Tricking the Roadster to produce more power...

[wiztecy]

So connected up with a new friend in the EV world today at a local car-show, an ex battery engineer from Zero motorcycles who runs his own consulting business. We started talking EV stuff and power, he mentioned that if I wanted more power / torque from the roadster that it can be done. You just have to trick a few sensors to believe they're reading lower than they actually are and he said EVs are the easiest vehcles to trick / modify to get more power. He's never come across one he couldn't do and had success with Model S's. So we can definitely overdrive the Roadster to be quicker in sprints. But the end factor would again be heat on the motor then PEM. He asked also if I wanted it to be reliable, which with any hot-ridding comes with a price and a drop in reliability. If I had a track car I was playing around with I'd overdrive my Roadster, but its quick enough for me and I love the car for its reliability and that I can count on it every day as a daily commuter. I'll start to discuss with him about rebuilding PEMS and supporting our cars in the future. With that came in connection with a fabrication guy who may be able to make ne CF panels if the time comes that Tesla cuts us short. Networking is key

My new EV / battery friend is the one who came up with the DeathBike 7.0 which is a custom dual passenger bicycle/motorcycle hybrid running EV gear that's tweaked. He asked me to ride this bike sometime which one day I'll have to take him up on. Here's a video racing a P85 Model S:

 

[MileHighMotoring]

Honestly, unless you're racing for pink slips, how does anyone need the Roadster or Model S to be faster than it already is? I'm shocked I don't have a stack of speeding tickets as it is...

 

[wiztecy]

I agree and disagree. I'd always opt for more power, power / acceleration trumps braking in a split second situation where someone enters your lane or the unexpected happens. A good driver always has an exit point ready when the SH*T flies. But if you improve your acceleration you *need* to improve your braking to the same degree, people just don't get that and that's the point that I've found the Roadster had missed big time from a stock setup. For myself the reliability aspect of the EV is that I dearly love. Pushing cars and components push innovation, but I just don't have enough spare cash to buy another Roadster to experiment and play with all these fun mods on a second Roadster. I do enjoy EV motorcycles and skateboards and will definitely play around with those controllers. I'm going on my 5th electric skateboard and will be building my own. I commute every work day with my board and modifying one of mine to hold up to ride in the rainy conditions, rain wheels, fenders, conformal coating on all the PCB's to waterproof them, etc. Of all my EV toys, car, motorcycle, skateboard, the skateboard has to be the most fun practical of them all. It gets me to the downtown metro-bus station every work day and to work. Great tool!

What I really want to strive for is an EV power train driven glider. Pure Bills.

 

[MileHighMotoring]

I wish you lived in my town. I'd be at your place every day playing with your toys. That's great!

 

[Drewflux]

Very intriguing to see what comes of your new buddy. The aftermarket EV drag racing world is coming up with new intresting concepts all the time. I do agree with you that potential for less reliable ride, may only be suited to a track car.

 

[Rolf68]

Hello Wiztecy

I hope you'll be able to finalize this "quest for a better PEM" with your friend. I'd love to know that in worst case a solution would exist.

Thanks for your commitment to the Roadsters

 

[JRP3]

Luke "Live for Physics" is a long time member at Endless-sphere.com • View forum - Electric Bicycles

 

[twiersum]

Current sensor

 

[DanielFriederich]

That's one of the driver boards controlling the megapole below which produces the power. The three driver boards are controlled by the mainboard right hand inside the PEM... so how exactly should this be modified (higher switching rate => igbts will have less output, longer "on" times in switching? => Software controlled by the 2 boards on passender site, RPM of Motor => controlled by a chain wheel attached to it and magnetic sensor......)

 

[twiersum]

That's one of the driver boards controlling the megapole below which produces the power. The three driver boards are controlled by the mainboard right hand inside the PEM... so how exactly should this be modified (higher switching rate => igbts will have less output, longer "on" times in switching? => Software controlled by the 2 boards on passender site, RPM of Motor => controlled by a chain wheel attached to it and magnetic sensor......)

If the current sensor is meant to read up to 700 Amps, if you put in a new one that is for 1000 Amps, it will think its only at 70% when you are at 700 Amps and therefore it will give you more throttle.

 

[DanielFriederich]

Since PEM and BSM measure many parameters and the analysis with the software might be quite complex I highly doubt that just "changing one sensor to a different value" will result in more amp output... In an analog word I would admit that it might work but not in a digital controlled environment.
For example even changing the igbts to a newer version with lower saturation voltage would also affect the driver boards and therefore them to be changed otherwise the system would get not suitable (values in normal operation range) measurements and go nuts... with the possible result of burned like in this case then the input transformer due to overload.

 

[Kerios]

If the current sensor is meant to read up to 700 Amps, if you put in a new one that is for 1000 Amps, it will think its only at 70% when you are at 700 Amps and therefore it will give you more throttle.

I think that if you do this, the car will throw an error if you're lucky, and if not then may decide the as you say increase the current to match, the problem is that the PCB components (and probably the PCB) were designed to handle a calculated amount of power if you increase that by another 30%, it is quite possible that the PEM will destroy itself in a fairly spectular fashion. Increasing the power this way smacks more of changing a compone within an internal combustion engine e.g. inlet manifold, there it works, for an EV I think you need to consider the whole drivetrain in a holistic approach not based on switching an individual component. Just my two cents.