Just installed my 2nd user enginer 4 kwh kit.

im with you on that one, I do believe this system has some potential if done right thou it was never right, I don't like that bms one bit, you were kind enough to brief me on it but at best it is just a overcharge/discharge protection, and it even does not do that right, I thought bms stood for battery management system, this is not it.
let me get this right:
the charger output goes into it than further into the batteries, the converter is hooked directly to the batteries, so I guess this bms shuts it down through that phone wire and the 2 small leads, because the swich up front plugs directly into the converter, are there any diagrams on these components, I don't know much but I do get circuits, Enginer.us does not say much, honestly I am looking at acquiring another used pack to fix mine, I need a real bms, what else is there involved going the highvoltage route, while I'm at it I might as well build a 240v pack and do away with all this, I never understood how they do that, all that spoofing got me confused, I see you don't need the charger from that hymotion ( 220 in uk) I am almost inclined to sell the spares and go that route.
that bms is coming off tonite, I believe you're onto something with those solder joints, I had turned it off and unplugged everything, it seemed fine for a minute, just checked on it and it is doing it again, I don't understand thou as it was doing it earlier the converter seemed to be running still, that being said I guess that is being fed back through those phone wires too, the display is fed into the bms so I can only see what it sees, not what the converter actually does

 

Hi everyone,

I hope I'm not inappropriate here, but I too have an enginer kit in my 2005 Prius. My immediate problem is that I got an error code (P0A92) and since the car is still under warranty I want to have the dealer repair it.

I'm pretty sure they won't touch it with the kit installed, so I want to remove it. Is there anything I should particularly watch out for. I had it installed by Jack Chen, and it was advertised as plug and play, so I figure it should also be unplug and stop playing, right?

Also, how can I disable the switch so that it won't look for EV mode any more?

I know it's a lot to ask. I believe I can do the work carefully enough, but any tips will be appreciated.

Thanks

 

Hello Pedaler,
No, your Prius is fine. Do not take it to the dealer. Get a ScanGauge and clear the code.

The problem is a known problem with the Enginer system. Your current level on the converter is set too high. On GenII Prius, you can not put too much current into the Prius. This current limit charges with various parameters, but generally it is at about 15a. Many people choose to let the current level run high but to turn the Enginer system off when the SOC of the Prius gets high or if they are driving at higher speeds.

So what voltage and current level is your converter set for?

Thanks,
Dan Lander

 

that's good to know, I am normally pretty good at setting stuff up thou I am a bit of a mess most times, if you read a few threads back thought I blew something up while at it, turns out all the videos I watched never paid much attention to that disconect,
I haven't gotten much use out of mine since I did not like how the bateries were doing, figured I'll deal with it first rather than beat on it for nothing, I haven't gotten any trouble out of mine thou we're only talking about 3 charges, I can tell you thou my system was moderately set up at about 9 amps, and I don't care much to up it, mixed mode is good for me, I may tinker with it once I get my bateries sorted out.
There are adjustments that can be easily made thou I am not one to speak of, I read about them there are plenty of threads, sound pretty straigh forward turn it down a bit at a time and see what it does.
One thing I did notice installing mine, my god I had enough wires left to do another car and a half by the time I had my way with it, everything was unnecessarily long, only 1 connector was soldered, what was that about on 250v DC line?, 2 fell apart in my hand just looking at, I don't get the orange tape, and what looks like 24v ebike plugs to me, I done a bit better with it thou once I figure out some working issues, I am seriously considering rewireing this from scratch, not to talk smack but if the rest is just as well put together............ so help us.
I do like the ghismo despite all this and my 5 kw converter seemed to do well for the tries I put it through, fudge it gets hot thou, I can't imagine running 15 amps through it, as it is I was debating bending some copper and liquid cool the bastard
but hey what do I know, I'm a wrench, resistors........ I know about them, mosfets ? .......... now dont start cussing.

 

Thanks, everyone for your help.

Dan, I recognize your name from the enginer site forum. I really appreciate your expertise and your willingness to share it. Good advice is hard to come by locally (I'm in upstate NY).

