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| Pearson 10M Electric Drive Instrumentation |
The Sevcon controller has a CAN Buss output. This is connected to a Thunderstruck CAN Translator that passes the data to an ODBII Bluetooth dongle just like you would use on a car to read the computer data. The dongle transmits the data to a tablet where it is read and displayed by an app called Torque. There are some parameters that needed to be set to properly scale the data for display. The Torque app can log data from the CAN Buss as well as position and speed data from the GPS in the tablet. In the future I hope to combine the controller CAN Buss with the sailing instrument NMEA 2000 Buss (also CAN Buss) so I can read and log that data with the Torque app.
For charging I have a TSM2500 Charger and EVCC controller, and a Thunderstruck BMS battery management system. These devices also have a CAN Buss communication system. The BMS monitors each cell in the battery. The charge controller reads the data from the BMS and sends commands to the charger to start or stop charging. The EVCC also logs charging data that can be downloaded to a computer through a serial-USB connection.
In addition to the CAN Buss systems the CAN translator, BMS, and charge controller (EVCC) have serial connections that can directly connect to a computer with a USB adapter. On the charge controller this is used to set charge parameters like max current and cut-off voltages. They are also used to collect data from the devices.
I also have a Thunderstruck EnGage II state of charge display that can show the current battery level as well as some parameters of individual cells in the battery. The EnGage display uses an algorithm to estimate state of charge.
For more accurate reading of current flow and battery state I added a Victron BMV-712 battery monitor with a shunt. It gives very accurate measurements of current flow in or out of the battery and once synchronized can track the state of charge of the battery. It also has a "Time Remaining" function that tells how much longer you can run at the curernt discharge rate before you reach your maximum depth of discharge (DoD). The BMV-712 has Bluetooth so data can be read and the device can be controlled from a smart phone or tablet. It does not have any data logging which would be useful. There is also a serial output on the unit that can be connected to a USB port on a computer.
Instrumentation Components
Thunderstruck CAN Translator
TSM2500 Charger and EVCC controller
Thunderstruck BMS
Thunderstruck EnGage II
Victron BMV-712