Posted by urod on January 5, 2010, 11:43 am
wrote:
> > (1) I bought a car battery charger (namely, Hella power-charger) and
> > put it to the 12V battery. Nothing happened. I waited for 30
> > minutes. Nothing happened still. Maybe the charger was defective.
> New switched mode chargers will not turn on unless they sense some minimum
> voltage of the correct polarity on the leads. If the 12v is discharged to 0
> volts the charger won't turn on. In this case you need an old "dumb" charger
> to bring the voltage up so that the "smart" charger will start charging.
> > (2) With two cables, I connected the 12V battery to the 12V battery of
> > another car. I hit the Power button, my car turned on. The power
> > meter showed half-full 200V battery (5 blue lines). The system did
> > not switch on the engine. I waited for 1 minute.
> You probaly didn't push the brake pedal far enough and the car was in IG-ON
> mode instead of READY mode.
No, I drive Prius for two years, and there were no problems weith not
pushing my brake pedal far enough. Besides, I saw the green, not red,
light on the Power button, which means the car was in the Running
mode.
> > (3) I disconnected the 12V battery. My car turned off. I hit the
> > Power button. Nothing. Not surprising at all, considering that the
> > system hadn't switch on the engine at the previous step, so it
> > couldn't charge the 12V battery.
> 12V charge has nothing to do with the engine running as the car does not
> have a 12v starter or alternator.
I don't understand this part. What starter it has? Which battery
starts the engine?
> > (4) I connected the batteries again and turned the joystick to the
> > "R" (Reverse) position. The road was tilted downwards, so the system
> > switched on the engine, which started to charge the battery. Only
> > this way I was able to charge it.
> You must have managed to hit READY instead of IG-ON this time.
I hit READY at the first time, too.
> > (5) After disconnection the batteries, the power meter showed almost
> > empty 200V battery (1 red line). I cannot explain the behaviour of
> > the power meter, unless two batteries are interconnected (via DC-DC
> > converter)
> The DC-DC is only active any time the READY symbol is lit up so 12V charge
> is only dependant on READY it has nothing to do with anything else. READY is
> also a sign that the system main relays on the HV battery are closed and
> allowing power to the inverter.
> NIMH state of charge cannot be determined by voltage alone so the battery
> ECU has to guess what the SoC is any time 12v power is lost. You could
> probably disconnect and reconnect the 12v battery 5 times and get a
> different HV SoC reading each time. FWIW 1 pink/red bar is actually 40% SoC
> and all green bars is actually 80-82% SoC. This 40-80% window is the main
> part of why the battery lasts as long as it does.
I never saw 1 pink bar before. The car was always at least 2 pink
bars.
Posted by Elmo P. Shagnasty on January 5, 2010, 12:00 pm
In article
> > 12V charge has nothing to do with the engine running as the car does not
> > have a 12v starter or alternator.
>
> I don't understand this part. What starter it has? Which battery
> starts the engine?
It doesn't have a starter or alternator.
It has two motor-generators that are intricately and elegantly tied in
as part of the drive system. The gas engine is one component, the two
MG are two other components.
When the drive system senses that it needs to add energy from the
outside to get the car to do what the driver wants, the MG is engaged to
the output shaft of the gas engine to turn it, then the computer turns
on the ignition and fuel.
Posted by Elmo P. Shagnasty on January 13, 2010, 4:59 pm
In article
> > Do you know how a Prius works? It didn't need to activate the gasoline
> > engine, therefore it didn't. It's that simple. Running the gasoline
> > engine is controlled by the computer, not you.
>
> Do *you* understand that it NEEDS to activate the gasoline engine in
> order to charge the battery?
Yeah--if the computer determines that THE TRACTION BATTERY needs to be
charged. If not, the engine doesn't run.
You're an idiot.
Posted by Elmo P. Shagnasty on January 5, 2010, 1:12 am
In article
> > 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...
>
> That I understand, but I suspect there is a step-down DC to DC
> converter
> hidden somewhere in the car, so that the big battery could charge the
> small one.
Just like the alternator in a non-Prius charges the battery. Sure.
BUT: just like with a normal car, the car has to be running (in a Prius
they call it Ready) for that to happen. And for the Prius to be in
Ready mode, the 12v battery has to be good.
Posted by Elmo P. Shagnasty on January 5, 2010, 1:11 am
> The batteries are not interconnected, and there's no way they could be.
> The batteries running the drive system are 280V
201v.
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> > put it to the 12V battery. Nothing happened. I waited for 30
> > minutes. Nothing happened still. Maybe the charger was defective.
> New switched mode chargers will not turn on unless they sense some minimum
> voltage of the correct polarity on the leads. If the 12v is discharged to 0
> volts the charger won't turn on. In this case you need an old "dumb" charger
> to bring the voltage up so that the "smart" charger will start charging.
> > (2) With two cables, I connected the 12V battery to the 12V battery of
> > another car. I hit the Power button, my car turned on. The power
> > meter showed half-full 200V battery (5 blue lines). The system did
> > not switch on the engine. I waited for 1 minute.
> You probaly didn't push the brake pedal far enough and the car was in IG-ON
> mode instead of READY mode.