Let the Hacking Begin

[jray3]

jray3, thanks for the postings. I had hoped they'd come up with an all-aluminum demountable hitch, as 42# is simply too much back there!

Yep, and drilling gets old in a hurry. The twenty 1/2" holes I've bored thus far calculate out at 0.9999 lbs of shaved weight!

The fabricators said that a milled aluminum receiver would be the way to go, but that would be quite pricey. :shock: I could see it being milled from a billet about 3"x8"x 30", plus a couple of bolted-on side plates....

 

[Don]

Some company commercially made aluminum trailer hitches to fit the early Miatas 20 years ago, so it can be done, and done safely. I think they were rated at 1500 pounds or so. There's gotta be someone out there who isn't scared of building something like that for a trailer which weighs half that much

For a tiny electric car which will never tow more than 500 pounds or so, I would settle for nothing less. True, you may have problems finding someone to build you a 'trailer hitch' out of aluminum for liability reasons, but you can either tell them you've only got a 500 pound trailer . . . . or, you can cut the pieces to fit yourself and then have them welded up without calling it a 'trailer hitch' - Either way, it just makes TONS more sense to have a light duty 12 or 15 pound hitch than it does lugging around 25 or 30 extra pounds of steel you don't need and seldom use. If I was gonna bolt on 40 extra pounds to the back of a car which is already tail heavy, it would have to be removable in 30 seconds or so using hitch pins or something so I didn't have to tote it around when I wasn't even using it . . . .

I kinda doubt the commercially made all steel Hidden Hitch on my Protege 5 (another car that the manufacturer says cannot tow a trailer) weighs any more than 42 pounds, if it even weighs that much . . . . and it has towed 2,000 pounds many times for many miles - Something half that strong should be plenty for 500 to 600 pounds

Speaking of 'hacks' - I'd LOVE to be able to swap a couple of wires and swap the 'D' position for the 'B' position on the gearshift. Since I never use 'D' I'd just as soon it was stuck down on the bottom where 'B' is now and move the one I actually do use up next to Neutral. I assume the 3 driving modes are just electrical switch connections . . . . I think the shifter cable to the trans only engages the parking pawl??

Don

 

[jray3]

Some company commercially made aluminum trailer hitches to fit the early Miatas 20 years ago, so it can be done, and done safely. I think they were rated at 1500 pounds or so. There's gotta be someone out there who isn't scared of building something like that for a trailer which weighs half that much

I'd love to find that company (and now have a template). BTW I used to drive a Miata, and had the DaLan hidden hitch, which was steel, but light weight and had a special 1 1/4" receiver that pointed straight down at the ground, so the receiver was truly hidden. I welded up a 2" adaptor, and carried a full size cargo platform behind the Miata from Atlanta GA to Portland, OR!

 

[Don]

I'd love to find that company (and now have a template)

I really doubt it would do you any good. They sold over a million Miatas and while maybe 1 or 2 percent of those owners found they needed a trailer for long trips because the car has next to zero cargo space - Maybe there were a few thousand prospective buyers there to sell hitches to

Compare that to an electric car which never makes long trips, which has a decent amount of cargo space to begin with and is a car they've sold perhaps 1,000 or so of in total and your prospective customers for trailer hitches would be . . . . maybe just you and Joe??

There won't be much incentive to start up mass production for aluminum trailer hitches to fit our cars

A suggestion - Take your template to a welder and tell him you want to carry a couple full sized bicycles and you're bought a carrier which fits a standard 1 1/4 trailer hitch receiver and now you need an aluminum bracket to bolt it to your car so you can mount the bicycles - If you never mention pulling a trailer, he'll probably be willing to make you something. If he will, have him make three and sell the other two for enough to cover all the costs

Don

 

[jray3]

I finally got my receiver hitch installed. After extensive drilling to lighten the assembly, the thing's still 36 lbs and stout enough to hang the car from, but a new era begins... I haven't driven it with a cargo platform yet, but used a cheater bar to put at least 600 ft-lbs on the receiver (stood on a 4' long steel tube), and only a teeny bit of body flex was noticeable. Torklift Central's fabrication was spot-on, with perfect alignment, and I've submitted a couple of suggested changes to the installation instructions. Installation took about two hours and required no drilling. (Make sure you have a magnet ready to fish out lost hardware from the frame rail and suspension brace!) Their receiver is assymetrical, using a bracket that's bolted to a channel on the underside of the cargo floor on the passenger's side, but connecting to the triangular suspension brace on the driver's side. They also use four stock bolts that go through the bumper supports. After this install, I see a couple of more factory bolts that could be used for a light duty receiver- basically a flat plate between the bumper mounts that would also connect at behind the bumper center, and then one could use struts and ball joints to go forward to other stock mounting holes. However, there's no doubt that this receiver will take any abuse I can throw at it, and it might make the car more likely to survive a rear end collision (yeah, yeah, but with decreased crush zone performance). I'll try to tell the full story with photos soon at www.karmanneclectric.blogspot.com

