First Enginer PHEV Installation in Portland Or Area

Hi Flan,
When I drive I get 85-100mpg. When my wife drives she gets about 70. She drives the car the same as she drove her Minivan. I try to maximize EV at lower speeds.

Thanks,
Dan

 

Re: What was the pre conversion millage?

Hi Esoniat,
Yes, I agree that learning how to optimize your driving habits can give you 57-60mpg without comprimizing very much. I was able to get 55mpg all the time and sometimes as high as 60mpg before I installed the Enginer system.

I now get between 85-100mpg with the system. The average I reported in my chart is pulled down because it includes my wife's driving. She just gets in and drives. No energy mangement at all. She got 45mpg before the system and is getting 70mpg with the Enginer system.

I am sure you would get between 85-100mpg.

Thanks,
Dan Lander

 

Hello Everyone,
Enginer has developed a new BMS. It is called BMS16C. It balances 16 cells. It takes charge from the highest cell and transfers it into the lowest cell. It also has shutoff capability for the charger and converter built into it.

I was selected as a beta test site because I have the capability to collect data with my cell logs. I have installed it into my 2010 Prius with a Feb vintage of the Enginer 4kwhr system.

This BMS is clearly better than the older DB8s. I have been running it for close to a week and I am happy with the results. Attached is my latest data. It balances very well in the middle. The data shows some spread at the top and bottom, but that spread is small enough that the system is running with no alarms.

Thanks,
Dan

 

Hi Flan,
The BMS16C runs all the time.

The Chart are the highest voltage at the end of charge and the lowest voltage at the end of discharge. These are the two most important times.

Jack told me that any system shipped from today forward will have the BMS16C.

Thanks,
Dan

 

Hi Flan,
Cell voltages move quickly at the end of charging and at the end of discharging. These voltage changes happen faster than any BMS can accommodate. The BMS adjustments happen over a little longer time period.

Yes, U1 and U8 are tied for the highest cell at the end of charge.

At the end of discharge U1 is in the middle of the distribution. You can not make any judgments about a cell in the middle of the distribution.

The judgment that we can make for the end of discharge is that L1 and L2 went low first. So if we are looking for perfection, what we would want is for some of the energy from U1 and U8 to be moved to L1 and L2 over time.

Note that this pack is balanced well. The variations we are discussing are really fine adjustments.

The main point in the data is that the new BMS16C balances well enough to be sure that no cell goes too high during charging and no cell goes too low at the end of discharge.

You can see a picture of the BSM16C in the enginer Website.
Enginer.us

Thanks,
Dan

 

Hi Bob,
The BMS16C manages a string of 16 LiFeP04 cells. So we have 16 cells in series giving 50v-52v.

It has two 9 pin connectors. The same as the DB8s and the CellLog8s (which I am using to collect the data). So I have labeled the connectors as L for the lower 1/2 and U for the upper 1/2. So pin 9 in the L connector is at the same voltage as pin 1 on the U connector. The 50v-52v going to the converter is connected to the wires going to pin 1 on the L connector and to pin 9 on the U connector.

The BMS16C in not shunting current. It is more like a switching power supply. It is putting the energy from the high cell into an inductor and then switching the inductor so that energy can discharge into the low cell.

Note that I am a Mechanical Engineer so I am not fully knowledgeable about the electrical engineering stuff.

Hope this helps,
Thanks,
Dan

 

Hi Everyone,
Its been over three weeks since I last reported Mileage. The car is still doing great. It also appears that my range has improved a little.

I have not had to do any maintenance on the Enginer system.

I have been working with 2 and 3 chargers as a prototype of something that could tie in to a charging station. I have easily cut my charging time in half. I do not recommend this for others Because there is some risk, but it is clear that faster charging is possible.

Thanks,
Dan

 

Hello Everyone,
First, Let me report that had an internal fuse blow on my converter. I swapped the converter for an earlier converter that runs a few less amps. It makes I harder to push the car to 100mpg but my range has gone up to a little over 50 miles on a charge. Clearly this lower current converter is more efficient.

So yesterday was a special day. Total was 114 miles at 74mpg with a couple of hours charge in the middle. This is all with a 4kwhr system.

