GEVCU 5 or 6

[Lars Rengersen]

Initially I planned to use the GEVCU 5, but I had to do a lot of welding to my car before the actual EV part could start, so by now 6 is available.

This is still the moment to make changes.

Would you recommend upgrading to the 6 or just stay with 5.

In the 6.22 manual I read

In 2016 Collin Kidder and Jack Rickard of EVTV embarked on a redesign effort for the device. Assembly of the original device

was detailed and costly. While quite resistant to the rigors of the automative environment and weather, a full IP67 enclosure would be better. The Israeli wifi board used to produce the configuration web page was costly, hard to source, had a high failure rate and was difficult to configure. More importantly, other and improved interface devices had emerged.

And so GEVCU version 6.2 was developed. Improvements include:

1. Modice CINCH enclosure for IP67 environmental resistance.

2. Improved Analog to Digital Conversion inputs using 24-bit SPI converters.

3. Addition of isolated high voltage battery pack voltage measurement inputs.

4. A shunt input to allow measurement of high voltage system currents.

5. Blutooth 4.0 BLE data communications for iOS iPhone and iTablet and Android connectivity using the AdaFruit Bluefruit LE SPI module.

6. Optional GSM cellular data communications module using the Particle Electron.

7. Improved digital output control.

How significant are these improvements? 

I do like the BLE option since I already have another Arduino onboard with a GSM modem to connect remotely. The BLE option could allow me to connect those two and also disclose GEVCU data on my mobile even remotely.

Furthermore a iOS dashboard straight via BLE is also an interesting plus.

However, on the other hand, in this topic https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/gevcu-development/F8Ek9HwDAOU Michael Neuweiler had developed some really nice dashboarding which (if I understand correctly) works on the 5.

Thanks in advance for your help to come to a conclusion to upgrade or not.

[Jack Rickard]

I would note that version 6.2 has not been without problems.

BLE is problematical in that some of the commands are "blocking" and so inhibit smooth operation of the rest of the unit.

The current measurement system did not work at all.

The A/D measurement IS more accurate but it makes calibration almost indecipherable.

We do have a socket for the Particle Electron but have never used it in anger.

One thing we did do was add pulldown resistors to the outputs.  Version 5 flashes these outputs ON at random on power up and this has actually destroyed some contactors.

And yes, Michael has forked GEVCU with some very impressive improvements to the web interface and we simply don't use the IP board on the new version.

Jack Rickard

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[Lars Rengersen]

Thanks Jack, in that case I'll just stick to the 5.

In my implementation the (random) ON of the outputs is not impacting me I believe (but I'll double check).

[Lars Rengersen]

Since the GEVCU 5 is not available anymore I might be using the 6 in the end.
Trying to better understand the previous answer:

> BLE is problematical in that some of the commands are "blocking" and so inhibit smooth operation of the rest of the unit.
>The current measurement system did not work at all.
>The A/D measurement IS more accurate but it makes calibration almost indecipherable.
>We do have a socket for the Particle Electron but have never used it in anger.

What do you mean by 'inhibit smooth operation of the rest of the unit'?
Does this also mean it interferes with the primary function, driving the controller?
Or does it mean, the the functions mentioned do not work because of BLE?

Any plans / planning for further improving the GEVCU 6.22 and address these issues?

Regards,
Lars

[Collin Kidder]

The BLE stack has to pause to communicate with the BLE hardware and
this will hold up the entirety of the rest of the program. This is
because GEVCU is currently not using any sort of RTOS. But, there is a
replacement BLE module in the works using the ESP32 chip. However, if
you've followed progress on the ESP32 chip you'll know that it's a
three ring circus over there in ESP32 land and nothing is stable.
Things that work on one revision of their API break in the next,
features are half implemented or crash randomly. This is getting
better and the ESP32 is looking more and more lucrative by the day.
But, it's been a long process. I've got hardware and software made up
to use the ESP32 once it proves stable enough. I expect this to happen
within 2017 yet. The replacement board will work much more smoothly
and be drop in compatible.

The lingering hardware issues with the 6.22 design could be fixed (and
probably easily) by someone with a bit more experience in hardware
design than I have. But, they're mostly minor. Really the biggest
hardware issue is that current sensing is messed up. But, no other
GEVCU had current sensing anyway. At this point it's sort of an
experiment that didn't work out.

On the software side I would like to add an RTOS to GEVCU at some
point to help ensure that everything gets serviced in a timely
fashion. But, with BLE disabled this all pretty much runs smoothly
anyway.

[Lars Rengersen]

Thanks for your detailed message Collin! I am very pleased to hear that.
It fully reassures me. I don’t need it on short notice so somewhere in 2017 or early 2018 is OK.
I’ll await the updated version with ESP32 and order by then. Thanks for all your efforts!

[Hanno Hinrichsen]

Hi, I just got the message from colleagues in Germany, Gevcu6 can not be ordered at the moment. Is this correct and did you have progress in stability of Gevcu6 6?

My Gevcu6 had the fault with the contactors (v5). I have used an additional time relay from Hella, so the contactor is save.

If anybody has an Gevcu 5 or 6, please make an offer!

Thanks

Hanno

Ps: One to drive a DMOC and a Brusa DMC534.