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People Who Have Purchased the Enginer PHEV conversion kit!!

Discussion in 'Prius PHEV Plug-In Modifications' started by plugmein2, Jul 28, 2009.

  1. MJFrog

    MJFrog Active Member

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    I already have the EV hack installed on my Prius. When I take it to Troy in the next week or so to install the 2Kwh kit I'm going to ask them to NOT connect the EV jumper from their switch. I'd rather control it independently. FEDex pkgs due Tuesday and Wednesday with the parts.
     
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  2. krousdb

    krousdb NX-74205

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    Mine two. It's funny how two packages send from the same place at the same time will arrive on two different days.
     
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  3. TheForce

    TheForce Stop War! Lets Rave! Make Love!

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    Wanna see how good Fedex really is? This is a video from my security camera from a few years ago. Two packages arriving at almost the same time by different trucks.

    http://www.jaygroh.com/files/Fedex2.avi

    DHL will actually route the package accross the country before its delevered.

    from:south plainfield, NJ to:Allentown, Lehigh, Pennsylvania, United States to:salt lake city, UT to:Wilmington, Clinton, Ohio, United States to:huntington, WV to:Wheelersburg, OH - Google Maps
    [​IMG]
     
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  4. chenyj

    chenyj Member

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    Since we are not charging the OEM battery pack directly, the original BMU and HVU will protect the battery. If some one accidentally parked the Prius with Enginer kit while ignition on in the garage for a long period of time (like Kiet did), when it gets to 8 bars, the electric motor will spin the engine to drain the battery so that the battery stays below 80% SOC. Although it works, please don't do this at home on purpose daily :eek:. It is not good for your engine.
     
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  5. linkrod

    linkrod New Member

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    Thank you Jack for the response to my post. You confirmed that the safety feature against overcharging the OEM traction battery is in the original Prius design by spinning the electric motor if/when a event of overcharge occurs(similar to what Kiet experienced). This information is all I was trying to get out to the folks. I think you have a great product and wish you good luck with it. At the present time I do grid chaging only for my Honda Insight but look forward to modifying my 2005 Prius in the future.---RON
     
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  6. plugmein2

    plugmein2 New Member

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    I know there are more installed Enginer Kits as the weeks go by. I just wish they would give us updates, good or bad. I know Kiet and Kamas have installed theirs, both of which are working out the bugs.

    Please!! If anyone can give us some info on the performance of their kits, that would be great.

    At this moment, my mechanic is driving to the Long Beach conference with my car and kit to see the other 2 installs that Jack will be doing on the 13th and 14th. We are hoping we have all the parts to do the install with Jack. If we don't, my mechanic will have seen, first hand, how to do it when he gets back.

    We decided it would be better to observe the install so we do it right the first time. It may not be as easy to DIY as we thought.

    JOANNA
     
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  7. hobbit

    hobbit Senior Member

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    One way to see what the Enginer pack is sending to the Prius
    system is to fire it all up and then let the car sit there without
    driving, and see where the OEM SOC gets to before the Enginer
    converter cuts out.
    .
    240V is 1.43 volts per cell, which is really a little higher
    than you want to go. 235 would be a little safer. Remember
    that this would be a *finishing* charge level; momentary voltages
    during high regen currents don't count since that's just an
    effect of the strong charge vs. cell internal resistance and the
    Prius is doing its own "coulomb counting" all that time anyway.
    But I think you'll find that if you keep pushing gentler currents
    up to the level reflected by 240V you'll be into the area where
    cells start outgassing and building pressure inside the cases.
    .
    Therefore, two suggestions: show people how to set their own
    chosen threshold voltages. Hopefully your present or future
    converters have a way to gently ramp down current they supply,
    rather than just doing a hard cutoff and then potentially
    oscillating about that point. The other suggestion is
    make the EV switch a momentary like it's supposed to be, and
    offer better instruction [or point to the calcars documents]
    on the right way to use it. We've seen way too much confusion
    when a PHEV controller tries to be too smart about EV mode and
    keeps trying to set the state by itself. Let the driver decide,
    that's how you get the best use of it.
    .
    _H*
     
  8. MJFrog

    MJFrog Active Member

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    My wife called a short time ago and said Fedex had dropped off two packages for me. Looking forward to getting this installed and seeing what kind of performance it gives...and giving some feedback of course.
     
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  9. plugmein2

    plugmein2 New Member

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    Woohoo!! It's about time. Anticipation sucks. Heehee:D

    Cant wait to hear about your install and your updates.

    JOANNA
     
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  10. mrbigh

    mrbigh Prius Absolutum Dominium

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    So, are you leaving work early to start playing with the install????:rolleyes:
     
  11. MJFrog

    MJFrog Active Member

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    Was there any question about that? :D

    Actually, no. I'll be making a[FONT=&quot]rrangements[/FONT] with Jack to have it installed in Troy sometime soon. :rockon:
     
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  12. krousdb

    krousdb NX-74205

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    Just got a email from FedEx that one of my packages is on the delivery truck and the other was returned to the shipper due to damage. The damaged package was the lighter of the two. Any ideas if it was the batteries or the box/charger/converter?

