battery pack capable of providing 388V or so (actually unimportant as far as the motor is concerned). The Leaf pack can be used. Those batteries will weigh between 400 and 600 pounds depending on how much of the metal box you use. My guess is you will fitting the batteries somewhere in the mini. See some of my other videos concerning converting an mgb and mgb-gt. (These conversations did not use the Leaf motor, just the batteries)
Here's a video of the motor dimensions:
th-cam.com/video/_s2VEk-W0cA/w-d-xo.html
You'll get some idea of using the Leaf batteries here:
th-cam.com/video/aUlf6W7MUiw/w-d-xo.html
and
th-cam.com/video/c_H0Bz__1zo/w-d-xo.html
good video congratulations!! I need to know if I can use this motor and all parts to make and ev conversion. put all this staff in a dacia logan car. thanks
Some people have succeeded in doing what you suggest. Your biggest issue is making sure the Leaf computers believe that all the components are present and that there are no electronic 'errors' occurring anywhere. As you can see from my other video, Leaf on a peg board, it is possible to get everything working.
Another way of going about things is to get another motor controller for driving the motor. That way you can design your own battery / charging / BMS system and be free of all the Leaf computers - of which there are many. The difficulty of doing what you want is not the mechanical installation of the motor etc. The complicated bit is the electronics and dealing with the computers.
I'd have to buy a entire leaf and put all components in my ev project right? thanks
Yes - that would be the best start - get a whole Leaf. One of the key things is the BMS - Battery Management System module (which is physically in the big battery box under the car) has a code which mush match the code in the VCU - the Vehicle Control Unit.
The battery will drive the car with the correct code in the VCU but not any other car. (a security feature, I suppose). However, this is not really a big constraint because you can get the codes reprogrammed (by Nissan).
Note that it is the BMS unit that has that code, NOT the battery cells themselves. You could swap the individual cells out for new ones - just keep the original BMS.
Other components in the original Leaf may be needed - or they may not. I've seen videos where people have gradually removed components until the 'car-on-the-bench' doesn't work any more. They got down to the minimum component count. Search for those videos.
What I'd really like to see is converting a write-off with working battries being wired up to a house for overnight charge and daytime discharge. 24kWh should last the average house about two days. Basically running @ ~6p/kW that would give the power companys pause for thought!
Both cars were crashed and totaled (written-off) by the insurance company. One was rolled and was all smashed up. The other was in better shape so that body shell could be sold. In both cases the motors and batteries were in good shape. One motor + all the wiring was sold and is being used in an EV conversion. The batteries from the two cars are being used in two other EV conversions and in a home solar storage project.
12kWh of one of the Leaf packs (half of it) is being used in a solar storage project (could easily be charged with off-peak electricity rather than solar). The issue is you need and inverter and charger. You could use the whole pack (24kWhrs) which is wired up as 400V (nominal) and then used the Leaf charger and also the built in DC-DC converter which would charge a 12V DC battery. Once you have that 12V, you could then convert that to 110V or 240V AC - those inverters are cheap. The issue is how much power you want to draw from the batteries through the inverter. The batteries could be charged using the standard 110V or 240V mains charger.
If you want some decent power OUT you might want to get a 400VDC to 240V AC inverter because going through a 12V DC battery is not particularly efficient.
this inductor is a common mode choke (3:13) most likely on nanocrystalline (amorphous) iron (twisted toroidal ribbon)
Hi Mike, Don't suppose you dismantled the DC - DC converter Junction Box on the Gen 1 Nissan Leaf (2012 Model) by any chance?
Keith.
This was a 2013. The 2012s were different for sure. As you can see from the dismantling video watch?v=iD1O4mzZ3CA the charger and the DC-DC are in the same unit in the 2013. It's pretty hard to tell which components are for the DC-DC and which are for the charger. It's all rather complex. Any reason you need to know what's inside the DC-DC?
mikeatyouttube Hi Mike, Just curious as my Leaf's DC - DC converter j/b has a short somewhere tripping the RCD when trying to charge. Waiting for a replacement coming from Japan (being fixed under warranty). Australia being the arse end of the world they don't keep spare parts here!!! for the Leaf.
