# Prius Plug in Hybrid Battery and charger



## bigmotherwhale (Apr 15, 2011)

Has anyone used or know anything about using the prius 4.4kwh li ion battery pack and the charger underneath it? 

has anyone hacked the charger to work with the battery pack stand alone? 

or has anyone used these for an EV conversion?

Any information or websites of strip downs would also be appreciated.

Remember im talking about the newer Li ion battery packs not the old NiMh

Thanks


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## glyndwr1998 (Apr 27, 2013)

Hi pal,

I'm not sure if anyone has modded the plug in Prius, maybe due to the cost.

In reality these days you could buy a gen2 Prius and a Nissan Leaf together for the price of a plug in Prius plus any mod on top of that, plus I'm not sure if there's any electronics hack yet for the Prius pip.
There are conversions on the gen2 that remove entirely the older Nimh battery and replace it with a lithium one, I havent done that with mine though.

The gen 2 and gen3 Prius have had plug in conversions done on them, I myself had done a plug in Prius conversion using 16kwh of batteries out of a Nissan Leaf, this gives me about 45 to 50 miles range plus the engine if I need it.

I done my conversion, about 2 years ago using 7.5kwh lifepo4 battery, and only recently changed the battery for a leaf battery that I was fortunate to pick up.

Have a look on the priuschat website, but as far as I am aware, no one has done what you requested.


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## bigmotherwhale (Apr 15, 2011)

I have now bought a battery pack and charger unit from a wrecked plug and charge.


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## glyndwr1998 (Apr 27, 2013)

Well done,

Not rise but I think the battery from the pip is 4kwh.
Any idea how your going to integrate that battery into your Prius? And how you going to control / manage it?

Just curious. Thanks,




bigmotherwhale said:


> I have now bought a battery pack and charger unit from a wrecked plug and charge.


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## bigmotherwhale (Apr 15, 2011)

i dont have a prius
im buidling an EV from a remy hvh 250, a toyota highlander IGBT block Eldis controller and now this prius pack.


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## glyndwr1998 (Apr 27, 2013)

Ok, sounds good,

Don't expect that pack to get you very far though, I believe Toyota mark the range in ev mode to 12 miles

Sounds an interesting project


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## bigmotherwhale (Apr 15, 2011)

yes i was hoping for about 20 miles, the car is a mini and will be quite small and light however not very aerodynamic, and it wont have to lug about all that ICE either. 
i can always add to the pack at a later stage, i have allot of work to do, i have no idea how to use the charger or even wire it up as i didnt get a loom with it so it will be difficult, especially  as the electrical symbols are in Japanese

I will see if i can get the loom that connects the pack to the charger.

if anyone has any experience with this system please let me know!


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## glyndwr1998 (Apr 27, 2013)

I know very little about that system, but I would assume that the charger communicates to the pack and controls via canbus, it's not something that U.S. Hobbyists can crack very easily.

Any idea of the pack voltage ho many cells and what cells they are using, there are guys on endless sphere that use 48v meanwell power supplies to charge lithium cells very effectively, just add more chargers in series to up the voltage.
There's lots of info on that on the endless sphere website.

Good luck with it anyway, always satisfying when you get it working.


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## bigmotherwhale (Apr 15, 2011)

i just took the top off and everything looks good inside checked the cells, they are around 3.5 volts / cell I have a charger here but first i need to find the ideal storage voltage for these. I think they are Hitachi cells...

there looks to be a BMS inside the battery case as well as a module called a "plugin charge control" box on top of the switch mode charger

no idea how they communicate but i am very happy with my purchase


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## samwichse (Jan 28, 2012)

What's the pack total voltage on that little Beastie?


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## bigmotherwhale (Apr 15, 2011)

207.2 volts


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## samwichse (Jan 28, 2012)

Cool. Any pics of the box or its interior? How easy is it too do surgery on? If like to try and snag one myself, but I need ~170v max.


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## bigmotherwhale (Apr 15, 2011)

samwichse said:


> Cool. Any pics of the box or its interior? How easy is it too do surgery on? If like to try and snag one myself, but I need ~170v max.


I will take some pics, its a lovely setup, looks pretty well laid out in tems of cooling insulation and mechanical. 

why are you limited to 170v? most electronics can be over volted if you are wise and select the right components for replacement. 

you could always split the pack and put the two halves in parallel foe 300A 103.6volts

I should probably make a build thread im getting to the point where i have enough components to start laying stuff out. 

i need to make a test bed for the motor - inverter - battery - charger but first i need to make a cooling jacket for my Remy motor


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## samwichse (Jan 28, 2012)

I'd be using it to make a Honda insight into a PHEV, so I'd be limited to what the stock electronic can take (144v) plus about 15%, maybe 20%.


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## bigmouse (Sep 28, 2008)

bigmotherwhale said:


> 207.2 volts


The HVH-250 is a high-voltage motor. Will you be using the built-in boost converter?


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## bigmotherwhale (Apr 15, 2011)

Unfortunately i only have the bare IGBT block of the Toyota highlander, so i don't have the boost controller which would have been ideal. anyone want to donate an entire inverter?  

