First Enginer PHEV install in the Portland Or area, Gen2

Hi Andrew,
This data came from atfsi. I suggest that you do a PM to him including the attachment and ask him what current he was using when he took this data.

I would be very interested in what your calculation show, So Please do a MottCell internal resistance post when you get the data.

Thanks,
Dan

 

Hi mrbigh,
Thanks for your concern on this. If you look at the picture, you see that I only opened the plastic case. I did not open any of the round cells. I did not get into the Internal components of cell. So I never got to any hazardous material.

I do understand hazardous waist and I am quite experienced and
disassembly for failure analysis. I was very careful with this process and I also warned others NOT to do this themselves.

I always planned to return the disassembled parts to Enginer and they will get then back to Mottcell.

Thanks again,
Dan

 

Hi Andrew,
Here is some data on my Buddy pairs. So each voltage is for two Mottcells in parallel and each of these has 3 round cells inside. So each is really 6 cells in parallel.

I have Data for 16 pairs, first with a 40 Amp discharge happening.
3.126 3.061 3.012 3.067 3.094 3.108 3.116 3.068 3.139 3.126 3.126 3.123 3.123 3.142 3.130 3.127

Now the same pairs after 1 hour at rest.
3.309 3.306 3.311 3.308 3.307 3.310 3.319 3.313 3.319 3.318 3.313 3.313 3.312 3.312 3.315 3.311

So they recovered about 1/4v.

Hope this helps to understand the internal resistance.

Thanks,
Dan

 

Jan 26 2010
Hi Again,
I have been busy and not posted for a couple of days. Here is a quick update.

I got the replacement cells and installed them I paired each of the new cells with one of the cells that had been in the buddy pair that had been giving me charging alarms.

I charged and drove 14 miles, charged and drove 43 miles and got a red light. Mileage was as good as I was getting before but because of the lower converter voltage I am no longer getting any VSC lights.

The red light was 1 mile from home. I turned off the pack and checked it as soon as I got home. I had another pair of cells at 2.34v at rest. So I thought the ugly had happened again. I put the charger on for 1/2hour and then let it rest. This pair recovered but is weak. I think these were weakened in my same event that previously caused the dead cells.

I was able to get these cells to recover. I then split them and paired them with other cells that were causing charging alarms. I then charged and drove 11 miles and charged and drove 26 miles. They are slowly coming back but one cell is still 30ma lower than all the others. Clearly it is weak.

By the way, it seems when I split the cells causing the alarm then they are ok but I get an alarm for the next pair.

Jack is really great. He is sending me out a replacement pair for these weak cells.

I need to get a cell low voltage shut down working. I really nervous about over discharging now.

Thanks,
Dan

 

Hi Andrew,
Probably 38a-42a.

I was in the garage. probably 55degF to 65degF.

Thanks,
Dan

 

Just a quick update.

Today I drove 35 miles and got 66.2mpg. This was without any Red light or shutdown. I had 3.2+v at rest after the run. So this is the same as before I changed out the cells.

One of the weak cells is still regularly 30mv lower than all the rest.
One buddy pair is consistently alarming causing me to stop the charge about 30watt-hours early.

Otherwise I am happy with the way it is running.

I am hopeful that I will still get longer runs before shutdown and that the shutdown will happen in a way that will not cause any damage.

I will ease up the length of the runs to see.

Thanks,
Dan

 

Hi Doax,
They shipped from Kent Wa. yesterday.

Thanks,
Dan

 

Hello Everyone,
I have driven 2 days and done 2 more charges. About 25 miles each at close to 70mpg. Both charges ended with an alarm. I was regularly getting an alarm on B4-1 so I put a little balancing charge on the upper half and then the alarm moved to B2-4. So I guess I can't win.

I got my CellLogs. The documentation is very poor, but I did get them set up for LiFe cells and finally got them to log a little data.

First I put them on and used the Enginer pack to top up the Prius battery while stationary. I did get a low cell alarm for hitting 2.8v while the converter was pulling 60 amps from the cells. As soon as the converter was off the cell recovered and the alarm stoped. The DB8 that was also on the same buddy pair did not alarm. The sound level was about the same as the DB8. I did not yet get my external alarm working. I have a 12v buzzer that I plan to put close to the driver. This buzzer draws less than 30ma, so I should be able to put 12v onto the buzzer red wire and attach the black to one side of the CellLog external alarm with the other side going to ground. Later I may put in an auto shut down.

The data transfer from the CellLog into the PC is not plug and play. I lost the first set of data even though the CellLog indicated a good transfer. I guess I was just filling the bit bucket in the sky. Any way, I started over and after first setting the software to recieve and then starting the transfer from the Logcell, I got it to work.

Now I need to log while driving. and see what I get.

Thanks,
Dan

 

Re: First Enginer PHEV install in the Portland Or area, Gen1

Hi Gene,
Congrats on ordering your kit. We should get together some time. I currently have a 4k kit in my 2005. I have one on order for my brothers 2001. So we may be doing Gen 1 installs at the same time.

Enjoy,
Dan

 

Hi Everyone,
Today I made a couple of splitters out of Chargery adapter boards. The balancer cable plugs into the board and the board has 2 connectors. One for the balancer and one for the CellLog.

The blue board is the splitter. The 2 CellLogs are just above the balancers.

I did a short topoff charge to log some data. Last night I had an alarm at the end of the charge cycle but now the topoff charge worked with no alarm.

This is the data that was down loaded. I think the jumpiness on the individual cells is from the DB8 shunts turning on and off. You can see that the upper Cell#6 was very close to an alarm. This is one of my weak cells.

Thanks,
Dan Lander