Retrofit Prius for Secondary Battery?

What idea did you have in mind? I don't see any way to get around lifting batteries in and out, even as a secondary battery.

 

you just want some extended cables and switches so you can throw it in the trunk and switch from one to the other?

 

Jessica, can you give me some hint of which battery you are referencing? (Almost certainly NOT the Fob battery, but might be either the AGM 12 volt battery or the High Voltage battery

Battery Box & Relocation Kit
Battery Selector Switch
would work for 12 volts

 

How does Toyota test their batteries?

 

I was thinking Toyota must have a way to test these batteries without having them in the car. Will make life much easier.

 

Maybe you can start another thread and other battery experts will ring in with some ideas.

 

I think you vastly under estimate the electrical power you are dealing with.


Eaton - DT223URK-NPS, 240 Volt - 2 Pole, Double Throw - Non-Fused, Safety Switches / Disconnects, Power Distribution - Platt Electric Supply

 

My guess is that Panasonic tests each module as they come off the line, using much the same methods as the rebalancing setups described on PC. Toyota probably only does some basic tests at assembly, but only to verify that the modules are OK.

If you want to test a whole battery pack at typical current levels, you would need a suitable dump load capable of something like 10kW (although not continuous), and a charging supply of similar levels. Then you would need data acquisition on all the modules to calculate the internal resistance and module variations. That would be a long project to build all that.

Since all those functions are built into the battery ECU, it ought to be possible using something like one of the single board computers out there, which have CAN-BUS built in, to talk directly to the battery ECU, as happens with Techstream. Again, some real R and D there, but maybe it has been done already.

I would think that if the module level testing has been done thoroughly, it will be redundant to then test the whole battery again. What does need checking is all the voltage monitoring leads, and the ECU, but I would think that could be done in the client vehicle at install time.

Just my 2 cents...

 

Jessica,
There are ways to test it when not in the car.
Depends on how detailed you want to go.

We should hang out some time and talk shop.

 

The Toyota techs will use Techstream to view the individual banks (2 modules per bank). If any of the banks show as weak (may only have one cell on one module bad), they will recommend replacement. New battery packs will be placed on a grid charger at the dealer before being installed in the vehicle.

I'm sure you can develop a way to test these on the fly with a little ingenuity.

 

I think that you could extend cables and sit a second battery on top of the first. Unlike some computers gen 2 Prius battery computers do not need to be reflashed to match the car software version. This means you could put the second battery on top and use the lower battery computer or if the second batt comes with a computer use the upper battery computers. Seems like the hardest part will be extending all the wires.

 

While the battery ECU may not care what car it is in it wouldn't be able to read the voltages, resistance, temperature of the second battery above it unless you also transferred over all the leads, and if it can't get SOC the car would never know it needed to be charged and would likely run it down to zero rather quickly, possibly killing it... plus the fact that any problems with the pack being tested wouldn't be reported as all measurements would come from the good "idle" pack. Now the second part is true of course about using the replacement packs ECU. If you could lengthen all the harnesses you could disconnect from one and connect to the other fairly easy, just monitor the air temp inside. Depending on how many wires are involved a nasa style control board with an array of single pole double throw switches might work, and would look really cool! Houston prepare for battery disconnect. Roger we are go with battery disconnect.


the Seahawks training facility ?

 

there is a current issue with uploads on the site, might be awhile...