Surely they could come up with a more compact design to free up space for storage under the bonnet instead of having the electricals and compressor inside an "engine block"
Very interesting, thank you.
BTW, do you still have all your toes?
Я болдел ни от видео а от пение птичек супер
чирикать чирикать :)
Did you eventually put this motor in another wehicle? If not, do you think it would be a great conversion kit, if the controller wouldn´t been burned up with the rest of the car? I mean, schematics probably exist on internet, right? for throttle input e.t.c.
Did you get the charger to work without the cars computer. I have just bought a nissan leaf battery and motor. I want to use the battery to power my house. Everyone who has done this takes the battery apart then reassemble it. I would like to leave it all in the existing case, use the nissan charger to power the battery then run the battery through an inverter for the house.
Regards Paul
It seems like that you know a whole lot more than I do, so I like to ask you a question.
Since the leave is not suitable for long trips my idea was to hook up trailer with a 5kw generator to a leave and while driving charge the batteries.
Is this possible and what have someone to do to make it work?
In the current configuration I dont believe it is possible to charge the Leaf batteries while you are driving (too many safety interconnects and software challenges to over come). Theoretically you could get a 400V DC power supply and parallel this up with the battery pack (by literally joining two wires to the existing two high voltage wires connecting the pack to the motor controller) . So you could get a generator and a AC to 400V DC converter and provide extra energy to the motor while driving. However you would need more than 5kW. 15 to 25kW is the minimum you'd need to drive the car at a reasonable speed. It's not a dumb idea but sourcing the parts and doing the engineering could be challenging.
mikeatyouttube
I was afraid that this was not that easy. It is not complicated to do what you said, it is just some more work involved.
So, I could hook up a generator that is sitting on a small trailer that feeds a Ac-DC inverter and then hook the wires from the AC-DC inverter output to the battery cable that feeds the drive inverter.
A voltage sensor could start and stop the generator, this way the battery would not get over charged and would not go to low on the charge.
Would you know the voltage of the batteries when the battery is properly charged up and when the battery is half way charged? That would be a good starting point.
And thank you for commenting back.
Bonnie Flory Absolutely fully charged the pack is at 403Volts. However with lithium batteries it's best to never charge them fully. The best range to use them is between 20% to 80-90% charged. I don't know off hand what the lower voltage limit would be. I will find out. However you would do well to start the generator when the voltage drops to about 370 volts or maybe a bit higher. If you're driving the car you wont have to worry about over charging the batteries. That is the least of your worries. The bigger issue is finding a DC generator aka dynamo at the 15 to 20kW size - at 400V (that's a nominal voltage). Then you need a 15kW+ gas motor to drive the dynamo. You will find it difficult to find an AC charger capable of delivering the power needed. Remember that even using 220V the Leaf takes several hours to charge up. You couldn't drive the car with the power coming through it's own charger - there's just not enough current being delivered.
Hi Mike, I’m needing a to source an inverter cover like the one in this video don’t suppose you have one I could buy off you?
Hi Zed, No, not really. I need to keep this one in tact. But there must be many around from junked cars. Good luck with finding one - try a car dismantler?
Great video Mike. Thanks for posting. Quick question: Can the onboard charger/BMS and battery work on their own? Meaning, if all the other extraneous wiring is disconnected (especially the safety stuff like airbags), will an error prevent the charger/BMS from charging the battery pack? It would be interesting to know if the top section (i.e. charger) was removed, reconnected to the battery, and plugged into a level1 or level 2 charger, if the battery could be made to charge as normal.
The BMS module will work by itself, monitoring and balancing the cells in the pack. It needs a 12V supply (and ground) and you can connect an OBDII socket, connect a bluetooth OBDII reader to it and monitor the battery state using the LeafSpy app. I'll be putting up a video on how I use the BMS to monitor/balance by modified pack in my MG.
Having said that, actually charging the batteries is a function of the charger which uses the BMS readings to monitor battery state. The charger needs other components on the car to be present - specifically the VCU (vehicle control unit) AKA the car computer. Unfortunately this is where my knowledge ends. Have a look around on youtube and search for 'minimal leaf components'. Someone has determined the minimum component count needed to run the motor and, by inference, how to charge the batteries too.
