# Toyota Prius Gen 3 Inverter



## jackbauer (Jan 12, 2008)

New piece of info on the current sensors thanks to a youtube viewer.


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## Nuts&Volts (Dec 20, 2011)

Nice work! Very cool

Would it also be possible to skip the boost converter since it’s power limited to like 27kW? 

Any plans to utilize the AC compressor power stage?



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## jackbauer (Jan 12, 2008)

Nuts&Volts said:


> Nice work! Very cool
> 
> Would it also be possible to skip the boost converter since it’s power limited to like 27kW?
> 
> ...



Yes of course. The boost converter can also be used as a battery charger
On the Gen 3 prius the AC compressor has its inverter built in so not present in the inverter


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## jackbauer (Jan 12, 2008)

Next episode for those who missed : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7J_Z0Eho5qY


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## Emyr (Oct 27, 2016)

jackbauer said:


> On the Gen 3 prius the AC compressor has its inverter built in so not present in the inverter


Any information you have on controlling the Denso AC compressor's integrated inverter could be quite useful; This MITERS blogger used an ES27 IPM to drive a bicycle up to 50mph, but made a custom housing and used his own electronics to drive it: 
http://www.austin-b.com/toyota-highlander-hybrid-denso-es27c-a-c-compressor-teardown/

The ES34C motor is rated about 7.4kw at 8600rpm, so with a compact single stage reduction you could mount a pair in the space where a RWD diff would have been, and use the stock housing's channels to actively cool them. 15kw is the max power for a heavy quadricycle.


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## bigpie (Dec 14, 2017)

Do you have the part number of the inverter you are looking at? 

I'm seeing various different numbers on eBay.
G9200-47190 
G9200-47241 - possibly gen4?
G9201-47051
G9201-47040
G9200-76011


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## jackbauer (Jan 12, 2008)

Here you go.


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## jwr813472 (Jun 1, 2010)

Are you planning to use a gen2 or gen3 transaxle for your testing or doesn't it matter? I think I saw in your transaxle video it was a gen2 and you welded the planetary gears.


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## jackbauer (Jan 12, 2008)

Gen 2 for the first tests then Gen 3.


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## jackbauer (Jan 12, 2008)

So following a tip on youtube we have a source of the JST connector :


https://www.chip1stop.com/IRL/en/product/detail?partId=JST1-0008157&mpn=BM50B-SHLDS-G-TFT(LF)(SN)


The bad news is no matter how I have tried to pay these guys with a card it won't go through. If anyone would be willing to have a go at ordering some of these I'd be happy to pay.


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## jackbauer (Jan 12, 2008)

Thankfully no one responded to my last post as I solved the issue with Chip1stop. Seems if I pay in USD instead of EUR my card works. Got 10 of the sockets on the way.


Have quite a few of the signals on the 50 way header worked out. Last piece of the puzzle are the igbt driver fault signals. In order to find these I will have to cut some of the legs from the driver pcb to the igbt block. Rather than do this to the Prius inverter I picked up an Auris inverter for 50 Euros and took it apart. All but identical on the inside.


I'll get a Github repo setup soon and post updates on there and on Patreon as from what I can see this forum is dying


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## boekel (Nov 10, 2010)

jackbauer said:


> from what I can see this forum is dying


Following the topic with interest...just not smart enough to contribute with remarks or questions


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## zippy500 (Apr 3, 2017)

jackbauer said:


> So following a tip on youtube we have a source of the JST connector :
> 
> 
> https://www.chip1stop.com/IRL/en/product/detail?partId=JST1-0008157&mpn=BM50B-SHLDS-G-TFT(LF)(SN)
> ...


Yes that website is too complicated to order from.


Just be careful with chip1stop, they could not give me delivery cost. for connectors that only cost $6

DHL came to my door with a invoice of a whopping £53 . i refused delivery


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## jackbauer (Jan 12, 2008)

Now have worked out all but two of the pins on the 50 way interface header to the igbt driver. Github repo is up. Not much there now until I work out a V1 logic board.
https://github.com/damienmaguire/Prius-Gen3-Inverter


Does anyone have any information on the large Tyco header socket used on the logic board?


