The first animation (shown above) is STEALTH. Hopefully, there will be many others... but building each frame gets quite involved, especially when trying to figure out how to make the engine ring also move and correctly interact with all the other pieces without the rotation animation appearing wobbly. Anywho, I'm pretty darn happy with the way that first one turned out.
Are you going to show the planet ring moving in other animations? Maybe a split color scheme like the outer ring would work. This is a nice picture! I might have software at work that would easily show the different modes, but the files would be larger than the gif file you made (they would be .avi files). Not sure I have time anyway...
Oh, sorry. I was staring at that image and fell asleep. For some reason, I suddenly want to drive my prius. I am under John's control.
That thing is pretty cool. If you knew someone with 3D animation software (3d studio Max, Maya, or even some of the cheap ones), you could more or less feed in the timing (2x rotation of those parts clockwise, 1x counter rotation of the other) or whatever... and then render out the animation... I can't imagine how hard it is to build one frame at a time. On an unrelated note, I was at your site today looking around. I got my car yesterday and I do my own oil changes, so I found your pdf on that. It all seems pretty simple, your doc is awesome with detail. I have car ramps instead of the jack, and my previous vehicle was a f250 diesel ford pickup that also had the oil filter mounted straight up and down. I use a punch, or a nail (and hammer) to poke a hole in the bottom of the filter. They poke easy. Let the oil drain out of the filter before you go to take it off. No mess. Besides car ramps, that's my only differing idea from what you put in the doc. I don't know if you've ever heard of such an idea, or tried it.... but, no mess on the filter removal if you drain it first. Great site, thanks for all that you put into it.
It may be technically correct (in fact, it is totally awesome), but it isn't what the average joe really wants to know. So it has a purpose entirely different from mine. My purpose is, in the simpliest of terms, to show what happens in each of the modes... Stealth, Startup, Reverse, etc. So considerations like carrier speed are basically of no value. Instead, the point is to demonstrate how the rotation & revolution abilities work in a cosmetically appealing way... so much so that you actually get drawn into starring at it for awhile, which hopefully will generate curiousity to want to learn more.
Hi John, Didn't bother to notice that it was you providing that animation. Heck, you've done more to promote understanding of how the prius works than anyone, at least on this forum. I like your idea of taking it one step at a time. Keep up the good work. I look forward to seeing more of your animations. Still, it would be cool if you provided this link along with each of your step-by-step animations in order to allow folks to study your efforts then contrast it to the big picture. Thanks for all the work you've doing for us over the years. Ken
Another Prius owner has already done similar animations of the PSD: http://www.ecrostech.com/prius/original/PriusFrames.htm On the left frame you can click on "Understanding the Prius" and then "What's Going As I drive" or "The Power Split Device" for various animations.
Another one. Prius driving simulator http://www.wind.sannet.ne.jp/m_matsu/prius...e=en?Country=US Ken@Japan
Well, we have it all the way out here in CA. Yes! Keep them coming. Looking forward to the next installment.
John -- I really like the animations! Just a nit-pick, but shouldn't the sun gear (MG1) be spinning the other direction on the new "stopped" animation? It seems like the red sun gear isn't "meshing' properly with the planet gears (ICE).
No, that's not nit-picking. It's the type of feedback I appreciate, especially since it is really difficult to understand the quick moving models of the PSD. Fortunately on my computer, I can advance it frame-by-frame to help verify. And when I did this time, I realized that MG1 was moving too slowly. So even though I got the direction right for "startup", it was rotating rather odd. Figures.
