The voltage dropped after you started the car or before? If it drops after you start it then it's not so bad. 11.9 under load is pretty good which is the best indication of battery health. If you have a bad cell you will get decent power for a while but then a precipitous drop in voltage as the weak cell runs out of juice and is dragged along by the other cells.
The battery should recover somewhat with use. That's a pretty good charger so that's not your problem. It's probably a little hard sulfated from sitting around. I'm not convinced the desulfation works but I do it anyway because it can't hurt. there is a powder which removes the hard sulfation but this reduces the potential capacity of the battery so It's only a last resort after trying desulf and exercise.
One way to improve it would be to tie it in with a circuit that makes it blink. (Because I think a blinking light would be easier to notice/monitor.)
Not certain, but I think the way to do that is with a "555" chip and some resistors to set the cycle length.
You could do it that way without too much difficulty, and the 555 Chips are very cheap. If anyone is interested i'll draw up a circuit to do it. I've worked with the 555 'pit timer' before.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Daox
For a while now, I really haven't been using the scangauge to track MPG. The problem I have is that when I have a short pulse followed by engine off coasting, the scangauge shuts off and throws my numbers off. It also takes the computer a long time to reboot when I switch back to run. This further throws off my numbers. Anyway, Darin seems to think that this is hurting my mpg. So, he finally convinced me to install my mpguino I've had for a few weeks now.
The Scanguage II has a hybrid mode, and won't shut off when you EOC coast in this mode. It just stays on a lot longer, i think, or it checks to see if the car is moving, or something. With it on, the scanguage never shuts off on me when I EOC coast.
Read the thread Daox, and the passeo seems to be coming along nicely! I'd love to get to 60 MPG!
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The scangauge doesn't actually shut off. I do have it in hybrid mode. Its just that the OBDII port doesn't see sensor readings until the computer reboots. So, it assumes I'm getting the same mileage as when I turned the car off.
This morning, when I took the charger off the battery, I jumped in the car, activated the scangauge, and it read 12.6V. I had checked while it was on the charger, and it said 13.2V just as it should. I guess I'll just live with the battery being low for now. I threw it on the desulfator. We'll see if it helps at all over the weekend.
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The scangauge doesn't actually shut off. I do have it in hybrid mode. Its just that the OBDII port doesn't see sensor readings until the computer reboots. So, it assumes I'm getting the same mileage as when I turned the car off.
This morning, when I took the charger off the battery, I jumped in the car, activated the scangauge, and it read 12.6V. I had checked while it was on the charger, and it said 13.2V just as it should. I guess I'll just live with the battery being low for now. I threw it on the desulfator. We'll see if it helps at all over the weekend.
Oops. That was supposed to be "I read the thread Daox".
That behavior is very different from what i get. I see the reading drop to zero almost instantly when i shut off. Is your scanguage maby an older version of the code or something perhaps? Or perhaps the Paseo's computer handles things differntly? I don't know....
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When I turn my car off and back on, my scangauge just freezes all the numbers except it keeps calculating average trip mpg at the frozen mpg. Eventually the mpg updates to 9999, but this is ~8-10 seconds later.
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Congrats for your latest tank : 626.9 mi. / 9.04 US gal = 69.35 US
Do you think the alternator removal is the cause of such an improvement ?
Do you feel a difference of behavior of your car while you drive it ?
Congrats for your prius, have fun with it
Denis.
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kg saved 06/08-09/09: 1956.7+382.9 (ecodriving / 1420mi not driven)
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I think the alternator disable has a large hand in it. I admit I did more focused driving vs my last tank (62 mpg). I had my mpguino working for most of the tank, and that helped. However, disabling/re-enabling the alternator is very noticeable. I'd say its more noticeable than turning the AC on and off. You can feel a difference in acceleration as well. On the trip to get the Prius, I drove to the dealer with the alternator on. When I'd shift to neutral for my glide, I noticed my rpms dropped like a brick. On the way home I disabled the alternator and the rpms dropped much slower.
I'd highly recommend this mod for anyone who can get their hands on a decent deep cycle battery.
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