Has anyone installed the enginer PHEV?

Hello,

Many Questions there...

I can for sure answer the balancer one... If all cells are of equal Voltage, then the Balancer will stop bleeding any cells. so no discharge of the Cells.

For feeding electricity.. As much as I understood your calculation is right.. 12A would come from the PHEV-pack and the other 18 from the traction battery.

As for braking... as the pack voltage rises when pushing current into the battery, then the battery is charged with 12A more than normally. If this makes the battery voltage go too high, then the DC/DC will stop (I believe).

I am definately missing first hand experience with this stuff

ciao

Florian

 

One question I had that I hadn't put earlier is... How much weight can the rear struts take. I think the 4KW kit weighs about 180 lbs (??) so If I put 6KW back here, do I need to buy beefy rear struts? Should I get the beefy rear struts anyway since that seems like a lot of weight behind that axle?

OK.. still kinda curious as to how long the average pack can survive in a garage. I know the NiMH pack requires charging (ie run car for 20 minutes) every 6 months. I would assume this pack would probably need to be fully charged at least once a month, but that's just a guess.

cool, that's what I thought

OK.. earlier in the thread it said you couldn't regen while the AUX pack was in line. I read that to mean that the +Amp coming off the AUX pack would prevent any charge from regen making to the OEM pack. Basically the regen generator (mg1?) would battle the AUX pack for the bus and loose.

I haven't heard that the inverter could sense this but that would be cool if it does. I was just planning to monitor SOC and shut off the AUX pack at 75% SOC regardless of what the DC/DC inverter sensed.

11011011

 

If you get Ohm's law, then that is all you need to understand. A Hall effect sensor is used to measure DC current, just like a current transformer is used to measure AC current. Coulomb counting is what the Prius battery ECU does to keep track of it's SOC. A coloumb is a unit of energy.

I don't think switching power electronics on and off often is a good idea. I don't know why you would want to do that anyway unless you don't have enough battery capacity to collect regen.

Yes

During regen, you voltage spkies. If it spikes higher than what is being supplied by the converter, then the converter output is zero. That is because current will only flow when there is a voltage delta. Also, since the converter is isolated with a transformer, power cannot flow backward into the PHEV pack. The converter acts as a diode (like a backflow preventer) in this case.

The smart charger is supposedly made by Thundersky. The Converter is custom made by Enginer, no docs are available that I know of.

The balancers drain energy from 7 cells down to the llevel of the 8th (lowest) cell. Then the balancers shut off.

None are adjustable if that's what you mean.

The converter has an RJ-45 port for a network cable. Don't know what it is for.

 

First off DanK... Thanks for the volume of info you have provided on this kit. I really have found it informative!

Yep I found my college Physics book and I'm pooring through it presently....

Yeah, there was something about that scheme that I thought was iffy. My main motive to cycle so frequently (ok maybe not 50 times, but closer to 20) was to allow for greater regen. My thought was to maually maintain SOC around 70% instead of letting the kit hold it closer to 80%. Basically when I hit 70% I was gonna switch it off till I got down to 65% or so. On my most aggressive regen though I only pick up about 5% SOC.

OK... I think I get it, so If my braking is producing 6 AMPs the regen and the AUX will sum up to 18 AMPs heading into the OEM pack (correct?), and once the regen hits, for example 20 AMPs then (20A > 12A) the converter flow would stop but the OEM pack would still get its 20 AMP of regen (correct?).

Yeah, I looked on their webpage and only saw industrial chargers. Nothing that would fit in the battery box that Enginer is using.

Cool, It must be settable since Enginer has offered to program different voltages for different Hybrids.

Thanks again for all the great insight!

11011011

 

Hey everyone.

What did shipping cost (if applicable) for your kit?

Thanks

 

Shipping is $95. Delivery is via FedEx Home Delivery, signature required. For both deliveries, it took 7 days to arrive.

 

forgive me if i am way off on anything, but this thread should have been divided up a long time ago. hard to wander thru install questions verses troubleshooting questions etc.

i have run an EV for nearly 2 years and have had a constant battle with battery balancing, chargers overheating, etc. now i have seen basically two kinds of balancers, diode and capacitor types

diode is established, safe to install (as long as you do it in the right order) fairly reliable but i dont think is as effective as the capacitor type. i had one that i used for nearly 6 months, it had questionable success and my suspicions were verified when the company did a recall on them, so that one is gone. there are other diode based systems that are supposed to work well. most of the EV community is just now trying it, so i will wait for them to respond before making any judgments.

the capacitor type is new (basically have a DIY'er put it together) more risk, (it does involve technical knowledge) and the install process must be followed to the letter, failure to do so does involve significant personal risk.

the capacitor system is advantageous and works much better (so i am told) because it does provide much better balancing and does not bleed power to do it. now, there are only a small handful of people who are doing this and they dont have a lot of experience with this yet.

the problem with the install is that capacitors have to precharged as they will sit in parallel with the pack and will act as a dead short if completely drained. the people who are using this stuff i am sure are very capable but SUCK as being able to explain exactly what they are doing and how they are doing it.

the guy who put it together seems nice and he did post drawings, parts lists, etc...for his device. but the info on pre-charging, manufacturing the parts, connectors, etc... makes his project beyond (way beyond, actually) what i am willing or am capable of doing (i simply dont have access to the tools or machinery and pricing a machine shop will probably be more money than its worth)

anyway... after all that... anyone have any info, ideas, thoughts, etc on the effectiveness of capacitor bank as a balancer?

 

Anybody here have the coastal EV mod installed before the Enginer system?

I have the Coastal mod and wondered how that would effect things with the kit.

Is an EV mod included in the kit too, which works automatically?

