Project: Zombie Insight (2000 Honda)

[talonts]

Originally Posted by RobertSmalls

Thanks, OldMech. Since it's easy, I'll do that.

I'm just about ready to start refurbishing the IMA battery. My battery charger/discharger/analyzer is supposed to arrive early next week, and I already got a spare IMA battery (for $15!!), so the car should have no interruption to its hybridness while I work on the battery.

I'm curious - since you have a spare, why don't you refurb IT first, then swap it in, then refurb the original as a spare? Or does the "new" spare have many more miles than the original, so you want to have the original one in it when done?

[TheNextEpisode]

Honest work and well written logs will always make for a great read and a recruited subscriber.

[RobertSmalls]

Originally Posted by talonts

I'm curious - since you have a spare, why don't you refurb IT first, then swap it in, then refurb the original as a spare? Or does the "new" spare have many more miles than the original, so you want to have the original one in it when done?

My car has less than 50000 miles, so its battery might be better than the presumably high mileage junkyard pull. I plan to refurb both, keep the better of the two, and sell the lesser one. But who knows, the junkyard pull may have been recently replaced under warranty.



That's 120 NiMH D-cells, arranged in 20 sticks. The cells weigh 21.3kg = 47lbs, but the battery module weighs closer to 65lbs.

Edit: That means the nominal power density of gasoline is 100 times greater than that of my battery. So the 3.4MJ stored in a full, healthy Insight pack should be enough to cruise five miles at 70mpg (0.08gal gasoline equivalent, by the deeply flawed energy-equivalence method). I can't stop the engine from rotating while the electric motor is turning, but I can cut power to the fuel injectors. Hmm....

This car was never intended to be a PHEV, but I'd like to be able to grid-charge the battery every night, and make liberal use of assist so as to come home with a nearly empty battery.

[Formula413]

So you can open up a spent hybrid battery and simply fill it with rechargeable D cells? That's good to know, in case my battery ever quits. I had the same thought but figured it couldn't be that simple. Is there any possible issue with a change in the capacity of the battery, could it confuse the software?

[RobertSmalls]

Originally Posted by Formula413

So you can open up a spent hybrid battery and simply fill it with rechargeable D cells? That's good to know, in case my battery ever quits. I had the same thought but figured it couldn't be that simple. Is there any possible issue with a change in the capacity of the battery, could it confuse the software?

Well, you can open one up, but heed the warning label on the top of the battery module. The one that starts with "You can be killed or hurt" and reminds you to use insulated tools and common sense.

Can you simply fill it with off-the-shelf D-cells? Well, maybe. But that would take $700 of D-cells. You'd also have to assemble them into 20 sticks of six cells each, with a threaded terminal at each end and a temperature probe running the length of the stick.

Those off the shelf cells I linked to have 50% more capacity than the stock ones, and they might behave differently at temperature extremes vs. the stock cells. Because of the unknowns and the extra expense, I'm just going to refurbish the factory cells.

BTW, Formula, your fuel log is looking good so far. Hopefully you can keep it up despite the colder temperatures.

[ericbecky]

Originally Posted by RobertSmalls

This car was never intended to be a PHEV, but I'd like to be able to grid-charge the battery every night, and make liberal use of assist so as to come home with a nearly empty battery.

You can definitely grid charge the Insight.
Somewhere around here I have plans for making a grid charger for it. The plans are from Mike Dabrowksi, who is one of the kings when it come to knowledge about the Insight.
My Insight is currently a PHEV, but I sorta' indirectly charge the stock pack at this point. (See my thread on ecomodder.) I never got around to actually building the direct grid charge to the stock battery.
I am grid charging a booster set of batteries and using the booster to charge up the stock pack.

[RobertSmalls]

Eric,

The plans over at 99mpg.com appear to be just a 350mA 144V power supply. I'm a person who will plug it in and forget it, and I'd prefer not to charge a NiMH pack without a "smart" charger - delta peak voltage monitoring and automatic shutoff.

Sadly, I'm not aware of any 144V (nominal) smart chargers, nor am I skilled enough to build one.

[RobertSmalls]

I dropped in a thermostat last night, and got excellent gas mileage on today's commute. It took two miles to warm up to 165°F.

Lost my belly pan at an estimated airspeed of 100mph. I heard a thud, and looked in the rearview mirror to see $10 of coroplast floating away. Version two of the belly pan will be better secured, and will wait until I have the new bumper cover in place.

[MetroMPG]

Originally Posted by RobertSmalls

I'll have to get a thermostat on Monday.

Any news on your cold blooded Insight?

EDIT: ignore this. You had updated the thread while I had it open.

[ericbecky]

Originally Posted by RobertSmalls

Eric,

The plans over at 99mpg.com appear to be just a 350mA 144V power supply. I'm a person who will plug it in and forget it, and I'd prefer not to charge a NiMH pack without a "smart" charger - delta peak voltage monitoring and automatic shutoff.

Sadly, I'm not aware of any 144V (nominal) smart chargers, nor am I skilled enough to build one.

There is a post by a guy named Rick over at PriusChat about custom chargers form China. Rick is purchasing one of their 60V chargers for $20 from an ebay auction.
The voltage is different, but perhaps you could communicate with them about your (our?) custom needs?
Rick says there is a bit of a language barrier but perhaps you can give it a try.