Tilt and slide – fixing the driver’s seat
There was one electrical job left on the car that I could do while waiting for the builders to finish and clear the driveway, and for the electronics engineers I had contacted about fixing the inverter control board to get back to me. The driver’s seat has both electric slide and tilt, in theory. But only the slide was working. Hit the switch for the … Continue reading Tilt and slide – fixing the driver’s seat
Fifty pins of woe
So, it looks like my nemesis on this project is going to be the 50 pin connector on the EVBMW board. Though the board functions beautifully now, it isn’t talking to the rest of the inverter and I’m getting some really weird readings from the sensors. Diagnosis from the forums (and the board’s creator) is that the 50 pin connector that originally caused me so … Continue reading Fifty pins of woe
A new hope (OK, controller board)
The control board and modified inverter came back this weekend and everything seems to be working. Hit it with 12V and you get a WiFi connection and web interface. Hoorah! I’ve also received from Damien a daughter-board that provides the 35-pin AMPSEAL male connector and have designed a new 3D printed part to enclose this. A few designs for this have been floating around the … Continue reading A new hope (OK, controller board)
Central locking and wing mirror sorted
We’ve now fixed the main issues with the car itself. Like the power hood, the central locking just seemed to be bad earth/connection issue. Once I stripped off the actuator, greased it and put it back together, it worked fine. We picked up a second hand driver’s door mirror from the ZRoadster forum and fitted that. Not as cheap a job as I was hoping … Continue reading Central locking and wing mirror sorted
Fixing the electric hood
So, one of the first things to tackle on the car was the electric hood, which the previous owners had told us was broken. Sure enough when we first tried it we heard clicking but there was no movement. My initial diagnosis (fuse, ground etc) was rather undermined by my not understanding the process you had to go through to make the hood work: ignition … Continue reading Fixing the electric hood
The car arrives
The car has arrived! Rolled off the transporter this morning. And after waiting for some joker to unblock my driveway, I got it home. Car runs nicely with a bit of right boot but won’t idle and there’s an engine management light on. Not got the diagnostics hooked up yet so not sure what the cause is, but if anyone’s in the market for a … Continue reading The car arrives
My first disaster… Controller board borked
The Prius Gen 3 controller board from EVBMW comes as a kit that you need to do some soldering on to add various connectors. I’ve been soldering for about 35 years. But only ever through-hole stuff. Never surface mount and never particularly fine scale. I watched the instruction video from Damien at EVBMW and thought, “How hard can it be?” The answer: £300 hard. In short, I … Continue reading My first disaster… Controller board borked
CANBus & BMW diagnostics
While I wait for the car I’ve started sketching out the electronics and particularly the bus systems I will need to tap into in order to keep things like the instrument panel working. The ZRoadster forum has been absolutely invaluable here with links to wiring diagrams and service manuals for the Z3. Z3s, which were built on the E36 3-Series platform, use two different bus … Continue reading CANBus & BMW diagnostics