Volkswagen PTC heater (6 kW) CAN interface

Description

A high quality automotive grade MRS CAN to LIN controller is programmed as a gateway to enable you to control the LIN controlled air PTC heater found in various EV’s from Volkswagen via CAN.

So bottomline this gateway results in a CAN controlled PTC heater for your EV conversion.

More info can be found in my blogpost: Volkswagen air PTC heater control via LIN bus.

There are two variations:

1. Just the gateway and high voltage and control connector kits for the PTC heater
2. The gateway, the control connector kits and a tested and (thus) compatible PTC heater

The gateway has ECE-R10 certification. You just need to send an enable signal (which is also seen as a confirmation you have a blower of fan enabled) and an ‘on level’ percentage. It will provide some feedback on it’s status.

The product images do not (yet) show the terminals and seals for the high voltage and control connector but they will be included.

In the package that includes the PTC heater it is a used and tested one. Depending on your setup capable of delivering up to 6 kW peak. Voltage range 180 – 400VDC (should be able do more but needs to be confirmed).

The PTC has a build in overheat protection. The below thermal image was taken with the blower disabled at the moment the heater disabled itself. Al lower currents it might take some time but at some point the heater disables itself. I saw peak temperatures of around 150 to 160 degrees. Please take that into account when building the enclosure and HVAC system.

In the below video you can see a demo of the Volkswagen PTC heater being controlled via CAN using the gateway.

The control message is 0x623 and the status message is 0x624.

In the status message is indicated how much power the PTC consumes (in 0,1 kW), if it has (enough) high voltage and if you have enabled it or not. Your thermal controller needs to ensure it is safe to operate the heater at the requested intensity. For example ony enable after precharge is completed and respect the max. current out from the battery while taking into account other loads.