Reading thru the threads, its generally clear that charging the IMA battery directly is bad because the computer doesn't understand where the extra charge came from and it causes Recal's, etc.
My questions are these: What if you instead provided a charge (from whatever source... that's a different issue) and your point of connection was spliced into the conductors of one of the regen systems (brakes, transmission)?
Wouldn't it 'fool' the system into thinking it was getting the charge from the inductive system and charge the IMA battery in an acceptable manner?
A possible requirement would be that the electrical system of the car was on.
It might be required to fake the car out that a regen system is 'active' (when its not, if I recall correctly... someone did this with the brake system).
You would have to provide 3 phase AC at the proper frequency, and fake inputs to all the sensors that the ECM and IMA systems expect to see.
So the regen brakes and downshifted transmission already provides 3 phase AC at the proper frequency? I was thinking that the power generated by these devices would get converted/inverted/perverted* later on 'down the line'.
*Your suspicion that you weren't dealing with an electrical engineer has been confirmed.
My source of electricity will generate a variable 200-400 watts/6-28 amps or more of electrical energy while driving. I don't know if this approaches what is needed to charge up the IMA battery quickly. This also normally wouldn't mean anything for the Insight... unless you had MIMA installed and configured to use more electricity to power the engine than the stock configuration.
I doubt that frequency or even having 3 phase AC is necessary to properly charge the battery. I strongly suspect the AC is rectified, filtered, and then regulated before it is used to charge the battery.
So the regen brakes and downshifted transmission already provides 3 phase AC at the proper frequency? I was thinking that the power generated by these devices would get converted/inverted/perverted* later on 'down the line'.
Yes, the traction motor is a 3 phase AC motor. Therefore, when it is acting at a generator, it provides 3 phase at a frequency determined by it's RPM.
Quote:
My source of electricity will generate a variable 200-400 watts/6-28 amps or more of electrical energy while driving. I don't know if this approaches what is needed to charge up the IMA battery quickly. This also normally wouldn't mean anything for the Insight... unless you had MIMA installed and configured to use more electricity to power the engine than the stock configuration.
Why would you even want to do this? Let's not get into the problems that feeding power randomly into the system would create.
I've always been intrigued by the 'Holy Grail' of energy production... that which produces enough energy to feed itself. While I know that its a fools errand... I know wasted energy can still be potentially harnessed (preferably at a higher rate of efficiency than the primary).
I'm toying with the possibility of mounting a small Wind Turbine on the car (location to be determined.. somewhere in the back for several reasons including visibility,drag and aerodynamics). The size would range anywhere between 6" and 4'. Regardless of the feasibility, benefit, etc., the challenge of inputting the electricity remains one of the first challenges. This is operating on the principle (hope) that the drag and weight added to the system will be less than the energy generated by this addition and that the energy can be used.
It seems from reading that it can't be inputed directly into the Battery Module (although the charge would occur during operation so I'm wondering if the BCM would really have a hissy fit or not. It seems that adding the power anywhere past this point is a large hassle/impossible due to the pseudo 3 phase AC involved. I was hoping that the electricity generated by the regen braking wasn't the 3 phase AC, but something simpler (like 12v DC!). Alas it seems its not. Now I'm reduced to the following sources of input.
1) The Battery Module... if the car is running will charging it cause a Recal? Certainly charging it while the car is not running does. It's been stated that the differential between one cell and the other could be responsible for a Recal as well. I was thinking if you tied into the input cable rather than one or all cells that this would get around this problem.
2) Charging the 12v starter battery and eliminating the need for using the reserves of the Battery Module for that purpose. At this point I don't have any idea how much juice a radio, dash, intermittent AC and intermittent headlight uses. This would determine the worth of generating the energy and the size of the turbine that would be needed.
Healthy comments are appreciated... however, unabashed Mockery won't be a surprise.
All you will be doing is exchanging more aerodynamic drag / engine load for more electrical output. Since the vehicle has a built in system for doing this (the IMA) adding a wind turbine for while-driving electrical generation would result in a net loss of efficiency. The laws of Thermodynamics will get you every time
I toyed with this idea put with form fitted flexable solar cells instead... the enmd answer turns out ... not with the current computer / battery control system... if a replacement were used maybe ... but there is no rerplacement made that does what this one does so you would be making / designing a new one from the ground up... expensive and time intensive.... for home charging the easest thing to do is drive the car onto a a roller of some kind that can turn the front wheels from a electric motor plugsed into the wall... leave car on and in gear and proceed to use the electric motor to drive the front wheels... Insight will enter fuel cut at some point and regenerative braking will recharge the pack.... but other wise you need to rebuild / replace the Insights electronics.
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Electrical Power Input Location