When you do get some concrete information on using the Leaf charger - please share!
Is it me or it feels like nissan overly built these components. I don't see the need for huge metal boxes. But I don't understand much so that might be why.
Fire hazard? Weight?
It's for weather protection and reinforcement. some of the key components used in electric drives are fragile and need to be protected from the elements. But that is not all it does. The metal shell encloses the entire engine as one unit to allow for better mounting points to the inside of the engine. No offense but Bell's argument is bs because mounting the engine as one unit is actually lighter than individually mounting each component to the frame; and besides, a Japanese company like Nissan wouldn't have any incentive to listen to the American or middle-eastern oil companies. Nissan did a good job with this one even if the body is strange.
+Nerd_United
bullshit.
its built this way to help dissipate heat.
I suppose it's to give more rigidity cuz an electric motor have a lot of torque.
Rain and WATER
Hi Mike, Do they have a Neg- ground on the case and just use positive wires or do they run both + - cable everywhere?
They run positive and negative from the battery pack to the controller and then the output to the motor is 3 phase AC. To the best of my knowledge, the negative of the battery pack is NOT connected to the car's earth. The car has its own 12V system (and normal lead acid battery) and this is electrically isolated from the traction (main) battery.
Hi Mike, I own a 2013 leaf that was in a fender-bender that has set off the front airbag. The front airbag going off has apparently engaged the EmergencyShut-down system, which is keeping me from being able to charge or move the vehicle, which is becoming quite a pain while working on it. Do you have any idea if it is possible to reset this system without going to a dealer. (The dealer wants me to finish all work and have it towed to them, but I live quite a distance from the nearest one). Thank you!
The two Leafs I pulled apart to get the motors and batteries had been totaled with multiple airbags deployed. One of the cars had been rolled. Yet this didn't stop me getting the systems running. I did nothing to the VCU (vehicle control unit). Your comment is the first time I've heard of this Emergency Shutdown system. Ask your question on the nissan leaf forums - there will be people there who are much more knowledgeable than me on this matter.
mikeatyouttube Hi Mike, Thanks for your prompt reply. I found out about the emergency shutdown system by accident, while reading through the First Responder's Guide. It says: "In the case of a collision (front and side collisions in which the air bags are deployed, certain rear collisions) or certain system malfunctions this system is designed to shut off the high voltage from the Li-ion battery."
It is very interesting that you didn't run in to any problems with this. I assume that it must be a Relay, very near the power source, (the battery pack), in order to make the car safe for rescue personel. Something like the "service plug" which they can pull manually to accomplish the same thing. If you didn't see anything like this, though, then I must be wrong about where or what it is.
Eli barton It's possible that the 'service plug' or first responders plug or shut-off plug has been removed! Check in the center floor between just in front of the back seats (behind the front seats) there will be a cover and under that cover another cover which you'll have to remove with a 10mm socket wrench to remove the bolts. Under that you'll see an orange and green complicated looking thing which, I will tell you, is all but impossible to remove if you have firemans gloves on (or any gloves!). If you open this cover up and see no orange/green thing but just the white connector then they have, in fact, removed the shut-off connector and you want it back!
There is a plastic device I found when dismantling the car which was in the middle of the car near the drivers and passenger's legs and it said 'do not drop' on it - so that could be a crash sensor. But in my case, if it hadn't 'gone off' given the force of the impacts the car had experienced then it would be next to useless.
So one thing you could do is to disconnect the 12V lead acid battery and leave it disconnected for a day. That might result is resetting the computer. It's just a thought.
More: check out the android app Leaf Spy - that will read some (but not all) codes and status of the car - you'll need an android phone and a blue tooth OBDII gizmo which are easy to get. Check google play for the app and amazon for the obdii gizmo.
And check out my other Leaf videos particularly the one where I have the motor running on my garage floor with all the wiring. There you'll see the shut-off connector which I connect right at the start of the video.
th-cam.com/video/McvDjpdcBw0/w-d-xo.html
Eli barton I purchased a 2013 Nissan leaf at a salvage auction and it also would refuse to charge or move into ready mode. I used a bluetooth ODBII port adapter and the "LeafSpy Pro" application to remove the trouble codes, and that allowed me to charge and drive the leaf. You could probably use any ODBII tool capable of clearing trouble codes.
