PHEV mod under way, Bristol, UK.

i have been the guy in contact with them for a long time now to get a NG3 for NIMH prismatic oem prius battery packs !

and after a while ty told me there was a UK lady also intressed! So that was you

Thats the charge curve you also talk about!

but still stated that this charger is not made for NIMH but for lead acid and that the charger got internal options like temp controlled voltage adjustents that will not work with Nimh but only for lead because thats where its build for.
and also told me to monitor or use a external temp sensor to simple shutoff the charger and no voltage adjustments.

You will go with a low current and not to high charge voltage to be on the save side!
But when you start charging the pack when its nog fully down to 20% the NG3 charger wil still keep charging for 10h. only stopping it because the prius pack gets to hot when you have a external temp sensor shutoff..
if not the pack wil become hot....and it wil not shuttoff and not adjust current or voltage because that option is only for lead acid!

so be carfull.

 

Norm (CAN-View) told me that you can set the Zivan NG3 at 238 V. I've been trying to get a Zivan charger, but they don't seem to know the charging curve at Electric Conversions (zivanusa). I have everything in my conversion set up, but no charger. Norm said at first to use a C7 curve. They didn't seem to have that. Norm gave me a TIF file with the SX curve, which he thought might be better than the C7 and I sent a copy of that to them, but there still seems to be confusion.

Anyone here using an NG3 with NiMH? Do you know what the best charging curve is? I want to set it up with a cutoff of 238 V with charging current of 4 A. I have two added traction batteries in parallel with it and am hooked up to Norm's BMS+. I've driven about 1000 miles, but the only charging I've done is by coming down a 17 mile long mountain pass.

Any knowledge would be appreciated.

Dave M.

 

Although there was some confusion at Electric Conversions, I think it was misconmunications, as I was asking them two questions at the same time, and they were probably replying to the second question. They do have the SX curve, and it's a curve with only a slight increase in slope on the voltage up to the target voltage, maintained at constant voltage with linear decrease in current to a target current (I guess I'm interpretting it correctly) and then a sudden drop in current to zero. The person I talked to on the phone did say it would turn off suddenly.

I'm going to call them again on Monday morning and see if I can get the charger that day.

If I do, I'll report after I've charged a few times.

Thanks for getting back to me. I'm assuming you are saying that the SX curve is correct (or at least ok) for the Prius prismatic cells.

Dave M.

 

but ami
your getting the C7 curve or the SX?

 

They already had it in stock. Greg (of ElCon) just had to tweak the current and voltage. I haven't had a chance to try it yet. I had to hook up a plug (AC 115) and wire up a connect. I didn't realize until I saw the unit that it came with an Anderson SB50 on it already. I just got the other SB50 (grey) from them.
It got dark before I could connect to the batteries in car. I'm away from home, so I'm going to have to go get a trouble light or good high power flashlight.

Oh. I almost forgot to mention, I'm using the C7 curve. The curve was for lead acid, but Greg set it up for 4 A, 238 V.

Dave M.

 

I believe an absolute voltage (238V) on the NiMH batteries does mean nothing.
The voltage varies on many conditions, such as temperature, current, internal resistance and so on.

Also, please remember that Toyota limits the upper SOC to 80% to extend the cycle life.
We saw up to 84% SOC, and it'll be acceptable to charge it up to 90% SOC, maybe.
Anyway, we have to monitor/calc/control the SOC to see the reasonable cycle life.

Ken@Japan

 

so bottomline to your "238b means nothing" if you set the charger to 238volt max is not that simple?

 

I think you're correct.

Ken@Japan

 

but with a temp sensor and a low 4amps charging it will be OK!

temp sensor to privent overheating and 4amps wil not mean a lot.

 

What is your target SOC %?
Is it 80%? Or 90?. Or maybe 100%?
Anyway, I'm suggesting to watch the SOC to extend the cycle life.
If you don't care about the cycle life, please go ahead. I don't mind.

Ken@Japan

 

its 80-85%

 

How are you going to detect the 80-85% SOC?

Ken@Japan

 

well i dont want to start a discussion about it in this ami plug topic!

but if you read a little bit about the prius battery you now that it wil use the donut sensor and voltage reading to see what real SOC the battery is in.

the voltage line between 20% and 80% soc is really flat ( only a small decline when discharging ) and when you go above 85% it will go up faster
and below 15% it wil drop faster then inbetween 20-80%

but did you read the link i send you?

maybe open en new topic or do this by PM
and leave this topic for ami's plugin project.

 

And in my case, 3 parallel packs are only getting 1 and 1/3 amp each, and it drops down to almost nothing by the time it reaches "full" charge.

Figuring SOC% is tricky and I don't know all the details, but the current sensor is measuring total current, not current to each of the parallel packs. Apparently (and I'm just saying this from memory) battery voltage is an indicator of SOC after getting above the "flat" part on the curve.

I've gotten my information from Norm, but don't blame him if I'm wrong. I could be wrong because I don't remember accurately.

BTW, I'm away from home for the next week and a half but when I get home, I'll have a scanner and can post the modified C7 curve used for my charger.


Dave M.

 

when did you pay for you charger?
because it was in stock and maybe now its no longer
so maybe now i have to wait 6 weeks because you beat me to it

 

I paid for mine when I picked it up on Monday. I have been communicating with ElCon for at least 4 or 5 weeks though. And I'm not sure if they had more than one NG3 in stock.

Dave M.