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Teardown reveals Chevy Volt's electronic secrets
- mey 14y agoCan anyone explain why there are so many control boards? It seems like a nightmare wiring those systems together and coding them all to correctly interact together. Then again I have limited experience with real-time systems.
- tb 14y agoMost modern cars will have lots of separate controllers. Many of the functions of the car are largely independent and having them on separate boards means they can be physically closer to the things they are controlling, and the number of functions that each is responsible for is reduced which simplifies design, coding and test.
- sliverstorm 14y agoI'm going to guess "modularity". Probably also cheaper to shoehorn more smaller boards into the car, than one large board. Anyway, as for connecting them and coding the interfaces, they've been doing that for ages. Have you heard of CAN bus? It's actually pretty cool.
- mey 14y agoThat's pretty interesting, thanks for sharing. Hadn't heard of CAN before.
- jroll 14y agoThey are indeed for modularity. One benefit here is that dealerships can quickly swap part of a battery (cells and controller) to make repairs quicker. The other benefit is that smaller batteries can be made by using the same components and code.
- jroll 14y agoI used to work at the hybrid battery lab at GM, and for a while on the Volt battery itself. I'm happy to try to answer any questions (without breaking confidentiality, of course).
- ayuvar 14y agoDo you know what happened with the battery explosion a few weeks ago? I assume it was some kind of extreme load testing that went awry.
- jroll 14y agoI do not; that was after I left. I can tell you that they do extensive abuse testing at that facility. I tried my damnedest to find out, but nobody would talk. :(
- hyuuu 14y agohow revolutionary the battery is? Compared to the ones in the market such as Nissan Leaf, Mitshubishi imiev, etc
- jroll 14y agoI don't know anything about the Mitsubishi. The Leaf definitely has a capacity advantage (at the cost of weight), and is approximately the same chemistry. The Volt's thermal and electrical controls are vastly superior to the Leaf.
- hyuuu 14y agohow do the electric + thermal controls translate to user benefits? More range or more torque? <-- might be a really basic question
- jroll 14y agoThey definitely contribute to range and torque, but the most important contribution is to the overall lifetime of the battery. Batteries treated nicely are apt to last much longer. Thermal management is probably THE most important factor in a battery's lifetime.