Jay Summet Yes, indeed. In fact Jim P who wrote and maintains the LeafSpy application used this very motor and system to write and debug the LeafSpy Pro program. I have a photo of him using the top motor cover as his mouse pad with his laptop on a stool! If you look at this video watch?v=McvDjpdcBw0 you'll see the motor operating with all the car wiring pegged out on a 4x8 pegboard.
I dont think your last statement is accurate, however. We tried several OBDII devices and none of them would read the EV codes. The only luck we had was with Jim's LeafSpy app. It's certainly a good diagnostic tool.
And congrats on getting an EV back on the road!
The motor/electronics shown here and in the pegboard-leaf video are currently being used in another conversion. So soon that motor will be driving a car again.
Is DIY repair of critical components possible on leaf? From disassembly of "engine block", it looks to be well beyond reach of most people
I think you're right. A bit like trying to repair a PC computer, my guess is there might be non-OEM circuit boards made in future to fix or repair broken Leafs - but they're likely to be whole board replacements - just like swapping out a PC mother board. I haven't heard of any Leafs dying because of a circuit board problem. I guess they've designed the components to be very robust and it certainly looks like the aluminum casing and connections are built to last.
THANK YOU FOR THE VIDEO !!!
pardon my ignorance but the motor will run if you connect any battery? or does it need the leaf computer?
The motor is a 3 phase permanent magnet synchronous motor with a position sensor on the shaft. The truth is that all you need to do is apply a set of voltages to the three big copper connectors in the appropriate order and the motor will turn - there is no magic. Even the voltage doesn't matter that much - it will work on 100V or 500V - but don't go too low because the currents will be high and the motor windings might get too hot and dont go too high because you might get arcing. What you do need is a controller which will take the DC battery voltage and switch it on and off on the three copper inputs using a computer and some really big transistors - the only feed back you need is the position sensor on the shaft feeding the computer to control WHEN the big transistors need to turn on and off. The computer could be an arduino or a raspberry pi - or your smart phone or a PC.
Stupid question: What is the compressor for? Aircon, power steering or some cooling system?
datasilo uk I used to have a calculator like that! The compressor is used only for aircon. It can run either way for cooling and heating. Using a compressor to heat is more efficient than using the electrically heated core which the Leaf also has in the cabin central unit. You need a compressor for cooling of course. The steering is assisted using an electric motor, likewise the brakes. The batteries are not cooled (which is a shame) but they are heated when necessary. This heating is done electrically, not with the compressor.
Thank you .you can show disassemblys equipments .
You can watch this if you like...
th-cam.com/video/iD1O4mzZ3CA/w-d-xo.html
Heard they were giving those things away.
Where can i buy the motor and speed controller?? Building a go kart
You might get the motor from a car scrap or recycling yard. The controller is more difficult. You will find it complex to use the controller in the Leaf - it's tightly integrated with the rest of the car. (See my Leaf on a pegboard video,).
A third party might have designed a simpler controller for the motor - look for that.
Two things to bear in mind: the motor is quite heavy (in one of my other videos I weigh the components) and two: the motor WILL work at lower voltage but it is designed for about 388volts - anyway you look at it, that's a lot of batteries.
Hi Mike do you sell the heat pump? can it be exchanged with the PCT or PTC (I don't know exactly)
I gave the heat pump away. I dont know what a PCT or PTC is/are?
Thanks for the answer, PCT (electric resistor) is the cheap version of the heat pump, takes 3-4 time more energie to heat up, so reduces the range much more, I need to upgrade my car, if you find another one please let me know, tx have a good one.
I wonder why they have to use an inverter. Maybe makes it easier to control the speed, or the motor more reliable?
