[SmithEV]

Did you ever get it started? I bought one too (Smith Step Van) but I got it started. The only problem I have seems to be a battery fault. I will post a pic soon because I need help with the batteries since only 3 out of the 4 seem to be good. From the schmematic posted prior, it looks like the batteries are in a loop? I'm wondering if I could bypass theban battery for now because it's going to be rather difficult removing the battery banks without a forklift, and I'm almost considering taking off the aluminum floor boards inside the van in order to get access to the batteries from the top.

 

[SmithEV]

I had an error on my van stopping it from booting from the startup smith screen. If there are any faults the screen will just display the "Smith logo". I ran the scanner software and found I had the high voltage interlock error. Tracking that down can be a pain in the butt. Its referred to as the Evil loop. It really is just that a loop that goes into every connection on every system. I think I sent you the plans that show the loop, look for the interlock wires.

But the very very first thing I would do is remove each of the orange high voltage disconnect "pucks" and place them back on, but when you place them on make sure you pull the "handle outwards, then rotate them closed otherwise they will not connect the interlock at the connector. I managed to fix my loop issue with a loose wire, but still had a HV interlock issue which caused by one of the orange pucks. That was one of the root causes of the failure to start up.

I will see what I can do to get you the software. You will need a CAN adaptor specifically a PEAK USB CAN Adapter IPEH 002021. They are on Ebay used for about $150 and will work with the software. Someone local may have one you can rent or borrow. Also you will need a functioning laptop.

jgilly69, will you help me out with the software process? I'd like to run the scanner software like you did and everything. I know that BenjaminNelson guy on youtube just made a video about hooking his Smith Electric batteries to some PC software - he had the Valence batteries from a Smith box truck not the step van (d75 Newton Step Van).

Also, jgilly69, how did you check your orange pucks? My battery pack has four of the orange puck style ones and I just ohmed mine with a Fluke meter and they seemed fine. Also, I did find that if you don't open the latches on these pucks all the way then they won't go back in the same way and you'll have issues since they're not inserted properly - kinda like you said. When I think of "high voltage interlock" from the fault you read from the software, I'm thinking about the pucks as the interlocks? Either way, I'm not getting that fault, the van moves and everything, but on the battery interface 1 of 4 battery rings(?) is yellow while the others are green -it's the third one in from the left that's yellow. Right now,I can't figure out which if the two battery packs the bad ring is on? I wan't to avoid removing both packs.

Solarrx, I'm interested.

 

[SmithEV]

I think you have a low voltage cell in that pack. I would keep it on the charger and it will bring that one pack up... slowly abet slowly. I watched the final charging from the controller and it ramped down to 1-4amps, which allows the onboard balancers to take over. I have a zip file with the scanner software but cant seem to upload it to the site. Please send me a message and I will send you an email.

I have some better specific drawings to the stepvan file is huge! 26MB

Smithy, thanks a lot for the info! I will definitely be trying this.

jgilly69, I think I had a similar experience with a ChargingPoint charger where it ramped down like that but I wasn't sure what was happening. I'm going to be getting my own charger very soon and conduct this experiment. If this is all there is to it, then I guess I will be home free! My initial problem and why it wouldn't start at Copart was that one of the two 12-volt batteries for the 24-volt system was dead and bad, I tried recharging it with a jump but it would die out again so I replaced it with a new one and now it starts up like normal and keeps a charge, but I have to issue with the one string of batteries on the main traction battery packs. My final goal is to charge the batteries with solar like those fellas at "Route del Sol" on youtube with the blue Navistar - but not even sure how to go about that and this is still a learning process for me.

Either way, my email is : [email protected] for anybody willing to get in touch and exchange information. Jgilly69, I will anxiously be waiting for an e-mail.