 

[PascalFr]

One hack that would be cool is to get real remote access to the key-fob functions that rickmaz describes:

"The little key fob remote is interesting: you pull out a small antenna, and can control remote charging timers, or start/stop manual charging, or cool, heat or defrost the car while it's hooked up to its charger. "

Here is a excerpt from a review:

Another simple solution Mitsubishi uses with the i is its bizarre remote key fob. This non-Internet-connected device can communicate wirelessly with the vehicle (if within range) to pre-heat or pre-cool the vehicle, as well as set the charging process. We think the fob is too big and does too little – and carrying another digital piece of plastic is annoying – but company spokesman Maurice Durand reminds AutoblogGreen that Mitsubishi is really dealing with a car that's three years old at this point, and the fob was the simplest solution without adding cost. We hope that a smart-phone solution will be coming at some point.
http://autos.aol.com/cars-Mitsubishi-Lancer+Evolution-2012/expert-review/


I guess we will have to get a hold of one it before we can do much.

Any Ideas?

Hi,

First of all excuse my bad and approximate english I am an European guy, I am living in France.
I konw it is a very very old post ... but I don't find information with search option ... :|

In France, the I-Miew is sold by 2 french manufacturers: Peugeot and Citroen

The miew remote is a standard equipment on miev since 2012.

Could you used the miev remonte on oldest miew (sold before 2012) ?
Does it works ?

In Europe we can't find the miew remote ...

Do you think the miev remote can be used on Peugeot-Ion or Citroen C-Zero ???

In case, where to find it ?

Thanks to you

Regards from France

 

[MLucas]

That isn't very nice that you don't get the remote with the i-On or the C-Zero. I know some people complain about it and wish they had the SmartPhone application but I'm actually quite content with it. It does what I need and all I need for it to do. I'm thankful that Mitsubishi found a simple solution for these features.

As far as working on your cars, I see two problems. One, is the receiving antenna is built into the car, its behind the right front sail panel glass (the small triangle window in front of the mirror). You would have to see if this antenna is in place and if it actually goes somewhere.

Your models are very different than ours across the pond, Mitsubishi widened ours by four inches all to meet North American safety standards. You may not have the onboard electronics to make it work.

The second is the frequency that it transmits on. The frequency is regulated in the U.S. and Canada. This may interfere with communications in Europe.

Not to be such a bummer about it, but the infrastructure may not be in your car even if you could get a remote and have it programmed for your car.

 

[PascalFr]

Thanks MLucas for your answer.
I agree with you the remote control is a simple way for this kind of problem.

It could effectively to be really complex to setup the remonte, if the Miev OS, the frequency, ..., are not the same as you in US.

As you can imagine, the pre-heat is really interesting in winter.

In europe, it is impossible to start the climatisation when the car is charging (plug to network) with the i-Miev OEM ICCB charging cordon.

Thanks to you and excuse again my approximate english

 

[MLucas]

Don't worry about the english, its fine. Don't even ask me to attempt French, I can't even say the words right. :shock:

The whole pre-heat, pre-cool, system is very complex. I've read the owners manual thoroughly and studied several other diagrams and articles about the system. When we pre-heat/pre-cool the car, the the A/C unit actually runs off the supply current not the batteries. This allows for the owner to have a full charge and a nicely climatized interior.

I'm sure if you found some engineering types they may be able to figure something like this out for your cars. I've come across some really interesting electronics projects while researching electric vehicles and the i MiEV in particular. Like the Open EVSE project, people have figured out how to make your own homemade EVSE! Now that is cool.

 

[peterdambier]

Karin and me have got a 2010 i-MiEV. It does not work with the remote. My dealer told me the 2012 model will come with remote included - but he is still waiting for it to arrive.

I cannot run heater or A/C when plugged in and I feel 12V does not get charged as long "ready" does not show. We have been on a 500 km voyage with charging in a deep cold night. Every once an hour I unplugged the i-MiEV and plugged our external 2kW heater in. Whenever I turned the key to "ready" to defog, the lights got brighter and the bars jumped up.

The 2010 model differs from the 2012 one: No 12V charging, no A/C, no heater - and I am shure no remote.

I do not complain. We are missing nothing. An external radio thermometer and hygometer informs us about the weather outside or how far the heater has come. An external 2 kW heater is good for testing power plugs and sitting where our feet normally are, blows hot air up and backside. It does a good job heating and deicing.

