Heading out on 4 week 3k mile road trip. Have 12v adaptors for a very efficient laptop and smartphone. Smartphone with data hotspots provides high speed net to laptop nicely so all is well there. Would like to be able to stop roadside and do some office work for a couple hours at a time and perhaps watch a DVD (I have the Advanced version). It seems that in "Accessory" mode the PIP is using only the dinky 12v battery so this is not a healthy solution. Question: Is there a recommended strategy to put the car in semi-ready mode and reduce all possible drain so that utilizing the 12v will not be draining the traction battery reserves much at all? I'm thinking that perhaps trying to put the car in "ready" mode with the FOOT OFF the brake indeed fires up access to the traction battery without firing up other things that require the full power monty that Ready mode with the FOOT ON THE BRAKE requires but am not sure. Ideas? Seems to me the PIP is a great mobile office solution if we could gain access to traction battery reserves without running much else. Waded through this rambling thread and didn't get my answer. Anyone else having 12V battery issues? | PriusChat
My understanding is that having the car in "Ready" mode, as in ready to drive, protects the system and hybrid battery, as the ICE will start as needed. This way you can run the a/c for comfort while working. Yeah, your mpgs will take a hit, but I believe that's the way the car is meant to work. Just my two cents worth.
But in pseudo ready mode (foot off brake) it seems like I don't hear as much stuff starting up as in foot on ready mode, do you think the drain is less since the car is actually not ready to drive? I'm not confusing this with 'accessories' mode. To be clear, I think there are 4 power button states possible (3 used normally): 1) Power Button depressed everything off. 2) Power button depressed foot off brake first time - Accessories Mode 3) Power Button Depressed foot off brake second time - Hybrid system on but car not ready to drive 4) Power Button depressed foot on brake - All systems on Ready Mode Car ready to drive. Any difference between 3 and 4?
i think the car only recharges the battery when made ready, but you can test it for awhile, just don't drain your 12v waiting for the ice to start.
I agree with everybody that says you must be in ready mode to activate the relay that connects the big traction battery to the rest of the systems including the aux. 12v (small) battery.
If you're only thinking of stopping for a few hours at a time, can you just charge your devices while you drive and run off their internal batteries for the time that you want to work? Why does the car have to be active at all? Better solution is probably to just scope out a Starbucks or local library and get out of the car for a while. I've done both while traveling, and it's a hell of a lot better than sitting in the car.
Alyn99, have a safe and pleasant trip, and please report back on how your mobile office works out, and also how the car performs, including mileage, comfort, etc.
I've been using that mode because when I press the brake and turn the car on it consumes EV range even when nothing is turned on. No headlights, no HVAC, no radio, display turned off. Even then the battery ticks down pretty quickly just sitting there.
Did anyone try reading the manual? The three modes with your foot off the brake are Off, Accessory, and On. Off The emergency flashers can be used. ACCESSORY mode Some electrical components such as the power outlet can be used. ON mode All electrical components can be used. All these modes take power solely from the 12V battery. The 12V battery is charged by the hybrid system only after the car is placed in Ready mode by pressing the power button with your foot on the brake. So if you're going to be sitting in the car using electrical power for more than a few minutes, you must put the car into Ready to avoid running down the 12V battery.
Before I do that I have to figure what the drain on the traction battery is even when everything's off. I'll time it today, but with everything off that can be turned off I still see the EV range ticking down by 1/10th every couple of minutes in READY mode. If I want to take a nap in my car at lunch with the radio on, I'm not OK with burning a few miles of EV range to do it. Especially when it's not necessary.
i wonder what calculations it's doing when that is happening. because of the variability of the range guesstometer, are we really losing as much as it is showing, or is it more or less?
Verified. Did a full test today by measuring current at the battery in 3 of the "4" states above. Accessory mode has least draw and obviously is not being charged by the traction battery. 2nd press Power on but foot OFF brake is using the most power (a lot actually) and is definitely NOT being charged by the Traction battery. As stated above, Power button On with foot ON brake till PIP is in Ready mode is the ONLY way the hybrid battery charges the 12v auxiliary. And contrary to some misinfo on the web, the PIP 12v battery is NOT AGM, it is a standard 45ah lead Acid by Yuasa. re: FTL "Did anyone try reading the manual?" Yeah, genius, I did. But it's 689 pages long and I missed it. Sorry to take up your time.
One reason is he said he wants to watch a DVD on the Prius' screen. With the Advanced trim, that's part of the Entune system. Clearly, he needs to be in "Ready" mode or he'll drain the 12v battery. (Note that you can't watch DVDs when in D, B, or R. In these modes, only the DVD's audio will play but the screen will be blanked to conform with most state laws prohibiting watching movies or TV in the front seats.)
540 Watt-hours should be plenty of power to watch a DVD. That's enough power to run a laptop playing DVDs for 10 hours at least. I performed a test today at lunch. I started the PiP in ready mode and the display shows 7.4 miles of EV range remaining. After 52 minutes of taking a nap the EV range had dwindled to 5.8 miles. No A/C, no radio, no lights, dash lights dimmed as far as possible, and screen turned off. If the traction battery is nominally 208V and I'm currently getting about 121Wh/mile (display shows 20.6 miles range on a full charge), then that means there is a 900 mA drain on the traction battery in Ready mode. That's not nice.
The drain in traction and regular 12v is less than optimum, that's for sure. I was programming the car for the trip for awhile. Doors were open so interior lights were on (I have converted all to LEDS). I inputted maybe 15 addresses into the Nav, changed some settings. Did some foot off pseudo ready mode testing (laptop hookup etc.). Probably messed around for two hours or so. I came out this morning and had all the doors open for another hour and a half packing and repacking the car in accessory mode. I hooked up my portable charger and it gave a reading of 60% capacity on the 12v, that's down from 100% in the morning a day earlier when I practiced topping it up. I'm sure the foot off power mode may have been the culprit but this is something to reckon with and master. The PIP does not behave like a normal car, am definitely carrying my Black & Decker 350amp back-up battery jumpstart kit for the trip.