 

[SmithEV]

I have given a ton of thought about charging while mobile and its just an absolute pain in the ass to do with these step vans. The charging from the 240VAC line is pretty straight forward but it will not charge while the unit is running since the CanBus needs to see the battery BMS give the proper canbus codes to start the onboard charger and the whole unit processes the charge with the battery balance etc.... You could setup you own onboard charger and maybe tie it into a high voltage AC line which is a direct connection to the "Smith Power" box under the firewall cover. It would only work when all the contactors are on. - I was thinking that maybe a Thunderstuck EV 370VDC charger could do it but you need to feed it with 240VAC at 40amps or whatever you can to that charger which would require lots of extras...

So if you went AC Side for charging with onboard - you could easy place 2kwh of solar on the roof and then just run that to a off grid inverter with its own battery storage, then feed the stepvan batteries with a level 1 ESVE charger at say 16amps slow and low? It would take forever to get charged. It would be much simpler to add a gas powered generator that can pump out 40amps and just burn that thing for 2-4 hours to recharge.

If you can feed it with 350VDC + power when running you could theoretically increase your range by quite. You can get access to the DC Bus under the firewall grey box. food for thought I guess...

JGilly,

Very good ideas here with the AC charge. Myself, I figured it would be more difficult to charge while in motion than when stopped, so I figured I'd pull over for a day and charge... Frankly, I did not know where to begin with this part but you've given me some very good pointers here - I did have to look up CanBus. I'm not a bad electrician but know nothing about EVs, so I kind of assumed from the gate that I would have to hook the solar panels into the same terminals as the charge port plug on the truck? I'm assuming it has to be AC that comes in through there so I would have to convert the DC from the solar panels into AC onboard somehow? I'm also thinking that there may be some logic involved where the voltage has to be a certain value for it to charge? I haven't tried charging it with 120V yet? Will that work?

I've gotten into the grey Smith Power box under the firewall - trying to find a location to get battery voltage from the battery packs but separately, being that I was trying to distinguish which battery pack had the charge issue. It wasn't a good spot to check because of how the bus ties into the orange power cords, so I started to think that I needed to find out about the software and how to plug in. Is there a communication port or something outside of the batteries? Perhaps under the dash?

 

[SmithEV]

So, I went and started charging the batteries earlier today and it charged for 8-hours when the charger decided it was done and "charged"- but my yellow bar battery wasn't charged yet and has always remained at 4 bars:

So, I decided to charge it a second time to see if the yellow bars would come up, and they didn't after 5-hours of more charging at low output - they stayed the same. It seems that it would charge very low as it cycled around through the charged batteries and then it'd spike in intervals when it came out to the yellow bar battery? Anyhow, my next step is to hook in a PC like you'd done, JGilly, and see what type of feedback I get? I'm guessing the BCAN port, JGilly? Also, JGilly, what is the fourth alternate port you mentioned that is next to the three? I looked through that stockpile of info you provided but haven't found it just yet. What I did find and wanted to confirm was what the red fault symbol meant on the battery interface, and as I assumed it meant "battery fault".

 

[SmithEV]

Jgilly, I found more info on the ports in the SOP folder - dense folder there. It seems that I'm going to need the PEAK CAN adapter you mentioned and PCAN Explorer 4 software? I'm going to look for that. Would these instructions put me where I want to be? It shows a log mode for "charge"??

 

[SmithEV]

JGilly, I've also noticed about the how you're to supposed to let the batteries get low just like you said - I read somewhere in the paperwork that you're supposed to do it once a month when you're driving it regularly. I'll be trying this soon but it might be a few weeks before I decide to drive it and get an idea how far it will go on 3 good batteries.

 

[SmithEV]

Very great information here! Thanks BigChief, JGilly.

