Equipment to buy for jumpstarting a PiP

Thanks. Actually, I thought this one looks interesting. The lighter socket is switched on the Prius so yours would not work.

 

I got something similar to yours at a local auto parts store. But I haven't had a need yet to use it.

 

Yeah I use my JNC660 jump pack, laid on the flat in the driver's foot well, with a cable designed for that purpose, plugs into a cigarette lighter style socket on the jump pack, and the OBD port under the dash. It has only the pins for power, and also an indicator light to verify you've got a good connection.

There's some of these cables that have an indicator light at both ends, but just having the one light suffices: you plug it into the obd, verify you're connection by the light going on, then disconnect, and repeat at the jump pack end. Then with both ends connected, your memories are saved when battery's disconnected.

Jump Starters - 1700 Peak Amp Volt JNC660 | Call us at 1-800-328-2921 |Clore Automotive

Memory Saver Cord - ESA30 | Call us at 1-800-328-2921 | Clore Automotive
(I actually have a couple of these, different makes, a lot of automotive places have them.)

 

Mayank,
I had a similar experience with dead battery on my car (2012 PiP) that I bought in Dec 2017. I needed to jumpstart it a couple of times in two weeks. That's when I had the battery tested and found that it was unable to hold a charge. I also found that the 12V batteries generally last for 4-5 years, so my car's 12V battery was probably due for replacement.
I've always had used cars, and keep a jump start cable handy. You'd just want to get your battery tested at either a mechanic or Auto Zone/Advance Auto Parts, where they could do this for free.
The replacement 12V PiP is expensive........I think it cost me around $220-250, but I did not have issues subsequent to the battery replacement. The PiP actually does not use the 12V battery for starting the car. The 12V is just used for powering the computer, while the lithium-ion battery starts up the car. At least that's what I've heard from the mechanic.
-Vinu

 

A jump starter is nice if you want to be able to start other peoples cars, but your car doesn't need it. All your 12 volt does is power up some circuit boards and throw a relay to release the traction battery from its cage. The traction battery does the heavy work of physically turning over the engine. To power up some boards you can use a little 12 volt battery that you can hold in your hand. I've done it. Just make darn sure you have the connections right. Bad things happen if you jump a complicated modern car backwards.

My recollection is that the car pulls 13 Amps max, so that should do nicely.

 

I've heard of people just using UPS batteries to start their Prius.

 

Didn't somebody use a group of D cell batteries?

 

I think so.

 

How would you do that then? 1,5 volts times eight makes 12. Would that be in series or parallel? I'm thinking series, but my grade school electricity is about 50 years rusty.

 

Series.

 

Here is a better alternative to D cell batteries. Kind of like a science project.

 

Be careful if you want to do this experiment yourself. The Ultracaps have a 2.5 volt voltage limit each. Your Prius uses a 14v charging voltage and 14/6 = 2.333 volts. You need to maintain voltage balance across the 6 UltraCaps just like we have to maintain balance on our HV modules or failures will occur.

For the ultra caps you need to put a shunting circuit across each capacitor that will limit the voltage to below 2.5 volts while allowing any caps at a lower voltage to charge. A 2.4 volt Zener diode (put the cathode at the + terminal) in series with a current limiting 47 ohm resistor should keep the UltraCaps at the same voltage.

JeffD

 

I keep thinking about the guy's ring: take it off!

 

I looked at some of the reviews and many people mentioned him wearing a ring and other safety issues about being safe around high voltage. I found it interesting though.

 

Looked like one of these:

alarm battery home depot - Google Search

You really don't need a big honking 12 volt battery to start a Prius.