Is riding the brake OK?

if you get the battery to full green no amount of regen is possible. On a 2500' decent your probably almost always into the full green. Then B is your only practical means of keeping the car at speed. Once full your into friction braking and you have no choice. Here in B.C. we have lots of 3-5000' decents and you can see full lots of time.

 

As long as you are slightly to moderately applying the brakes you should be using the motors. If you sudden jump on the brakes then you'll be using the disc/drum brakes. Also, at speeds below 8 mph the disc brakes do all the work. Frank and Evan does that sound about right to you?

It must be great watching the cumsumption screen on the way into Denver down I-70. I've yet to drive into the mountains in mine. I assume that it's pretty unpleasent watching the comsumption screen on your way home. Are you up near Idaho Springs?

 

glassguy: you shift into "B" for the downgrade and you still need to ride the brake?

 

he's coming down out of the mountains into Denver. It's steep going for a long time.

 

Understood; he didn't explicitly state that he was using "B", and I want to be sure.

 

I can't find it, but I remember that they tested and after 100,000 miles there is virtually NO pad wear!.... you have to really bear down to even start friction braking from what I remember!

 

I'm mixed on what exactly B mode does?... I"ve heard the ICE uses compression to slow the car.. some have said it has NO regen qualities, others have said it does?
I myself have wondered that if it does, do both the 10Kw "and" the 50Kw chargers come into play at once?... if so what happens after the battery is fully charged... compression braking?

 

Windstrings.

check out this older thread:

http://priuschat.com/index.php?showtopic=1...=30%20amp&st=20

it pretty much lays it all out in gory detail.

 

one picture is here:

http://privatenrg.com/#100kBrakePads

of a 2004 Prius. My 2001 Prius has but 81k miles, but the brake pads look about the same. Andrew Grant, Vancouver BC Prius taxi driver, did replace pads a few times (and rear shoes once I recall) on the way to 300k kilometers.

 

I wonder . . . I took my Prius up and down Old Priest Grade on Highway 120. Old Priest Grade is a 1500 foot elevation change in 2 miles - for an average grade of 14+%. There are a couple of steep sections bordering on 20%.

Going up was no problem for the Prius with three adults, a nearly full tank, and provisions for a day trip to Yosemite.
Coming down was another story! The Prius made it just fine, and felt very safe and in control . . . but when I got to the bottom, there was the distinct odor of hot brakes and the wheels were warm to the touch (it was a cool day . . . snowed in Yosemite). I was in “B†mode and stayed above 8mph 99% of the time . . . but yes, I was using the mechanical brakes.

http://www.pashnit.com/roads/cal/OldPriestGrade.htm

V.R. of Old Priest Grade. The road you see above on the other mountain is the “easy†highway 120 way to the top.
http://virtualguidebooks.com/CentralCalif/...stGrade_FS.html

 

Quite interesting I was down that grade just once and my brakes were hot, even using engine braking on a conventional car. I am not surprised. I would expect you were all green at the end of the grade.

 

Nice site!

 

I think that if you're in D once the battery is green you're gonna switch over to disc brakes because otherwise you'd overcharge the battery. B doesn't chage the battery as efficiently as D but in your case, coming down I-70, that's really a non-issue. I'll remember that when I head up into and back down from the Rockies. Save the brakes quite a bit I bet. Thanks for the heads up.

 

CAN View will help with the Energy monitor screen. When it is full green then put your car in B.

 

The good Doctor appears to have held back on telling you about
- http://techno-fandom.org/~hobbit/cars/imeter/
- http://techno-fandom.org/~hobbit/cars/bp/
the combination of which instrumentation tells me about everything
I need to know about regeneration limits and when I'm heating up
the brake rotors or not. Regenerative current is limited to 100
amps, which at highway speeds is rather easy to hit with relatively
light brake pedal pressure. On big descents, which I got to play
with a lot a week ago in the backwoods of Virginia and Kentucky,
I try to limit the current to 50A and juggle D and B to soak up the
remaining stopping energy in a sensible way -- there's no way I could
capture it all into a measly 600 WH battery pack, so I sort of go
back to the thinking I would have had with a manual transmission
car and match what gear I'd be in to the slope at the time and what
terrain is coming up next.
.
Brake rotor temperature isn't necessarily a good indicator of how
much energy was lost in the preceding minutes -- rotors can heat
up *astoundingly* fast, so all that heat you burned yourself on
may have happened within the last hundred yards or so.
.
_H*

 

-

Wholly Molely.... I hope your science teacher gave you a nice fat A for that one!

I've don't know near as much as you guys about this, but just a question?

Is it possible that when we apply the brake regen takes place.... "yes we all know that"
BUT is it also possible that once regen is already activated while in B mode that when the brakes are "then"applied, the merely are used for friction?

Maybe it doesn't switch over and just lets B mode take priority for regen?

anybody know?