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CAN-view details on SOC charge

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Fuel Economy' started by mparrish, May 18, 2007.

  1. mparrish

    mparrish New Member

    Joined:
    Dec 11, 2006
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    Location:
    Austin
    Vehicle:
    2007 Prius
    Hello everybody,

    I recently installed the CoastalTech EV switch, and am loving it. However, not surprisingly I'm now much more sensitive to SOC levels, and spend time restoring charge after using it in situations like bumper to bumper EV.

    Unfortunately, I don't have CAN-view, with its real-time, real-number SOC level. I only have the somewhat reliable "bars". As a result, I'm unable to see real SOC data. And I have some questions (and maybe questions I haven't thought to ask yet).

    I'm aware of three ways to charge the battery:

    (1) "Pulse" stage (orange arrow turning wheels / yellow arrow charging battery)
    (2) "Deadband [edit :) ] Pulse" stage (orange & yellow arrows turning wheels / yellow arrow charging battery)
    (3) Regen (green arrow charging battery).

    Questions:

    Which of the stages above charges the battery the fastest? slowest?

    Does the rate of speed affect the charge? Does a regen at 30mph charge faster than a regen at 15mph? Does it charge twice as fast? Less? More?

    Does EV use at 30mph deplete the pack twice as fast as EV use at 15mph? Less? More?

    How does the rate of loss during EV compare to various rates of charge? For example, does a 300 foot EV at 20mph use double the charge as a 300 foot regen at 20mph? Less? More?

    Any other questions I missed worth asking?

    I'm doing what I can to help SOC recover for later use. I pulse as much as I can, deadband pulse when I have to, and even regen (with the ICE off) as traffic allows...............all to power up SOC. Today I realized that I simply don't have enough information to understand how best to do that. I'm wise enough to know that I don't know what I don't know. :)

    Thanks in advance for your help & advice.
     
    #1 mparrish, May 18, 2007
  2. alexstarfire

    alexstarfire New Member

    Joined:
    Feb 10, 2007
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    Well, I'm no expert at this since I don't have CAN-view or a scanguage, but I've read enough stuff to give you some help.

    While I don't completely understand your "Deadbank pulse" I do know that that is probably the wost way to charge the battery, though every little bit helps. The regen mode has the potential to charge it the fastest, but that greatly depends on your speed and how hard you brake. The harder you brake, up to a point, the greater your regen is. Unfortunately if you brake too hard or too little you waste efficiency. The "Pulse" mode will probably net you the best battery recharge when comparing to the others. If you are strictly looking to recharge the battery then using pulse and regen would get you there the fastest, HOWEVER it will not help your MPG at all. To get the best MPG you want to try to not use regen at all, unless you have to of course, because you are justing wasting energy when you convert it. You will want to try to not use the battery at all, though in stop and go traffic that would be unwise.

    I'd recommend that you just use the "Pulse" mode to get your battery life back up. I'm sure that that'll net you the best MPG vs battery recharge rate.

    Ok, to sum it up here are the answers to your questions:

    1. fastest to slowest: regen (depending on speed), pulse, deadbank

    2. rate of speed does not directly affect the recharge rate. Your RPM affects your "pulse" and "deadbank pulse." Regen is not affected by speed what-so-ever, if you are talking about your "regen" mode that is. Your "regen" mode is affected by how hard you brake. The harder you brake the faster the regen is, but at some point you lose efficiency by braking harder, or too softly.

    3. From what I can tell it is not related to speed at all. It's related to how hard you press the pedal and how long you keep it there. In other words if you kept your foot pressed 25% of the way down it would use just as much energy at 15 MPH as it would at 30MPH. The difference would be in how far you traveled on that amount of energy.

    Some questions you missed are ones that you probably wouldn't be able to use unless you had at least a scanguage installed, like best RPM rates and such.

    Like I said, this is based on my experience and not equipment so please don't take this as fact. It is only to give you some insight as to what works the best. Someone with CAN-view or scanguage can give you more detailed information than I can.

    Good Luck.
     
    #2 alexstarfire, May 18, 2007
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