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## bigpie (Dec 14, 2017)

Great info, thanks.

With the boost converter pins, 19 - Boost high / low and 23 Boost con high / low, what do the signals look like? 

Is one pulled to ground or +5v for mode and the other pwm signal?


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## jackbauer (Jan 12, 2008)

The igbt driving signals are a little weird. Each block of drivers (MG1,MG2 and boost converter) have their own 5v supply that must be provided. Their respective drive pins then pop up to about 4.5v and the relevant gate is pulled to zero volts. In order to switch on an Igbt, the respective drive pin must be pulled to ground via a 91R resistor.


So to answer your question, in order to run the converter it's 5v supply must be enabled. Then to boost, the low side must be pulsed and to buck the high side must be pulsed. It will make more sense once I have a circuit diagram done.


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## bigpie (Dec 14, 2017)

Thanks for the info.

As a side note, I've just joined your patreon at the beta board tier but I've buggered up the address  EDIT ** Nevermind, figured out how to sort it out.


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## aeroscott (Jan 5, 2008)

Great work again, I'm looking at my gen 3 inverter that I picked up 4 months ago .


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## jackbauer (Jan 12, 2008)

bigpie said:


> Thanks for the info.
> 
> As a side note, I've just joined your patreon at the beta board tier but I've buggered up the address  EDIT ** Nevermind, figured out how to sort it out.



Thanks very much


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## jackbauer (Jan 12, 2008)

Got a little further today. Decided to take an intermediate step and design a simple breakout board to do some more playing with the igbt board signals before committing to a logic board design.
https://github.com/damienmaguire/Pr...master/Prius_Gen3_breakout_v1 - Schematic.pdf


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## zippy500 (Apr 3, 2017)

would it be possible to use this as just a charger (360v) and a DC/DC converter only ?


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## arber333 (Dec 13, 2010)

zippy500 said:


> would it be possible to use this as just a charger (360v) and a DC/DC converter only ?


I am also interested in that. I have IGBT, big cap and inductor at home. However i am a bit confused since obviously Prius data sayss IGBT should be driven by 10V? Inductor should provide 20kW DCDC pump power.

Any thoughts?


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## jackbauer (Jan 12, 2008)

Yes it should be possible to use the boost converter as a battery charger.


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## bigpie (Dec 14, 2017)

I'm also interested in how you plan to use it for charging. I saw your video with the gen 2.

Does the inverter take care of rectifying the ac on mg1 phases and you buck/boost to required voltage? Or do you switch the mg1 igbts in that video?


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## arber333 (Dec 13, 2010)

bigpie said:


> I'm also interested in how you plan to use it for charging. I saw your video with the gen 2.
> 
> Does the inverter take care of rectifying the ac on mg1 phases and you buck/boost to required voltage? Or do you switch the mg1 igbts in that video?


I think the easiest would be to connect one 3phase bridge directly to +/- of the large cap. From there you can chop it into your nominal battery voltage. 
If we would connect 3ph to the other inverter side (e.g. we dont use MGx) we could use its IGBT modules as rectifiers.

We could actually charge at single phase too, its just a matter of inductor connection and voltage.
I call it a charge pump.... one could connect another car and charge up the other cars battery with it .
Ore you could have a spare battery in a house to do just that.... 
Next would be to connect it in reverse and run the 3ph into the house .

EDIT: Voltages could vary from one side to the other. IGBT diodes would act as rectifiers easily. I think 12V DCDC converter would have to go however. It is just too limited to fixed voltage to use in different options.
At 350Vdc battery one could use full power of 22kW 3ph charging stations. Today i use 11kW in the same principle. I just have a separate rectifier and cap bank. It is relatively the same size as this inverter but this even sports a drive section too.


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## Nuts&Volts (Dec 20, 2011)

Makes more sense to me to connect a rectifier bridge to the 201V battery input of the boost converter. Then connect the output (which is also the inverter input) to the 360V battery. 

The only other modification would be to connect your 12V DC/DC input to the 360V side vs the old 201V rectifier input. 

Maybe I’m missing something. 


