My official Prius Plus mods thread.

Four things.

1. My programming of Relay 5 (R5) did not work so no freeway assist yet.

2. My car started acting funny towards the end of the trip. The ICE would not shut off if I pressed the accelerator, it would shut off if I coasted. It might have been cold or it might have been one of those four levels the ICE goes through. I could not stop for five seconds where I was.

3. Before I charge I take a voltage reading of the pack. At first I could not get any reading so I though I blew a fuse. Here was the problem, I had a screw loose. "Who knew?" "I knew!" "Who said that?" At least that is what four out of five voices in my head say.
[attachmentid=10094]

4. Even with all this, here is my return trip results.
[attachmentid=10095]

There is always tomorrow.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(mrbigh @ Jul 24 2007, 10:10 PM) [snapback]484489[/snapback]</div>

Mrbigh thanks,

I will double check each strap. For some reason they went from solid cooper straps to these as the old straps broke from vibration. The cables were pull tested. I do not know what voltage regulators are, or what they do. I have to watch my charger as I do not like the current charge algorithm. Delta-Q is working on it, but for now I have to keep and eye on it, each time I charge. I am really worried about frying a battery.

So far I have not needed the fire extinguisher.

 

The Good News and the Bad News...</span>

The bad news is;
I could not get into EV mode first thing so I had my first bar at 25mpg.

The good news is;
Once my car is warmed up, I can stay at 41mph in using only electric for a very long time.

The bad news is;
When you’re not in EV mode the ICE likes to kick in if you press the accelerator too hard, much more easily then when you are in EV mode.

The good news is;
I was able to get my freeway speed EV assist to work for the first time this morning relay 5 turned on while I was going 55 mph.

The bad news is;
It was short lived I put a new Can-View unit in, but it seemed to be rebooting quite a bit, and when it does it shuts off PHEV.

The good news is;
I was able to swap the Can-Views back downtown and that helped.

The bad news is;
I will have used a gallon of gas by today, and if this keeps up I will loose a pip by early next week.

The good news is;
I finally own a PHEV, and I can complain about using two gallons of gas used in a week. (No comments Darrell, and Nater)

Here is this morning’s data.
[attachmentid=10107]
First bar was 25mpg
Second was 98mpg
Then next two were 100mpg bars
Then the next two I hit the freeway
The I got one <span style="color:#3366FF">Infinity bar
Last bar the ICE kicked in for a few seconds so it just reads 100mpg

 

Please look closely at miles 25-30. This shows miles covered and not time. On the regular MFD you see time and you may have only covered one mile in five minutes. This shows miles covered and the energy needed to cross them. Please remember I live in Houston and the roads are flat, not hilly flat, but pancake flat.
[attachmentid=10123]


Here is the trip home. I tried some EV only Pulse and Glide and I think it helped. The real trick would be to do it in the morning on the way to work to conserve more of the pack.
[attachmentid=10124]

I am aware that the more miles I put on this tank the harder it will be to get to 100 MPG average. I am hopeful that weekend errands will help my average as they should be mostly EV miles.

The really sad part is that since Monday morning, until a few miles from my house today, Wednesday, I have already used a gallon of gas. I couldn't even go three full days without using a gallon of gas.

 

Blurry Picture today. I will try to take a better one on break or at lunch. After this week I will stop posting pictures and just keep a log. I just wanted to have the photographic evidence on hand. There’ll still be a few pictures of mile stones.

Today’s trip in...We were running late so I had to speed some to get my wife to work on time. That did not seem to make a difference of our MPGs on the way in, but we may have to pay for it on our way home, with a lower average. Yes even though our weekly commuting gasoline expense is a whopping (How much is gas again? $2.80 per gallon? So that is...) $5.60 (estimated), we still carpool into work. That works out to be 28 cents per person/ per day. Darn, now I have to figure out how to get that down to a quarter pp/pd. Maybe we should pick up three other car-pool-ers and split the cost?

There were no Infinity bars today on the way in. However, we’re sitting at 84 mpg even, with 108 miles traveled so far this tank. Last fill up was on August 22nd, if this average keeps up we should get 924 miles this tank. Driving 32 miles a day, we should not have to fill up until August 19th. That is actually 29 days between fill ups. I was hoping for 30 days so we could just fill up 12 times a year.

This past weekend I met with Mothers for Clean Air in, and Illusion Force. It was nice to meet someone from our Priuschat community. Yesterday, I was able to get in touch with the Austin Electric Vehicle Association. I am hoping to go to one of their meetings, if they have them. This coming Sunday there is a lecture by Austin Energy in Houston on plug-in cars.

My two biggest issues are a contactor (“HVRL1†for those of you following the technical aspects of this project.) that won't always engage. The Can-view R6 tells it to and I hear a click, but the voltage won't jump up and I have to shut PHEV off and back on again and then it works. This is not a big deal other then it is very annoying and has a few times gone unnoticed by me until the ICE kicks. It might have to be replaced as it might be a manufacturing error. That would be easy all things considered.

