Flashing Red Light on Enginer

In my string of problems (almost all solved so far!) with my Enginer 4kWh system, the latest is a somewhat intermittent flashing "low battery" light. (It's almost impossible to see the low battery light since it's so dim, but after a small modification I made earlier, I can actually see it during the day if I cup my hand around it.)

The behavior happened today when I drove home. The car had been sitting in the sun all day (high was about 80°F). Soon after I started it and put it in EV mode, I noticed the light was flashing. At this point it seemed the converter was not charging the traction battery, as the SOC went down to 2 bars and the Prius exited EV mode.

I got it home, put it back in EV mode, and put it in Park. I opened the Enginer cover and checked the voltage on the battery pack, which was between 47.5 and 52 volts.

The converter was very hot to the touch, the big 4" fan was on, but the small converter fans were off.

I let it sit for a while with the lid open until after 5 minutes or so, the converter seemed to start, the small converter fans came on briefly, and the traction battery charged to 8 bars, which forced it out of EV mode. At this point I turned the system off, the small converter fans were off, but the 4" fan stayed on.

So what's going on here? Why is the converter light flashing? Why are the small fans not running when the system is turned on and is hot? Why isn't it putting power into the traction battery?

This problem doesn't seem to happen when the system is cold. Any ideas?

 

If this is true, it sounds like a design flaw. The converter shuts itself off when it gets too hot, but it turns off its fans at the same time.

The place where I work doesn't have any outlets near the parking lot, or I would just plug it in.

You should contact a writer at the Astrogram and have them write a story about your PHEV. Then, the policy will change.

We stayed a weekend at the Marconi Conference Center. Being in Marin County in a natural setting, the people who work there are very green. So when I checked in, I asked them if I could plug in my car. After asking me how much current it took, they let me pull up next to the main building and charge it.

 

I wrote about this problem in the Enginer Forum. It was suggested that I get a CellLog, which I did, and wrote down voltages at various times. It looked to me that the battery pack is working correctly, but I'm new at this so I'm not sure, and no one has confirmed this yet.

My best guess at this point is that something is wrong with the DC-DC converter.