Next thing we are trying to get done is a notEVSE. It will be an open source hack to connect power and charge using the builtin charger, with a dial from 6 to 16 amps without the need for a fully grown EVSE like open EVSE. Europe is a nice place to cook your ham and eggs with 400V AC but we do not have public EVSEs anywhere. So picking 240V out of a 400V 3-phase CEE plug is the way to go for us

 

[MLucas]

I never knew there was a 2010 i-MiEV and you say it does not have a heater. That seems like a minimum requirement for all cars. But, I would not fret about it, as you can easilly add a heating system from the electric car aftermarket. You could go with a Webasto fuel heater, to an electric fluid type heater.

http://www.parkingheater.com/

or just something simple like this: http://www.ground-z.org/electronics/vehicle/heater.html

We'd love to see pictures of your 2010 i-MiEV.

 

[peterdambier]

I had a look into the cars passport again. The authorisation for this kind of vehicle in germany dates from October 2010. This car got its first license March 2011. We bought it June 2012.

It does have heater and A/C but I cannot use them as long as it is plugged in. Everything that runs from 12V is working but everything that needs HV is only working when the display shows "Ready". When plugged in it will not go "Ready".

There is a picture of our car on top of

http://www.piraten-fraktion-bergstrasse.de/AETC/GorillaCharging.html

but take your time, big pictures

Our dealer has become a friend. It was not easy for him to part from this car and it takes some 4 month to get a new one. He has designed the advertising and beeing in the arts ourselves we did not remove the advertising - for the moment at least. After all people would not know it is electric.

The pictures are taken AEB so at least 3 pictures taken to make an exr and processed to get nice colors and more light in the shadows. But the resulting jpg is bigger than the original would have been. When people or objects are moving while the pictures are taken, the results may look unexpected. That is why the ghosts on the second image.

Originally I planned to use our 2 kW heater for testing the cables and adapters only. That is why it has got the same plug as our EVSE. Even 2 kW is too much for a Schuko plug. Same goes for the other european local plugs. CEE is a standard in europe at least and it is mandatory on camping grounds e.g.

Electric nomads, campers and construction workers are used to it.

 

[martinwinlow]

Sorry to see that there appears to have been little progress on CAN hacking the i-Miev - mainly because of the existence of OVMS - Open Vehicle Monitoring System ( http://www.openvehicles.com ). This idea is basically a small box with GSM and GPS antennae which plugs into the CAN port of the i-Miev and allows you to see what the i-Miev (or theoretically any CAN bus-based vehicle) is up to. Obviously with an ICEV that won't be much if parked but with an EV, seeing what level of charge it is at or even controlling the charger by a GSM-connected device - from anywhere in the world - is a possibility. It also has an SMS side as an alternative (or in addition to) the IP stuff.

The Tesla Roadster OVMS has the most development but I would be very keen to be able to start the charger on a pre-defined schedule to take advantage of our cheap rate electricity (0000 to 0700 here in the UK). Also, pre-conditioning the cabin on mains power is such a no-brainer I am at great pains to understand why it was not included as standard from the start. It must, surely, simply be a case of re-programming the ECU etc. From there to OVMS control seems a very short hop. Perhaps there is some hardware problem…? (Edit: I had a reply from PeugeotUK yesterday to a query I sent them about the possibility of retrofitting the Remote System that provides both the above facilities but their reply was as follows: "We have looked in to your query below with both our Product Team and our Technical Team. They have both confirmed that unfortunately this enhancement to the Peugeot iOn is not technically possible.")

There is a lot of CAN hacking to be done but the basics (read-only for now) are already working on iPhone and Andoid apps…

Regards, Martin Winlow.
Peugeot Ion 2012

 

[JoeS]

MartinWinslow,

I'm sure that by now you're aware of CaniOn, a wonderful product by Xavier/Martin that runs on Android and uses bluetooth to interface with OBDII. Yes, it only reads data and does not try to induce anything in the vehicle. For many of us, simply being able to see each cell voltage and read all the battery thermal sensors makes it well-worthwhile (and I personally also like the SoC numeric); in addition, CaniOn also does some cool computations and has many nice graphs of various parameters with programmable timeframes - certainly enough to keep me occupied during a trip.

Now, since you're talking about hacking into the CAN bus and controlling some features of the car, I'd like to suggest developing the ability to control regeneration and maybe alter the car's operation - for example, in Drive I'd like to simply have zero regen, as I have two other drive settings that can give me regen. I suspect Mitsu has strongly protected that interface and you can't get to it.

If you're really set on hacking, you might first get your hands on Mitsubishi's MUT-3 diagnostic tool and try to figure out what it does.

 

[martinwinlow]

Hi JoeS,

Thanks for the reply.

