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Making some progress

Discussion in 'Prius PHEV Plug-In Modifications' started by adric22, Mar 10, 2010.

  1. adric22

    adric22 Ev and Hybrid Enthusiast

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    [​IMG]

    This is just a wooden template I made, which will eventually be an aluminum plate. I just laid the battery pack there for illustration. You can see that there will be plenty of room for all 4 battery packs along with the charger. I plan to put the DC-DC converter bolted directly to the floor of the trunk over to the left of the spare-tire well.

    Eventually all the battery packs will have brackets holding them down to the plate and there will be a plexiglass covering over the batteries with some holes drilled and the little fan on the under-side of the plexiglass to circulate air.

    The plate will be fastened down tight with the mount that usually holds the spare-tire down. Under the plate will be perfectly formed foam (made from spray-foam) which will spread the weight out evenly throughout the spare-tire well.

    So eventually I'll have my trunk back, plus an Enginer kit, plus I will have saved a good amount of weight from that steel case. Also it will be easier to see my balancers without having to open the big steel case.
     
    #1 adric22, Mar 10, 2010
  2. mrbigh

    mrbigh Prius Absolutum Dominium

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    So,how many KW of the modified enginer kit are you planning to use down there?
     
    #2 mrbigh, Mar 11, 2010
  3. JonnyD

    JonnyD Junior Member

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    Beautiful template!

    I did the opposite as you. My two converters are in the spare tire area, where the Enginer steel box are used to house my 100Ah Thundersky batteries + charger.
     
    #3 JonnyD, Mar 11, 2010
  4. banshee08

    banshee08 Member

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    Is there a picture I am not seeing??
     
    #4 banshee08, Mar 11, 2010
  5. adric22

    adric22 Ev and Hybrid Enthusiast

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    I have a 2Kwh kit. So there will just be 16 cells down there (or 4 packs of 4 cells).

    I do have a question. A friend of mine suggests that these thundersky batteries should not be placed on their side, that it will degrade their lifespan. I checked thundersky's website and manual and saw nothing listed about that. Not to mention the fact that Enginer puts the batteries on their side in their kits.

    Unfortunately, if I don't put them on their side, they won't fit in the spare-tire well. So I hope that doesn't turn out to be true.
     
    #5 adric22, Mar 13, 2010
  6. linuxpenguin

    linuxpenguin Active Member

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    This is actually common. Some LiFEPO4 chemistries have to be standing upright to work properly. Additionally, the Thunder-sky batteries must be compressed for "optimal" performance (also not in the manual / datasheet). I would contact Thunder-sky directly to find out.

    Andrew
     
    #6 linuxpenguin, Mar 13, 2010
  7. mrbigh

    mrbigh Prius Absolutum Dominium

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    Adric22
    I have the understanding that the Enginer-Kit is providing motcell's and not TS but also I do not know how old your kit is.
     
    #7 mrbigh, Mar 13, 2010
  8. linuxpenguin

    linuxpenguin Active Member

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    I think the 2kW system comes with Thundersky cells and the 4kW+ systems come with Mottcells. Not sure why they dont use Mottcells for all of them, I guess they must be more expensive (but you do get what you pay for with batteries).

    Andrew
     
    #8 linuxpenguin, Mar 13, 2010
  9. adric22

    adric22 Ev and Hybrid Enthusiast

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    Yes, they are thundersky (as mentioned by previous poster, the 4Kwh uses Mottcell because they are slightly smaller and will fit with the double row)

    Thundersky's manual DOES actually mention that they need to be compressed together, but does not mention about orientation. So I'm not sure where to go next with this design until I know for sure.
     
    #9 adric22, Mar 13, 2010
  10. sub3marathonman

    sub3marathonman Active Member

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    This question was asked on the Thundersky group. In the past, the sideways orientation was definitely bad. There was a discussion about this in 2/2009. However, apparently something has changed/improved, at least according to Dave Kois, who has extensive experience with the Thundersky batteries. On a 7/21/2009 posting, he states, "I have asked both TS and SE if it is a problem to lay the cells on their sides and both have said that the only concern would be if they were overcharged the vent caps could open and electrolyte could be released. If you are using a good BMS then you should never overcharge them. I have ran the TS cells on their sides for 2 1/2 years and had no problems with any of the cells in any of the Rav4's we have done

    Dave Kois
    EV Components, LLC
    http://www.evcomponents.com "

    You could double-check with Thundersky though. In the past, I know you could pay extra for a Thundersky battery that could be side-mounted. What I suspect is that now people are just paying the bit extra (10%) and as standard practice getting the side-mountable battery. I don't know if you could special order an upright mounting Thundersky battery any more or if it might be slightly lower priced.
     
    #10 sub3marathonman, Mar 14, 2010
  11. linuxpenguin

    linuxpenguin Active Member

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    I think the "If you have a good BMS" line in there speaks for itself =). I'm not sure I would have enough confidence that the batteries wouldn't get over charged at this point...

    Andrew
     
    #11 linuxpenguin, Mar 15, 2010
  12. adric22

    adric22 Ev and Hybrid Enthusiast

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    I think I'm going to go ahead with them on their side for now. Thanks for the discussion everyone..
     
    #12 adric22, Mar 15, 2010
  13. adric22

    adric22 Ev and Hybrid Enthusiast

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    Here's an updated picture on the progress:

    [​IMG]
     
    #13 adric22, Mar 28, 2010
  14. pbui

    pbui Member

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    very nice, any update ? a photo inside the wheel-well perhaps ?
     
    #14 pbui, May 28, 2010
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