[Electric Land Cruiser]

@windraver disconnecting the 12v and the safety disconnect didn't do anything for me. I can't get any communication when choosing vehicle years in LeafSpy either, I tried all of them. Mechanical changes are taking longer than expected but as soon as it's driving I'll go to a public charger close by and test it there.

When I plug in I get both contactor clicks and the DC-DC charges the 12v battery and the OLED comes on but it never actually charges. I used a power strip with a power meter and confirmed it is pulling 0 watts. The Nissan EVSE I am using lights up charging and no fault.

 

[windraver]

@windraver disconnecting the 12v and the safety disconnect didn't do anything for me. I can't get any communication when choosing vehicle years in LeafSpy either, I tried all of them. Mechanical changes are taking longer than expected but as soon as it's driving I'll go to a public charger close by and test it there.

When I plug in I get both contactor clicks and the DC-DC charges the 12v battery and the OLED comes on but it never actually charges. I used a power strip with a power meter and confirmed it is pulling 0 watts. The Nissan EVSE I am using lights up charging and no fault.

Has anything changed with the battery, current sensor, BMS, PDM, Resolve EV controller since the last time it charged?

Your scenario sounds like back when I was trying out my new 40kwh batteries.

Specifically when using the 40kwh battery with a new BMS and not having the right current sensor, plugging it in would cause the little LED screen to light, contactors click, but yet it wouldn't light up.

I would check the current sensor, service plug, the plug to the service plug, and the BMS. Maybe fully unplug the BMS as well.

Another thing to try is this custom screen for Leaf spy that Isak sent me back when I was debugging the 40kwh BMS:

All Variables L.csv

Shared with Dropbox

www.dropbox.com

He sent me to this page to find instructions on how to install custom screens:
LeafSpy Pro Custom Screens - Page 5 - My Nissan Leaf Forum

One important thing to note is the screen will only appear if you have Leaf spy in landscape mode. Not portrait mode.

These are some notes he sent me regarding the screen:

You need to set the year to 2020 in the app and it will say it isn't connecting even though it shows information.

These are some things I got from the screen. Try to see what shows up and screenshot it after you plug in

 

[Electric Land Cruiser]

Thanks for that I will give it a try.

Nothing has changed on the vehicle at all except I removed the motor and transfer case. I can't really unplug the BMS as it's sealed inside my battery box. Same with the current sensor.

 

[Electric Land Cruiser]

The custom screen is cool but not showing anything new. The PDM/charge details are blanked out so possibly that is an indicator of an issue with the PDM?

The screen shows the same data whether plugged in or not. What does your show @windraver

 

[Electric Land Cruiser]

Truck drives amazing now! 55MPH is smooth! Still has more in it.

Tried a Semaconnect public L2 charger, no dice. I was hoping it would give me an error but it just sat there with a green light.

Will be focusing on this obviously important issue.

 

[Electric Land Cruiser]

Washed it for the first time since Moab

 

[windraver]

I plugged my car in to charge and I get the following on BMS only.

It shows significant bat amps going into the battery.

When I turn on the car to drive (but at stand still), the following bat amps show which means I'm consuming power it seems.

What mode is your Leaf spy in? 2020? Or BMS only?

Let try BMS only and plugged in and see what you get.

The weird part is you can drive so it's not current sensor or BMS.

Can you also share what your current BMS cell voltages are? The only time I've been unable to charge was when a cell was under voltage. Seeing you max min volts for the cells should remove that possibility.

The resolve EV must know when it's plugged in and when to charge. That or the PDM does. I wonder what messages are being sent and if Isak can give some advice or share some ways we can see that data.

 

[Electric Land Cruiser]

Thanks for that. I think it must be an error in the PDM causing it to not charge. I'm wondering if I can use a PCAN or something to send clear commands to the PDM.

Yes I can drive and everything else is fully functional, max regen no problem either. I have a second PDM to install if I need to but it would be a lot of effort. Hoping I can fix it.

I did post the cell voltages and they are all pretty good. Here it is again:

 

[windraver]

Something I remember reading was that some Nissan Leafs had an issue with a diode that prevented them from charging. I wonder if its possibly related?

Leaf not Charging - My Nissan Leaf Forum

www.mynissanleaf.com

DIODE FIXED! - My Nissan Leaf Forum

www.mynissanleaf.com

And here's what we want. The skinny white wire (not the fat one!). Check and make sure - this is the pilot wire as shown in the earlier shot of the front of the inlet.

Darell Dickey Father, EV driver, bicyclist, basic goob.

darelldd.smugmug.com

Some other misc fixes:

edit:
This explains the video pretty well for diagnosis

2011 Not Charging. Bad diode. Aerovironment Works. - My Nissan Leaf Forum

www.mynissanleaf.com

 

[Electric Land Cruiser]

The diode issue only occurs on 2011 and 2012 LEAFs. I actually fixed my buddy's that had that problem.

