Enginer kit proper break-in charging cycles

I received my Enginer kit in early May. My balancer arrived this week.

 

October 2009 was my install, I got the new balancer last week. Still waiting for wiring harness and spanners, but I have a click and ship notification.

 

If the traction battery is above 104oF (I think) on 2G, forced EV mode is prohibited.

I'm down in Miami and we've had 100 degree days which by 10 AM makes the traction battery so hot that I can't force EV.

 

that is a good point, though it also has happened in the morning. My 12v aux is questionable, as I had to jump it a couple wkend ago. It is almost 6 yrs old.

I often wonder why Toyota pull outside in to "cool" the stock pack. Such as in your situation, the outside air is 100F.

 

delete duplicates due to "Back" button

 

I didn't go through all the posts but I got an impression that in addition to many thousands of dollars of parts and installation one also needs to nurse this plug-in system - watch voltages of individual cells, look out for alarms and then manually turn it on/off, not a simple "plug and play" system, is that right?

 

I would say the current version of the Enginer kit is plug and play.

 

Hello 2009Prius,
Yes this system is several thousand dollars, but it is about 1/2 the cost of any other commercially available system.

No add-on PHEV system is truly plug and play. The Enginer system was introduced at an early stage and so a lot of what you read is Beta test discussion. Today the system is much more stable than what you might think from what you have been reading.

I have 2 systems that have been running for 4-5months with no problems. There are many other users that I have communicated with that also are very happy with their systems.

Thanks,
Dan

 

Prius2009, as a followup, Enginer began shipping their newly designed cell balancing system. I've had my 4 kWh system for about a month now.

Originally, the baby sitting was required to ensure the cells weren't damaged by overcharging or excessive charge depletion; hence, all the talk about alarms and whatnot.

I've been running my new cell balancers and have essentially taken off the alarms. The system stops charging when it should and shuts down when any of the cell pairs falls below an acceptable voltage.

I am very happy with the current state of the system.

A few issues which are more fundamental to electric vehicles in general and a plug in specifically exist. My 4 kWh was an excellent value, but it is not a 10 kWh system, either. So, the two issues I have are first, I like in Miami. It's been damned hot down here. The Prius battery doesn't like heat nor does the Enginer system. There's only so much you can do to dissipate heat when the ambient temperature out of the sun is 98 degrees.

When the Toyota traction battery detects, 104 degrees I think, it won't allow you to force EV mode. It then requires a change in driving to "feather" the car into EV mode; thus, allowing continued use of the plug in battery. That's a Prius issue more so than an Enginer issue.

The second issue is that the Enginer system apparently can put only about 14 amps back onto the power buss. This is roughly 3 to 3.5 kW. My assessment is that a 2G Prius works best with the 4 kWh system when the Toyota battery is kept at a state of charge of between 65 and 70%. The 4 kW system cannot supply enough power if you are driving pure EV mode over about 18 MPH. Below that, the plug in keeps the traction battery charged. Above that, the traction battery depletes. So, you end up looking for traffic lights and stop signs which allow the plug in to recharge the traction battery. Given that you have to deal with the fact that you've got a consistent, but insufficient flow of electricity into the power buss, it requires a bit of modification. But Enginer is completely up front that their system does not make the Prius an electric vehicle but it "blends" with the existing hybrid operation.

Given that, I've had enormous success with the system. Recently, I've been going out and about town during lunch time doing errands and whatnot. Typically, it's about 5 miles round trip. For a few days now, I've been able to make these little trips without the gas engine EVER firing up! It's sort of bizarre to watch the Prius energy graph showing floating regen cars everywhere but a completely blank bar graph otherwise.

Secondly, I use cruise control to maintain exactly 60 mph on the interstate. I can absolutely watch the Prius battery management system stabilize at 56 MPG @ 60 MPH, then after about a minute of data recalculate the energy balance to strip 5 to 7 Hp off the gas engine by supplementing the 14 amps off the plug in battery. The fuel economy immediately jumps over 70 MPG @ 60 and stays there for the 9 miles of my highway commute portion.

I put my PHEV back together when I already had 250 miles of standard hybrid operation on the tank at 53 MPG, so I'm not exactly sure what the fuel economy is right now but it seems to be between 75 and 85 MPG. This consists of 45 miles round trip commute, 5 miles around town and letting my teen boy drive the car with his lead foot for a few miles in the mix.

The system is working great.

 

I think that your personal Enginer review is one of the most accurate an simpler to the fact that have been in Prius Chat.

 

Hi Octane,
Clearly you are a special case for heating in Miami. There are some things that we can learn form you as you improve this issue. And I am sure that you will make significant improvements in heating as you work on it.

I have had a couple of ideas for heat management but I do not see the issue so I have not needed to test them. I will communicate with you privately about this.


I would encourage people that live in warmer climates to contact local installers or people like Octane if you have concerns about heat management.

Thanks,
Dan

 

I have an interesting heat problem with my Enginer 4kW system. Here it's not as hot as Miami, perhaps about 80° at the moment, but this was enough to get the inside of the Enginer box hot enough to make the 100A circuit breaker trip with only 60A of current (about 3kW). I reset it a couple of times, but it now trips after 5 or 10 minutes.

The breaker is probably the thermal-magnetic type that has been decalibrated by excess heat. 3ProngPower is going to send me a new one.

 

I was thinking about a swamp cooler: (used in EV cars):

!Auto Air Conditioner 12-Volt Systems for Autos, RV's, Boats, Pets, Solar, Sleepers, etc.

 

Whoopee! My new balancer arrived in the mail today. Of course I hooked it up and tried it out right away. On initial start-up, cell #8 read low (<2.5v). After charging for a while it came up quickly to near the other cells. The charger then ran for about 45 mins (typical charging time) and cell #15 went high (over 4.15v) and the charger shut down.

It looks like it might be working as advertised. This will be much better than running out and checking the cell readings every 10-15 mins for a cell about to go high (and usually missing the overvolt reading to boot).

The test tomorrow will be to see if the unit shuts down before a cell (probably #8) goes too low.

Next order of business is finding some place to mount it properly and securely.

 

For early adopters like you and me, the new "set it and forget" balancer is a huge relief, eh?

 

It's almost a let down to simply grab the power cord, plug it in and then walk away or not have to try to make eye contact with that little red LED that came on 15 minutes ago but you didn't see it, isn't it?

 

Absolutely! No more running out to the car to check the balancers every 5-10 mins hoping one or more cells don't go high in the meantime!

 

early adopter has the old 3000w converter, which the new BMS doesn't shut off with low cell voltage, according to Jack. Can any body confirm that the charge shuffling/balancing is working in the new BMS ? may be we need a new thread for EnginerBMS ?

Pb

 

whatttt!!?

 

FWIW, after all my running around today and before I plugged in the charger I checked the cell voltages. One cell that had been going low on me using the DB8s before I installed the new BMS was once again reading low. This time < 2.0v. Not good and I probably should replace it.

The new BMS did NOT shut down the converter, and like before, the converter didn't detect the low cell and shut down. In fact, I've never seen the red led indicating low voltage come on either and I've had to replace several cells because they went bad.