Interesting, but total false advertising!!!! ??? DIY? Was expecting something much more DIY. Like everyone has an elevator brake resister pack sitting in the garage? And a charger 'calibrated' to a Prius battery. Gonna throw that in your back pocket to take to the junkyard to find the best battery out of the ten they have on the shelf while all the workers look at you like Come 'on, mannnn But, if you're a shop that repairs batteries and has some volume, then it would be great. Personally, for low volume specialty builders, its hard to beat having a gen 2 with a stripped rear interior where it takes a only a couple minutes to throw a battery in and test. And drive. And load at a world churning 150+ amps under full accel. Removes any doubt as to how the car will perform in the real world.
I agree with some of what you're saying but it's not false advertising. And you gotta admit, how cool would it be to have an elevator brake resistor to use to load test? And configure the pins of Battery ECU to mini-VCI and functional techstream via re-wiring? That's super hero awesome kinda skills! I'm jealous! Nice work @Mr.Electric !!!!
DIY is where you cobble stuff together from whatever you have lying around or manage to get from somewhere. If you happen to have an elevator brake resistor lying around, this is totally a classic DIY project. Now, I like a neat hack as much as anybody, but if finding the battery ECU's power and CAN pins on a wiring diagram now counts as super hero awesome skills, there might be a bunch of us who need to go ask for raises.
Partly because I do not have a way to effectively clamp my modules, I never tired to pull more than 5-10A from them and <5 is most of it. I DO have a DIY charger, but it would not pass any safety review and far too likely to electrocute those who are anything less than paranoid.
Brilliant, please share details on how to make the mini vci to battery ecu direct harnesses Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
I will add a diagram to the video description that shows hv ecu to obd2 port wiring. To connect any capable scanner directly to battery computer works on many early 2000’s vehicles, Nissan leaf for example. As far as I understand newer vehicles like hyundai kona ev (or any newer car )would involve more complexity because the battery computer is not on the can network but on another network. The diagram for gen2 prius Battery ecu to obd2 port will show just a few wires. 12v + Ground Can hi Can low 120v resistor btwn can high and low.
I think what is important here is that it's a great proof of concept that individuals can improve or modify. Mr Electric has posted the diagram for the interface. For the load you could use some other resistive item. For example a 240 volt water heater element. That element would do similar draw as what is described in the video. Let's say around 18 amps at 240 volts. For charger you could use some type of power bare supply that provides around 240 volts DC. Perhaps a Meanwell or similar brand. ( Not sure what amperage he is charging at.) It'll be pretty hard to make the unit portable enough to carry around by yourself, but I could see mounting it on a hand cart. None of the components would be especially cheap unless you can find the parts used or scavenged from other sources. You may have a challenge on how to power the electronics in the field as well but it could be solvable.