+sinephase You're right; control and reliability is the name of the game. You CAN drive vehicles with DC power directly from the batteries and the controllers are a bit simpler. But DC motors have disadvantages compared with AC motors. The main disadvantage is in a standard DC motor you have brushes to physically connect the battery to the windings of the rotating part of the motor. In an AC induction motor the battery power is fed to the stationary part of the motor (stator) and the rotor is 'induced' to rotate by altering the electrical fields in the stator. These alternating electrical fields create magnetic fields that interact with actual magnets or magnet fields created in the rotor's aluminum core. There are other motor types including so-called brushless DC motors but all require some switching of electrical current to get the desired rotating magnetic field (which, in the end, is the field that actually drives the motor and the car). This thing that switches the electrical current is called an inverter - I dont know why it's called an inverter - it's not inverting anything - it's CONverting DC voltage and current to some form of alternating voltage and current using capacitors and inductors and a bunch of control electronics.
mikeatyouttube
interesting. I think it's called an inverter because it's flipping positive to negative voltage and back again
+sinephase To provide power to an AC load (such as the AC induction motor shown here) from a DC power source (such as the Li-ion batteries in the vehicle), an inverter is required because an inverter converts DC to AC, right?
+Question everything. You're quite right. The batteries will provide a Zero Frequency potential (a more technical way of saying DC voltage). You have to use that voltage to charge a capacitor which introduces a time component in to the equation as the capacitor will take some time to absorb the DC electrons. After a time the voltage across the capacitor will reach the DC voltage BUT if you disconnect the capacitor from the battery before this 'saturation' then the capacitor can discharge through a resistive load down to zero volts again. So fundamentally this is how you can produce an alternating non-zero frequency potential AKA an AC voltage.
With an AC voltage, you can make a rotor on a motor rotate because the moving AC electrons create a variable magnetic field. This magnetic field interacts with either a static magnetic field (created by permanent magnets) or another alternating magnetic field (created by another AC source) or it can interact with an induced magnetic field (created in a carefully designed chunk of aluminum).
So there you have it - electric cars are actually propelled using rotating magnetic fields. The electrons stored in batteries are just a convenient way of storing energy which gets converted to rotating magnetic 'energy'.
The discussion we were having was really about why the thing that does the DC to AC conversion is called an 'inverter' - more of discussion about linguistics.
+sinephase AC motors have more torque, lighter and smaller for DC equivalent size and frequency rather than voltage allows for better speed regulation and control.
Hi man it's been nearly a year just curious if you were able to move all this to another type of car. Any problems that we should know about because people are thinking of doing the same thing you doing thanks.
+Wesley Gakuo The motor and all the wiring is being installed in a Dodge Rampage (suspect you'll have to look that car up in the archives!). The chap is having some difficulty with the batteries he bought, so it is a work in progress. Not much documentation from him currently but if there is any info I'll send it on or post another video.
These would be my recommendations: Try to limit yourself to mechanical tasks like fitting the motor in the conversion car. The Leaf has several computers in all that wiring and lots of CAN messages get passed around. If you are a CAN bus expert then by all means mess with the configuration. My advice, however, would be take every bit of wiring out of the Leaf and get the motor turning on the garage floor. Then put the whole wiring harness in to the conversion car and work on the mechanics of connecting drive shafts to existing suspension. In this way you'll most likely end up with a working vehicle and not one that you'll spend ages debugging.
Did you dissasembly motor and gearbox?
Not yet. Electric motors are generally simple in design. The Leaf motor is a synchronous AC motor with permanent magnets. High voltage (400V) allows for high power in a small space. It would be interesting to see the drive reduction gear - there is probably only one and there's no 'gear box' as such - in then sense that the driver can select gears. Even reverse is done electronically by spinning the motor backwards. There will be a differential so that the output of the drive reduction gear can spin two wheels just as in a normal car. One day I'll have a go at looking at the inside.
Nissan leafs just make for good target practice here in the states 🇺🇸
Hi
I have one Nissan Leaf 30 kw Year 2017 and doesnt have the port quick charge. It is possible update? instal the chademo Port? Thanks
It must be possible since Nissan are unlikely to have a completely different design for cars with and without the DC charging. This issue is how to do it? There would be some (probably simple) connections to make and then some fairly complicated interaction with the charging software to make it work and not permanently damage the electronics. Someone out there might have done this conversion but I'm not familiar with the process. Good luck and if you do the job, take some video:)
sehr gut, dass der Man Sicherheits-Sandalen an hat
I wonder if that would fit my wife's ancient X reg Suzuki Supercarry. She rarely goes further that 20 miles so range anxiety wouldn't be a problem. In fact between MOT tests she has rarely done more that 3K miles a year. Lol. It would be fun to electrify it.
