Ok…I can connect to the drive with the Sentry software using the USB to 23 pin from inwo. I cannot connect using USB to serial adapter.
I am right back to the car working with the serial adapter plugged in. Car will not work without the serial adapter plugged in.
Is there a possibility that the cluster is monitoring the voltage on pin 1? Needs a spoof, just like the controller? Although, I don’t see how the serial device would effect this.
Or maybe I have a bad wire between 11 and 12 from the cluster to 22 and 23 on the controller and the serial device satisfies that somehow?
Same results with both dash clusters that I have here.
The only wire that needs a spoof is pin 1 of the controller.
Check for codes again.
No codes are coming up.
I tried with the serial adapter and without it.
Just to re-cap
If the serial adapter is plugged into the 12 pin com port on the drive this car will work. Unplug the serial adapter and it won’t move.
Motor controller just returned from a rebuild. Cluster #1 was gone through in January. Not sure about Cluster #2 but it is a B1 super cluster as is number 1.
It only needs the serial adapter. Not the computer hooked to it.
How hard is it to just eliminate the cluster?
I was wondering what happened to this.
It has been such a long time I need to go back and review.
Did FSIP actually find anything wrong with the controller?
Returned with no paperwork. I can communicate with the sentry software using the 23 pin plug from Inwo so that works now. I couldn’t before the repair.
Other than that I don’t know
I will check continuity on the two serial wires this evening. The only thing I am grasping at is the serial adapter satisfies some condition from the cluster to the control when it is plugged in.
In a nut shell. I’m still baffled how the serial converter makes this car work.
Another theory bit the dust.
Checked serial communication wires from the cluster to the controller. Both wires, white and violet, checked out at 1.1 ohms.
Send cluster out again, I guess.
Where do you live???
I’m in lower Michigan. Not too many Thinks around here.
So I cut the cord off of the USB to serial converter, zip tied it up and went for a 13 mile run.
I’m not saying it’s fixed and I don’t trust it but I’m going to use it untill I find the correct solution.
Still hopeful for the correct solution. I will send the other cluster out see if that fixes it.
I would be seeing if I could get my hands on a known good controller. Call FSIP and they may send you one so you can test it since they just rebuilt yours.
They don’t have any. I tried to buy one to save time. I do have another controller but it did the exact same thing.
I plan on sending that one out too.
So- If I get this correct…
You cut off the DB9 end of your serial adapter and the car still works when you have the other end plugged into your controller?
This tells me whatever this think likes is in the plug or cable.
Have you measured the pins in that 12p plug to see if any two pins have a connection? (Is this the adapter with only 3 wires or are there more?)
The three-wire adapter from forklift electronics. Car will not run without the serial adapter plugged into this. I cut the cord off of the USB to serial adapter zip tied it up and away I go.
This was the case with both clusters, both controllers and now the rebuilt controller from FSIP
To be clearer-12 Pin three wire to the 9-pin serial adapter with the serial converter with the USB cord cut off of it. I have no idea why it works, but it does.
Total fluke I found this to make the car run-Many hours of frustration on my part and yours.
I don’t like it one bit, but I need some enjoyment from this money pit. I need to figure it out so I can sell this one and move on to my second one. I will post a picture later
If two different controllers and two different clusters do the same thing you can just about rule them out as the problem. In my experience when I run into strange things like this a lot of the time it ends up being a bad ground. I would check your ground connections and if they all look good, I would either run a jumper wire on each ground circuit one at a time by connecting the one end to battery #1 ground and back probing the other end into the connecter or do a voltage drop test on each circuit. Never use the frame as a ground on these. This includes hooking up a voltmeter. Using battery #1 as your ground is the best way to go. Retest each time and hopefully you find your problem. You can also try unplugging both dc/dc converters as they are not needed for these to run just to eliminate them as a possible problem.