 

The kit install includes the EV mod. However, it's integrated with the system switch--system on, EV on...system off, EV off.

I have a separate EV switch and told them NOT to connect the EV mod lines from the system switch. I want to be able to control EV separately from the Enginer system.

 

Cool. Thanks for responding. So what differences do you see in the ICE's tendency to come on when your PHEV kit is turned on and your EV mod is either on or off? (crappy sentence, but I hope you get my meaning).

 

I'll let you know as soon as I have some decent data to post.

 

I just finished paying Jack for my 4kWh kit. Whoo hoo!!

 

We have been working with the customers on the overheat issues. The two overheat issues are caused by improper settings in the converters.

However, our supplier is serious about any potential defects and re-designed the enclosure for better ventilation (added 4 inches fan on the left, moved the charger to the right and added a few air intake holes). The test indicates one hour continuous full load without interruption.

There will be some delay for the 4KWH system delivery as the result of the changes. 2KWH system is fine as the way it is and can be shipped immediately.

 

I'm sorry I haven't had time to keep up with this thread, its great to see so much happening on this front. It sounds like the kit may have some issues, but for the price it makes a great experiment kit. I wish I had time to play with it.

For those that are considering modifications to this kit, you might want to take a serious look at the open source Cal-Cars Prius+ documentation. I would think using this kit as a low cost power source, then taking advantage of all the learning that has gone into making the Prius+ fairly robust from a mileage optimization, safety and thermal standpoint would make for a pretty nice DIY conversion.

At the very least, I would think leaving the Enginer kit on all the time, then using either a CAN-View or Ewert's new SOC spoofing controller to connect and disconnect the pack via heavy duty contactors based on CAN data could increase the usefulness of this kit for a fairly small increase in cost. Switching via contactors should be much more robust than powering the converter up and down a lot, and using a controller to monitor the CAN bus and switch the pack was found to be much more feasible and affective than trying to do so manually.

Only stumbling block may be output voltage. To be used with the Cal-cars based controllers, the output voltage should really be >242V. It would be interesting to see if the seller would provide a slightly higher voltage version for that purpose.

Here is the link to the Prius+ documentation. Like most open source projects its a bit out of date, but there is a lot of really good info there.

PriusPlus - EAA-PHEV

FYI for those familiar with the Plugin Supply kit, thats basically a nice clean commercial implementation of the Prius+ with a few improvements thrown in.

Rob

 

Well . . . since May, when the OP first posted (and I'd made the very first comment, red flagged by their ebay feedback), we've been up in MT for a bunch of the time, and wow, the thread has really grown. From their web site it appears the Gen III kit may also be available soon?

Since the Ford Escape, the Toyota hy-hi and lexus RX-400h have similarly configured HSD systems, there's rumblings that the kit may work for these hybrids as well? I've inquired for our 400h. Heck, I'm thinking it'd be WAY better to get our hybrid SUV's mpg possibly into the 60 mpg's (from high 20 mpg's) rather than raise our 60mpg prius up to the 90's.

Has anyone else inquired of Jack regarding the other HSD vehicles?

.

 

Hey Everyone,

I've gotten 6 two hour charges on my kit, and I think the inverter/converter is now broken. Is it safe to say that if the converter turns on and just warms up, not extremely hot like I've experienced it, it is broken? The battery voltage seems fine, but it appears not to be charging. Btw, Jack talked about a new redesigned converter. Will he allow us to have the upgrade? Ttyl.

 

Hey,

Does anyone know of a compatible battery balancer for the 2kw kit? Mines our driving me crazy. I know Jack will send me a new set, but I find the quality to be unreliable. I am willing to pay a little more for something that works without too much maintenance. Also, does anyone have any experience with pingping27 batteries? He's an eBay seller that makes batteries, like ours, for scooters. He can make them to our specification. I am not interested in his batteries, at least for now, but I am wondering what type of balancer is he using. This guy has a 100% feedback for his batteries; he must be doing something right. Ttyl.

 

Your balancers may be driving you crazy but the are just doing thier job. Are they alarming while charging, discharging or both?

Those of you who have 2kWh kits will have more balancing problems than those with 4kWh kits. That is because the 2kWh pack charges and discharges twice as fast as the 4kWh pack and the balancers are more likely not to be able to keep up. I wonder if the balancer problems reported here are only on 2kWh kits?

I have seen a few posts about defective balancers (a reading 3.99V meaning a defective balancer). I have seen this happen to mine, but when you actually measure the voltage of the cell, it is over 4V. It seems that the limitation of the balancer display is 3.99. If you stop charging, after a few minutes you will see that the balancer displays properly again once the cell voltage drops below 4V. Cells that spike like this do so very quickly when they reach thier full capacity. It is very important to unplug the charger when you hear the alarm. I have only had this problem when charging a 2kWh string, then letting it balance, and then charging again without discharging. I was trying to top off the pack when it happened. I won't do that again.

 

But the CalCars/pluginsupply methods hook in on the wrong side
of the current-sensor donut, so you don't want to get the
techniques mixed up.
.
Other topic ... how would a capacitor bank have anything to do
with balancing? The idea with balancing is to bring all the
battery cells up to the same available capacity. All a cap bank
does is smooth out voltage spikes on the output. Unless you're
talking about some sort of really intelligent balancer that uses
series caps and charge-pumps to push a little energy "uphill"
to neighboring cells that need it, instead of simply bleeding
off from the already-charged ones.
.
_H*

 

Unfortunately, what happens with the DB8 balancer is that it brings the battery cells down to the voltage of the lowest cell. It may be that the capacitor method is able to move energy from one cell to another instead of draining it with a resistor.