Just got a used Hymotion Prius!

[Daox]

Regen braking in the Prius is quite good for city driving. It can't handle emergency stops of course without the phyiscal brakes, but I don't even think full EVs can.

Once you get up to higher speeds the regen isn't as noticable. You hit the amperage limit pretty quickly and have to be careful otherwise you engage the physical brakes pretty easily. Overall, its not a big deal since you don't (or really shouldn't) be using your brakes on the highway much.

In winter, with a cold battery pack, the Prius also limits regen. Its much easier to engage physical brakes in this case, but its not too hard to avoid it if you have a scangauge or something setup to show you how many amps you're using/regening.

[bennelson]

The Electro-Metro is usually 250-300ish as well. Again, no regen, and I make no claims about the quality of the tires, wheel-alignment, or heck, the entire conversion process....

I DID get the Prius in the garage today! With no basement, our house is very limited on storage space. The only "workshop" I get is in my detached garage, but with a new car, I have to somewhat give that up as well!

On the news, it sounded like a winter storm was headed our way too, so I really wanted to make space.

I shuffled everything around and was able to get the Prius in the garage. I put a "loft" in by modifying some pallet racking, and parked the motorcycles and bikes under it. The Prius just squeezes in between the garage door and the motorcycles.

Since the Prius is loaded, it includes a built-in garage-door opener. I got that programmed to work with our opener.

When I left home this morning, the Prius was unplugged. When I got back home, it was plugged in and charging! I asked my wife. She went to the store and back and plugged the car in after she parked it.

She also told me that she was afraid that she drove off this morning with the cord still plugged in! I assured her that the charger interlock means she wouldn't even be able to turn the car on if it's plugged in. The other night, I tried to put the car into "accessory mode" to program the radio presets. It wouldn't go on at all. It took me a minute to realize that safety lock-out on the Hymotion kit prevents you from even booting up the system if plugged into the wall.

[bennelson]

I just went to town and back to get some take-out for dinner.

It was only 4.3 miles, I should have been getting CRAZY GOOD fuel economy, as it basically would be an electric car!

However, it was cold out. The little road and snowflake symbol was on the dash. The engine came on after starting the car for it's typical "turn the engine on briefly" routine, but after that I was riding all electric.

But as I drove along, I was getting anywhere from 50-85 mpg. This was with arrows on the display screen going from the batteries to the wheels and NO arrows from the engine to the wheels! WTF!?

I did hear/feel the engine being on, but there was no indicator that the power was going from the engine to the wheels!

So here's what I'm wondering..... How does the 12V battery get charged in the Prius? It was dark, so I had the lights on. Rather than was gas to run the engine to run the heater, I simply turned the heated seat on. Both the headlights (HID) and the seat heater are loads on the 12V battery system. Does the Prius only charge the 12V from the engine?

I didn't hit 99+ mph until half way home (three-quarters of the entire round-trip.) While I was getting the take-out, I left the Prius on, so it wouldn't have to "reboot" and go through that whole engine starting thing again.

I did bother to set the scangauge to show the accessory battery voltage. It was 13.9 - but that was with the car on and cruising down the road. Once I parked the car and turned it off, it read 12.4V - relatively low for a 12V batt.

It makes me wonder if driving in EV mode most of the time will take a toll on the 12V battery. The former owner had replaced it once.

If anyone knows more details on the Prius 12V system and how it charges, let me know! It may be that my first mod involves adding a smart 12V trickle charger.

Also, the inside of the car looks really nice. Winter hear is always sloppy and wet, with plenty of salt on the roads. I'd like to get some good floor mats and seat covers. If anyone knows of a place to get mats and covers specifically for a Prius, but not overpriced, please let me know.

[Cd]

Originally Posted by bennelson

..
I didn't hit 99+ mph until half way home (three-quarters of the entire round-trip.)




.

Well there is your problem right there !

[bennelson]

Er, yeah, that's the problem. Guess I'm looking for the solution....

[nemo]

Originally Posted by bennelson

I didn't hit 99+ mph until half way home (three-quarters of the entire round-trip.)

Do you want it faster or quicker?

[bennelson]

Trying to figure out why the engine was running, when it wasn't being used to push the car down the road.

I understand that by default the car goes through sort of a warm-up process, where it turns the engine on about 7 seconds after you power it up.

But AFTER that, the engine was still cycling on and off but WITHOUT POWERING the car down the road.

[Ryland]

Does it have any electric heat or is all of the heat coming off the engine?
I was pretty sure that the Prius has a DC to DC converter to keep the starting battery topped off, but that might be a better question for the dealership or a Prius forum or even the hymotion or other plug in conversion companies.

from a Toyota training manual regarding the 12V maintenance free battery:

This battery is very sensitive to high-voltage. When charging the auxiliary battery you should use the Toyota approved charger, because a standard battery charger does not have the proper voltage control and may damage the battery. If the approved charger is not available you may use a trickle charger if the amperage is kept below 3.5 A.

[bennelson]

The "normal" heat is from the engine. So turning on the heat is going to run the engine too.

The car has a heated drivers seat, which is electric. I was using that as it comes on instant and doesn't require the engine to run.

[Daox]

The 12V battery get its power from a dc-dc converter. There is no alternator.

What most likely happened is:

1) You never got up to temperature until about halfway home. This is very likely with your low speeds and no grill block, even without using heat.
2) You didn't stop long enough to enter the S4 warm up mode after you were warmed up.

Check out the stages of warm up here:
http://techno-fandom.org/~hobbit/cars/five-stages.txt