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[Neuer_User]

Ah, thanks. That sounds like a more complex modification. I'm not sure I wanna go into that.

Probably better to get a  second cable then with a socket at one end. 

[remmie]

It's not complicated at all.

Just cut of the last 11 mm of the connector with a hacksaw, and you end up with a perfectly suitable plug for both chassis sockets and cable sockets. That's all there is to it.

See the picture. In the picture i also used a 50 mm drainage pipe end cap to slim down the plug even more.

You can make sure you don't cut off the end of the contacts by using something round like for example a drill bit end or a pencil and put a piece of tape at 11 mm from the end. If you can stick the pencil in every hole and it goes further in than the taped part, you wont hit the pins with the hacksaw.

You will loose the locking feature, but if you absolutely want to retain that you could screw the sawed of part back to the connector and unscrew it for cable sockets.

[Neuer_User]

Thanks, Remmie, for the picture and the details.

Looks not that complex after all, indeed. Maybe I am gonna give it a try. The connector is pretty expensive and was difficult to solder, though, and I'm not so much used to hardware mods. I do have a hacksaw. Just would need to make sure that I saw it exact and straight.

[Neuer_User]

Btw, why do you have a switch on your plug, if you do not have locking?

[Skidz]

I think he used to have locking *before* the hardware mod

[remmie]

the switch is for the 5% of the charging stations that do not accept a continous signal "charging" but need a signal "ready to charge" for a few seconds before the "charging" signal, So in these cases i set the switch to the off position for 10 seconds and then switch over.
 
With 95% of the charging stations i can keep the switch in the "on - charging" postition.

[wijnand71]

Here I described the type2 mod:

http://electricmotorcycleforum.com/boards/index.php?topic=6935.msg56783#msg56783

[wijnand71]

Here some pics of my setup to control both flatpacks. I called it our DASI system. DualArduinoSingleIsolated. 
Just a peek in the kichen is what we say here in the Netherlands ;-) Remmie and I are currently still working on the code, but basically this setup does the job.

It consists a set of 2 Arduino Leonardo's with CAN, one CAN bus isolator, a small OLED display and a 5V power supply.

On one Arduino PCB the CAN driver needs to be removed and rewired to the isolator PCB. The isolator is mouted below the Arduino on the pictures.
This setup works great, also on low very SOC the FlatPacks are fully controllable and adjustable. Really nice.

For the bottom flatpack all is really straight forward. Just one Arduino Leonardo with CAN is needed for this. The main code is running on this one. I call this the master. The upper Flatpack is controlled via an I2C connection. The signal after the MCP2515 is tapped off the pcb and fed into the isolator pcb where a ISO1050DUB chip is catching the signal and isolate the signal.

Lateron I will post an schematic where all cabling is clear and marked. But a lot can be read already from these pics..

[Shadow]

Would a Teensy 3.6 (dual-CANbus) be more or less useful?

[wijnand71]

Less, unless you want to smoke a CAN interface ;-)

No, all those existing dual CAN solutions are not working becaurse we need to be isolated from the power supply for the upper flatpack. These dual solutions have all one common power and ground and therefore not working for this project. The upper FlatPack has its ground on +57V. And also the data signals should be floating.
Believe me, we have been searching quite a long time to find a solutions wich is affordable, easy reproducable and easy to order. I think this solution does it.

Ofcourse many ways are leading to Rome, but we're focussing on this route..

Partlist:
2x Leonardo CAN
http://www.hobbytronics.co.uk/leonardo-canbus?keyword=CAN
1x OLED
http://www.hobbytronics.co.uk/oled-graphic-display-128-64-wb?keyword=oled
1x CAN bus Isolator
http://skpang.co.uk/catalog/isolated-canbus-breakout-board-5v-p-1246.html

Total of around 100 bucks incl. shipping.

For this prototype I had serious problems finding a good and stable 5V powersupply. This setup turned out to be quite selective on this. I tried PCB mounted supplies from MeanWell, TracoPower and Recom. All have a negative tolerance and deliver a voltage below 5V. Result is that one of the Arduino's on 30% of the startups can't login on the Flatpacks becourse one chip (MCP2551) is underpowered and switched off. This chip stops already on 4.5V and with an supply of 4.7V this is too close. When it sends out a burst of CAN messages into a 60 Ohm CAN line, voltage is dropped quickly. The other chips on the boards are less sensitive on this.
In the end I used a stripped, cutted in half, Apple USB charger. This one is 5V solid and works great.

[Fred]

Why do you need 2 Leonardos? Wouldn't one Leonardo and one MCP2515 board do the job and be cheaper? Your code would have to handle 2 CAN interfaces but that shouldn't be a problem.

Search "MCP2515 Arduino" on eBay and you'll see the board I mean. I've got one sitting at home, but not really the time to test it at the moment.

[Skidz]

Fred, read the thread incase of tl;dr and some tech knowledge: the signal ground is equal to the dc output ground so when putting the psu's in series you elevate the second ground to 57v and the magic smoke will come out of the mcp2515.

[Fred]

@skidz I understand that. I want suggesting dropping the isolation. I was just suggesting using one microcontroller with two can bus controllers. The SPI interface allows you to use the CS line to communicate with multiple devices.

[remmie]

Hi Fred,

It is probably possible to use two can bus controllers (with at least one isolated) and only 1 leonardo but Wijnand and me haven't investigated that route yet. Using 2 leonardo's avoids using multiple devices on the same bus like you suggest (now we use SPI for the canbusses and I2C for the PID value between the 2 leonardo's).

This simplifies the code of each leonardo to a degree that my (still learning) skills can cope with it.
This solutions works perfectly for now.

I myself only use a leonardo on the "bottom" flatpack so when the SOC is below 35% the QUADFP still outputs it's full current.
This is because the upper flatpack outputs 57.6 Volts and the bottom at least 43.6 volts. this is a minimum voltage of 101.2 Volt (arounf 35% SOC)
Wijnand wanted to be able to use his QUADFP on every imaginable socket even on low SOC. With the setup he has now the total voltage can be as low as 87 volts which is way below 0% and therefore the PID controller can control up to every current we can program into the arduino

If you can figure out how to wire up one single leonardo with 2 canbus controllers, please let us know. I can assist in writing code for the arduino or give you hints for the code if you want to do it yourself. Off course if you (or anyone else) wants to know how the code looks like now with the 2 leonardo's (as a starting point), we can share it. no problem. We are here to help one another making the EMC experience better. 

Using a CS for the SPI signal sounds good but first we would have the correct hardware components which preferable connect easily to each other. The leonardo board has a lot of spare connections on header pins, including the SPI connections.

Please share your thoughts/solution on how to connect up the second canbus controller to the leonardo. I would love to hear.

Gr Remco

[Fred]

If I get a chance I'll try to get a proof of concept of two CAN BUS controllers on one Leonardo. Finding the time is the tricky bit. I can't seem to even find the time to wire up my flatpacks (now at 57.5V, thank you) and try it out. I decided that PCBs looked a little flimsy for such high current and I'm milling some solid copper contacts instead.