Next, is an issue with the charger. It is programmable so there should be a solution coming soon, I hope. For now I have to time it, and check it, as it gets near the end of it's charging cycle. When the pack is full it has to be unplugged. Once a new charger program comes in from Delta-Q, I should be able to just "Set it, and forget it," as it would take care of charging, toping off, and shutting down all on it's own. In the mean time it is late nights for me, and a lot of coffee in the morning. In general charging is taking about four hours each time. My pack voltage was down to 138 volts when I pulled in last night.

 

108 miles averaging 84 MPG.

[attachmentid=10163]

 

My advice? Look at what the news reports are saying the Toyota PHEV can do as compared to a simple sealed lead acid conversion like mine. Then look how long you will have to wait for it.

Now that you have decided to do the conversion for yourself....

Yes a new board is in the works. However, I am running on a temp board as shown in my posts and you see the results I am getting so far. The new board should not give me much better results but maybe a little. The DIY instructions are coming along and I think they are posting more and more of them.

What I did was I got the Can-view first because I wanted that anyway, so even if I did not continue the project I could always resell the Can-view to someone here. (You’re not getting it away from me now though.) After that I purchased the board and all the parts. Again, I figured I could sell it here if I did not continue. You could just use a temp board for now.

This is where you will start to spend money. The HV power parts a several hundred bucks but you can always resell them on eBay if you don't use them.

Next you have to get a charger and that is about 1 to 2 thousand bucks. Hard to resell on eBay but it is possible.

Then the batteries are about $900 with shipping. You can sell those any day of the week on eBay.

Last a couple of hundred bucks for parts to build the box. Some random other stuff.

If you need help, we are a growing group. I'll be glad to help anyway I can. In the end, I am not sure you will save money because this second pack will only last two years with no ill affects to your OEM battery. Will you save $900.00 in two years of buying cheap electricity instead of expensive gas? At $2.00 per gallon, no, but will gas prices stay there or go up? Either way, it sure is fun driving ten miles in EV mode. B)

 

Bad Trafic on the way home, is good for gas milage.
Even with a low pack I got some good MPG's
Please make special note of the trip average on the Can-View.


:blink: :huh:

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I had eight miles of pure EV tonight.

Trunk
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Battery box
[attachmentid=10175]

And, (You know what that is, say it with me.) A PLace to put in wind energy.
[attachmentid=10176]

If I can just get a good trips tomorow, I may be able to see 95 mpg for the tank.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Gripper @ Jul 26 2007, 09:08 PM) [snapback]485885[/snapback]</div>

1. MFD shows your mpg for five minutes on the yellow bars and MPG total for the tank.
Can-view shows your MPG per each mile no mater how long it takes, and at the bottom, is the 14 mile trip average. So this trip home I did really well.

2. That is a current battery photo. At the top of the page is a close up of a screw that came loose, that I found. I just wanted everyone to see one of the things I learned to look for.

3. "Flex Cable Connects?" What I have is flexible 8 awg wire with 6 awg wire ends. (Don't ask, I don't know.) So they are cables, but they are too short to flex.

In the month of September, I will be building a new battery box, and all new cables. I want to put the charger in the battery box, strap everything down better, and lower the battery pack slightly so I can put my floor back in like Chris Ewert's conversion. Wow have you seen it? He did an awesome job.

 

I tried to get on the eaa-phev.org site tonight to find a link of his conversion but their servers seem to be down right now.

 

Friday's trip in to work was a tough one. Lots of rain and I could not get the car to stay in EV mode. It is times like this that your mind really starts looking for options like; "Can I take out the spark plugs?" or "Can I put in an ICE OFF button?"

Trip average 101 mpg. Now sitting at 139 miles, with an average of 90.4 mpg tank average, I don't know what the future holds, but I was thinking the weekends might improve my mpg's. The short trips to the grocery store, hair cutters, and Movie Theater, would all be EV miles (Hopefully). That should bring up my tank average without limiting what I normally do anyway. That is the goal, right, to not give up anything but and to do it cleaner and for the same cost.

[attachmentid=10191]

I'll post one more image tonight, then I'll put a picture in near the end of this tank or if I get a 14 mile or above trip average well above my current best of 160 mpg.

 

I would still have a Can-view even if it was not needed for this conversion. It is like having a Toyota technician sitting in the passenger seat. You get all sorts of data from it that the car's dash and the MFD just don't give you.

I know one of the main guys putting the DIY info is working like crazy to put it up there. My guess is that like on most volunteer projects people have promised to update sections and don't follow through as quickly as he, I, or you would like. (Sorry, I have been having so much fun with my car; I'll start working on my section this weekend. Ok?). Knowing him, he has probably been doing most of the work himself, late into the night and is working on updating everything all at once. Needless to say it is a thankless job. So here I must say to him “Thank you.â€

If you or anyone wants to start the process now let me know and I’ll try to walk you through it. For me I was never going to get $4,000 all at once, so I broke it down into small parts and started buying things as I could. I was about to start building my battery box when I got the call from Calcars to finish and install my conversion at the Maker Faire.

I believe most people in this world, lucky enough to live in a country that can actually afford cars, and actually have paved roads want to drive “Electric Vehicles†but for one reason or another they just can’t conceive of giving up their gas tank. PHEVs are the next step, they are EV's with a gas tank. We just need automakers to start making PHEVs that “Soccer Mom,†“Lets go Mudding Bubba,†and “Middle Aged Sports Car Guy†want to drive.