Project: Zombie Insight (2000 Honda)

[Formula413]

Mirror delete? Did you add an internal mirror?

[silverinsight2]

'zat a camera Robert?

[RobertSmalls]

Originally Posted by silverinsight2

'zat a camera Robert?

Yep! It's way more aerodynamic and lightweight than a mirror, and it completely eliminates the passenger side blind spot that the OE mirror had.

Here's a picture of it in its temporary housing (which no longer tapes the door shut), as seen by the wind:


I should re-do that in fiberglass or something and paint it semi-gloss black. Problem is, I don't know how to do fiberglass.

I chose the Pyle 3.5" camera and monitor, $75ish on Amazon, # PLCM35. I placed the monitor on the dash, below the rear view mirror, and it's easy to see without being distracting.

It works, but I'm not impressed. Based on what I've seen, my driver's side mirror will have to stay in place, but the passenger mirror is not going back on.

The biggest problem is that it takes too long for me to identify objects in the monitor. A glance in a mirror tells me what's there, but I have to study the monitor for a long fraction of a second, which is not tenable in urban traffic. I suspect this is due to the monitor's low resolution, and low brightness. I will attempt to improve the brightness by adding a coroplast coronet.

The aerodynamic benefit is large, and I really wish I could vigorously recommend a mirror replacement camera, but I'm not ready to do that yet. Maybe once I shroud the monitor, and take a week to get used to the new system, I'll love it. Maybe I'll have to add a small, interior mirror for use at twilight. We'll see.

[k.civic.f4i]

thanks Robert. fiberglass is fairly easy. i would've utilized the original mirror by chopping it, cutting out a hole for the mirror and then use the fiberglass to make the housing around it. but thats just me. good job on the build

[RobertSmalls]

I drove the same 10mi length of expressway, in the same direction, twice today. Once at 4:00pm, when it was pretty warm out, and once at 10:00pm, when it was colder. The Insight behaved dramatically differently during the two trips.

In the afternoon, I easily did lean burn, holding my speed (64mph) up inclines, and having to ease off the throttle on level ground. In the evening, I held the throttle at the threshold of lean burn, and the car went 60-64mph on the flats, and slower up inclines. I had to break lean burn on a few uphills.

71.2mph in the afternoon, ~69mpg for the day.

Conclusion: in the same car, on the same road, on the same day, the amount of energy required to move down the road, and the amount of fuel consumed, was notably different at 4pm vs 10pm.

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by RobertSmalls

Conclusion: in the same car, on the same road, on the same day, the amount of energy required to move down the road, and the amount of fuel consumed, was notably different at 4pm vs 10pm.

And that's not even taking the phase of the moon into account, or the butterflies flapping in South America :-)

Or my own recent experience: Finally got things back together & running after the Bambi strike, but haven't found a hood yet, so I'm running around without one. I had expected to see some drop in mpg because of that, but it actually seems to do a bit better than it did before, given the temperatures.

[MetroMPG]

Robert, how's the IMA inhibit mod working (spliced in the clutch switch, if I recall)?

[MetroMPG]

Robert, how's the IMA assist inhibit mod working (spliced in the clutch switch, if I recall)?

[RobertSmalls]

It's great, and it still works flawlessly. I usually just leave the switch in the on position and forget that it's there.

The electric motor + battery is only 70% efficient round trip, so you want to be careful not to use assist unless it's necessary. Without the mod, assist kicks in whenever I accelerate or climb a hill, then regen drags down the fuel economy to charge the battery back up. With the mod, I'm free to move the throttle through its full range without much impact on the fuel economy, and hills don't hurt my fuel economy.

Btw, I'm warming up to the side view camera, too.

[Formula413]

Hey Robert, just some questions on your IMA inhibit switch. Have you used the SGII to monitor whether the engine is in open or closed loop when accelerating or climbing hills? I'm wondering if the high loads due to not having assist available would cause the computer to go into open loop and possibly offset any gains from using less regen. From watching engine load on my car it seems like the IMA will try to use assist to keep engine load around 85-90% on hills, I assume that is because this is a BFSC sweet spot for the engine. Also, I would think higher revs would be needed to meet power demand on hills or accel, could this also offset the gains somewhat?

And as for keeping the battery charged, do you just allow regen as needed or are you grid charging?

I still plan to put a switch on my car, as soon as I settle on a place to mount it. Just to clarify, this would connect to the safety switch at the bottom of pedal travel, correct?