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Hybrid interfaces PHEV conversion

Discussion in 'Prius PHEV Plug-In Modifications' started by chiffis, Nov 19, 2014.

  1. chiffis

    chiffis Junior Member

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    Dear all, below follow description of my conversion and some issues ascosiated.
    First of all I must express my gratitude to all of sharing your knowledge and experiance from PHEV conversions. About one year ago my peugeot 406 started to cunsume subtatially more fuel than normal. Hence I started to look in to a replacment. My reqiurement was a fuel efficient car providing the best vaulue and return of the investment. Clerly a cheap electric vechicle would the best, the thing is besides old Renaul clio eleqtrique there dont exist cheap electric cars. I saw that the Prius Gen 2 were quite affordabele, and since I realized that all the infrastructure of an electric car was built in the Prius, it should a good object of convertng to a PHEV. I quickly discoved that I was'nt the only one doing this discovery and that in this forum there existed a lot of knowledge regarding this subject. I then bought a 2006 Prius 130 kkm . And the n started to acquire the components. The kit consist of 68 GBS cells of 20Ah. A BMS2 and contactors and a charger. I built a ventilated box out of aluminium in order to provode climate control of the cells. Everthing is monitored through the obd2 elm327 and and the torque pro app. The first test runs went fine but soon the problems started. The triangel of death and the P0A1d (HV ecu error) fult code started to show up. Inspiction of logged data did not provide any insight of the cause. However after replacing the 12V battery. The problem went away.... temporarily. For one month I was able to commute dayly to my work. Having an average of 0.1 l/100km !!. Then the same foult code started to reappear. The 12V battery is fine and all the cabling is sheilded. The Torque app has the recommended settings. During theese 4 months of use I had 5 ocurrancies seemingly random. The torque app only provide thedtc code but not the corresponding inf code.

    So does any of you have some ideas what can be the root cause of this ?
    I would as FWD like to monitor the LiFe-pack with the Torque app any Ideas how this can be done ?
    Is it possible to read the inf code of Prius with a app thrugh the OBD2 connection ? (carista maybe ?)

    However I must say that I'm cery pleased with the BMS2 and the rest of the system and it is by the far the most economic way of obtaining a PHEV especially since the Gen 2 Prius have dropped in price (anyway here in Sweden).

    Best regards
    Kristoffer
     
    miscrms likes this.
  2. planetaire

    planetaire Plug in 20 kWh 85 km/h or > 208km range

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    2007 Prius
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    chiffis.

    It is possible you have some bad data on the can bus.

    I hope you have connected nothing else then bms2 on the Nimh ecu 12v wires, and absolutly not your contactor and not the ventilator.

    In order to read dtc code and sub code you can buy a mini vci and use techstream. This is cheap.

    Have you made a mod just before the first dtc occur ?

    When you changed your 12v battery, did you disconnected the 12v ? Doing this reset the nimh ecu at least.

    Can you test an other dongle ?
     
    dave77 likes this.
  3. chiffis

    chiffis Junior Member

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    All connections are made according to Norms site, separate + and earth cabling provide power to thecontactors. I've droven the car with the elm 327 for5 months monitoring stuff before the phev conversion was realized, without having the dtc. Still I will try a new dongle. The bad data must in any case be received during at leadt three conscutive
     
  4. chiffis

    chiffis Junior Member

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    Sorry I hit the post button uninentially :). The bad CAN message must have been recieved three times in a row for this to happen. Can the broadcasted data by the bms2 somtimes be out of range compared to the other data used and interpred by the hv ecu? And this in turn triggers the dtc. However i need to reed the inf code to be able to pin point the problem better, thanks for the vci tip.
     
  5. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    congratulations on your conversion work! (y) some here have said that after leaving an obi device connected for some time, it can cause problems with mfd lights and disconnecting it solved the problem. all the best!
     
  6. lopezjm2001

    lopezjm2001 Senior Member

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    Hi Kris,

    The Prius 12V battery is small and a PHEV kit can slowly kill it via a small but 24 hour permanent discharge. I use a 12V charger so that whenever my Prius is plugged in the 12V charger is charging the 12V battery.

    To read the info code you can get a miniVCI from ebay like this one Mini VCI OBD2 Techstream adapter Cable FOR Toyota Diagnostic Connector | eBay
    They cost about $30. It uses the same Techstream software used by the Toyota technicians who service and repair your Prius.

    You also need to connect your PHEV battery in parallel (OEM current sensor bypassed). This may be giving you a DTC if you do not do the current sensor bypass. This is not mentioned on Norm's website which no longer exists.

    Also there are threads on this forum for using the Torque application with a tablet.

    Good luck.
     
    #6 lopezjm2001, Nov 19, 2014
    Last edited: Nov 19, 2014
    dave77 likes this.
  7. planetaire

    planetaire Plug in 20 kWh 85 km/h or > 208km range

    Joined:
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    Location:
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    Vehicle:
    2007 Prius
    Model:
    II
    Bms2 or bms+ don't like when 12v power have voltage drops. In this device there is a voltage regulator and capacitors, but the two microprocessors are digital devices, so what append when voltage is too low during a too long duration is unknown. Sending unknow data on the can bus can give one or several dtc. This can bus is Prius nervous system. If the different ecu cannnot communicate the system will be shut down.
    So 12v wires that goes in bms2 have to be well soldered, his connector been well inserted, even with vibrations.
    With a a good 12v bms+ is very reliable.

    (Bms+ or Bms2 are not bridge over can bus. There is still only one bus, I would call these devices intelligent bit switchers)

    Hope you will have usefull sub code error with a mini vci.
     
    dave77 likes this.
  8. chiffis

    chiffis Junior Member

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    Hi again, I've bought the mini vci and after some fiddling around I finally got it working on a windows 7 laptop. However no DTC has poppeed up during the last 7 weeks. Based on planateries tips I rewised the power supply cable to the BMS2. It's an unsheilded cable and it ran a few cm along the high voltage cable. They have now been separated and as I sad the problem has yet not re-emerged ( induced voltage spikes). I also recharged the 12v battery.
    I have identified an intersesting way of driving, obtaining 0.9 l/100km of consumtion. This demands that the climate system is turned off and the ev button preessed directly after start up. This refrains the ice to come on until I reach 50km/h. Then during the ice warm up phase and since I'm runnng @~ 66 km/h the cunsumption/km is lower. I also preheat the cabin and use a block heater to pre heat the ice. During driving I need to keep the current drawn to be below 50 A otherwize the ice comes on. Works ok even in cold Sweden. I'm also maturing to try the oog mode, what would be the best way to enter this mode, EFI fuse, fuel level sensor, power supply to the ECM or other ???
    The GBS cells are rated 3C continuesly and 10C for 10s, so 60 A should not be a prob.
    Regards / Krsitoffer