First 4kwh Enginer PHEV kit in an Insight

[ericbecky]

I just got back from a whirlwind trip to Ohio to visit Ray (screen name rayholan)and install a 4kwh Enginer PHEV kit in his Insight.

The kit arrived at my house in Wisconsin on Wednesday afternoon. I checked over what I could and started the prep work on it that night. Next morning I drove the 9+ hours to Ray's and installed the kit that night. By 11pm I was able to grab some sleep for the drive back home to Wisconsin the next morning.

The actual physical installation of the parts didn't take too long, but all the prep work of wiring the batteries and making custom connectors for between the cells took up a lot of the time. It would have been nice to have a bit more time to have everything prepped before I brought it down there, but such is life.

Since this is a custom installation I definitely had to do some creative thinking to get it in place. Thanks to the helping hands from Ken, John and Ray I was able to save some back strain as we installed, rearranged, and reinstalled components to get it all just right. We definitely learned a few new things along the way and have feedback to provide the creators of the Enginer kit to make it more user friendly for Insight owners.

Ray already has Mike Dabrowski's excellent MIMA system in place so Ray should get a lot of benefit from the Enginer kit. If anyone is considering any kind of PHEV kit, I would HIGHLY encourage you to buy Mike D's MIMA system in conjunction with your purchase. It is worth every penny. Heck, even if you don't get a PHEV kit you should buy Mike's MIMA system. It ROCKS!!!

Hopefully Ray will get to provide some anecdotes on how he uses his kit and his experience.
I'll let Ray, the owner chime in here, and maybe supply a few pics.

Oh, and don't tease Ray too much about not having a decent extension cord to charge it up with yet ... I'm sure he has bought one by now... Riiight Ray?

[Mike Dabrowski 2000]

Sounds like I missed a fun day.
Eric, does the 4kw system output more current than what your 2kW system does, or does it simply supply the current longer?
Good luck with it Ray, you must be in hybrid heaven.

[retepsnikrep]

Good Job. Pics please

[ericbecky]

Originally Posted by Mike Dabrowski 2000

Eric, does the 4kw system output more current than what your 2kW system does, or does it simply supply the current longer?

It simply supplies the current for a longer period of time.

[armadaman]

Hello,
I'm Ken (armadaman) and had the pleasure of being at Rays home to witness the installation of the kit. It was nice to meet both Ray and Eric and to see Eric in action. Quite the hard working guy, Eric is. We met near Rays house and Eric was on the ground making jumper wires to connect the blocks of four batteries together before Ray got home from work. I was amazed at his knowledge and confidence in what he does and his zeal in helping get this technology on the road. Thanks for letting me be a small part in this and thanks Ray for your hospitality.

[rayholan]

Originally Posted by ericbecky

Oh, and don't tease Ray too much about not having a decent extension cord to charge it up with yet ... I'm sure he has bought one by now... Riiight Ray?

Yeah, I guess a 2 foot extension cord doesn't really qualify as an "extension" cord...

[Artric]

Any more details about this install? I'd really like to learn more about it. I wish they had an Insight-specific kit...

[RobertSmalls]

His thread on EM has more detail, as you know: First PHEV Honda Insight (1st gen.) with Enginer.us system - Fuel Economy, Hypermiling, EcoModding News and Forum - EcoModder.com

I'm kind of thinking about more battery capacity for my Insight. The rational part of my mind says lithium is too much trouble, not safe enough, not nearly cheap enough. And that NiMH and PbH2SO4 are too heavy and bulky. Also that the Insight needs fairly long trips to operate efficiently in charge-depleting mode.

Of the approaches I've seen so far, I like Peter's battery replacement the best. It's also the most expensive and difficult.

[MN Driver]

I like the pack replacement idea better as well. Putting all of the DC-DC conversion electronics to up the lower voltage like the Enginer system does wastes power through efficiency losses. Ah per Ah, it's cheaper to go with Peter's battery replacement than the Enginer kit. The Enginer kit would need to have to provide a much higher current rate for it to be useful for my commute to where a parallel pack would be a better idea if I wasn't going with a full lithium pack replacement.

[uhtrinity]

It's an interesting concept, but you have conversion losses at multiple steps:

Charging the pack
stepping up the booster packs voltage
charging the main pack from the booster pack which is also at a limited amp rate.

Also, how much of the 2 kW hr capacity is actually used doing the boost?