The lowest voltage the motor will operate is 200v so for now that's how it will run, at a mere 30kw compared to the 160kw its capable of. 
I will try to get another pack i will run them in series but its pretty unlikely i can find another any time soon but i will upgrade when i have the car together.

In the future im planning on making my own topology inverter which uses the motor windings as a boost inductor which is combined with the supply, i have already made a very basic single phase prototype on the bench and I am getting very good results you can generate torque recover losses and increase motor voltage current, developing this into something to power a car will be a challenge however. The last time i suggested using a motor like this it was very quickly shunned,told it couldn't be done, why hasn't it been done already etc. so i don't really bother talking about it.


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## BVH (Jul 4, 2014)

Ideal storage is 3.85 Volts per cell, give or take - roughly 50% SOC. This is from the masses over at the RCGroup Forums. All of the high end RC chargers have 3.85 VPC programmed as "Storage Charge". This is for both Lipo and Li-Ion chemistries.


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## bigmotherwhale (Apr 15, 2011)

thanks BVH without a data sheet for the cells this is the conclusion i reached too, i said they were Hitachi but they are actually sanyo / Panasonic


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## bigmotherwhale (Apr 15, 2011)

anyone want to have a look at some of the hardware?

http://s936.photobucket.com/user/bigmotherwhale/slideshow/Prius plug in PIP charger and battery


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## johny55 (Jul 29, 2015)

I do not know if I will help you, but I have Nissan Leaf (board 6.6 kW) and recently I have bought from R - EVC charging cable for easier travel. I can set 6-32A according to circuit breaker. The dealer also has a charger for the Prius, you can look there: http://r-evc.com/cs/content/34-type...e4&id_shop=1&id_employee=1&theme=&theme_font=


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## bigmotherwhale (Apr 15, 2011)

ive made some progress on mapping out the wiring of the BMS, current sensors pre charge relays and contactors, i have also found what seems to be the +12v input for the BMS and common high for the contactors and pre charge relays.


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## zolk (Jun 9, 2013)

Hi there,
I just got hold of a Prius plugin battery with the voltage sensor (BMS) a few days back, and trying to identify the pins on the connectors on the BMS.
The orange does not need any comment. The 20 and 24 pin connectors are input for temp sensors.
So the only challenging is the 12 pin connector.
So far I found that pin 1,2,7,8 are connected to current sensor. While 8 is also probably GND.
9 seems to be GND as well.
4,5 are on other Prius voltage sensors are identified as BTH+/- (not sure which is +/- yet).
One of 6 or 12 is probably IGCT the other probably the signal that charges is connected(?)
Do you have any more details?


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## bigmotherwhale (Apr 15, 2011)

Comparing notes i have the pins back to front, 

(5 and 6 and 12 ) 7, 8, and 1 are the current sensor inputs for fine and coarse current measurement and probably a 5v line. 

(10 and 11) 2 and 3 are GND, (2 is current sensor GND)

(4 ) 9 is not connected

thats as far as i have gotten, i need the loom and a wiring diagram before i start connecting things up.

did you manage to get the loom charger etc..
where did you pick it up? are you in the UK as well?


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## zolk (Jun 9, 2013)

I am in US, and I got from eBay only the battery with everything inside (BMS, relays).
No blowers, charger, or any harness.
BTW: On the BMS circuit board pins 1,6,7 and 12 are marked next to connector.
I used that numbering.


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## bigmotherwhale (Apr 15, 2011)

I realized this after writing it down, i will update my number system so it doesn't get confusing.

Are you going to hack the CAN bus to get the volts amps and temps?

The BMS seems to be a capacitor charge shuttling unit, each chip powered by the batteries they are managing and completely opto isolated from the micro controller.

The contactors are not controlled by the BMS at all , any lines you find going to contactors are likely GND or 12v high side, pulled down low by the charger or the ECU.

Will you go on toyota tech docs to find the pin outs and functions? Im waiting to do this after i get the loom. 

All the best


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## zolk (Jun 9, 2013)

I was planing to read from the CAN. But now I don't think the battery sends messages over the CAN to hybrid ECU. It is some sort of serial communication. I will try to read and store the data then analyze it.
I don't think Toyota tech docs give details about the serial protocol...
I am a a programmer so I hope I can figure it out.
Do you have some experience with analyzing such data?


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## bigmotherwhale (Apr 15, 2011)

zolk said:


> I was planing to read from the CAN. But now I don't think the battery sends messages over the CAN to hybrid ECU. It is some sort of serial communication. I will try to read and store the data then analyze it.
> I don't think Toyota tech docs give details about the serial protocol...
> I am a a programmer so I hope I can figure it out.
> Do you have some experience with analyzing such data?


Oh why do you think its serial not can? 

I dont have any experience at all in this regard, im glad you can help tbh

My first port of call would be to connect up the BMS Charger and charge control unit and power it up with 12v to see what talks with what using a can sniffer - or at least that was my plan.


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