Excuse my ignorance, but I just looked at the converter and there is nowhere on it to show a setting. Where would I find the setting?

Obviously I haven't changed it since Jack set it when he installed the kit. It seems pretty good most of the time; as others mentioned the code came up after a long drive in EV mode, so I could avoid that.

Thanks again for your advice on clearing the code. I had sleepless nights with visions of a blown transmission or worse!

 

Thanks Anthony.

I don't see the drilled holes you speak of.

I don't recall seeing the amps on the display, but I'll check again.

 

well I just now managed to aquire a used battery pack and this one is looking pretty decent, we'll see how it goes, had this thing since spring weing the car down for nothing

 

yeah thats my new project, I was pretty dissapointed this spring after instaling the kit to find out the pack had issues, and althou I located a used one fairly quickly it took me this long to get it home, shipping those things is outrageous, thanks to Chan prius chat member and truckdriver I knew I managed to get them home, and after the first cycle they operate about as good as it gets, and I am told that they have mot been used much either, i'd hate to find out that by spring they are junk,
so the the number to look for is 3.5v? how about discharge? it has been a while since I tinkered with this,
also I read in other ev threads about turning down the amps towards the end of the charge, is there a way to do that with the engineer charger?
I would really like to figure out a better managing sistem, I believe those minibms were the ultimate as far as shunting the full cells, the zepher I read about was pretty cool too, I have to look up the old stuff I dug up and look into it again

 

I know a bit about this stuff but not enough, so there is no hope of modding the engineer charger, I do have a lithium 48v charger from my ebike, I think its a 5 amp, thought about using it to top it off,
if I remember corectly you were aiming for extended ev capabilities, and that enginer converter was the bottleneck, as for my purposes mixed driving is fine, just want to make sure it performs well and lasts a while, I remember reading about the paciffic ev bms, I think it was worth about $300 or so, come to think of may not be such a bad deal

 

now what about low temperatures, the previous owner had a heating pad installed, I too park this car outside my garage is full of projects, I took the bateries inside last night, just as I got them temps are getting below freezing arround here.
the pad I have is rated at 60w, now I wonder if that may not be too much if left on, or if I should have some sort of thermostat, I believe I have some old fishtank heaters, wonder if I could canibalise one of them for the electronics

 

now why is it the balancing function is supposed to be off on the enginer bms? it does not work properly?
and what is the controversy about the overcharge voltage? enginer is set at 3.8 rumor has it 3.6 is a better number,
I read about the cell logs mod, is there a way to mod the original bms to cut off charge at 3.6v?
I'm sure it is doable if one had the know how, I do not, but this I know like all circuits, there is a resistor of some sorts somewhere that is part of the endcharge circuit, if replaced wit a diferent value it should do the trick, where does one find some info on these bms units,
guess I best sign up for the enginer forum

 

I do remember many of your tips this spring and as always apreciate your input, I think I will leave this pack in the house for a minute untill I figure out which route to take, these bateries are not just expensive but hard to come by and I do not plan on looking for replacements any time soon, I ran them briefly and as far as lvc, couple cells bearly went under 3 v yet the display showed there is very little capacity left.
now what would 100 % dod be considered? 3.8v to 2.8v? would you consider 3.5 to 2.8 70%? what does the enginer bms lvc set at?
I honestly do not need the whole 4 kw for my routine so 80% WOULD BE FINE, also besides lvc and hvc I would like to have some sort of active balancing, I know you mentioned manual balancing every so often does the trick guess I have not had enough experience with it, I do however for some reason feel rather good about top balancing, I like the Idea of having every discharge cycle start with every block at the same voltage.
I was reading through your cell log adventures but that is only a LVC HVC protection, no balancing, I also read that since these cell are charged at a 0.2 C rate 3.8 v cutoff makes it even worse,
to the best of my knowledge the mini bms is the best route to go , bit pricy but you get what you pay for I guess, at the same time if I keep frying cells does not do me any favors either.
what would be a best aproach ? quality wise, say money is not that big of an issue