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Hymotion Charging Defeat in motion

Discussion in 'Prius PHEV Plug-In Modifications' started by ibcs, Nov 23, 2008.

  1. ibcs

    ibcs New Member

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    Location:
    Englewood , Ohio
    Vehicle:
    2006 Prius
    I frequently drive 60 miles in a single day without stopping. My charge is depleted at 30 miles. I have a 10 amp inverter which could be used to charge while driving on the interstate to allow me to EV when getting close to home. Does anyone know why or how the Hymotion lockout could be defeated?

    Once you apply voltage to the charging port you can not turn off the car when it is already started. I have the ability to turn the inverter on and off remotely. Putting the Turning Hymotion switch to off does not allow it to charge as no current is drawn. It makes no sense that it is locked out when the switch is in the off position, but they have disabled it nevertheless.

    Any ideas?

    ---Kent
     
    #1 ibcs, Nov 23, 2008
  2. TheForce

    TheForce Stop War! Lets Rave! Make Love!

    Joined:
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    I think you may have a lot of work to get this done.

    Here are some of my theories on how the Hymotion might be doing things and what you might have to do to get around them.

    First off is the Hymotion disables the ON button when charging. This might be as simple as cutting the power to the ON button when charging. If this is the case then you can simply bypass the wiring in the dash.

    The next phase would be to get the battery to charge while in motion. I know the battery wont charge while the car is on because I tried plugging it in after I turned on the car. So what I think is going on here is it might be monitoring the CAN bus to see if the car is turned on. If this is the case then you will need to interrupt the Hymotion battery from communicating with the CAN bus. But if you do that it still may not charge as it still might need to communicate with the computers for some reason and if it does not see info flowing across the CAN bus then it may think there is a problem and not charge. I don't think there is anything flowing across the bus when the car is off as the ScanGauge wont display anything. So I think that if the battery does not see the CAN bus active it knows the car is off and will start charging. Only way to find out is to start experimenting.

    One thing that I'm worried about is the Amp draw the battery will want while charging. If there is a way to limit its draw to say 5A instead of 10A I would think that would be better as that wont put much strain on the 12v system when charging.
     
    #2 TheForce, Nov 23, 2008
  3. ibcs

    ibcs New Member

    Joined:
    Aug 26, 2005
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    Location:
    Englewood , Ohio
    Vehicle:
    2006 Prius
    The first problem is easily solved. I have an on/off switch that can be wired to be at the drivers seat. Turning on power to the port does not affect the current operation of the On/Off button on the Prius. While charging you can't turn the car off once it is one. Turning off the inverter returns the car to normal operation.

    My lack of understanding is apparent with your second comment. I have no idea how the Hymotion taps into the can bus. If that could be toggled on off remotely I think the Hymotion would accept a charge. Did anyone watch during the installation to see how they are getting the signals from the can bus?

    Lastly, I've been watching my Hymotion it draws 9.8 Amps while charging. I know the Prius can handle 75 Amps without a problem due to my emergency power outage test. I don't know if it can handle 100 amps on the 12v side. I currently have an 80 Amp slow blow fuse, so I would have to upgrade to 100 Amp. If anyone knows the upper limits of the 12v system on the Prius please comment.

    At this point, this is only a theoretical discussion.

    ---Kent
     
    #3 ibcs, Nov 24, 2008
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