Honda Insight Auto Stop Idea

[dfeldt91]

Does anyone know how the car gets the 19mph signal for auto stop? Is it an engine sensor, wheel sensor, etc?

When I had the Passat, I used a resistor to allow me to trick the ECU into running 20+ PSI instead of the stock amount of boost without going into limp mode.

I was thinking maybe there would be an easy way to force the car into auto stop by running a resistor at the sensor that could be bypassed with a switch to allow for regular operation or auto stop at a higher speed by limiting the speed the car sees. Car may be going 60 but the resistor would cause the car to see maybe 15 MPH at most when in use.

Anyone know?

[cowmeat]

I installed an injector kill switch that I used in conjunction with my clutch switch (along with a brake button that were all integrated into my shift knob). I could stop the motor at any speed, and re-start with the IMA

The longer you have the Insight the more you'll want to control all those functions separately

[dfeldt91]

If I were to use the injector kill switch, throw the shift knob into neutral and coast, how does the car turn itself back on?

Would I have to start the engine with the key? Throw it in gear and turn the switch off?

I want something that will automatically restart the car like auto stop without having to turn the key or bump start the car.

[cowmeat]

The injector kill is a momentary switch, so you hold it for a second until the motor dies (clutch switch has to be in the "off" position or the car will want to restart because of your speed)

To restart you only need to put it in gear and it will autostart like normal from the IMA, no key or bumpstarting involved

Below is the link to my install. There are a lot of items you might find helpful in Turtle's thread

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...tml#post467947

[Natalya]

VSS sends a speed signal to ECM. I sell pre-programmed arduino clones that spoof a 2hz signal (1mph) which you can send to ECM instead and get Auto-Stop at highway speeds. But if you're handy you can make one yourself.


This is the development thread:
http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...ght-34014.html

This post is where I finally get it working:
http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...tml#post519692

I still sell these, $18 shipped anywhere in USA.




That's my button on the shifter, but you can put yours wherever you like.


Anyway, you hold down the button, throw it into neutral, and you should get Auto-Stop. Once Auto-Stop happens you release the button. To get the engine going again put it into gear and the IMA will start the engine.

You MAY have to tap the brakes, or in my case I have a brake switch on my steering wheel which is useful in its own right as a full-regen switch for the IMA, you can press that instead of hitting the brake pedal if you have one of those.

Using this setup, as opposed to an injector kill, is preferable IMO because you don't get the 10-second no-lean-burn timer once you've got the engine going again, and you don't get the christmas tree lights on the dash. You also don't lose power steering while the engine is off, but if you're a true hypermiler then you might want to remove the EPS, so that one's really just a matter of preference.

[Ecky]

^ The only real limitation of Natalya's very elegant forced-auto stop is that normal autostop rules still apply. That is, the engine must be warmed up, you must have the climate control set to economy, and it must be above 40F outside. An injector kill switch can kill the engine outside of these conditions.

I use Natalya's system, and to get autostop during winter I added a relay that momentarily bypasses the outside air temperature sensor, and puts a resistor in its place that mocks ~60F. The only reason to use a relay and not permanently replace the sensor with a resistor is that the climate control's blend air door uses this sensor too, and it would throw off the system.

[ECO-AKJ]

Originally Posted by dfeldt91

If I were to use the injector kill switch, throw the shift knob into neutral and coast, how does the car turn itself back on?

Would I have to start the engine with the key? Throw it in gear and turn the switch off?

I want something that will automatically restart the car like auto stop without having to turn the key or bump start the car.

What I have been thinking of recently is a [Momentary-On/Off/Momentary-On] switch, one side of the on part can kill the engine, the other side can override the starter solenoid without bumping or using key switch, and then in the off position it can be normal operation if someone else ever has to drive it.

My thoughts came from my head but the wiring schematic still needs drawn to make it work correctly, again, I am not a pro at this but have rewired a sandrail after the previous owner had no fuses or relays and I just about burnt it to the ground.

[Natalya]

@kingster1989:
That sounds like it'd work for the Focus or most other cars. The Honda Insights however use the IMA motor to start their engines. They also have a conventional starter, but the IMA does the job more quickly and quietly using the high-voltage hybrid battery.

Often times if you stall a G1 Insight, simply putting it back into gear will get it to restart the engine using the IMA. However, it (in my experience anyway) didn't restart 100% of the time from the gear shift, so sometimes I had to turn the key and all that. The Auto-Stop feature of the car turns the engine off on its own under certain conditions that Ecky mentioned, and then it always gets restarted by putting it back into gear, no key turn required. Well, unless your IMA warning light (hybrid battery problems) turns on while in Auto-Stop, but that's a completely separate issue.

[Ecky]

Neat idea, but entirely unnecessary in an Insight.

Doax has provided some members on here a custom shifter:




Mine has 3 buttons: Left - momentary, kills engine; Middle - toggle, clutch switch which disabled hybrid system; Right - brake switch, enables regen

The hybrid system will always automatically restart the engine, unless it's disabled or the car is in auto-stop. This is very friendly for new drivers because if they stall it, the engine restarts itself, and you can even drag the car forward with a stalled engine and get moving down the road again with electric alone.

-Using the injector kill method, you'd want to toggle the middle button to turn off the hybrid system, then press the left button to cut fuel and kill the engine. When the middle button is toggled again, the engine springs back to life, and you can then throw it into gear.

-Using Natalya's elegant forced auto-stop, you don't need to turn off the hybrid system. Instead, you hold the left button to send a ~2mph signal to the computer, then tap the right button to simulate braking, and the car will enter autostop even at 70mph. It will stay there until you throw it back into gear.

[cowmeat]

By the way, when you have one of the 3-button shifters, using it becomes such an automatic function that you don't even have to think about it after a while