It's gotta be a DTC in the PDM that the Resolve-EV cannot read for whatever reason. At least that's what I'm focusing on now.

 

[Electric Land Cruiser]

Money shot

Battery is happy after yesterday's drive but still won't charge. No luck trying anything else recommended in LeafSpy. I ordered a PC-USB to CAN Bus analyzer tool which I will connect directly to the PDM and see what I can do. I've only have a little bit of CAN experience.

Going to try a Chademo that is close by in a little bit. If Chademo works then it's probably wiring/broken PDM if it doesn't work I'm betting that means it has a DTC. At least that's my best guess.

 

[Electric Land Cruiser]

Chademo doesn't work either. From what I understand if both chargers don't work it usually means there's a DTC...at least in a LEAF maybe not a home made conversion.

 

[remy_martian]

I still think it needs a ground strap between the chassis and the drive unit now that it's a money shot on rubber isolators. That would easily explain the failure to charge...

 

[windraver]

I still think it needs a ground strap between the chassis and the drive unit now that it's a money shot on rubber isolators. That would easily explain the failure to charge...

The motor? Thats possibility. Normally PDM+Inv+Motor are all connected and thus PDM ground cable grounds all the other portions. Its a bit weird though that Motor Ground would affect PDM but at this point, grounding the Motor is as easy as a screw driver or pry bar so might as well try it.

Those mounts look nice though.. almost makes me want to redo my engine bay lol...

Has Isak said anything about getting PDM DTCs? I noticed too that Leaf Spy only get INV/MTR/BMS and not PDM....

I went through the DTC index searching for PDM and found that a bunch of PDM errors basically "disable charging"

edit: every "solution" for these DTCs, if they come back after a clear is to replace the PDM

edit 2: Just in case it helps, this thread was focused on getting the Leaf PDM to function as a standalone battery charger:

Stand alone OBC/PDModule EV system Can 2015 - SOLVED - My Nissan Leaf Forum

www.mynissanleaf.com

 

[Electric Land Cruiser]

The motor? Thats possibility. Normally PDM+Inv+Motor are all connected and thus PDM ground cable grounds all the other portions. Its a bit weird though that Motor Ground would affect PDM but at this point, grounding the Motor is as easy as a screw driver or pry bar so might as well try it.

Those mounts look nice though.. almost makes me want to redo my engine bay lol...

Has Isak said anything about getting PDM DTCs? I noticed too that Leaf Spy only get INV/MTR/BMS and not PDM....

I went through the DTC index searching for PDM and found that a bunch of PDM errors basically "disable charging"

View attachment 134881


edit: every "solution" for these DTCs, if they come back after a clear is to replace the PDM

edit 2: Just in case it helps, this thread was focused on getting the Leaf PDM to function as a standalone battery charger:

Stand alone OBC/PDModule EV system Can 2015 - SOLVED - My Nissan Leaf Forum

www.mynissanleaf.com

The motor is grounded, same with the t-case. I also grounded the inverter and PDM cases.

I think I'm going to replace the PDM and go from there.

Yes I think it's a lack of ability for the Resolve-EV to clear DTCs in the PDM. Unfortunately, Isak hasn't gotten back to me on the subject. It's definitely not ideal, if you get DTCs in your charger you can't really do anything about it.

 

[kennybobby]

Is lack of OBC and Chademo charging a new issue--have they ever worked in the past?

Are all the HV connector interlocks intact? Seems like it is a serial daisy chain where the system gets disabled if any IL is missing.

 

[Electric Land Cruiser]

Is lack of OBC and Chademo charging a new issue--have they ever worked in the past?

Are all the HV connector interlocks intact? Seems like it is a serial daisy chain where the system gets disabled if any IL is missing.

Yes they worked before. Then I removed the motor and parked the truck for a period of time. I reinstalled the motor but the sensor plug was loose and it threw a couple DTCs. I was able to fix the loose plug and clear the DTCs in the inverter. I'm guessing it also threw DTCs in the PDM but I can't do anything about it, a limitation of the Resolve-EV controller.

 

[Electric Land Cruiser]

It's charging!! I'm so happy and relieved. I replaced the PDM today with a spare. Plugged it in and it's charging fine.

All I can figure is that the previous PDM either has DTCs stored or maybe it's just broken. Don't have any way to definitively prove it one way or the other so for now it's going back on the shelf.

Turned out to be a relatively easy swap, Nissan engineered it to come off without removing the wiring looms which is handy.

 

[Electric Land Cruiser]

Had to wire in a new plug for my L2 at home. Got the motivation to do that today

 

[windraver]

Nice! Congrats on Charging again! So you confirmed the PDM was the issue but it does make me wish we had a way to know what were the exact DTC or issues with the "broken" PDM.

I'm rather surprised that Leaf Spy won't give us DTCs from the PDM.