The Super carry would be an excellent conversation candidate! It's lightweight, simple and roomy. The leaf motor is only about 12 to 13 inches tall and has the drive shafts built-in. The leaf motor is plenty powerful enough to drive a 3500pound car around as it is with the 1600pound Suzuki your wife will be burning rubber for all her 3000 miles- with a huge EV grin on her face:)
Hi MikeI have a questions does the DC to DC converter fuse controls the 12v battery chager Thanks in advanceDinu
Well, I don't know for sure. It would be odd if Nissan omitted a fuse for the battery charger. However, there are many fuses in that circuit board. Clearly Nissan were not expecting a DIY person to go in and swap out a blown fuse. There are no published circuit diagrams for these boards. We are definitely on our own, voiding our own warranty, as soon as we open up the aluminum casings.
impressive use of safety footwear.
Great video many thanks
hi did you mesure the whole lot b4 you took it apart as i would like it to go in a vw bug cheers fish
I did some measurements for someone else. Check out this unlisted youtube video (LMK if it works). th-cam.com/video/_s2VEk-W0cA/w-d-xo.html The dimensions are for the motor bit but in the video you can briefly see the inverter bit which will give you some idea of its dimensions. Unfortunately I am many thousands of miles away from the kit now so cant give you dimensions of the inverter (the middle block) or the charger (the top block) - but if you went to the dealer you could measure these things fairly accurately by just leaning under the hood.
Things to note: 1) the charger (the top bit), the inverter (middle) and the motor are separable - There's some cooling pipes and some external control signal wiring between them but the big chunky copper power lines (three of them) are easily disconnected and you could easily rewire those with some 00-size welding cable (or copper bus-bar).
2) there are quite a few computers controlling everything and all those are proprietary. Yes, I managed to get the whole thing running - see my leaf on a peg-board video - but many components (not least the main CPU) - a box in the passenger footwell) and the battery management system have to all be 'electronically keyed' together.
You will find (I hope) that the leaf motor is just about perfect for the bug (driveshafts and diff are all connected to the motor) however, I would suggest that you look for alternative controllers for the motor (it's just a synchronous permanent magnet 3 phase motor - controllers are available). Trying to use all the Leaf computers might prove troublesome.
Best of luck. Please video your project :)
i would probs be bolting the leaf motor to the original bug gearbox with a new plate and flywheel ...why would using the computers be troubles some as i thought it would be better to use every thing from one car rather than try and get other parts to work together can you e mail me as would be easier to ask/answer questions thanks fish fishanderson@hotmail.com
I think you'll find the mechanical side of this project (fitting and aligning) will be the easiest part. There's a video by MPaulHolmes where he takes the motor apart (removes the gearing) and builds his own controller. The motor in the Leaf configuration has its own reduction gear (don't know how big) and its own differential. I would have thought that using the motor unit + gearing and drive shafts might be the way to go.
Other people have done bug conversions and the ones I know use a 3 phase motor from HPEVS (hpevs.com) (Ontario, California) . There are people who make the adaptor plate that allows you to mount the motor to the bell housing. Some people use the clutch - others do not. You buy the motor and controller together and find yourself some batteries.
Good luck with the project - my only advice is to keep things as simple as possible in the beginning because it always gets more complicated as the project proceeds!
Do you have highres photos of the electronics uploaded somewhere?
Dan Frederiksen Not yet - good idea.
Great video, just miss the 4K resolution ;)
+Miguel Silva He accepts donations. If he gets enuf, he will buy a better Camcorder :)
"3FAZEAC" I love this license plate : )
Thanks:) That's on my '69 MGB that I converted to electric drive back in 2009.
It will be cool to make a swap with this motor.
That's pretty annoying how many of the wires are the same color. Best to use a black and silver sharpie, I guess.
The reason for the orange wires is for a specific need to alert rescue personnel and First Responders to what wires are carrying high voltage. But look at most any other car and the wires looms are always black. Nothing helpful in that situation either. LOL
I like the birds in the background, where do you live ?