    I guess it wil be another week before I can install it. :-(
     
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  13. MJFrog

    MJFrog Active Member

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    I got my two packages yesterday. I ordered the 2Kwh unit. The larger box was labeled as being 80 lbs, but it didn't contain the batteries. The batteries come in a small wooden crate with metal bands holding it together. That box was listed as about 60-65 lbs.

    My battery box had been dropped. It had several of the bands burst apart. A preliminary exam (without pulling them out of the crate) indicated the batteries don't appear to be cracked or leaking, but I will do a thorough exam tonight.

    I'm scheduled for install on the 23rd.
     

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  14. mrbigh

    mrbigh Prius Absolutum Dominium

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    As always, delivery carriers do not like heavy boxed items, even if they are withing their company limits.
    It is not the first time neither will be the last..............:mad:
     
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  15. plugmein2

    plugmein2 New Member

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    Hello Everyone,

    Whew, the Santa Ana installs where busy to say the least. It was cool to meet all of you. I just wanted to say that our preliminary test drives with our 2Kw system has been a positive one (soon to be 4Kw). Thank you to Paul for helping Shawn with my install. He was relieved to have your help.:)

    So far, we are very pleased. There is nothing more gratifying than driving to grandmas in EV mode only, without the ICE EVER turning on!!:rockon:
    It was very easy to stay in EV mode because it was all city driving.

    It is important to know that before driving in EV mode you should make sure the Enginer Pack is fully charged and the traction battery has at least 50% or more charge.

    When you come to a stop light, you can flip the EV switch to the on position (this is why city driving is best for EV) then press the gas pedal gently and be careful not to kick the ICE on. Although, you are in EV mode the ICE is available anytime!! If you need to accelerate quickly, for example someone on your butt, even if you are in EV mode, the computer will kick the ICE on.

    So far, the Enginer is producing about 15 miles more per gallon on the highway. We went 65 mph for about 15 min and the traction battery was on "green" after about 10 minutes on the highway. It stayed green for about 3 minutes then went to blue again before exiting the freeway. We then came to a stop and switched to EV for the rest of the trip. Our average mpg, including highway and EV mode legs, were about 75 mpg. This is about a 50% improvement over the regular Toyota hybrid system.

    Of course, this is only one of our first tests. We will be providing more data as the days go by.

    My brother, who helped me install my Enginer PHEV system, who loves his corvette, and is into high performance vehicles, is very impressed with the Toyota Prius hybrid, and more so now, with the installed conversion kit. He hasn't even given me my car back because he is having so much fun with it (and he's making sure everything is working properly). Now, he wants one too!! Maybe he'll trade in his 2009 Corvette for the Toyota Prius. Heehee.

    So far, we would recomend the purchase of this system to others. The claim of 100 mpg is achieveable, it just depends on how often you can "PLUG-IN".

    JOANNA
     
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  16. jrmgkia

    jrmgkia Wish I was cycling

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    It has been a couple of weeks since the last updates from those who have done the Enginer PHEV conversion. SO what the latest news, pros, cons, MPGs pre and post conversion, common give us something!
     
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  17. eMileage

    eMileage Member

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    Not sure if you have been monitoring some of the other threads... If not, you might be interested in some of the Enginer info found in some threads listed here: Prius PHEV Plug-In Modifications - PriusChat Forums

    (Has anyone installed the enginer PHEV? , Enginer PHEV Test Pilots: Mpg reports and important data , Enginer PHEV Technical Information , [​IMG] Enginer PHEV DC/DC Overheating issues , Enginer kit proper break-in charging cycles)
     
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  18. mrbigh

    mrbigh Prius Absolutum Dominium

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    The distributor, Automation Tech, Inc. supplied two kind of batteries, ThunderSky (40 Ah) and Mottcell (39Ah), you have the second ones.
    All batteries should be at the beginning out of balance, that's the reason of the breaking even period until the full family of Li-FePO4 cell are in amicable order.
     
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  19. Huibin

    Huibin Junior Member

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    hi guys. I am a prius owner in Beijing and am very very interesting in 4KW version. My question is:

    1. Can I install it only according to the installation manual?
    2. Can I only buy the kit w/o battery if I could buy the same batterial in China?
    3. The key thing is where can I place the order?

    Thanks!

    Huibin
     
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  20. amaroocars

    amaroocars New Member

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    G/Day from Australia,
    Just though I would add to this thread as have purchsed a kit form Jack a few weeks ago (bit slack as only just getting around to installing it) and I am sure from what I've read so far this site is going to be invaluable.
    David J
     
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