Recent content by coulomb

I think you have to peek behind this black cover. It might be possible to do this on one side of the battery without removing too much. The CMU is in the middle channel. Actually, is it possible to remove any of the squares running across the middle? It almost looks like the one at the left...

Correct. It's under the boot floor. Alas, the 2010s probably have the "red" CMUs, which are not interchangeable with the "green" CMUs. The red color refers to the conformal coating used on about 80% of the CMU board area. The "green" ones have a clear coating, so the overall impression is...

The 2010s had a different on-board charger. Inside, the 2010s have three smaller modules bolted to the heatsink / heat exchanger plate, while the 2011s have one larger Waffle Plate™ with all the power devices (IGBTs, diodes) in it. The 2010s are designed not to need an EVSE; they connect...

Wow, that's a slow diagnosis. But electrical leakage is usually fixable, though you need some skills that evidently this dealership did not have. Don't try this without the necessary skills and equipment. But in essence, it's pretty easy. You disconnect the battery fuse/disconnect that is half...

They do get quite hot in operation, and that causes some smell from insulation off-gassing. It also causes the clear tubing around many of the wires to go dark. But some amount of that smell and heat is normal. It's hard to tell without being there if it's normal smell and heat. Congrats! Let's...

Also check the pre-charge resistors. I have a photo somewhere of the two points to check between for around 9-10Ω, but can't find the photo. Sigh. I'm pretty sure it's neutral on the pins of the Waffle Plate™ and at the neutral input. Edit: Found the link.

I think you just need to take it to an air conditioning specialist garage. They'll have the special gas and the UV light to search for leaks. It will be much the same as for gas cars. Repairs should be much the same as well, unless perhaps it involves high voltage connections.

I now believe that the resistor in the Waffle Plate™ between pins 15 and 16 is not 0, but around 3.3 mΩ, based on around 9.8 mV measured at the end of the pins when I pushed 3.0 A into the pins low down. There seems to be an op-amp near these pins: This emphasises the importance of not...

My version of the Waffle Plate™ diode drop diagram. The forum software seems to resize the image. Full size image here.

Yes, the problem is turning off, not turning on, the On Board Charger. So if you can guarantee that you'll never stop a charge with the timer, then that's fine.

It would be a whole lot easier, cheaper, and kinder to the On Board Charger to switch the control pilot signal between the EVSE (AC "charger") and the car. Unfortunately, it's not as convenient. My understanding is that switching the AC power to the on-board charger mechanically (with a switch...

? Surely not all of them. It looks to me that only 2 inputs are so held. But keeping a control pin high (active) turns that element into a resistor. That seems pointless to me, unless it's to match with temperature change the resistance of the other elements when they are switched on. Am I...

Those big capacitors come after the Power Factor Correction stage, which uses some paralleled transistors (IGBTs, from poor memory). Typically after the bridge rectifier there is a small (e.g. 2.2µF) capacitor, which I think is to improve power factor during the grid zero crossings, when the...

I have also seen "13A" in this position. I wonder if that means it's fixed 13 A, i.e. it doesn't listen to the duty cycle of the J1772 control pilot signal?

It's still real. Mechanical disconnect: bad, electronic disconnect: good. It's because you are disconnecting a large inductor carrying significant current, with nowhere for the magnetic energy to go except arc the contacts (not so bad, timers and switches are relatively cheap), and/or zap the...