Robert, are you talking about the battery pack fan or some other fan?
If the BCM is powered then it can control and power the battery fan directly as normal. The fan uses a maximum of about 600ma the BCM/Gauge about 400ma so a minimum 1A supply is reqd. 2A would be better.
Only if you want the fan to come on at lower temps or overide it in some other way do you need to connect to it directly.
Yes, I was talking about the battery fan. It comes on around 60°C, right? Is(n't) that too high for a battery that's being grid charged nightly?
Of course, that kind of stuff only happens in the summer around here. My pack is now cool enough for the charger to cut off when the battery reaches 169V. In warmer weather. the pack can't reach that cutoff voltage.
Yesterday I had the opportunity to work on a 2003 civic that had battery issues.
I welcomed the chance to look at what it would take to connect the grid charger to this vintage civic.
The PTC and HV connections were no problem, but the fan presented a seemingly unsolvable problem, so we ended up sitting the civic pack on the deck outdoors with a big window fan blowing on it during the all night charging.
The Civic fan speed is controlled by two PWM signals from the MCM, and will not run without them.
I need a car to work out the best solution with.
Anyone here know if the newer civics work the same way?
Anyone near my place in CT with a civic that needs a pack rebalancing?
I will probably have more luck on a civic forum.
Never easy.
I will not let this issue delay the Insight version which is moving slowly and surely towards completion.
Ok, great just watch this thread to see when they will be ready.
I have a solution for the civic fan problem but need to look at two signals with a scope to know how to build the fix.
A small pc board on the car side of the connector will generate the required blower control signals and could even adjust the blower speed based on pack and ambient temperature.
Need to find a test car to determine what the required signals characteristics are.
When looking at if it is possible to power the BCM without issue post a few posts back I confess I fell into the same trap which got Mark when he was using the BCM gauge V3.00.
Mine was on the extended soc by accident and not the oem soc display, so the pos recall had taken place as normal and at the predicted voltage just I wasnt watching the right SOC display!!!!
So the apparent issue i raised about the pos recal not happening is not an issue, just me being caught out!
Hopefully this will help Mike in deciding if he wants to use the BCM to get data for his grid charger.
Yesterday I had the opportunity to work on a 2003 civic that had battery issues.
I welcomed the chance to look at what it would take to connect the grid charger to this vintage civic.
The PTC and HV connections were no problem, but the fan presented a seemingly unsolvable problem, so we ended up sitting the civic pack on the deck outdoors with a big window fan blowing on it during the all night charging.
The Civic fan speed is controlled by two PWM signals from the MCM, and will not run without them.
I need a car to work out the best solution with.
Anyone here know if the newer civics work the same way?
Anyone near my place in CT with a civic that needs a pack rebalancing?
I will probably have more luck on a civic forum.
Never easy.
I will not let this issue delay the Insight version which is moving slowly and surely towards completion.
Hi Mike
I'm new to this forum and I've been reading this thread in hopes of learning something about your charger/balancer. Unfortunately I'm all thumbs with things electrical. In response to your query for an HCH in need. I live in Warrensburg, NY and would gladly drive my car down to you and leave it as long as you might need it. Whats more I would be very willing to make a contribution to your cause, in exchange for a full battery again.
Mark Bertsche
2004 HCH w/ 297,000mi
2000 Insight w/ 147,000mi
Hi Mike
I'm new to this forum and I've been reading this thread in hopes of learning something about your charger/balancer. Unfortunately I'm all thumbs with things electrical. In response to your query for an HCH in need. I live in Warrensburg, NY and would gladly drive my car down to you and leave it as long as you might need it. Whats more I would be very willing to make a contribution to your cause, in exchange for a full battery again.
Mark Bertsche
2004 HCH w/ 297,000mi
2000 Insight w/ 147,000mi
Welcome to Insight Central, Mark. It's generosity like yours that helps all of us progress. Mike D. is the hands-down winner in the generosity department. I've had his MIMA system in my Insight for 2 years and can't imagine life without it. Kudos to you both.
mbertsche
What is the state of your battery in the Civic?
I expect that I would only need it for a half day, so you would not have to leave it here.
I would need to get the pack warm enough to get the fan running, then I need to look at the fan control signals with an oscilloscope.
If you try to charge as much as possible on the way to my place, we should be able to give your pack a nice balancing while we look at the fan signals.
When can you make the trip up to my place? You can contact me directly so we can set up a good time to meet.
The charger fan power supply is presently also the supply for the charger electronics. To measure the pack voltage I was planing to tie the 12V supply negative to the pack negative.
This seems to work fine when the car is an Insight, but I am skeptical about how the BCM would like being powered up by the same supply that is connected to the pack negative?
The Civics may have issues with this configuration, as the I2 and Prius may, so I may go with a small isolated DC/DC to run the computer and monitoring systems to eliminate this potential ground isolation issue.
I have had to deal with many small side projects in the last couple of weeks, but am nearly caught up, so I am back on the charger controller design and programming, and barring more distractions should be able to get the thing running as a prototype in the next couple of weeks.
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