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## Nuts&Volts (Dec 20, 2011)

For the drop in PCB do you believe you will reuse the existing external (to vehicle) connector on that PCB. Require desoldering the original connector? Looking at purchasing one and going to find one with that connector attached if needed. 


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## jhuebner (Apr 30, 2010)

It is the same connector as on Gen2 Leaf inverter. Unfortunately a top secret part:
https://www.te.com/usa-en/product-1939561-3.html


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## JFJ (Oct 9, 2018)

Do any of you know the max input voltage of DC-DC converter? Have any of you tried more than the 201 volt?
I need one for at 330 volt system and would like to use either the gen2 or 3 inverter for my build, including the DC-DC 12 volt converter if its possible.


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## jackbauer (Jan 12, 2008)

Breakout boards turned up


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## jhuebner (Apr 30, 2010)

Good work  Only two "unknowns"?
EDIT: interesting to see temp fault signals. Maybe thats also the other set of fault signals on the Leaf inverter.


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## Cryogenic4ev (Apr 23, 2019)

jackbauer said:


> For anyone interested I am currently reverse engineering the Toyota Prius Gen 3 Inverter with a view to designing a replacement logic board based on the Heubner system. The goal is to allow use of the two main inverters, boost converter and DC DC converter. Each inverter stage will be controlled by a separate logic section for maximum flexibility. Boost converter and DC DC will probably be controlled by a simple arduino.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Hey bro I was wondering whether you knew what the power ratings are of the igbts in the toyota prius inverters? For the nhw10 ? 

cheers awesome work btw


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## MattsAwesomeStuff (Aug 10, 2017)

Cryogenic4ev said:


> Hey bro


That's probably a new one for Damien... 



> I was wondering whether you knew what the power ratings are of the igbts in the toyota prius inverters?


So, just FYI, a couple years ago the conglomerate who bought these forums butchered them in a rushed conversion and we lost half our content. Damien was among those that volunteered to fix it (after they couldn't fix it themselves and then asked for help), and then they changed their mind and wouldn't let us. And they're still broken to this day.

So, he joined/created the OpenInverter.org forums with Johannes, and, to be honest, 90% of the people doing electronics work on DIYEVs went with them.

That said, I'm not sure what the ratings are for each igbt, but Damien has done destructive testing on the Gen2 and Gen3 inverters. Or, attempted destructive testing, Toyota just lets you abuse their inverters until there's an actual problem (overheating), and then they gracefully shut down until things are okay again.

The Gen2 is rated for only 50kW output, but tested to handle 600v, and 350+A for MG2 inverter, 250+A for MG1 inverter, 360kW total. That's 480hp out of a damned Prius inverter you can pick up for under a hundred bucks. With no cooling.

The Gen3 is also rated for only 50kW output, but tested to handle 600v, and 500+A on MG2. No one has tested MG1 to its limit yet, but if the MG1:MG2 power ratio is the same as on the Gen2 (70%), it would handle 350A. ~680hp.... from a Prius. With no cooling.

Beyond that it's just a matter of if you can keep them cool enough long enough. You'd probably get a drag strip out of them without hitting Toyota's fingerwagging, but otherwise, they come plumbed with cooling lines. It's just a matter of squirting enough through the tubes and taking the heat elsewhere.

We've been building these pages to kind of keep track of progress and info on the various projects to repurpose the Prius inverters:






Toyota Prius Gen2 Board - openinverter.org wiki







openinverter.org










Toyota Prius Gen3 Board - openinverter.org wiki







openinverter.org





Just to be clear, Damien's earlier efforts are now obsolete. He has a drop-in replacement board for the Gen3, available on the EVBMW.com webstore. He also developed a early through-hole board for the Gen2, which you can still pick up cheap, but has been mostly abandoned because Johannes made a much fancier Gen2 controller brain box, waterproof enclosure and all that all together, available on the OpenInverter.org webstore.

We're just starting to see projects hitting the roads using these designs.

Lots of low-skill people following along and fumbling along the way trying to make them work (myself included). If you have electronics skill they're probably plug n play, if you're cutting corners you'll probably make some mistakes.


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