Hey guys, first post here at DIYElectricCar. I have a question about interfacing with the Curtis 1238 motor controller over CANbus.
I am using this controller in a hand built boat for a club at university. I am trying to display motor data from the controller (such as motor rpms, temperature, and amperage draw) to an Android device via the Torque app. Thus far I have bought an OBDII-to-Bluetooth adapter (LINK) and tried connecting the adapter to the motor controller. The CAN outputs on the motor controller are matched with the corresponding pins of the adapter and both sides are terminated with resistors. The adapter attempts to connect but fails to communicate with the controller. With the Curtis 1311 the CAN status is 127 on the controller - pre-operational.
Browsing other threads here I have noticed that many have connected the Curtis motor controller to the Orion BMS and connect an OBDII scanner to the Orion rather than directly to the Curtis controller. It seems the Orion acts as a go-between for OBDII scanners that connect to android devices in the dashboard and the CAN protocol of the motor controller; parsing the CAN data into OBDII spec messages to make the OBDII scanner happy. However, the boat is powered by solar panels and lead-acid batteries rather than the conventional lithium-ion battery packs for most EVs, so the Orion for us is not an option.
So my question is, is there any other reliable way to pull motor information from the controller and forward it via Bluetooth to an Android device? How could one go about directly interfacing with the CANopen protocol of the Curtis controller using either an OBDII scanner or something like the ELM327 chip? Am I missing something obvious here in general?
Thanks for your help. If you need more information or clarification please ask.
I am using this controller in a hand built boat for a club at university. I am trying to display motor data from the controller (such as motor rpms, temperature, and amperage draw) to an Android device via the Torque app. Thus far I have bought an OBDII-to-Bluetooth adapter (LINK) and tried connecting the adapter to the motor controller. The CAN outputs on the motor controller are matched with the corresponding pins of the adapter and both sides are terminated with resistors. The adapter attempts to connect but fails to communicate with the controller. With the Curtis 1311 the CAN status is 127 on the controller - pre-operational.
Browsing other threads here I have noticed that many have connected the Curtis motor controller to the Orion BMS and connect an OBDII scanner to the Orion rather than directly to the Curtis controller. It seems the Orion acts as a go-between for OBDII scanners that connect to android devices in the dashboard and the CAN protocol of the motor controller; parsing the CAN data into OBDII spec messages to make the OBDII scanner happy. However, the boat is powered by solar panels and lead-acid batteries rather than the conventional lithium-ion battery packs for most EVs, so the Orion for us is not an option.
So my question is, is there any other reliable way to pull motor information from the controller and forward it via Bluetooth to an Android device? How could one go about directly interfacing with the CANopen protocol of the Curtis controller using either an OBDII scanner or something like the ELM327 chip? Am I missing something obvious here in general?
Thanks for your help. If you need more information or clarification please ask.