Plug-In Supply DIY

I krimp and solder

-Htc Tapatalk

 

Could be. It is in the rear cargo area, driver side rear corner. You remove the small platform to access it.

 

Ok, I understand...the small cargo compartment left of the main cargo tray.

Last night I finished preparing all the wiring for the batteries except the jumpers between the mini-BMS boards. Cut, strip, crimp and solder 152 wires and terminal connector rings together. Next--solder wires to the mini-BMS boards, then connect them to the batteries.

I started using a pair of vice grips to do the crimping. Still doesn't hold as firmly as I'd like, but at least I got better leverage than the pliers I was using before...saved a lot of strain on my wrist/hands.

 

As a bit of an aside, if you didn't want to put the plug socket in the bumper, you could put it in the little cargo tray part. I did this with my Hymotion kit, and I've always been glad I did.

What you don't initially think about is that with the plug in the bumper, every time you charge the car you've got to plug into the bumper, then plug into the electrical outlet. The way I have it, there are only half as many plug-ins and disconnects, because I leave the extension cord with the Kill-A-Watt meter connected in the trunk area.

The one disadvantage is that at some point, if you wanted to use a ChargePoint or other free charger with the 120V outlet, the trunk would have to be left open while charging. I've thought about a little chain or something to secure the trunk so it is just open enough for the cord, but never did anything with it.

 

I thought about using a retractable electric cord from a vacuum cleaner and install it inside the tool bucket. Just could not be bothered doing it.

 

Yes, I like the idea of a retractable cord that comes out through the bumper. There was a post on another thread about how the female socket in a molded plug extension cord can fail over time and become a hot spot. So, less connections and/or less plugging-in-and-out is good.

It's often the little things like this that end up making a big difference in the overall usability of a system.

 

An update:
Finally received what I believe to be the final physical parts for the kit this past Monday. One thing still missing: installation instructions!

At this point, I have:
1. assembled the two battery modules
2. soldered wires and terminal ring connectors to BMS cell boards (jumpers not done yet, but will do soon once all connections to battery modules are complete)
3. mounted BMS cell boards on fiberglass mounting boards. These mounting boards (2 each for each battery assembly) are glued with silicone sealant (makes it easier to remove if necessary) to each battery assembly and the BMS cell boards are connected to the individual battery terminals. (BMS cells are fastened to the mounting boards using the silicone sealant as well.)
4. am in the process of connecting BMS cell boards to each battery

Assembling and mounting the BMS cells has been the most time consuming part of this project. I didn't know at the outset that it would be this labor intensive to put together...that wouldn't have stopped me, but it would have been nice to know exactly what I was getting into.

Next phase is soldering jumpers between BMC cell boards...again time consuming and labor intensive, but nothing I can't handle. After that, I hope to get the kit installed in the car...maybe this weekend???

 

Sounds good. Are you forbidden from showing us some photos? I am sure we would like to see your results.

 

No, not at all. I plan on opening a thread to document the whole process.

Robb sent me a bunch of .zip files yesterday with pics showing steps in the battery module construction. Most of it I had already figured out, but a few are good hints on where to go from what I've completed so far. Those mainly deal with the jumpers on the BMS cell boards and connecting the two banks together.

The parts I REALLY need instructions with deal with hooking the front/rear controllers together, then into the HV pack and BMS circuit. Also, how do I hook the battery banks to the contactor and battery charger, etc.??? The rest is just a relatively minor puzzle that can be figured out using logic.

I'm collecting all this info together in a Word document that I'll send back to him (and probably publish here as well) so the next user will have a decent guide to work on the kit. If I had it to do over (and an extra $3000), I'd have gone with the 10kwh kit instead.

[edit]Progress last night was basically nil. I was moving the second battery bank to my work area and the cell holders came apart. I spent most of my time just hooking the finicky things back together.[/edit]

 

Yay!!...that hurts the feelings........

 

As a teaser, here is a pic of a mostly complete battery bank (if I can get it to upload properly).

[edit]Some notes:
1. This consists of an enormous amount of intensive labor.
2. If you look closely (this is a fairly hires pic), you can see green LEDs lit to indicate it's working.
3. The green connector on the right connects to the second battery bank
4. The Red connector on the left, along with a black connector from the next bank connects to other pieces of the kit and eventually to the charger and Prius HV pack.
5. Not shown: a connecting wire (22 gauge) is soldered to both far left and far right BMS modules. One goes to the second bank BMS modules, the other to the kit rear controller board which signals HV cut-off to the charger and LV cut-off of the packs to the car when they are discharged.
[/edit]

 

This look a very neat assembly and with a nice presentation for the end user that doesn't show the complexity and labor intensive to put it ALL together.

 

Yes looks nice

-Htc Tapatalk ( sorry for auto spell correct )

 

I just did a test positioning of the charger under the driver's seat. For my car ('04), there aren't any obstructions requiring this mod. Driver seat moves through full range without touching the charger. Now to figure out how to anchor it securely.

 

Yeah, the Headway cells in the 4kwh kit are more expensive but allow better discharge rates (so the 16ah pack can produce 100amps).

 

Yeah, what Flanincupboard said...

 

Front controller box is now completely hooked up. That includes an OBD-II connector with a passthru link via a ScangaugeII unit. There's also an ethernet cable that goes to the rear of the car. It's hooked into the box now because I had to screw the lid down tight. I'll run that cable later when I open up the trim to stuff a bunch of cables in there...hope there's room for everything!​

Two pics attached of Front Controller. First shows box from side, mounted with velcro in front of the GEN II console. Second is a shot from on top showing 3 wires coming out: Red/Black wire is EV control line. Red ethernet cable goes to Scanguage passthru and then to OBD-II connector. White ethernet cable goes to rear compartment and plugs into rear controller.

 

Thanks for the photos. Could you show us a photo of the passThru link. I am thinking of getting one, just need to see what it looks like.