Project: Zombie Insight (2000 Honda)

[Artric]

I don't mind paying for the few extra watts to run the fan.

Since I already have the 12v connected to the fan (positive and negative), I'll just run the positive over to that pin then? Or do I need to also run the negative to a ground point? Sorry this is probably a stupid question.

I'm not too worried about pack life. If it goes, it goes. At least I'll get the experience of repairing it myself. It's going to go eventually, and I don't feel like topping it off is going to make it go significantly sooner.

If I use my whole pack, I only can recharge for about 12 hours a day, and that's 4.2Ah, so I might not even necessarily top it off anyway.

I'm not charging before 7PM on sunny days, so my cabin temps are maxing out only around 100. I'm managing battery usage so I don't have to charge at work. It'd be nice though. Maybe in the Winter to make up for the cold temps screwing with my MPG.

[Daox]

What about just wiring a 12V power supply (wall wart) to the fan, so when you plug in the fan turns on.

[RobertSmalls]

Oh yes, those brutal Florida winters.
Yeah, I know there's a mpg hit, but I guess I'm jealous you can run Potenzas year round.

Originally Posted by Artric

Since I already have the 12v connected to the fan (positive and negative), I'll just run the positive over to that pin then? Or do I need to also run the negative to a ground point? Sorry this is probably a stupid question.

Dunno. Measure from your negative rail to chassis ground with an ohmmeter. If the fan's negative is grounded, then you're good.

Originally Posted by Daox

What about just wiring a 12V power supply (wall wart) to the fan, so when you plug in the fan turns on.

That's the safe thing to do. The only possible downside is a cold battery during the winter. Once I put my MIMA together, I may try to power up its fan controller while grid charging, to turn on the fan at 120°F.

[02insight]

not sure if I understand correctly. But you are jumping the pins to turn on the IMA system, but the car is still off. So if those systems are running from the 12v battery while the grid charger is charging, would it run down the 12v a little bit from the long overnight charge? or am I missing something. Maybe the IMA computers dont use that much power to run down the 12v ?

[RobertSmalls]

As pictured above, yes, it drains the 12V battery. That's okay if you're grid charging the 12V nightly, but the right way to do it is to run the BCM and battery fan off an AC->12VDC power supply. Maybe a toggle switch on the battery fan, set to "off" for winter.

[02insight]

Hi, I looked at this picture from your post, and your (+) terminal from the charger seems to be connected on the top terminal of the battery instead of the bottom one at the resistor which I have seen other people connect their chargers to. I was wondering whats going on there?

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...tml#post177615

thanks

[RobertSmalls]

Hmm, that is an interesting photo. I'm pretty sure there would be no connection from there to the + side of the battery unless the key was on.

[RobertSmalls]

I'm really not driving much lately, so the boat tail frame is still hanging up in the garage, waiting for me to attach a skin and some lamps to it.

I've assembled a MIMA controller, shown here almost completed:



It was $125 for these seven PCBs and the preprogrammed 40-pin microcontroller. It was another $125 or so for the components to populate the boards. This was no harder than assembling a MIMA-L despite having ten times as many components, because the traces are already laid down for you here.



I now have four toggle switches to the left of the steering wheel. From left to right, the switches turn on and off the fuel injectors, clutch switch assist/regen disable (somewhat redundant now that I have MIMA), DC/DC converter, and MIMA.

I've only put about 10 miles on the car since installing MIMA. Initial impressions are positive, but not overwhelmingly so. The car cuts out assist after a few seconds, and MIMA hasn't changed that. Perhaps my MIMA controller is slightly broken, maybe it was related to the state of charge recalibration I just had, maybe I've been too lead-footed... I'll figure it out eventually. Meanwhile, EV mode is limited to a few seconds out of every minute.

Other things I want to use MIMA for:

*faster regen braking. It works! The default setup gives you a full 50A until RPMs fall too low, then tapers it off so the car slows down smoothly. Call in full regen with the MIMA stick, and you get 50A down to... well, low enough RPM for DFCO to end, and the engine to fire angrily. Much faster stopping, and the guy behind me is happier.

*holding lean burn while accelerating. I expect MIMA to provide big payback here, but I haven't gotten the engine hot enough to test it yet.

*disabling Honda's undocumented automatic background charging. There's an option for that somewhere in the controller, I just have to find it.

*cruising faster than LB would allow, then dropping to stoich to recharge every 10-30min.




The Insight is known for developing rust on the seats' steel rails, where it's bolted to the Al floorpan. That rust is the benign half of the galvanic corrosion equation. I pulled both my seats, hit the rust with a wire brush and rust converter, then applied black rust resistant enamel. I don't think there's much I can do about that corroded frame member, though.

I also noticed moisture under the carpet, and I'm not sure that can be helped either.

[Artric]

Good job on making the MIMA board - very impressive!

It's difficult at first, but I bet you'll learn to love it. Do you know have a joystick for manual control? That's what I use consistently. It can take some time to wrap your mind around it, but that plus the grid charger is what can give you the real potential to get astronomical numbers.

I still haven't connected the BCM yet, but I'm planning on it. I'm also looking into doing a DC-DC converter switch like you have (and getting an OPTIMA battery before long, too). Is there a tutorial anywhere that shows what wire to cut and how to wire in a switch, etc? Or was that covered earlier in this thread?

You continue to amaze me with each post - keep up the great work!

[RobertSmalls]

Yeah, I haven't tried out any MIMA modes aside from manual. Manual mode seems ideal for the kind of driving I do.

I can't recommend a DC/DC converter toggle switch or an Optima battery. It's too heavy, expensive, inefficient, and too much of pain for me to use it outside of FE competitions. The correct approach is to replace your IMA battery with >5KWh of lithium cells. It's no fun when your voltage sags to the point where your dash lights go dim with each blink of the turn signal, or when you run the headlights at 10V. Plus, the cycle life of the Optima is unimpressive: 200 cycles to 50% capacity at 100% DoD, 1000 cycles at 50% DoD. Thundersky makes a LFP 12V battery that you might look for reviews of. I'm sure it'll have better cycle life, Wh/$, and Wh/kg than the Optima.

The wire to mess with is DVINH, which you can find at the DC/DC or MCM. You do have the circuit diagrams, right? The DC/DC creates a 5V logic signal, and if the MCM grounds it, the DC/DC shuts down. So tap in to that wire, run a wire over to your switch board, and from the other leg of your switch to ground.

I also cut the wire from the MCM, revoking the MCM's authority to turn off the DC/DC and generating a P1445. I bet applying 5V to the MCM side of the DVINH would have cleared the code. But perhaps it's more important than I realized to allow the MCM to shut off the DC/DC... what if it's necessary to prevent overdischarging and reversing a cell? I've been effectively drawing a couple of amps of assist every time I go engine-off, and Honda's BMS is powerless to stop it.

I think the issue I'm having with sustaining assist now, which in hindsight I've been having since before MIMA, is a weak IMA battery. It has no problem offering regen, but it doesn't like to give assist. That's pretty clear. Time to dust off the Super Brain again.