> "To prevent 12 volt battery discharge
>
> If the interior lights and personal lights [are] on when the door is not
> full closed or[and?] the interior light switch [is] in [the] door position,
> the lights will go off automatically after 20 minutes."
>
> I can't make sense out of this as written. Bracketed entries are mine,
> otherwise quote is verbatim.
Remove your bracketed "and?", and it makes sense.
1. If the interior lights and personal lights are on when the door is not
fully closed, they will go off automatically after 20 minutes.
2. If the interior light switch is in the door position and the door is
not fully closed, the interior light will go off after 20 minutes.
--
Member National Rifle Association
Member American Civil Liberties Union
Member Human Rights Campaign
>> "To prevent 12 volt battery discharge
>>
>> If the interior lights and personal lights [are] on when the door is not
>> full closed or[and?] the interior light switch [is] in [the] door
>> position,
>> the lights will go off automatically after 20 minutes."
>>
>> I can't make sense out of this as written. Bracketed entries are mine,
>> otherwise quote is verbatim.
> Remove your bracketed "and?", and it makes sense.
> 1. If the interior lights and personal lights are on when the door is not
> fully closed, they will go off automatically after 20 minutes.
> 2. If the interior light switch is in the door position and the door is
> not fully closed, the interior light will go off after 20 minutes.
> --
Having done this in my 2010, I know for certain that:
If the interior light is on (the one above the console) and the door is
closed, that light will stay on indefinitely. Fortunately I caught mine in
this state after only an hour and the battery in my 2010 still had enough
juice to power-up the starting system.
> If the interior lights and personal lights [are] on when the door is not
> full closed or[and?] the interior light switch [is] in [the] door position,
> the lights will go off automatically after 20 minutes."
>
> I can't make sense out of this as written. Bracketed entries are mine,
> otherwise quote is verbatim.
>
> Looks like the 2010 has the feature you want but only if you have the light
> switch in the door position.
So far so good.
> In other words, if you manually switch the
> lights on (not in door position) and leave them on, the battery will be
> drained.
Yup. Just like my Honda. Stupid, ain't it.
With other cars that use standard size 12v batteries, you can buy
batteries that shut themselves down before they're all the way out.
In article
> 0. Some people in the newsgroups write things they don't have a clue
> about.
> 1. The Prius batteries are somehow interconnected. When I forgot to
> switch off the light, *both* were discharged.
The ONLY way they're connected is that the car needs the 12v battery to
turn on the car, which means engaging the drive system (and its
integrated electrical component). If the 12v battery goes dead, the
relays that turn on the drive system don't open. The drive system is
isolated and drains no energy, either from its gasoline component or its
electrical storage component.
Charge up your 12v battery, or put in a new one, and it will turn the
car on and close the relays that engage the electrical component of the
drive system. No problem.
Now: should you leave the car turned ON, and you leave lights on, and
then it runs out of gas, you will exhaust the entire drive system, and
it will turn off. Then the 12v battery takes over, and then IT
exhausts, and you have nothing left in the system whatsoever.
This is just like any other car. Any GM would do the same thing.
It would pay for you to examine just how your car works before making
incorrect assumptions and statements.
> 2. It is hard to charge the battery.
Not at all. You put a battery charger to it. You DO mean the 12v
battery that the user interfaces with, right? Because that's the ONLY
battery you interface with, the ONLY battery you would be charging.
Again, read up on your car if you're interested. You'll find that the
traction battery (which the user never interfaces with) is charged when
the car is delivered to the dealer. Should the dealer service dept have
to replace a traction battery (let's say there's been an accident),
there's a unique machine that travels to that dealership to support
charging the traction battery after a new one has been installed.
It's not as simple as "turn the car on and let it do its thing".
> 3. All, or almost all, automobiles are poorly designed. They should
> switch off the light when the battery is close to be discharged.
The 12v battery, you mean. I agree. My Honda has a system that turns
off interior lights after 5 minutes of leaving the door open. You have
to pay for the top trim level to get that, though--and if you use the
pushbuttons to turn on the interior lights, it leaves them on
regardless. When you have kids playing around in a van, that's going to
happen. Sucks. It's not rocket science to fix that--but neither Honda
nor Toyota has bothered.
> 4. This has nothing to do with charging, but another problem with all
> cars is, if you raise the parking brake during movement (in case of
> Prius, stomp on the parking brake), it is a guaranteed accident.
ummmmm....yeah? So? If you stick a knife in your eye, you'll hurt
yourself. I can go on and on stating the blindingly obvious. Why is
this a problem in your universe?
> No, I never raised the parking brake, but the thought that if I did, I
> could die or kill somebody else, is uncomfortable.
you know, if you're going down the highway at highway speeds and you cut
the wheel 180 degrees, you're going to have an accident and involve
other people on the road as well. Why is any of this a problem for you?
If you're uncomfortable with the fact that PHYSICS WORKS, maybe you
should sit home in a plastic bubble.
> 5. Manual for Prius is poorly written.
Sure, it could be better. On the other hand, a reasonably intelligent
person--say, someone who actually has $5K to spend on a car--won't have
any problems getting through it.
> I am now going to sell my Prius and never buy any car until car
> manufacturers start to make cars at least as intelligent as a pocket
> calculator.
And everyone benefits.
On Mon, 04 Jan 2010 15:30:20 -0500, Elmo P. Shagnasty wrote:
> In article
>
>> 0. Some people in the newsgroups write things they don't have a clue
>> about.
>> 1. The Prius batteries are somehow interconnected. When I forgot to
>> switch off the light, *both* were discharged.
>
> The ONLY way they're connected is that the car needs the 12v battery to
> turn on the car, which means engaging the drive system (and its integrated
> electrical component). If the 12v battery goes dead, the relays that turn
> on the drive system don't open. The drive system is isolated and drains
> no energy, either from its gasoline component or its electrical storage
> component.
He's right about item 0.
The batteries are not interconnected, and there's no way they could be.
The batteries running the drive system are 280V at very high current.
Every bulb in the car would probably explode at that voltage, and so would
the 12V battery if exposed to this voltage. Hopefully, this person won't
go running out to his Prius to try to conect one system to the other. If
he does, I hope his insurance is paid up...
AAMOF, there is an exact procedure for disconnecting the drive-line
batteries from the system, and has to be done in the proper order or the
batteries will explode, the person will be fried, the driveline ruined or
all three.
>
> If the interior lights and personal lights [are] on when the door is not
> full closed or[and?] the interior light switch [is] in [the] door position,
> the lights will go off automatically after 20 minutes."
>
> I can't make sense out of this as written. Bracketed entries are mine,
> otherwise quote is verbatim.