My NHW10 (Mk1 Prius) is alive!

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mortonpiers
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Posts: 16
Joined: Mon, 11 May 2015, 03:10
Real Name: Piers Morton
Location: Geelong Vic

My NHW10 (Mk1 Prius) is alive!

Post by mortonpiers »

I am new to this site but just thought I would let anyone know with one of these old Prius' with a dead 288V NimH battery it may just be possible to convert it to Lithium successfully.

After getting to a point where I was pulling to the side of the highway each day to Reinitialise the battery computer (happened once going up the Kings Way on ramp) I decided I would need to scrap it or fix it.

So over a few beers I decided to fix it. Thats when all good life decisions are made. Thanks to what others had done and my own investigation I thought it might be possible but I would need to spend 2-3K on cells, so a big gamble. Over a few more beers I decided why not, you only live once.

I imported the batteries from EV Assemble (they were good) and they sat there for a while.   Got my act together one day and went hard for a few weeks at night and weekends finishing the prototype. It wasn't really possible to test the concept without building the whole thing anyway so I just went for it.

Slotted in the car one Sunday and with fingers crossed, the battery computer accepted it and my mods and away we went. Been driving it every day since.

The car has 100 x Headway high power 8Ah cells with an Orion BMS. I managed to squeeze them into the original battery box. After trying a lot of configurations I settled on two packs of 35 cells and one pack of 30. It worked out to be 20 rows of 5 cells. The ORION BMS isolates groups of cells, up to 36 per group so it made sense to divide the pack in three for ease of maintenance, wiring and safety.

Made some new mounts, bypassed the original pack voltage sensing and temp sensing. Handed that job over to the ORION BMS. Still need to finish the temperature control system for summer as well as a CAN to ANDROID dash display (TORQ) The cells do not heat up much, about 5-8 degrees C over 100km's but its winter here with daily temps from 5-20 degrees C.

I have completed about 3000km's so far, all going well besides the regen making the pack voltage go too high for an instant and a couple of cells with high internal resistance which are not getting any worse so I haven't bothered replacing them.      

It is really nice to see the old thing up and running but I would not recommend the conversion until everything is sorted and I can see how the batteries are going to cope over time.

-Piers

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Last edited by mortonpiers on Mon, 27 Jun 2016, 10:00, edited 1 time in total.
antiscab
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Posts: 3178
Joined: Mon, 26 Nov 2007, 05:39
Real Name: Matthew Lacey
Location: Perth, WA

My NHW10 (Mk1 Prius) is alive!

Post by antiscab »

Welcome to the NHW10 lithium club Piers :D

Are you in Perth by chance?

If so, come over for a beer, I'll show you mine if you show me yours
Matt
2023 BYD Atto 3 - 21k km
2017 Renault zoe - 147'000km
2012 Leaf - 101'000km - soon to be trialing a booster battery
2007 Vectrix - 197'000km (retired)
2007 Vectrix - 50k km
mortonpiers
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Posts: 16
Joined: Mon, 11 May 2015, 03:10
Real Name: Piers Morton
Location: Geelong Vic

My NHW10 (Mk1 Prius) is alive!

Post by mortonpiers »

Matt,
Your very forward we only just met. In Geelong Vic unfortunately or is that fortunately. I have read your work, good stuff, very helpful. Will let you know if I am over there and we can swap TECU logs over a frosty beveridge.

Question for you, I am thinking of adding more cells (5) or reducing the regen. Battery gets to around 380V for an instant. I think I saw in one of your posts that battery temperature affected regen power level. I'm thinking I can adjust the temp sensors to think the battery is at a certain temp to reduce regen. What do you think?   

My cars name is 'Sparky' provided by a previous owner.

Last edited by mortonpiers on Thu, 09 Jun 2016, 16:16, edited 1 time in total.
antiscab
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Joined: Mon, 26 Nov 2007, 05:39
Real Name: Matthew Lacey
Location: Perth, WA

My NHW10 (Mk1 Prius) is alive!

Post by antiscab »

A rats, ah well, we shall have to swap notes here.

battery temp merely affects the max regen current the car will allow

if the battery voltage is reaching 380v, it means the regen the car is applying is already above what the battery can absorb. having said that, 380v for a moment across 100 cells isn't too bad.

if you are going down the path of faking cell temperature, pick a warmer temperature (around 40 deg C or so). that will limit regen but not reduce max drive current

How are the cells handling the peak discharge current?
in normal hybrid mode they shouldn't get worked too hard, though the upper limits of 80A charge/discharge may be a bit much for the headways.
If that turns out to be the case, I'd suggest faking a lower temperature (say around 10 deg C) as this reduces both the charge and discharge current limits

Oh, have you any pictures of the install?