Im just now doing what JGilly recommended a couple months ago about draining the batteries down and charging them back up to solve my single battery pack that won't charge (#3) - the thing about the open contractors not closing. Unfortunately, I didn't do it right or it didn't work. I got the SOC down to the last bar and where a little red light illuminated on the battery HMI:

After I plugged in the charger, it shows what each pack had left in power, but as usual the little red lights next to pack 3 were not illuminating like on the other packs. JGilly, perhaps I should have let the battery packs go lower or was this low enough? I thought about leaving the vehicle ON at the ChargingPoint location until they went completely dead? But opted to try that another day after some feedback from JGilly.:

This is what it looked like after several hours of charging and I decided to stop and head home since the lights still hadn't illuminated on pack #3 - which I'm assuming means that its not charging. They've never lit up on that one:

Anyhow, Im in process of purchasing the PCAN cable and doing the same deal as BigChief. Worse case scenario, Im willing to drive down to Santa Rosa, CA (Thunderstruck) from Oregon for a replacement, and also interested in this charger you mentioned with the programming option, JGilly, what is it called?

 

[SmithEV]

JGilly, thats bad ass! - so that I can charge the one pack on its own with another? I may take you up on that, but I may as well make one too, if possible. I think you mentioned 600 amps on this jumper procedure? I may need to break out some dielectric gloves and face shield. Anyhow, I looked around on Thunderstruck for the charger and may give them a call and hopefully the price isn't ridiculous. But I will have more information soon when I run the SCANNAR.

 

[SmithEV]

Big Chief and JGilly,

I finally got the SCANNAR going on this thing. Here is the status, all I got is ONE bad cell. Big Chief, I neglected to get a picture of the charger screen to see if charger 2 lit up but I'll get a pic for you soon if needed.

May I have an option from either of you? JGilly, ya still there?

 

[SmithEV]

Did the cleaning of the cables work? I still think the issue maybe the cables. I will hook my van up tonight to see what If this is similar to what your seeing on the screen. I just don't remember what it was that was causing a similar issue on my van.

Hey John,

I unplugged the end with round plug on both packs at the enclosure opposite of the battery, but I just blew it out with mouth, and I only blew the cord end not the one at the enclosure. I took out the puck-style disconnects first and switched off the 24V for good measure, but still wasn't confident on whether I should spray contact cleaner or computer cleaner, and the other side of the cord, the rectangular shaped one on the battery packs, was a little more difficult to take out so I decided to go back this weekend.

I'm wondering if you have any info on the fault codes? Like "RE" and the other ones?

 

[SmithEV]

Hi I have a complete step van if anyone is interested in buying. 3/4 battery packs charge up. And 1 only has 2 cells that won’t charge up. Make me an offer.

I have the exact same problem on SBS3. Did you have any luck trying to figure it out? I notice you have both the battery and motor fault on the battery interface in the truck cab - I was getting the motor one for a little while but it stopped. After running the SCANNAR software I found a fault on the Vehicle Can Bus with an icon that says "RE" but I cannot figure out what that mean yet but I think it might mean "Rx Error".

Can anyone throw me a bone here?

 

[SmithEV]

Let me pose some simpler questions to narrow this down, if anyone is still around

Two things that have me stumped are that I've never seen charging indicated on battery tub #2, and that the two strings in #2 have been showing as very low SOC percentages this whole time, even though the pack voltages are quite high.

Has anyone ever seen "Charger 2" on this screen to be active? From what I've read, the truck has two chargers, but they are both contained inside the single charger box. I'm not sure if this app considers that to all be "Charger 1", or if there is indeed a Charger 2 and it is inactive for some reason. The circuit breaker box shows a green light for Charger 02 so I'm not sure what else the issue could be:

View attachment 123657

As shown below, the SOC levels on SBS3 and SBS4 are 5% and 20% respectively, yet the minimum/average cell voltages are plenty high because I jumped the packs. What dictates the SOC? Is the battery management system storing some colomb-counting values in memory, so that it becomes confused if I manually jump a pack? That's my best guess:

View attachment 123658

Did you ever get an answeron Charger-2, Big Chief? I not I can hook into mine and let you know what I find. In some previous posts by you when you had first run the software, you had the same fault "RE" icon lit as I do on the Vehicle Can Bus and you seemingly got rid of it by bringing your cells back up.

Did you use an engine hoist or actual forklift to get your pack out? Im wondering how that went if you used and engine hoist (cherry picker)?