Super Smart Alternator in 2023 VW Crafter is tamed by Scotty AI at 3,000W DC DC
Video Text:
There is a coulomb counter on the negative starter battery post measuring energy in and out of the battery. The vehicle’s ECU knows the charge level of the starter battery and until it gets to about 70% does not raise the voltage on the alternator. It also raises the voltage when the EFI is off. In 2021 with Scotty Ver 1, it took 8 firmware changes until we solved this issue on the Euro 6.2 engines. Up until 2023, this has been running very successfully. Now there is a further enhancement by the European vehicle builders to save even more fuel. There is an added complication of the timing and length of time, the ECU changes the alternator voltage (now multiple values). When the auxiliary battery is at float voltage but still below capacity, the high side demand is significantly reduced and a standard DC DC may not always operate with one of these new vehicle ECU’s. It has only taken us 1 firmware revision with Scotty AI to fine tune for this this problem. Scotty will also still operate on “Soft”, ”Medium” and “Hard” settings when idling. (Disclaimer: this is one of the claims in our Patent Pending). In this video, we show how we can control the alternator voltage between 12.7 and 14.4V. How we do this is not going to be revealed. It took over 300 tunings of smart alternators, an oscilloscope and lots of field reporting to figure that out. We have now tested this successfully with VW Amarok, VW Crafter, VW T6, Ford Ranger, Isuzu DMAX, LC 300 all 2023 models and Nissan Patrol. One thing is for sure, the vehicle manufacturers keep chasing fractions of a percent improvement in fuel economy or for compliance reasons. The control strategy will keep changing. Our firmware is Over The Air (OTA) in Scotty AI and as soon as we detect a change we can tune the firmware to suit. #howgoodsthat #traveltheworld #withoutconsumingtheearth #havefundoingit #48V #victronenergy #dcdc #smartalternator #VWcrafter #VWamarok #VWT6 #sprinter #fordranger #euro6 #Scotty
Story behind this Video
Application: 4WD, Vans, Motorhomes
Tags: Scotty, AI, Smar Alternator, Euro 6.2 Engine, VW crafter, Sprinter, Ford ranger, VW Amarok, VW transporter, DMAX, Landcruiser, LC300
What is the Problem(s) to be Solved?
1) Smart Alternators are difficult to extract maximum power from. The alternators are not the root cause of the problem. The vehicle’s ECU is programmed to minimise alternator “on” time to save fuel economy particularly during the assessment tests for vehicle compliance. So the ECU keeps the alternator turned off unless it determines power is needed:
· There is a coulomb counter on the negative terminal of the starter battery to read its SOC%.
· When this level drops below a % set by the auto-manufacturer, the ECU turns the Smart alternator on.
· It may also be turned on when the EFI turns off and the vehicle is then braking or coasting.
· However, the 2023 models inspected recently have an added complication. The alternator is also turned on at what appears to be random intervals for an extremely short time. If power is not extracted within a second of coming on, the power extraction opportunity is lost. The alternator stays at 12.7V.
· The alternators operate at variable voltage around 12.7, 13.2 and 14.4-15.6
How are these Problems Solved?
1) We don’t reveal how we do it. It has taken hundreds of hours of field commissioning to figure out what the secret is to extracting high power continuously.
2) We were blessed with very understanding customers, a sharp oscilloscope, and in the cloud reporting of all the parameters. Quite an investment.
What is Special about how these Problems are Solved?
1) There is auto-tuning for each alternator done by the AI program. So Scotty AI is precisely tuned to the smart alternator. The user simply selects the smart alternator button “yes’ on the auto-tuning page before starting the auto-tuning.
2) Vehicle manufacturers will continue to develop smarter and smarter algorithms for saving fuel, especially during the critical “compliance test” process. So whatever is good today, may not work on future models. Scotty has “over the air” updates from a Smart phone and can be kept easily up to date.
How Good’s That!.
