2nd Gen Prius PHEV Conversion (Enginer plug-in lithium ion battery kit)

[Daox]

Woo, lots of discussion. Yeah, I was away for the weekend. Thanks for answering the questions guys. The videos look great Ben!

Alas, there is no good news at this point. Once Ben left on Thursday, I worked on the car for another 2.5 hours until we had company over. At that point I had the car all wired up and ready to go, but just not put back together. Friday morning I put the car back together and when I went to start it up I got a dashboard full of lights and the MFD saying "Problem" with a little red car in the upper left and an "!" over it. I searched online and worked on it that morning but couldn't figure it out. We were supposed to leave that morning to visit relatives so the wife was pretty miffed (as was I). So, we packed up the Paseo and went on our way around noon.

So, now I just need to figure out what went wrong. I'm quite sure it has nothing to do with the kit itself, just something I did while installing it or something. The only real thing I can see that isn't happening when I turn the car on is that the 12V is not getting power from the dc to dc converter. So, I'm not sure if I blew a fuse or if disconnecting the high voltage pack caused some error. In any case, I'll be trouble shooting it tonight.

[hybriddriveguy]

The most commonly overlooked detail it with the hv service plug. Once it is inserted and flipped up, the handle has to be pushed straight down vertically to activate the safety interlock switch. I get calls every week from technicians that forget this. The other common thing is the ECU connector not seating properly or one of the pins getting pushed out when plugging it in.
HTH

[Daox]

Originally Posted by hybriddriveguy

The most commonly overlooked detail it with the hv service plug. Once it is inserted and flipped up, the handle has to be pushed straight down vertically to activate the safety interlock switch.
HTH

Well, I'm 100% sure that I did not push it down. Thanks!


Also, when Ben was over on Thursday, he talked about a cell balancing system that Lee Hart put together that is incredibly simple. Basically, he puts a zener diode between the - and + posts on the battery. The zener diode's voltage is set to the max charging voltage. Once that voltage is hit, the diode starts shunting power through the lead and through some sort of load (like a light bulb in this case). Very simple, very cheap and sounds like it should work great for charging problems.

Lee Hart's Shunt Type Battery Balancer

[NeilBlanchard]

Hi,

I found that reading this FAQ on one of the links provided earlier, is very, very useful:

Hybridinterfaces Prius plug-ins

He mentions the Enginer kit (on the 2nd or 3rd page of the FAQ), and says that the battery life (based on the quality of the charging) will be the make or break of low(er) cost lithium batteries.

[Edit: This page in particular is INCREDIBLY helpful in understanding EV's in general, and a plug-in Prius kit in particular!

http://www.hybridinterfaces.ca/assemblies.html

All I've got to say is -- wow! ]

[orange4boy]

Looking good.

Did you remove the spare tire and jack to save the pounds or does it serve a collision protection function?

[Daox]

It is currently serving as collision protection. (I have no idea if thats true or not)

Ben mentioned about someone else's phev setup using some air shocks to maintain usability of the spare tire. I really like this idea. Since it is the wife's car (and she is capable of changing a tire), I'd like to have the utility of it. We'll figure that out once we get things working though.

[RobertSmalls]

Originally Posted by Daox

It is currently serving as collision protection. (I have no idea if thats true or not)

Kinda the opposite, extra mass inside the passenger cell will only serve to drive you harder into whatever barrier you hit.

[Daox]

Originally Posted by RobertSmalls

Kinda the opposite, extra mass inside the passenger cell will only serve to drive you harder into whatever barrier you hit.

And why do you assume I'm the one driving into something?

[Daox]

Well, I fixed the plug and the car now starts up. I did have to turn it on and off 3 times to get rid of the error lights (common problem when you disconnect the HV pack apparently).

However, I took it for a spin and the phev kit isn't charging the pack (according to the scangauge ammeter xgauge). So, I'll be trouble shooting that another day. Hands a pretty frozen atm and its time to relax for tonight.

[Daox]

Well, krousdb was correct (user on priuschat). The pack was working. I just had to burn some juice off it first to see the amps being pumped back in. And, with that, I just got back from my second phev drive (first was yesterday unknowingly haha)!

From my incredibly minimal experience at this point, it basically kind of drives like you have 7 green bars, although not even as drastic as that. It uses the pack a bit more on take off, but cruising at speed you can't even tell its doing anything unless you really watch your gauges.

Now, just to figure out a way to disconnect the pack with to prevent over charging and discharging...