Honda Insight Forum banner

How to Completely Remove Your IMA Battery

131K views 567 replies 72 participants last post by  AcidTonic 
#1 · (Edited)
Is your IMA battery dead weight? Want to remove it completely?
youtu.be/c9OZLoJG4RU


Watch this video if you're looking to:
-remove your IMA battery, &
-keep your 12 volt battery charged, &
-trick the car into thinking everything is peachy in IMA-land

Here is the latest schematic and code.

...

Notes:
-The Battery Malfunction Light will (temporarily) come on each time you exceed ~4000 rpm... and will turn off once RPM drops down. If you don't want that behavior, you'll need to replace two resistors inside the DCDC converter (for instructions see post #76 here or watch this youtube video).
-Standard USA EPA Caveat: FOR OFF-ROAD USE ONLY
-Both code versions are now updated to use same pinout. See new schematic for more information.

I DO NOT MANUFACTURE THIS PRODUCT OR OFFER IT FOR SALE.
 
See less See more
#4 ·
Nice, thank you! I gotta dig my arduino out and get the new code on it now for those off road track days :) As always, thanks for your hard work on this stuff.
 
#6 ·
Good point- does the EPA have jurisdiction in space? Don't think so!

Unfortunately, that one got launched into the back of another vehicle at high speed by the daughter, so that sticker is hanging out in my garage on my parts car at the moment. That reminds me - I need to order another sticker.
 
#9 ·
Notes:
-The bug Balto pointed out - that I previously fixed - has been fixed.
Those responsible for sacking the people who have just been sacked have been sacked
 
#13 ·
My code which is similar to M's allows LB and the normal rev range so I suspect it is the same.. If you fake the signals correctly as we are doing then the car has no reason to turn things down..
 
#14 · (Edited)
#16 ·
I've driven my car quite a bit with a dead pack, first with just the BCM unplugged, and then with both BCM and MCM unplugged. It never really appeared to be in limp mode either time.

Subjectively, when I unplugged both (same as the bypass I think), I got better MPG, and more idle vibration.
 
#18 ·
Sorry for possibly being arduino inept, but I dug out my arduino UNO from the electronics bin and i'm trying to load the program. I uninstalled the old version off my computer and installed the new software. When i try to open the "IMA bypass arduino code" which is an ino file under the folder of the same name i get an error saying "Could not create the sketch". i can't understand how i'd be doing this wrong, but maybe I am.

Tim
 
#28 ·
Meh, maybe there's differences from car to car. I've ran the car bypassed and in terms of ICE power there was no difference, the car was definitely not "limping"... bradleyb says pretty much the same thing, so... The fact that some cars seem to work without the MCM yet mine didn't suggests that, yeah, there must be differences, and maybe one of them is ICE performance with the pack bypassed...
 
#32 ·
If the so-called "limp mode" were only a 5500 rev limit, it would be irrelevant not only to me but to most Insight drivers, because most Insight drivers aren't revving to 5500, and if they were they probably shouldn't be, particularly with the pack bypassed... But it sounds like some Insights take a big hit to ICE power with the pack bypassed, and some don't, for who knows what reason.

I.e. the relevance of Mudder's mod would have little to do with avoiding a 5500 RPM rev limit, and more to do with avoiding whatever's causing the hit to ICE power, such as a different ignition timing map being in play, as well as avoiding the handful of other warbles that happen with the pack bypassed... A 5500 rev limit is the least of issues...
 
#33 ·
I tried on two windows 10 computers. Both had the same error.
 
#35 ·
I haven't done this mod yet because I just put my rebuilt/reconditioned ima pack back in, so am hopefully good for some thousands of miles yet.

If/when I do however, I'll use something like a pro mini - it's cheaper and more compact, you can solder right to it, and then just heat shrink the whole thing.
 
#39 ·
Download for Windows PC?

Everything from the download is dated 11/9/2017 except when I go to 'IMA Bypass Arduino Code' folder has one file with 8/13/2016 named IMA Bypass Arduino Code. Where is the MOTFSB_bitbang.ino file as described in the instructions?
 
#40 ·
Everything from the download is dated 11/9/2017 except when I go to 'IMA Bypass Arduino Code' folder has one file with 8/13/2016 named IMA Bypass Arduino Code. Where is the MOTFSB_bitbang.ino file as described in the instructions?
Sharp eye... The code dated 08/13/2016 is the latest version. However, sometime between then and when I started this thread I hyperlinked the old code. When I wrote this thread, I deleted all older versions. If I do still have old links out there, you'll find they're now dead.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top