Enginer 5kW Kit (SF Bay Area)

r u selling it? no comprende.

 

Why are you selling it?

 

Jonny, actually you'd be surprised. I've really worked on this highway issue. I'm on a 5kW converter though.

Here's the deal to effective suplemental highway use:

0. A ScanGauge II or equivalent device is mandatory for assessing the following points.
1. SOC of Prius battery must be at 67.5% or better.
2. The DC converters need to be demonstratively providing appx. 14 amps to the power grid.
3. Steady state operation presumably supported by cruise control is mandatory.
4. Having a reading of the HP output of the engine is hugely benefitial.

If these points are met, after about 3 minutes of steady state driving and your scan gauge indicating -11 amps or so, you will notice the Toyota BMS slowly trim down the current reading to fluctuate around zero and you will notice the HP reading (indicative of gas engine use) down by 30 to 40%.

Nominally, to hold 60 MPH and no electric motor assist, I need about 19 HP. This provides about 50 MPG. When the Enginer system is working as described, the HP trims down to about 13 horse, and the FE bumps up to 72-ish MPG. Without doing the actual calculation, but looking at the mix of driving modes in my commute, the Enginer PHEV can provide 14 amps output for about 40 minutes of driving.

So, if all those conditions can be met, I'd strongly consider getting your system fixed under warranty and giving it another go.

They are really coming a long way with the reliability and utility of the system. In fact, Enginer is in the process of moving away from the Mottcell's to 1 or 2 integrated prismatic battery packages depending on 2 or 4 kWh system configuration.

 

Octane,

It sounds to me that all you -really- need to do is drive a steady speed and let the Enginer kit and Prius do their thing. Having a scangauge to watch is probably nice, but point 1 will happen on it's own (Prius likes to be above 65%), point 2 you can't control, 3 you just drive steady state and again 4, you can't control just observe.

I agree that it's the -right- thing to do any you can back that up with your observations, but once you know what to do observing all that data doesn't help. unless i'm wrong and there's something you can do about 2 and 4?

 

Well, you can control (1) based on how you drive and when you fire the ICE versus using forced EV mode and how much dwell time you allow in your driveway or at lights, etc,. Also, I adjust my speed while in EV mode to show a slight charge of the HV battery. You need to monitor the power grid current.

The Enginer will overcharge under certain conditions. While you can use the bar graph to assess this, you know it's happening a lot faster with the numeric SOC value from the SGII.

Unfortunately (2) is not controlled all that well by the Enginer. The output current tends to move around all over the place based on ambient temperature and other parameters I haven't identified. For example, it gets into a low current "loop" that you can identify on the SGII and reset it by bumping the power switch. So, you do need to watch (2) and correct it if you aren't getting the power that you should.

3 and 4 correct.

I think I said seeing the current is mandatory and a numeric value of SOC is mandatory. HP is a nicety.

Also, without the power push from the PHEV the Toyota BMS zeros in on 62.5% SOC at steady state driving. With the PHEV it zeros on 67.5%. (My 2G, YMMV.)