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PHEV mod under way, Bristol, UK.

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Accessories & Modifications' started by aminorjourney, Jun 7, 2008.

  1. aminorjourney

    aminorjourney Mum to two prius!

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    Nicely done!

    Did you say that you were using 16mm cable? That works out at AWG6, so thicker than AWG 8 :) I think we're safe :)

    So are you mounting behind the rear seat?

    N

    (94 MPG so far - but it's low due to some longer trips!)
     
  2. Flying White Dutchman

    Flying White Dutchman Senior Member

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    wel this pack go´s underneed the floor and the second pack ) i hope to find one day .....
    will go behind the seats yes.

    space problems for one and second crash room in the back of the car so with a rearhit i dont put the battery terminals in contact for some nice short fire works before the fuse´s blows

    and then still if the fuse blows but a long rearbumper metal part interconnects som cells we stil have fireworks haha
     
  3. mrbigh

    mrbigh Prius Absolutum Dominium

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    Nice AL frame, are you isolating the batteries terminals in any way?
    Remember that we are dealing with 230VDC at all times....:cool:
     
  4. Flying White Dutchman

    Flying White Dutchman Senior Member

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    the box is not ready yet.
    isolation tape is the sollution at the moment.
    i am going to put transparant plastic sheets around the ALU frame work
    so you can see the battery always.
    nice for showing and to see if its al OK inside
     
  5. Flying White Dutchman

    Flying White Dutchman Senior Member

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    he nikki how is your weekend going?

    lots off work done on your EV plug-in prius??

    here is a picture from my drive today

    taking the less optemistic MDF 1.1l/100km = 213,81 mpg and 256,8 imp mpg and 1L for 90,9kms:D

    thats 4000+ km per tank.if i only do city driving....
     

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  6. aminorjourney

    aminorjourney Mum to two prius!

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    Sadly no work on the Prius today. I've done well over 130 miles in the last 24 hours, so my fuel economy is sitting at around 88 imp.mpg. :( Although, most of that has been high-speed driving, so I don't think it's that bad. You can really feel the hit when the added pack power is depleted. I've been playing with different ways of getting the different modes working to my advantage.

    In the past 24 hours, in addition to the 130 odd miles, I've charged the car two times fully, and two partial charges (one at the local mall!)

    I picked up some more bits today for the case. I've decided to mount the batteries on angle, as per Norm's setup - but then to encase them all in further metalwork. It'll be quite heavy, but safe. Compression will be made with steel endplates - and threaded studding holding the packs together.

    As far as the inside of the case, I'm trying to track down a supplier for Plasti-Dip in the UK as I'd like to paint the inside of the external case with it as added electrical insulation.

    I've also picked up some nice 80mm DC fans, which I'll mount on the case at either end to aid airflow.

    Tomorrow, along with the usual work related prepearation work I hope to get some more work on the case.

    Flying, I'm envious of all your spare time! I don't have much spare time at the end of every day to do stuff to the car so my progress is really glacial! What job do you do which gives you all this spare time!? I need a job like that! :)

    Nikki. (Teasing!)

    P.S. Congratulations on the economy... What are your average trips and how many charges have you made for that figure?
     
  7. Flying White Dutchman

    Flying White Dutchman Senior Member

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    well i am out off a job right now :(

    these are just test trips no real one's

    real one's go with the bike :p

    do you now the airflow of these fans? max airflow for the prius system is around 50cfm
     
  8. aminorjourney

    aminorjourney Mum to two prius!

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    Oh! Sorry! I put my foot in that one. I hope you find a job soon :)

    Test trips? Just down to the shops eh? I make a few of those every few days just to make sure everything is okay. It's probably though why you've noticed a cooler temperature than I have. My max temp is now 23 degrees C on the OEM pack.

    I think these fans are about 45cfm at 12V. Hopefully with two I'll be okay, but with any issues I can always get some more. I've just brought a 350W PC power supply, which I'll use to power the fans while charging (and power my Mac Mini while the car is off and at the house).

    My glacial speed will hopefully speed up, but I was shocked at how much the additional metalwork cost in materials. (It was nearly £200 for all the bits to make the case and cool it!) - So I'm taking lots of time to make sure I don't screw up! :)

    How is the NG3 performing?

    I also see you've got an external screen - do you have a newer Prius to me?
     
  9. Flying White Dutchman

    Flying White Dutchman Senior Member

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    no 2005 model but i wanted to connect my car pc ( that i do not have yet ) to a touchscreen in the prius to..

    so that wy i went for the canview 4+

    i see lots of trouble for people trying to do that with the MFD input.

    also i have it up on the dash so when i am driving i dont have to look down or right ( or left in your case) and always have a fast glance of whats happening on canview
    ==================================================
    it was a 45+min drive ( i reset the trip from canview before i started ) and did 15+km on that .. talking about slow hahaha..

    the packs got up to 20celcius. max.
    ==================================================
    do you now what amps or watts those fans are that you use and rpm?

    i dont think cooling during charging will be the problem here.
    its more the packs heating up during the summer when driving and no cooling then..
    so i am going also provide fan power when driving with a temp relay.

    are you only monitoring the oem pack?
    i have a temp sensor on my addpack.

    the oem pack will get some cool air from the oem fan when it gets above 30+ celcius and you add packs dont get anything.... so be aware!
    ==================================================
    the NG3 is working fine.
    the packs get cooler when i start charging after a drive instead of hotter haha..

    but i only charge 2 packs with 2.5 amps not more.
    ==================================================
    i see your experimenting with the mode´s for bms because of longer drive´s

    i personal think that its best if the bms got a BMS full and a BMS prius hybrid mode and not the orig mode.
    my impression is that the orig uses more fuel than the normal prius mode.

