A few months ago, I had a Hymotion system installed, and after my first recharge, I started experiencing tingling in my legs, which became discomfort and then pain over a few days. I have contacted A123 and spoken to an engineer. I asked him if he could measure the EMFs from the motor when the Hymotion is on so that I could measure mine and have some comparison and evaluate whether I have a problem specific to my car. That was at the beginning of December and I haven't heard back yet. Has anyone else experienced anything like this? From my conversation with the engineer, I got that the batteries run in parallel and so there is an increase in current into the electric motor, and thus power. The distance from the motor to my legs may be insufficient for the amount of EMF created by the motor with this increased amount of power. Any ideas? Anyone know how I could shield my legs? Thanks, Christopher
Go get another engineer. Running them in parallel will not increase the power, just increase the duration of the power. To get more power your Hymotion battery would have to have a higher voltage than the Prius battery (Ohms law). That likely would destory the inverter and void the warranty. Sorry to disappoint..
I suggest making some time every couple of days for a good stretching regimen, to get your joints and ligaments and such back into proper shape. It has nothing to do with the car. . _H*
Hi Christopher, Go google "Sciatica". Does this match your symptoms? Its a common ailment for people that are getting older. It comes on without warning. You may need to do some back exercises. Vitamin D and a calcium rich diet can help too.
Sounds like sciatica or at least an irritation. Take a couple ibuprofen to see if that alleviates the pain. If you drink soda, try to cut it out. If not, if you drink 12 oz soda, drink at least 12 oz water.
Try driving around with your Hymotion battery empty for a week to see if that makes the pain go away. That should at least allow you to mentally eliminate the Hymotion battery as the source of your pain.
I wish I had pains in the leg from hymotion. I'm still waiting for an AZ installer. I have an EMF meter. I'm sure the extra battery add no EMF. Even a high rate as I meaured in the EV1 of over 20 milli gaus doesn't make any feelings in your body. The swedish standard is 2 mgaus or less for long times of 10 or more minutes. It mostly caused by AC motors and high power electric lines. I measure it and check it all the time for fun. I'm a telcom technician. We used to have cable sopicers getting breast cancer, yes guys, big burky work outside guys. The union did a study and found very high EMF from 750 kv power lines. Bad for you and your boduy cells.
Hi All, Just for clarification. Sciatica is caused by pinching of one or both of the Sciatic nerves. The pinching occurs in the lumbar region of the spine. The nerves emerge from the spinal nerve cluster in the lumbar region and proceed down the back of each leg. All the leg nerves are attached to the sciatic nerves. This is why one can get a tingly toe, from a back problem.
Hi Jstack, The Prius high current motor drive cables are on the other side of a steel floor pan as they pass by the driver. And the motor drive is a ground isolated system (no current flows in the chasis, or else the car shuts down by ground-fault-interupter system). So, there is no electric field from the hybrid drive power cables in the driver's area. The motor is inside an aluminum housing, so again, no electric field can get through that. The current in the wires, and motors, besides the magnets in the motors, all create magnetic fields which will penetrate aluminum. HP Test equipement, in aluminum chasis, can be effected by the trasnformer from other test equipment, when the equipments are stacked, in my experieince. The Prius floor pan and bulkhead are steel, steel is a ferro-magnetic material which will shield magnetic fields. Additionally the two wires are mounted close to each other. So the opposing current directions in close proximity cause the magnetic field of one wire to cancel that from the other wire. Resulting in very small magnetic fields. This is somewhat different than a 750KV AC Power Transmission line, where the wires are as much as 100 feet apart, rather than 1/2 an inch. In another post on EMF's, it was claimed that many standard cars have higher EMF's than the Prius. Specifically a Mercedes Benz sedan was given as an example of such a car. How can that be? One ways is if the ventilation blower motor is inside the passenger compartment, and its a brush comutated motor, without a metal shield can, just stamped strapping framework. Its nearly impossible EMF's effect the driver position in a Prius.
For those who state that EMF is somehow different in a Prius versus a gas guzzler, please post the make and model of the magnetometers being used to quantify EMF in the vehicle. I would like to purchase or borrow a similar device and assess not only the Prius, but a Tundra, Ford F-150, and Camry. It is my guess that the electrical systems in a car do not give off significant mGauss of energy.
I took my Prius in for a firmware upgrade, and the mechanic noticed that a grounding wire wasn't properly tightened. Since it has been tightened, the symptoms seem to have gone away, so I think that was the issue! Thanks for everyone's ideas and suggestions.
