What I learnt from charging my Prius
in [Toyota]
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From: Hachiroku ハチロク on 4 Jan 2010 10:36 On Mon, 04 Jan 2010 15:30:20 -0500, Elmo P. Shagnasty wrote: > In article > <23744dc9-0546-4f41-a16c-3fecdbc35487(a)l30g2000yqb.googlegroups.com>, > urod <npisarev(a)gmail.com> wrote: > >> 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.
From: urod on 4 Jan 2010 16:33 On 4 $B'q'_'S(B, 17:36, Hachiroku $B%O%A%m%/(B <Tru...(a)e86.GTS> wrote: > > 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.
From: Daniel who wants to know on 4 Jan 2010 17:01 "urod" <npisarev(a)gmail.com> wrote in message news:a12df27e-9663-4c0d-83e8-3b65b5c1739b(a)q4g2000yqm.googlegroups.com... > On 4 $B'q'_'S(B, 17:36, Hachiroku $B%O%A%m%/(B <Tru...(a)e86.GTS> wrote: >> >> 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. There is a DC-DC converter built in to the inverter unit under the hood. It is current limited and fused at 100 amps on the 12V side.
From: Hachiroku ハチロク on 4 Jan 2010 12:12 On Mon, 04 Jan 2010 13:33:02 -0800, urod wrote: > On 4 янв, 17:36, Hachiroku ハチロク <Tru...(a)e86.GTS> wrote: >> >> 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. Not on any Prius I ever saw. Once the 12V is dead, the car will not run. There may be, but if the 12V dies, you can't turn the car on.
From: urod on 4 Jan 2010 17:31
1. > If the interior lights and personal lights [are] on when the door is not full closed or the interior light switch [is] in [the] door position, the lights will go off automatically after 20 minutes." > Looks like the 2010 has the feature you want but only if you have the light switch in the door position. In other words, if you manually switch the lights on (not in door position) and leave them on, the battery will be drained. Nope. The interior light switch has 3 positions "off", "door", and "on". I left it in the "on" position. As far as I understand this text, only the "door" position is protected. 2. >> It's hard to charge a 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 Here is what I did. (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. (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. (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. (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. (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) |