I am aware o CaniOn. It would be nice to be able to access all that interesting info but it would require some sort of at least semi-permenant display… perhaps one day I'll upgrade the standard bluetooth stereo to the big display alternative…

As for regen, on the Ion (the Peugeot badged version of the i-Miev that I have) there is only P, D, N & R. The D position has a very effective regen which kicks in progressively as you release the accelerator, is a fixed and fairly serious rate of deceleration if you completely remove your right foot from it and then progressively increases as you apply the brake, down to about 5 mph where the regen stops. It is all very smooth and seamless and leaves me with no desire whatsoever for any tinkering. It really is one of the best features of the car.

What I would like to get rid of is the 'creep' facility. I know most people are used to it but that doesn't make it good, IMO. It is wasting energy all the time you are sat at the lights or in traffic and also causes the lazy and inconsiderate amongst us to sit with their brake lights on dazzling the driver behind.

At least if there were no creep you could just sit there with no brakes on (on the level, obviously and, of course, for safety one should apply the hand - parking - brake too!) but this is the other advantage of the Ion's interpretation of the i-Miev's gearbox; it is very easy to knock it from D to N in the last metre or two before coming to a halt which at least gives you a way of getting around the annoying creep. This is what I did with my old DIY EV conversion that had a manual gearbox except that as well as knocking it into N you would then slip it into 2nd (or whatever) just as the vehicle came to a halt ready to accelerate away again, no clutch use required.

As for hacking the Ion (i-miev) CAN, I have acquired a MUT-III and have installed the software on an laptop though what I am doing with it is something of a mystery as yet, having had no formal training in this sort of thing. I am hoping its use is fairly obvious, certainly the manual that comes with it is quite good. First thing I plan to try to effect is the extinguishing of the airbag warning light that came on when I removed the passenger seat a while back. If anyone knows any DIY-based information or training that might assist me in using the MUT-III I would be glad to hear about it. I really don't want to brick my Ion!

Regards, Martin.

 

[jjlink]

I see Canion and OVMS are complementary apps; having both is great (a Y-cable needed for this). I use Canion when in the vehicle. OVMS's advantage is remote access when your away from the car. We should leverage the CAN bus values Martin & Xavier have already found. Then we could concentrate on finding the CAN bus values specifically useful for OVMS. Things like replacing the crummy remote control that comes with the i-MiEV by using the OVMS app would be great.

Already; just knowing the SOC when charging while away from the vehicle is great for me. It allows me to return to the vehicle just before charging is complete and I can unplug it. This frees up the charge station for someone else to use. Also it avoids the GE DuraStation turning back on after the i-MiEV is finished charging. Remotely starting/stopping charging and well as remote control of the HVAC when connected to a charge station would great with OVMS.

It was interesting to note for sniffing the CAN-bus they are using something like the MUT-3 with a Y-cable on it and grabbing the raw data with the PC at the same time to find the PIDs. (pardon the Google translate; its close enough to get the idea).

Xavier has found out. Specifically, he puts it to the OBD diagnostic connector first a Y-cable, to run on the one hand, the Peugeot diagnostic tool - there he sees human-readable values. On the other hand runs on an OBD-USB cable an unfiltered trace on a Windows machine. Now it changes - if possible - only one parameter - the specific example, by turning on the heater, notes with timestamp values ​​from the Peugeot diagnostic tool, and then tries to identify the trace recorded through the values. .... Martin

Martin- did you get the MUT-3 that has the memory card slot on it or the one without the card slot? Also does the software run on anything other than Windows XP?

Thanks

 

[martinwinlow]

Hi jjlink,

I have the MUT-III without the card slot… as I said before I am a complete newbie here but have a reasonably well-rounded DIY electronics background so I hope to have a go with the MUT soon - I have other conflicting drains on my time at the moment. The MUT manual (on the accompanying CDROM) says you need XP so I'm thinking it is XP or nothing...

As far as CaniOn is concerned, I have the standard Peugeot Ion stereo fitted. If I were to upgrade to touchscreen-based system (assuming something suitable exists) which head unit would I need to allow it to work with CaniOn?

MW

 

[jjlink]

For Canion and the Android tablet I just use a Ram Mount. Of course reflections on the screen are a problem as well as polarized sunglasses darken the screen significantly.

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[jray3]

You could go with a Webasto fuel heater, to an electric fluid type heater.
http://www.parkingheater.com/
/quote]
What a uniquely terrible website! They give the product info but not a hint of where to buy the product, and there's just a circular reference that leads you to the USA and back to their worldwide website, with a German contact number...
(It is sold through some marine and heavy truck outfitters in the US, but not marketed for passenger cars.)

 

[jjlink]

I'm wondering if this MiScan M8 work rather than the original MUT-3:

http://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/2013-Newest-Generation-MiScan-M8-Wireless-Auto-Scanner-for-Toyota-Honda-Mitsubishi-with-1-year-warranty/919084_797639924.html

I sounds like we would need the original MUT-3 software to us it.