The contactors are just giant 12V relays. They can be controlled easily from the round connector coming out of the battery pack. Three wires are ground, and then there is a wire each for the negative, main, and precharge contactors. The Thunderstruck VCU has contactor and precharge signals; I use the ignition to trigger the negative contactor to ensure it is engaged before the precharge. The Leaf shop manual is fantastic (though long-winded) and shows the pinouts of all connectors and how they tie in to the system: https://www.nicoclub.com/nissan-service-manuals
The battery has no computer, but the BMS is a computer. Someone on this forum claims to have gotten the Leaf BMS working with some simple CAN commands, but I can't find the thread or the YouTube video. It involved a CAN board and custom code. This is the largest hurdle. If you can get the BMS to work, you won't have to open the pack. You might have to get clever with the contactor logic, though, as they'll need to be closed for charging to work. If you can't use the Leaf BMS, you'll need to open the pack and swap something like the Thunderstruck BMS in ($1500), and splice all 96 wires. You could probably close it back up afterward, but it is nice to use the serial port to see what's going on with each cell.
I don't believe anyone has gotten the Leaf charger to do anything useful yet.
You'll have to figure out your own heater logic. I'm not aware of any feature to heat batteries in Thunderstruck's stuff...You might be able to rig one of the output wires to trigger at a particular thermistor temperature...I dunno. Maybe you can hack the BMS to get thermistor info...
Cool van.
The battery has no computer, but the BMS is a computer. Someone on this forum claims to have gotten the Leaf BMS working with some simple CAN commands, but I can't find the thread or the YouTube video. It involved a CAN board and custom code. This is the largest hurdle. If you can get the BMS to work, you won't have to open the pack. You might have to get clever with the contactor logic, though, as they'll need to be closed for charging to work. If you can't use the Leaf BMS, you'll need to open the pack and swap something like the Thunderstruck BMS in ($1500), and splice all 96 wires. You could probably close it back up afterward, but it is nice to use the serial port to see what's going on with each cell.
I don't believe anyone has gotten the Leaf charger to do anything useful yet.
You'll have to figure out your own heater logic. I'm not aware of any feature to heat batteries in Thunderstruck's stuff...You might be able to rig one of the output wires to trigger at a particular thermistor temperature...I dunno. Maybe you can hack the BMS to get thermistor info...
Cool van.
