Gen 1 has its own built in charger!!

It was only the very first Prius in Japan (98/99) the model before the gen1 that had a charger built in. This charged the HV battery from a a separate 12 volt battery "not the one in the car" to give it enough energy to start the engine if it had been allowed to be discharged for whatever reason.

John (Britprius)

 

Roy from Canada
Maybe I can help - what does the device look like that you think is a charger. I built a charger that puts out a high voltage from 110v AC and charges my 2001 prius through an existing connector on the high voltage battery. All 2001 to 2003 prius have this connector but do not have a high voltage charger in the car to go to this connector. What makes you think your car has a charger?

 

Roy the first generation Prius the gen 0 not the gen1 did have a HV charger built in. It was designed to run off an external 12 volt battery to charge the HV battery if for some reason it became discharged. This is the version "Hybridbat" has. See the link below.

John (Britprius)

 

Thanks John - does he have a Gen 0 prius ? Would be interesting to see the built in charger in his car.
For me to run off 12 volt I use a 12 v dc to 110 v ac power supply (600 va) and a spare battery if I am not near house power 110v.

 

Yes I have built my own charger that works for my 2001 prius - if you do not have a Gen 0 prius you will not have a built in charger. Do you have a Gen 0 prius?

 

Then it will be interesting to see the pictures and maybe we can help you connect it to the car and use it as a charger. This would be the first Gen 0 that I have seen.

 

Your pic does not show the written information on the charger , what does it say?

 

It looks like the orange plug on the charger is the high voltage output, 2 wires going to the high voltage battery. The input has multi wires, check for 12 volt on them to be sure a fuse from your battery is not blown, the other wires are probably wires that give permission for the battery to be charged. It may require the main disconnect to be opened up for a charge to occur ie the 12 volt may come from connections on that disconnect the other wires probably monitor the charge current and state of charge from the cars battery computer.

 

To charge the HV battery the Prius OEM battery has to be disconnected at the negative terminal. The main disconnect has to remain in place. The key must be out of the car.
A good high capacity battery is then connected with jump cables to the positive terminal and ground. The start button on the charger is then pressed. If the battery does not need charging nothing happens. If the battery begins to charge the green light comes on. The battery should have enough charge in ten minutes.
The link blow includes picture of the charger.

John (Britprius)

 

You did it again John, this should help him to try to start the car, if a fuse is blown in the 12v circuit from the spare battery he should be able to trace out the 12v wiring to the charger if that is all the problem is with the charger. It sounds like the charger will not operate if the high voltage battery has a voltage higher than a preset required by the charger and this may stop the charger from going into the charge mode when start on the charger is pressed.

The only way to check this is to provide a seperate feedback circuit from the main battery at a low enough voltage to trigger the charger and at the same providing a good 12 volt power source.