Thanks,
Dan

 

Hello Everyone,
I have replaced the fuses in the original converter and put it back into the car. I also adjusted it so that it would not push the charge in the Prius HV battery quite so high. I did leave it putting out the higher current.

So now I have driven it 9 days on the converter set at about 10 amps and another 10 days on the converter at 13a. Both converters are now giving me a range of about 55miles at about 80mpg. This is with about 50% highway driving at 55-60mph. The current level does not make much difference if I am running this distance. I do get better MPG on shorter in town trips with the higher current because I can do more EV. Turning down the maximum voltage did clearly make the higher current converter give me more range.


Thanks,
Dan

 

Hi Flan,
My technique varies based on what I want to accomplish, how far I am driving, and if I expect to fully use the capacity of the Enginer system.

On my 55mile drive. I know the system will go empty a couple of miles before the end. So I drive with the system on all the way but I drive like I have no PHEV and am trying to get the best mpg possible from the Prius. Then the Prius computers manage it all for me.

Thanks,
Dan

 

Hello Everyone,
It has been about another month and my 2010 Prius with the 4kwhr system has continued to run great. Today was a good day, going 33.8 miles at 96.8 mpg. That was with one stop in the middle of the trip meaning 2 warm up cycles. The batteries were not fully depleted and so I was able to use a little more EV than I would have if I had been planning to go a farther distance.

Also, One day last week I was on the freeway at 55-60 mph and got 65 miles of range before the batteries became depleted and gave me the red light. I got 75 mpg for that 65 miles.

Here is an updated chart.


As a partial answer toe Flan's question on technique,
When I am trying to maximize EV in my 2010, I will push the EV button at a stoplight and then accelerate to 24 mph normally with traffic in EV.
Then If I am OK with slower operation I will quickly let up on the gas peddle and hit the EV button to turn off EV and come back onto the peddle to less than 1/2 on the HSI bar. This will let me continue slow driving in EV with the ICE never coming on.
If I still want good acceleration, at 24mph I will hit the EV button again to turn EV off while leaving my foot steady on the peddle. This will cause the ICE to fire up and I can accelerate to my cruising speed. Then I will let of completely off of the accelerator and quickly come back on it but only to below 1/2 on the HSI bar. If I am below 42 mph this will again kill the ICE. If I am over 42 mph this will put the car into stealth (ICE spinning but not using gas). Then I will slowly adjust the foot pressure as needed. I generally keep up with the slower traffic that runs in the right lane. I generally do not go so slow as to cause any irritation to other drivers in traffic.This method is best for mpg but not best for extending the range of the batteries.

Enjoy,
Dan

 

Hi Again,
An other month with things running well. I am still getting 80mpg and my wife got 73 mpg today which is very good for her.

It has been cooler, highs about 70degF. I am noticing that I could use a little more grill blocking. I never had removed the last of what I had last winter, but I probably an at the point of needing to increase to 75 blockage on the lower grill. I am planning to make a trip to California in October so I will probably wait till after that trip.

Thanks,
Dan

 

Hi everyone,
I did increase the grill blocking to 75% on the bottom and 0% on the top. Then we hit a warm day at 80degF and I took the car on the freeway for 168miles. The temp was running about 195degF. No danger, but a little higher than I would like. I am planning a trip to California so I will drop the lower blocking to 50%.

We got 75mpg for 60 miles before the Enginer system reached the end of its charge. This was doing 60-65mph for 50 of those miles. Then the mpg slowly dropped as we drove on the rest of the trip. We ended the trip a little above 63mpg for the 168 miles.

Thanks,
Dan

 

Hello Everyone,
Another month and a half and the system is still running well. I think I have seen some decline in range. Also, in the last few days the CellLog alarms have sounded well before the red light. This tends to annoy my wife.

In looking at the data it looks like cell L5 is going low first, and this is repeating. I put a little extra charge into L5 and then it goes high sooner. Then the balancing process pulls it back down so that it goes low first. I could spend some time trying to balance it but instead I chose to add a little more capacity. I had purchased a 3.3ah LiFePO4 cell for about $5. I put in in parallel with L5. So now the balancer does not see it going high and it no longer goes low first.

On the first drive after this addition I got 99.2mpg for 31.8 miles and the red light came on with no CellLog alarms. So now my wife is happy and I think I have my range back up. Pretty good for just $5.

Thanks,
Dan