Call me Batt man

I do a lot of model airplane flying, and have since 1986.

I started in 1986 with an electric-powered plane. That was when it was really hard to be all-electric because the batteries were Nickle Cadmium and the motors were brushed DC motors driven by simple choppers for throttle control.

I stayed all electric through most of my modeling career, and recently upgraded my "fleet" from Ni-Cds driving cobalt brushed motors to Lithium Polymer batteries driving brushless (3-phase AC) motors driven by three-phase inverters.

I had tons of power with my old systems, but the downside was flight time. My high-performance planes could fly for about 2 minutes on a battery charge. Now, the planes are 30% lighter, the motors are 90% efficient versus 60% before, and the batteries have twice the capacity in half the weight. All together, flight times are up by a factor of around 5, with at least as much performance as before, if not more.

 

Living in the batt cave prob keeps temps the same 70 all year long.

 

i've been drooling over the new ryobi electric riding lawn mower. $2,500. and a 30 day return policy is putting me off though. and i already have a like new gas mower. still...

 

You guys are an inspiration to me

I was thinking...isn't there a solar panel available that the charger cord of the Prime can plug into and so charge the Prime?
I know Toyota has or is developing a solar panel for the Prime in Japan but why wouldn't any solar panel work?
Not enough juice?
I am quite ignorant in these "engineering " type issues so maybe someone can shed some light on this?
Thanks!

 

The Prime battery is a 95 cell lithium ion battery, nominal voltage 3.7V per cell. That's 95 * 3.7V = 351.5V nominal, and around 4.15V per cell at full-charge for a total of almost 395V at full charge.

Most solar panels are a far lower voltage than that so you'll need both a boost converter and a battery charge controller hooked between the solar panel and the battery to actually charge it, and make sure you charge it safely.

There's already a battery charger on the Prime, under the right-rear seat. It's what charges the battery when you plug the car in. One way to charge the car from solar is to make the car believe it's plugged in. But that means you have to convert your solar power to 120V AC, and then figure out how to both connect that power to the charger and convince the charger it's plugged into an actual EVSE like the one that comes with the car. Then you have to deal with the fact that driving under a bridge or a cloud coming over means you can't sustain the charge rate you have communicated with the car, which probably means you need a buffer battery, and a charge controller for that.

See how this can get complicated?

 

Wow!
Thanks for the quick and amazingly helpful education
I can remember now why I steered away from Physics and Math and went for the medical field instead

 

Hey!
Batt-man......

 

actually it's the wattage of the solar panels that's the limiting factor you need several panels to generate the wattage requirement of the charger inside the car.

 

Actually, what I said was all true, but the charger inside the car may also have a minimum current rating, which might even be more than 1A which is 120W. Like I said, shade of any sort could prevent you from meeting the current setpoint you had set.

 

like 12 A? or 8 A if you set the minimum?

 

The car can only set the charger to one amperage - 8A. 16A is the charger limit which is what is used if the car doesn't tell it otherwise. The 120V EVSE the car comes with commands the charger to limit itself to 12A. A variable EVSE could set it to other limits, but the lower limit might not be 1A (or it might be).

 

I sometimes miss the day's when I didn't have to worry about recharging and certain things were tethered by power cords.
I figure I'm about one single generation away from wide eyed wonder at the concept of phones that were plugged into the wall.

Entertainment is now sold on the basis and concept of it's total portability. Watch TV shows and Movies on any device, nearly anywhere.
Well to quote the late David Bowie, " I don't want to go out, I want to stay in, get things done".

Yep...the Golden Age of The Cord has passed.
Welcome to The WIreless and Portable Age.

 

My house is doing on sunny day 22.9 kw power from my solar panels and i have battery bank's to keep my power to the house in the night..i can go 3-4 day's without recharging...and all my prime charge are done from solar power

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Do you have L2 charging for your Prime on solar power?

 

I was wondering, why didn't Toyota put a solar roof on the Prime? Even if it only gives you a little bit of a charge, it's better than nothing.

 

It seems they do over here. Can't think why, we only get sunshine for 37 days each year!

 

couldn't pass regulations in the good-o-US-of-A

 

Cost. With our low energy prices, few people would willing to pony up the extra cash for it; it's a $3000 option in Japan.