[HN Gopher] Running Tesla Model 3's computer on my desk using pa...
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Running Tesla Model 3's computer on my desk using parts from
crashed cars
Author : driesdep
Score : 143 points
Date : 2026-03-25 21:11 UTC (1 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (bugs.xdavidhu.me)
(TXT) w3m dump (bugs.xdavidhu.me)
| owenthejumper wrote:
| Could 'lb' be load balancer?!
| trsohmers wrote:
| It actually stands for "lizard brain"... it is (or at least
| was) an Infineon Aurix control and monitoring microcontroller,
| they may have changed to a newer one.
| LikeBeans wrote:
| Very cool. Over a year and a half ago I installed a towing brake
| controller in my Tesla Model Y. Found the location of the plug,
| how to access and the pinout online (confirmed via a voltmeter..)
| so the car's side felt straight forward. But then I needed to
| find a brake controller that can work with the higher voltage
| (14.4v vs the normal 12v). Then built a cable from the brake
| controller to the connector that plugs into the car that I found
| on eBay. I velcro'd the controller under the dashboard. It works
| pretty well. I towed my small camper several times with it last
| year with no issues. Yay! However my little project is nothing
| compared to this post. Love people hacking away. So cool.
| ferongr wrote:
| >then I needed to find a brake controller that can work with
| the higher voltage (14.4v vs the normal 12v)
|
| Put a voltmeter on the battery terminals of a regular car at
| 2000rpm and note the voltage. You'd be surpised (the alternator
| can produce as high as 15V on some cars).
| AlotOfReading wrote:
| Automotive transients can be wild. I did a bringup with a
| board that had specified 100+v range specified for transients
| and finicky quality requirements on the output. The power
| supplies took up most of the (very large) board.
| silisili wrote:
| > But then I needed to find a brake controller that can work
| with the higher voltage (14.4v vs the normal 12v)
|
| Not understanding this sentence. Most running ICE vehicles
| product closer to that 14.4 than 12v. I think a standard
| controller would have worked fine?
| serf wrote:
| you're correct. a '12v ICE' alternator generates up to
| 14.8-15.2v. Most automotive stuff can operate between
| 9ish-16ish-v , of course totally depending on the product.
|
| of course this is just a modern interpretation. older stuff
| runs at 6v and some weirdo offbeat cars have a 24v/48v rail
| sitting around somewhere. Cop cars often had alternators that
| put out weird voltage ranges for certain equipment, or dual
| 12v for high amperage output.
| londons_explore wrote:
| Whilst cranking, an ICE car will drop to around 6 volts
| (then maximum power is extracted according to thevenim's
| theorem).
|
| That means all computers etc will work at 6v.
| toast0 wrote:
| > Whilst cranking, an ICE car will drop to around 6 volts
| (then maximum power is extracted according to thevenim's
| theorem).
|
| > That means all computers etc will work at 6v.
|
| Not necessarily all of them. Plenty of stuff will drop
| out while cranking; hopefully not the computers that run
| the fuel injection and ignition, though.
| bluGill wrote:
| The specs say no less than 6volts. In the real world when
| the temperature drops down to -70F or colder and
| batteries get old the voltage goes well below that: deal
| with it.
| LikeBeans wrote:
| You are probably right. Surprisingly the first controller I
| tried didn't work. I assumed the voltage was too high since
| it worked in my other (much older) car. I found a reference
| online of people that tried a particular brand/model and
| that's what I went for. Thankfully my car isn't the model
| with the internal 18v battery.
| anigbrowl wrote:
| I have no wheels and I must drift
| MengerSponge wrote:
| Fun linguistic quirk: Americans tend to call it a "wiring
| harness", whereas Brits prefer "loom"
| Dan_- wrote:
| So what do you call the tubing around the wire bundle? That's
| what we call "loom".
| girvo wrote:
| It's funny to hear LVDS be described as an "automotive" cable
| when all of my run-ins with it are for connecting laptop displays
| to their main-boards! (though that has a very different connector
| on it, and its a very general term for the signalling protocol
| from what I remember)
| inamberclad wrote:
| SpaceWire is also just LVDS with an uber-minimal routing
| protocol. It runs on a lot of satellites.
| slfnflctd wrote:
| Not saying there's anything wrong with your perspective (lots
| of terms get in muddied waters, it's common and not a problem
| if everyone is on the same page), but this is what I just found
| on Wikipedia:
|
| "Early on, the notebook computer and LCD vendors commonly used
| the term LVDS instead of FPD-Link when referring to their
| protocol, and the term LVDS has mistakenly become synonymous
| with Flat Panel Display Link in the video-display engineering
| vocabulary."
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-voltage_differential_signa...
| girvo wrote:
| Yeah I saw that too which is why I posted my comment, it's
| surprising to me :) LVDS for display cables was an
| _incredibly_ term in that context. Even still is sometimes
| despite them mostly being eDP (embedded-DisplayPort) now,
| which is _quite_ incorrect hah
| dogman1050 wrote:
| I love that it has a standard RJ45 ethernet connector.
| bombcar wrote:
| I thought I saw an HDMI connector, but maybe I was wrong.
| inventor7777 wrote:
| Ha! Reading this comment made me curious, so I went back and
| looked at the article and there does seem to be a full sized
| HDMI connector. I wonder if it is enabled, or just for Tesla
| internal testing?
| wds wrote:
| How many PoE adapters would it take to charge a Tesla?
| kube-system wrote:
| > Turns out that actual cars don't have individual cables.
| Instead they have these big "looms", which bundle many cables
| from a nearby area into a single harness. This is the reason why
| I could not find the individual cable earlier. They simply don't
| manufacture it.
|
| I was really surprised to read this at the end of the article --
| how could someone be this deep into a project of this depth and
| not realize this?! Not only because all cars (...er... all
| _vehicles_ ) are wired this way, but also because the
| documentation they were referencing has plenty of detail to show
| this... there's even a whole picture of it:
| https://service.tesla.com/docs/Model3/ServiceManual/2024/en-...
| caycep wrote:
| Granted, I think it would be valuable to look at all sorts of
| automotive ECUs. I always wonder how the tuning industry does
| their thing; I shudder to think they're just sitting there
| flipping hex codes directly in running software...
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(page generated 2026-03-25 23:00 UTC)