    i think its best to drive with normal prius mode when you now your going to drive longer distances.
    so it would be nice if the bms got a hybrid mode or prius mode where it just copy´s the oem bms.
    you drive to the high highway using your battery packs and on the highway you switch to prius mode then when you leave the highway or some kms before that you go back to full bms mode.

    i think this is the optimal way to do it for longer drive´s .. only there is no normal mode to switch to yet... i hope norm will think about it..
    ==================================================

    i did a cost savings calculation today and with the current gas prices and the high electric price here in the netherlands i only save 9 euro per tank.

    electric price is 20 euro cents per 1kwh. in the evening so on the cheaper part of day.
    so current thats almost 30 dollar cent or 19 english penny? per 1kw

    o and i added a new picture haha
    from a cold ICE start full morning charge. BMS full mode
     

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  10. Flying White Dutchman

    Flying White Dutchman Senior Member

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    he Nikki

    good news from over here.

    i got my second and last addpack..... so i am up to 3 total packs now

    still have to make the connection...

    but nice thing its just a few months hold.. 2008 pack.. when i opent it up to see the busbars .... al shining and looking NEW..
     
  11. mrbigh

    mrbigh Prius Absolutum Dominium

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    NICE!!!:rockon:
    Now you will be able to have an extended NO GAS range.....
     
  12. Flying White Dutchman

    Flying White Dutchman Senior Member

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    yheaa

    i tested the battery under a 60 watt lightbulb load and there was only a 0,03mV diff.

    al the bus terminals looks like new of course and i got it cheaper the my first pack.
    i also got the prius cooling fan and some wire's just like last time AND also like last time the compleet pack including the contactors and OEM BMS.


    i only expect 5km of extra range in optimum conditions... so thats not a lot for the big pack in the back of the car.
    of course 3 work better then 2 but maybe also in this case the voltage drop wil be a lot slower... and maybe just maybe this is the perfect and minimum setup?!

    i hope nikki got some time to work on her system.
     
  13. ken1784

    ken1784 SuperMID designer

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    Please watch carefully how these packs work in parallel.
    It is not a good idea to connect different age battery packs in parallel.

    Ken@Japan
     
  14. Flying White Dutchman

    Flying White Dutchman Senior Member

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    do you mean that the new pack will have a higher possible capacitie and wil discharge itself into the older packs?

    because i can not think about a reason wy this can be a problem
    only when you set them in series like wit older and newer cells you can get a problem ( not that i am planning on making 600volt dc hahah )

    can you please explain why you think this?

    maybe open up a new topic so we dont get into a discussion in nikki's plugin topic?
     
  15. ken1784

    ken1784 SuperMID designer

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    No. I'm not saying their capacities are different, but I'm saying their internal resistances are different.
    There is no good application in the world using NiMH battery packs connecting in parallel.
    The SOC on the lower internal resistance (newer) packs becomes higher(-> hotter) than older pack connecting in parallel.
    Please watch carefully their temperatures for over-charge (above 100% SOC).
    Anyway, it's up to you. It's not my expense, but it's yours. :)

    Ken@Japan
     
  16. Flying White Dutchman

    Flying White Dutchman Senior Member

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    a ok ken thats good explanation

    i got temp sensor connected to the new pack and i got the reader on my dashboard.
     
  17. mrbigh

    mrbigh Prius Absolutum Dominium

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    Well, I do not think that we will be overtaking this thread, it will be part of the total content of the process of this type of PHEV conversion.
    We are committed to this type of paralleling OEM packs to attain a greater EV range.
    Is understood that not 2 OEM packs are exactly the same in capacity and internal resistance while treating them as individual units, but after paralleling 3 or 4 pack(total, including the original installed in the vehicle), the internal resistance decreases up to a point that the Batt ECU will log a DTC as a warning for safety and to avoid significant hardware failure under regular circumstances.
    This is not our case; we are using an additional and independent Battery ECU with is own algorithms that helps blend such a large NiMh packs in to the Prius Hybrid system treating it as a single general unit.
    More add on packs, more EV range.
    Temperature related issues are always a concern, while we do not overcharge "the packs", we are OK.
     
  18. ken1784

    ken1784 SuperMID designer

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    I don't know what kind of independent Battery ECU you're using, but I've been watching this thread and it seems Nikki and FWD don't install any intelligent Battery ECU on each packs.
    We already know Nikki blew up her pack because of no intelligent Battery ECU installed.
    Or, did I miss something?

    I'm just suggesting to watch packs carefully and understand the NiMH chemistry.
    It looks you are the man of PHEV conversion.
    Please advise them to go to the right direction.

    Ken@Japan
     
  19. mrbigh

    mrbigh Prius Absolutum Dominium

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    Yoshi san,
    I will try to keep my friends in he right track of technology, but some times one must learn by their own experiences.
    Tsutsuhinde,
    Horacio
     
  20. aminorjourney

    aminorjourney Mum to two prius!

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    Here's a quick update from me:

    Battery packs are doing great, with no voltage issues after two weeks of driving with the replacement pack.

    I've started the fabrication of the battery box but unfortunately I have discovered that I will loose my spare wheel access. I'll have to find a wheel bag to carry the spare above the batteries in the trunk, I think.

    So far:

    550 miles traveled and four bars left on the fuel gauge. Average of 90 mpg UK! I'm happy!

    Regarding charging - I'm certainly only charging to 238Volts, and only charging directly before I drive. This will hopefully minimize the risk of thermal runaway.