Matt
2023 BYD Atto 3 - 21k km
2017 Renault zoe - 147'000km
2012 Leaf - 101'000km - soon to be trialing a booster battery
2007 Vectrix - 197'000km (retired)
2007 Vectrix - 50k km
mortonpiers
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Posts: 16
Joined: Mon, 11 May 2015, 03:10
Real Name: Piers Morton
Location: Geelong Vic

My NHW10 (Mk1 Prius) is alive!

Post by mortonpiers »

Matt,
The Headways are doing ok in discharge and charge. I am seeing about 50A peaks via the Orion BMS monitoring in discharge dropping voltage down to 280V but I haven't studied it closely. The car hasn't kicked up errors because of it so far. I agree that the momentary peak should not be a problem but its just not pleasant to see.
Last edited by mortonpiers on Fri, 10 Jun 2016, 11:55, edited 1 time in total.
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evric
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My NHW10 (Mk1 Prius) is alive!

Post by evric »

mortonpiers wrote: Matt,
........................
Can't seem to attach or insert pictures.


Hi Piers,

once you have posted your story, go to Post Options / Edit Post and you can add images from there using Image Upload (image with up arrow). Make sure that they are not too big, less than 200Kb.

Eric
Last edited by evric on Fri, 10 Jun 2016, 12:09, edited 1 time in total.
Prius Plug-in Conversion: http://www.evplus.com.au ...Holden Barina EV: http://www.evric.kestar.com.au
mortonpiers
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Joined: Mon, 11 May 2015, 03:10
Real Name: Piers Morton
Location: Geelong Vic

My NHW10 (Mk1 Prius) is alive!

Post by mortonpiers »

Eric,
Thanks but I don't have that option. There is an insert image option with a picture of tree but but it asks for a web address, not a file.

Thanks
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evric
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My NHW10 (Mk1 Prius) is alive!

Post by evric »

Hi, Try again after your next login. I have updated your status.
The image with the arrow should be to the right of the tree picture.
Prius Plug-in Conversion: http://www.evplus.com.au ...Holden Barina EV: http://www.evric.kestar.com.au
mortonpiers
Noobie
Posts: 16
Joined: Mon, 11 May 2015, 03:10
Real Name: Piers Morton
Location: Geelong Vic

My NHW10 (Mk1 Prius) is alive!

Post by mortonpiers »

CAN to BLUETOOTH adapter arrived today. The plan is to install this in the battery compartment so the battery is self contained then install an ANDROID tablet in the front of the car getting data from the ORION BMS over Bluetooth with TORQ app getting data from the BMS. Still waiting on an OBDII cable and a cheap Tablet.

Adapter: OBDLINK LX

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mortonpiers
Noobie
Posts: 16
Joined: Mon, 11 May 2015, 03:10
Real Name: Piers Morton
Location: Geelong Vic

My NHW10 (Mk1 Prius) is alive!

Post by mortonpiers »

I did get the TORQ app to work well with a 7 inch tablet on a slide I made up to replace the ash tray in the dash. Doubled sided taped the tablet to a slightly bent piece of 3mm aluminium cut to the width of the ashtray and it slid straight in.

ORION have a tech note on how to interface to the TORQ app. I used the manual method and it was quite easy to use. The TORQ app is really good.

But in bigger news the NHW10 is officially now RETIRED.   Two main reasons, the first being I hit a pot hole on the Geelong Melbourne highway that caused more damage than I originally thought. My first impression was it was just the shock but on further inspection there was suspension damage.

A short while after hitting the pot hole the battery bank did not like the uncontrolled REGEN I was running in the car (up to 380V) for 100 cells it was marginal.    I was not paying attention one day down the HIGHTON hill and popped two of the weak cells as I kept my foot on the brake too long, my own fault.

I decided it was the end and pulled everything good out of it and send it to the wreckers.   My 5yr old cried when it was heading up the road on the wreckers truck, Sparky was part of the family.   

    



antiscab
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Posts: 3178
Joined: Mon, 26 Nov 2007, 05:39
Real Name: Matthew Lacey
Location: Perth, WA

My NHW10 (Mk1 Prius) is alive!

Post by antiscab »

That's a shame to hear

unfortunately there's no easy way to limit the regen or drive current and voltage limits, without reprogramming the battery ECU

There was so much promise with these cars, but it seems to be getting too hard now
Matt
2023 BYD Atto 3 - 21k km
2017 Renault zoe - 147'000km
2012 Leaf - 101'000km - soon to be trialing a booster battery
2007 Vectrix - 197'000km (retired)
2007 Vectrix - 50k km
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