New MIMA Thread

[Mike Dabrowski 2000]

I heard back from them. It turns out they do not do current regulation, so they expect to farm that out.
He asked for a few more specs, which I will send him by monday. Then he will be able to give us a price. I will also request a quote for a lithium pack alone that could drop into the Insight.

[sk8sc]

Didn't get a reply so I will try again.

I still think the MIMA thing is more than I want to take on. Is there a partial you can do to only kick on the electric engine when you want? The PIMA seems more my style as noted in this quote(from 99mpg):

"PIMA is something one would want to use when not in the mood to play with the buttons too much. Basically, we aren't saying that automatic IMA is that bad - as long as we have the option to program it ourselves!!!! Once the charge and assist points and magnification are set, the system will remember those settings, so entering PIMA mode is quick, and it feels just like a normal car (what Honda originally intended) - in this mode, IMA is operated with your right foot."

I want the IMA to come on at 50-75 instead of 25-12. I want it to not charge as soon as I lift my foot slightly off the gas. I just get up a head of steam and the charge drags me down. So much for momentum. I keep my battery within 4 bars in town which is most of my driving. I am wasting the capabilities of this car.


Can I(someone else with knowledge) change the computer to turn on like PIMA?

I can't do $750 which is what I thought this whole conversion costs. Save $5 month gas 750/5=150 months to pay for it.

[gpsman1]

sk8sc-

It's more for the coolness factor, and hey, guess what I can do factor, vs. money saving factor.
It gives pleasure, just like a nice stereo. A nice stereo never "pays you back" but most people like to have one.
-John

[joecvt]

Originally Posted by sk8sc

I still think the MIMA thing is more than I want to take on. Is there a partial you can do to only kick on the electric engine when you want? The PIMA seems more my style as noted in this quote(from 99mpg):

PIMA mode is one of the features of MIMA (it is not a separate item). MIMA is the complete circuit board with programming logic built-in that Mike designed. As the MIMA project progressed, more options were added into the programming (like PIMA mode).

There is a simpler MIMA called MIMA_L (one the original MIMA designs) where you can build a much simpler circuit (with limitted function) from scratch as a "do it yourself" project. Mike was kind enough to make the schematics available to the public. However, since there is no programmable chip on the MIMA_L design, you can not have a PIMA mode unless you design an additional circuit on the board to handle what you want but that may end up being more complicated and time consumming compared to purchasing the current MIMA kit.

Hope that help answer your question.

JoeCVT = Just your average CVT owner

[IamIan]

Originally Posted by sk8sc

Newbie. Hope I do it right
I was reading about MIMA some. I am still foggy on how it works. Can it be used on CVT? Can a person use the electric engine sooner?

more details are at Mike's Page at http://www.99mpg.com

Most MIMA's are installed on MT but it has been installed and used on CVT's as well.

MIMA gives you control of the IMA...

You can get electric assist as soon as you want... I have used the electric assist to even keep the car moving with my foot completely off the gas pedal, with the Insight in Fuel Cut mode.

You can control how much assist you get from a little bit ~5% to full 100%... and everywhere in between.

You can turn off the back ground charging .... which is good for times when the car is doing force charging up a hill.

You can turn on back ground charging when you like.

You can activate regenerative braking at will... even in gear with the gas pedal down you can get full regenerative braking.

You can control how much regenerative braking you get from a bit to 100% and everywhere in between.

You can control all of these things manually with a variable joystick... MIMA can have two installed for different locations.

You can program MIMA via PIMA to operate automatically... kind of like changing the points when the car would do things... you can get assist automatically around 100MPG if you like instead of much lower like 50mpg the way the car likes to do it.... same thing with regen you can program it to come on when you want and as much as you want.

MIMA has a current display that shows you the current doing into the out of the NiMH battery pack... the dash display sometimes will hide background charging from you and not show it... MIMA will show it to you .... the dash display also does not do a very accurate level of telling you how much regen or assist you have... MIMA shows it to you more accurately.

MIMA can activate a FAS system and a DC-DC keep alive system.

MIMA is open source and the programming is upgradeable.

etc...etc....

[IamIan]

Originally Posted by sk8sc

Didn't get a reply so I will try again.

I still think the MIMA thing is more than I want to take on. Is there a partial you can do to only kick on the electric engine when you want? The PIMA seems more my style as noted in this quote(from 99mpg):

"PIMA is something one would want to use when not in the mood to play with the buttons too much. Basically, we aren't saying that automatic IMA is that bad - as long as we have the option to program it ourselves!!!! Once the charge and assist points and magnification are set, the system will remember those settings, so entering PIMA mode is quick, and it feels just like a normal car (what Honda originally intended) - in this mode, IMA is operated with your right foot."

I want the IMA to come on at 50-75 instead of 25-12. I want it to not charge as soon as I lift my foot slightly off the gas. I just get up a head of steam and the charge drags me down. So much for momentum. I keep my battery within 4 bars in town which is most of my driving. I am wasting the capabilities of this car.


Can I(someone else with knowledge) change the computer to turn on like PIMA?

I can't do $750 which is what I thought this whole conversion costs. Save $5 month gas 750/5=150 months to pay for it.

$750 is a bargain for what the Full MIMA system does... my 2 bits...

If you can't afford it right off... then save up for it ... I had to save up for mine... a painful saving period where the food choices I ate were weighed against their effect on the time it would take for me to save up for MIMA.

MIMA is all open source... you can build it all and program it all yourself... If you don't want to pay Mike for it... do it yourself... but be warned it is no small undertaking.

If you are asking for someone else to do all the work of a MIMA system and sell it to you for less than what Mike is charging... I would say you need a new plan.... as that one has very bad odds of happening.

I think MIMA paid for itself for me just by doing what it does ... Kind of like I don't expect to get the $16 a month I pay for internet back from the things I do on line... it will never recover that cost... won't even break even.... ever.... but to me it still pays for itself for what it offers me and what it does... so I pay for it.... same thing with MIMA for me.. I want what it offers so I paid what it costs for it.... just my 2 bits.

[Mike Dabrowski 2000]

sk8sc,
Actually I did respond,but I combined the response with another response.
If you read the following, all of your questions will be answered.

A lot of user feedback about operation can be read here:
http://www.99mpg.com/mima/people/

Many other questions are answered here:
http://www.99mpg.com/mima/faq/

[Mike Dabrowski 2000]

Gas is expected to hit $4 a gal this summer, and will likely not stop there, so the payback for the 10-20% MPG improvement than most people can get will accelerate as time goes on. Then one has to ask what the MIMA is worth .

[sk8sc]

OK. So take my foot out of my mouth. I don't want to knock what has been done with MIMA or its cost and labor involved. I have done some (very)simple programming and know people won't pay what anything is worth these days. I just can't afford the whole thing and should probably be looking out the winshield more often already. I was just hoping for a simple(yeah right) reprogram of the main computer or switch that only turns on the electric motor. Maybe wishing for that shows my real ignorance of the technicalities of the whole machine. If I stayed at 54MPG I would still park with a smile on my face. I was reading that he didn't expect to make any more MIMA modules after this batch. That would leave me wishing I could have, would have, should have. Thanks for responding. I did follow the other links and got the CVT and info on the system. So thanks for the redirect for that.

[IamIan]

A MIMA-L type system is less expensive and does just the basic manual joy stick control of the IMA... the PIMA ( automatic control ) requires the full package... do some searches the much more basic version has been talked about on the net several times... and warm up your soldering iron