Update and technical details on my PHEV project

pEEf, to take advantage of the gen III's stronger electric motor arrangement, do you think it would be reasonably do-able to all together supplant the Gen III's hybrid vehicle ecu with the gen II's engine ECM & hybrid ECU?

 

I would like to share this demonstration of an on board multimedia interface.
this unit has windows ce , and allows for a variety of user inputs including usb, micro SD, ipod, and bluetooth.
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/user/imwoody36#p/a/u/0/vkIDaDaLsDk]YouTube - imwoody36's Channel[/ame]
I welcome hearing from others who have hacked the chinese 7" multimedia GPS units.

 

I started down this path a while back with a CE unit. It seems like they're pretty easy to hack the software as long as they have an early enough release of CE (I got a hello world up and running on mine). My problem was getting the hardware working - how do I interface it to the data stream? These things invariably are only USB clients not USB hosts.

However, I'm with pEEf on this - ditch CE and go Linux. Now that there are a ton of cheap Android devices (7" tablet shipped to US for $123) out there I'd suggest using one of them as your head unit. Android (which is based on top of Linux kernel) development is reasonably straightforward and well supported.

My suggestion (and what I'm going to be doing) is to have the user interface all done in HTML5 / JavaScript. Then write a custom webserver that provides the data that you want to display. That webserver doesn't have to be on a different device - it can be on the tablet as well. Or, (as in my case), it can be a separate device. Adding a simple wireless web server to something like an Arduino is pretty straightforward. The Android tablet has wi-fi so now I'll have an easy path to get the data onto the device...

Does any of that make sense?

 

And with 50+kW you would rule the world! Seriously, that would be an awesome basis for a plug-in - I say we should buy pEEf a gen 3 and have him start hacking...

 

So, can you elaborate a bit on why exactly you chose 240v? Was it only because the stock system will not push a high enough voltage for regen beyond that?

What would happen if you, say, doubled the pack voltage? Would it work at all? Would it burn the house down? Would it give you more than 20kw to MG2?

 

I'm just now stumbling across this thread. This design certainly sounds much better than the Enginer setup I'm currently using. But it sounds like your setup is a long way from a prepackaged kit. However, if it can ever be turned into something that is plug-and-play, and it were cheaper than the PICC kit, then this would certainly have a viable market place. Since the Chevy Volt (and to some degree the Leaf) won't be easily available to people for quite a while, this type of thing is almost a substitute. Only thing I would stress to people is that the EV mode of the Prius doesn't have as much acceleration power as the Volt has.

 

Yes, it seems that pEEf, all by himself, tinkering around in his spare time, comes up with things that are equivalent or superior to the best (and most expensive) commercially available products.

But, of course, he doesn't really want to make money off us poor saps. He's content to drive around the best car on the planet, that he built himself, and come on here and brag about all his engineering feats.

Must be that big cloud of smug over Berkeley.



p.s. pEEf, please don't stop bragging about your engineering feats!

 

I've been wondering about that. Do you feel the acceleration is adequate for pulling away from a stop light? Or do you feel like you're holding up traffic behind you? Just curious.

BTW, I'm a plug-in Prius wannabe and plan on trying to recreate pEEf's awesome design (he's already given us quite a lot of info to go on!)

 

Well, I drive around in EV mode all the time in town and pulling away from a stop light is certainly no problem. In fact, you can run off and leave the rest of the cars behind. But if you've ever been in one of those situations where you needed to floor it to get across a busy road or something, you might find the acceleration wanting. Also from what I hear, when you are going over 40 mph, it is nearly impossible to pass somebody because the acceleration really drops off the faster you go.

 

just found your topic! and wait a min you replaced the toyota BMS with your own?
any pics?

 

Leon, he has developed the same concept than Hybrid Interfaces's BMS+. In this case,a modified Batt. ECU for statistics and data spoofing.
Besides, Mr. pEEF made a Hydrid ECU interrupter to assert (as in a general word and not programming language) certain CAN values to overcome the 34MPH EV limits and pushing both MG1 and MG2 to the 70 MPH electric mark. Also the same principle of the PICC equipment.
A great accomplishment,:third:

 

pEEf, from ev nut to ev god! WOW another really great thead, most impressive! Looking foward to more posts!

 

Unfortunately, it looks like all the forthcomming new Toyota hybrid models in mid/lower segment like Yaris/Echo will come only with this new compact gen3 hybrid drivetrain (with smaller ICE engine). So, unless someone cracks this hECU inside inverter cpu boards, that means no DIY/3rd party PHEVs anymore, which would be a real major bummer..

So far all evidence points to the fact, it's going to be necessary perform changes in that combined hECU/inverter unit, which will be for one thing encrypted/protected and also complex piece of software work with many thousand lines of code.

Hm, seems Toyota was not happy with people tinkering with their product, although major driver was probably make it from their manuf. point of view simpler/smaller/more robust.

There are also other manufs. like Ford (Escape 4WD!, Fusion), who might continue to use the older "legacy" architecture in their hybrids, but their hybrid fleet will not be that large/diverse or volumnous as Toyota announced anyway.

In terms of that 52-72mph EV mode trick, there seem to 3x solutions presented so far.

#1 PICC (GoldPeak NiMH pack, + now working on lithium based ver)
#2 Plug-in Supply (upgraded system into similar seemless functionality at lower price, see new video)
#3 pEEfs experimental project so far

Also, there is the Enginer (and Hymotion) option, which are more aimed at the blended mode user, high speed EV performance limited by addon DC-DC converter. Similarly, the last option, CanView + mutli OEM NiMH pack is mostly blended mode only, unless you are living in some low speed residential park.
Moreover, with the ban on rare-earths and recycling, the older packs might become one day unobtanium, perhaps less pronounced effect on markets, where is Prius weak (Europe)
http://priuschat.com/forums/generat...olt-plug-in-hybrid-electric-vehicle-plan.html

However, as more companies and individuals have been lured into this PHEV tinkering madness already, perhaps one day, the gen3 question will be tackled as well..