Just wondering what the heck this is: To me it clearly shows the stock traction battery being charged from a 100VAC normal (in Japan) household outlet...
It may be the HV battery charger. It is used to charge the packs that drained too low (ran out of gas?) to bring the car back alive.
Correct. It's an OEM off-board charger to charge packs that were intentionally or accidentally drained too low (car won't start if the traction pack voltage is too low). There's information in the TIS repair manual about it. I don't think you can use that as an on-board PHEV charger if that's what you're wondering, plus I'm sure it's uber expensive since it's a proprietary "tool" . Andrew
another source of information is shown at page-6 or later on the following article and it's written in English!. http://www.autoshop101.com/forms/Hybrid15.pdf Ken@Japan
Wow... Not even dealers can get it, and a higher-up has to truck one in personally? Wow... So I am guessing it powers the 12v systems so the car can be on while charging so the coloumb counter regiters everything? Also, it is a 300VDC charger which seems a bit high for the battery pack in the gen II... Perhaps it is 300VDC maximum output but regulated further for the two different packs of gen I vs. gen II?
300vDC would be the max voltage yes. Presumably they sized it so that it could be used with multiple Toyota hybrid models (while the Gen2 nominal voltage is 201.6, other vehicles like the Highlander and older Gen1 Prius sit much higher). I feel like having an under-charged battery may be an excuse for some dealers to convince customers they need a new hybrid battery =P. I assume you're looking for a PHEV battery charger? Andrew
Makes sense, and I figured as much. There are probably only 10 in the world anyways. Perhaps I can try and convince the dealer my battery is dead, wait for the authorized charger to put the car outside, surround it with caution tape, then put the charger in the car and drive off really fast! Actually I just came accross it randomly. I will be building my own PHEV battery charger when the time comes. The part I am currently working on is the huge DC-DC converter required to get the cells' output up to ~240VDC.
Hi toaster, Actually the Enginer system can recharge the Prius HV battery if used carfully. I do this most every day. Thanks, Dan Lander
The system I am building will be similar to the Enginer system, but will be automatic with CAN monitoring and spoofing. Just have to finish a couple other projects before I can dive in. I already got the CAN monitoring hardware about 90% finished.
2k1toaster In the DIY Electric Car Forums and Ecomodder there are a sort of new threads about building an AC/DC charger for higher voltages for electric/phev applications. You do NOT need a cumbersome and problematic enginer equipment solely as a charger. Lately some people eat, breathe and sh..t enginer at all times; and spreading the intentional advertising pun all over.
Oh, I am not buying an Enginer kit, nor anything for that matter. I am an Electrical and Computer Engineer (with 2 'e'-s ) so I am designing then building then implementing my own custom solutions to make a PHEV Prius. Most of the fun is getting there!
Good!, I would like to hear about your progress; and you will be among the very few with a real approach to this mater. Controlling the stock hybrid battery ECU it is a task and never less easy to do. If you need some help with coding with your PHEV conversion, I may be able to help.
The main reason for buying the Prius was to do the conversion myself and to get exactly what I want. I have already built a CAN sniffer using a couple of Microchip PICs. Only thing left is to convert my basic testing UART code to full USB (not a CDC device, but custom USB driver/software). Soon I will begin trying to spoof the battery SOC levels as that is what I am most interested in. Pretty exciting to plug in a breadboard and get a volly of CAN messages sent back.