I live in Santa Clara, California
Nice
summitsvift almost drown out the sound of cop cars, lovely stuff.
This is very interesting, and informative, especially in contrast to the first generation Leaf Motor assembly. Also interesting is the engineering of every aspect from plastic connectors, to aluminum castings, and copper bus with plastic insulator/supports. Frankly, this makes the Tesla drive train and electronic look like crap.. particularly with regard to weather protection. Now if I could shoe horn this into my VW New Beetle...
soooo where are the piston return springs?
Nissan still use the lemon squash can method fellow Turbo Yoda viewer.
Charging cable may be more than one .Each eather side of the car.
Are there any external belts anywhere on the car?
No belts driving anything mechanical. Just seat belts keeping the loose nuts secure inside :)
I think I know where this Engine going to go, that midget MGB, Spider is going to get a really good upgrade
:-) actually, the MGB is already electric (hence the license plate). You're completely right that the Leaf motor would be awesome in a car as light as the MG. As it is, I have plans to turn my Subaru wagon in to a hybrid of some sort. With the MG there is quite a lot of suspension alterations necessary to get a Leaf motor in.
try heat gun gently on glue
how can i fixe the leaked courent on my 12V battery on my nissan leaf
As with any car, finding small electrical faults causing the 12V battery to drain is often very difficult. Something must be 'on' all the time when it should be off (like a light). In the Leaf there are some sensors that detect the key and they are powered all the time. There's also the remote door opening which must be powered. So unless it's obvious that a light has been left on it will be very tricky to find a fault. It could be that the battery is just old. The lead acid 12v battery is small and usually only last 7 years maximum. So you could just try replacing that. And buy a small 12V battery trickle charger to gently charge the battery while you are changing the main pack.
@@mikeatyouttube - Great answers !!!
Will that fit in my Honda?
The motor itself is pretty small and with a bit of mechanical engineering it would probably fit in most donor cars. However, the mechanical fitting of the motor and the batteries is probably the easiest part of the project. The hard part is the electronics and software system which is largely a proprietary black box. There will be solutions to get the original controller/inverter to work but if I were using the motor to drive another car I'd be looking to use a third-party motor controller. I believe that would be most likely to succeed.
Can you walk on the charging time?
"Talk" you mean? Here are some general tips on charging batteries: It's best to charge them as slowly as possible; keep them cool while doing so; only charge them to about 80% - unless you intend to use the charge immediately; don't let them discharge below 20% capacity (unless you indent to charge immediately).
Batteries are, for the most part, charged (and discharged) in series and therefore the weak cells can often determine the performance and longevity of the entire pack of batteries. Therefore having a battery cell balancing system is essential. Nissan has one, of course. My impression of their BMS (battery management system) is that it tries to even out (balance) the voltages across all the cells by, very gently, discharging 'high' cells through a resistor. So gentle is this process, that they don't even have heat sinks on those discharge resistors. I think they could have done a better job with the BMS - but honestly the best upgrade would be a system to air-cool the batteries (with an AC system) while charging - something that Tesla does (theirs is water-cooled, I think).
Why are taking all apart are selling the parts ?
one day i want to replace the 3kw charger module in my leaf with a 6kw variant.... doesn't look too tricky :P
So it does use oil?
There is certainly lubricant in the gearing and drive mechanism.
Wow. The motor is fairly small compared to an I.C.E.
if it ain't broke?
Put your steel toe caped shoes on, not open toe sandals ! when doing this kind of work.
Say goodbye to your toes when those steel caps slice them off....
fuck off safety nazis
Como eu compro um motor desse chegar aqui no Brasil quero todo desmontado como sucata pode ser
is it broken in the first place to be doing this?
+cosgrove notts It's fully working and it would all run again however there is an 'if'. The 'if' is if all the other necessary components of the car are present. The most important one is the VCU (the main computer). Seems all is CAN bus controlled these days and without some serious CAN bus debugging getting the controller to actually run the motor is tricky. The motor came out of a crashed Leaf and the main consideration for buying the car was to extract the batteries; so now the motor is languishing in my shed and is up for sale if someone want it.
+mikeatyouttube cheers for the explanation. I work in the motortrade and just curious that's all