"Treadmill" charging the HV Battery

[orange4boy]

I have been thinking of ways to recharge my HV battery without the dangers/difficulties of manual recharging. I'm always at 55% but could get much better FE If I could start with, say 75%. The good thing is that this way the ECU has full control to charge the way it likes.

My first idea was a water powered treadmill using a chain driven wheel from my creek to regen once the car was shut down in S4. Fun idea to use direct hydro power to do the job but too complicated.

Second idea to use an electric motor to turn the wheels once in S4. The losses would be drivetrain only if the car was jacked up and run by the front wheels. I know this may not be a financially good strategy because of the losses, but all the power here is hydro so I'd be replacing dirty energy with clean.

I assume I would have to spoof the rear wheels turning to avoid an error code. Would it be possible to just split the signal from the front wheel to the inputs for the rear?

[bwilson4web]

Originally Posted by orange4boy

I have been thinking of ways to recharge my HV battery without the dangers/difficulties of manual recharging. I'm always at 55% but could get much better FE If I could start with, say 75%. . . .

I've been thinking the same thing but using an add-on charger ... actually a Prius docking station.

This gets a little too involved for my taste:

Originally Posted by orange4boy

. . . The good thing is that this way the ECU has full control to charge the way it likes.

My first idea was a water powered treadmill using a chain driven wheel from my creek to regen once the car was shut down in S4. Fun idea to use direct hydro power to do the job but too complicated.

Second idea to use an electric motor to turn the wheels once in S4. The losses would be drivetrain only if the car was jacked up and run by the front wheels. I know this may not be a financially good strategy because of the losses, but all the power here is hydro so I'd be replacing dirty energy with clean.

I assume I would have to spoof the rear wheels turning to avoid an error code. Would it be possible to just split the signal from the front wheel to the inputs for the rear?

Have you built the creek hydro? IMHO, that is a better approach since any excess could be use to keep the Prius charged and warmed w/o having to incur additional utility bills.

If I understand your commute, you have a drive way of unknown length and altitude changes to a road where presumably you stop. Pre-charge the traction battery and use the fuel-pump hack up the driveway. Once you get there: turn off car; enable fuel-pump; turn car on and you're back to a hybrid again. You are basicly simulating running out of the fuel ... something I've done over three dozen times.

If you are serious about the traction battery charging hack, I could build several and send you one. I've got a spare NHW11 traction battery to practice it on.

There is another approach if you have enough scrap wood and a pyrolizer to make fuel-gas. IMHO this is a better approach because the Prius becomes a dual-fuel vehicle whose engine and power system are used when home to provide:

1. space and water pre-heat
2. electrical power
3. remains fully warmed for driving the next day

Rats! Now I'll have to do a systems analysis of both approaches!

Bob Wilson

[orange4boy]

Rats! Now I'll have to do a systems analysis of both approaches!

Oh, come on... You love it.

Have you built the creek hydro?

Not yet. but the space under the bridge would be a perfect place to put it.

If I understand your commute, you have a drive way of unknown length and altitude changes to a road where presumably you stop. Pre-charge the traction battery and use the fuel-pump hack up the driveway. Once you get there: turn off car; enable fuel-pump; turn car on and you're back to a hybrid again.

Exactly. I'm a bit worried about pulling too many amps out of the battery. It makes it up to a point when it's at 60% SOC then the motor kicks in some juice but it's not a big change in grade. I don't know if it's the SOC or the amps or the temperature that the computer uses to decide. Perhaps it will be OK. I could try the fuel pump hack and watch the scanner If I knew what the danger zone was, amps wise.

If you are serious about the traction battery charging hack, I could build several and send you one. I've got a spare NHW11 traction battery to practice it on.

I'm hard core. I would love a charger for it. I'm not made of money at the moment but that's something I would save up for.

[bwilson4web]

Originally Posted by orange4boy

. . .
I'm hard core. I would love a charger for it. I'm not made of money at the moment but that's something I would save up for.

<AHEM>Parts from Ebay ... the design and testing is the expensive part but my rates are 'reasonable.' <GRINS>

First things first, systems analysis.

FYI, you've got that old transaxle whose moving parts are probably 'toast.' But you might want to survey MG1 and MG2. Weld-up the power split device since that one assembly and turns both directly. Recycle the rest of the gears. You've potentially got:

• 18 kw - MG1
• 33 kw - MG2

The trick is to find out if any of the bearings are servicable and did the stators survive running w/o oil. Then check to see if the angular resolvers survived. If so, you've potentially got the hydro generator ... minus the turbine and control electronics.

Bob Wilson

[RobH]

Here's an article on designing a micro-hydro water wheel... Making an Undershoot Water Wheel

[orange4boy]

That would be extremely cool if it worked.

Do you know the native voltage of MG1 and 2? is is the pack voltage or does the inverter mess with it?

Resolving the 3 phase to dc is the easy part. Or so I hear.

Since the motor is permanent magnet do you need a controller to use it like a generator?

[bwilson4web]

Originally Posted by orange4boy

That would be extremely cool if it worked.

Do you know the native voltage of MG1 and 2? is is the pack voltage or does the inverter mess with it?

Resolving the 3 phase to dc is the easy part. Or so I hear.

Since the motor is permanent magnet do you need a controller to use it like a generator?

You'll need an inverter style, power controller. Fortunately, this is not that bad of a problem.

Bob Wilson