General Disclaimer:   (HV) (DC) injury or death hazard,   use at your own risk,   may void warranty.

Inaugural Maker Faire

From My wiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Click show for a short list of the current PHEV conversion and kit options for the Toyota Prius.

For Prius conversion details see the Prius PHEV article and comparisons table.

  1. Ron's Original PriusPlus History and current Contactor Based PriusPlus documentation for DIY projects.
  2. Ryan's PriusBlue is the testbed for DC-DC PFC Based PiPrius kits and documentation for DIY projects.
  3. Toyota OEM Prius PHEV and Prime Could use some work on this page
  4. Enginer China. But the rest of these appear to all be defunct as of 2020?
  5. |~- Hybrids-Plus USA/Colorado/Li -~|~- EnergyCS USA -~|~- Hymotion USA/Canada -~|~- Amberjac UK. -~|~- EDrive USA -~| Peter mentioned Plug-In Conversions |~-

--={ PiPrius }={ Process }={ fan control }={ Manzanita Micro }={ MM-PFC }={ Mk 3 Reg }=--
--={ PriusBlue }={ Maker Faire }={ Photos }={ EVents }={ 2006 mpg }={ 2005 mpg }=--
--={ CAN-View }={ Schematics }={ User Interfaces }={ Battery Options }={ TechInfo }=--

--={ More Vehicles: AVI }={ WhiteBird }={ GrayPearl }={ GreenCarCo }=--

Team Photo from the PriusPlus conversion of Sven's Prius from Nov 2006.
  • Add a new thumbnail for PirusBlue and other cars?

See #Post EVent for links to photos and comments from the EVent!

Many thanks to the Maker Faire Team for making this conversion possible!


Meet Me at the Maker Faire!

Join us at the Inaugural Maker Faire, April 22-23, 2006, San Mateo Fairgrounds, California. There we will be converting a stock Toyota Prius Hybrid into a Plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV). Make is a celebration of all things do-it-yourself, and we're absolutely ecstatic to participate in this event! As is the case with the first PriusPlus History and due to the DIY nature of the project we intend to always provide a drive-home mode for extreme debugging, until our conversions are essentially as reliable as the original car. After the faire we anticipate a period of fine tuning not only of the car but also of our Prius PHEV documentation.

The Details:

  • When: Saturday, April 22, 2006 (10am - 6pm), Sunday, April 23, 2006 (10am - 5pm)
  • Where: The San Mateo Fairgrounds, 2495 South Delaware Street, San Mateo, CA
  • Admission: $12/Adult; $5/Teens; $25/Family; Under 12 free

O'Reilly and Make

O'Reilly Media is the premier information source for leading-edge computer technologies. The company's books, conferences, and web sites bring to light the knowledge of technology innovators. O'Reilly books, known for the animals on their covers, occupy a treasured place on the shelves of the developers building the next generation of software. O'Reilly conferences and summits bring alpha geeks and forward-thinking business leaders together to shape the revolutionary ideas that spark new industries. From the Internet to XML, open source, .NET, Java, and web services, O'Reilly puts technologies on the map. http://www.oreilly.com

Event Preperation

We have a big job ahead in preparing for the two day conversion. We realize that people are rightly getting enthusiastic about the event, however we need to make sure that people have realistic expectations.

Expectations

The MakerFaire car and our initial documentation and recommended components will initially specify lead-acid batteries -- low cost, but heavy and large. We hope to be able to locate a supplier of better Ni-MH or Li-Ion batteries, but can't say when we'll succeed. So for now, anyone attempting to complete this type of conversion with lead-acid will be left with a vehicle with the following characteristics:

  • 10 mile low-speed electric-only range, 20-mile Mixed-mode half-electric/half-gasoline range, your mileage may vary.
  • Battery warming may be helpfull or required in areas with cold climates. In ambient temperatures of 50 deg F or lower and low states of charge (SOC), and in lower temperatures at any SOC, potential errors (due to high battery internal resistance) may cause the car to stop running. It is highly recommended that the OEM battery be used in such conditions.
  • Approximately 200-cycle full discharge life (in a year, you may need to replace batteries at a cost of up to $1,000). Your performance will vary based on battery quality, depth of discharge, and many other factors.
  • Net weight increase of 300 pounds (assuming you keep existing battery in place, which we highly recommend)
  • Because of the additional weight, slightly reduced rear-window visibility, some additional load on rear shock absorbers (until we develop a source for heavy-duty springs), possibly slightly poorer road handling (equivalent to keeping a 300 lb load in the cargo area), and reduced remaining load capacity.
  • Due to the additional weight and the simultaneously marginal performance of the lead-acid battery, city-driving mileage may decrease by 10% when electricity is not used to offset some of the gasoline consumption.

EVent Schedule

Tentetive plans for the road trip and conversion.

Thursday April 20

  • 9:00 Picked up Jerry at Steves place.
  • 11pm - Departed Seattle.

Friday April 21

The Drive is 813 miles and about 14 to 16 hours. Leaving around 11pm on Thursday April 20th gets us there about 3pm on Friday the 21st. maps.google route

  • Meet up with the crew for dinner, movie, and gameplan discussions.
  • Drop car off at Fairgrounds in the evening, Expo is open from 11am - 7pm on Friday.

Saturday April 22

  • 7:30am - Open for setup
  • 10am - Gates open
  • 11am - Begin installation
    • Front: Dash teardown and fake CAN-View and other LV control wireing installation since it's already installed
    • Rear: HV Disconnect and dissassembly
    • Outside: Cut and assemble battery rack components, may need pre-cut rack parts
  • 12am - Continue tasks
    • Rear: HV crimping (borrow professional crimper, may demonstrate hammer crimper
  • 1 pm - Finish tasks
    • Front: Finish with front and re-assemble internal body pannels
    • Rear: Finish wiring HV contactors
    • Outside: Finish battery rack
  • 2 pm - Lunch
  • 3 pm - Install HV and LV circuits
  • 4 pm - Install and secure batteries into rack
  • 5 pm - Install interconnects, charger, and test, test, test!
  • 6 pm - Evening Festivities begin
  • 9 pm - Gates close
  • 11:30 pm - Tear down

We worked a little late.

Sunday, April 23

  • 7:30am - Open for setup
  • 10am - Gates open
  • 11am - Finish the conversion & start giving people rides perhaps?
  • 12am -
  • 1 pm -
  • 2 pm - Recharge and Lunch, then start giving more rides
  • 3 pm -
  • 4 pm -
  • 5 pm - Compile initial drive data. Gates close
  • 6 pm - tear down booth
  • 11:00 pm - left faire.

We worked a little later.

Monday, April 24

One worked all night, Ron worked all day, and Steve in his Honda Insight and Ryan in Blue depart in the evening. But only after some PbA test runs and my first encounter with the SOC Manipulation, the CLC, and some overvoltage from regen.

Tuesday, April 25

After having dinner with Steve and John Plasma Boy Wayland at a favorite mexican spot, a peak at the conversion, and ride on my li-ion scooter I eventually arriving back from the trip where I promptly fell asleep.

Documentation

These are some of the things we might want to do in order to enhance the documentation process.

  • Component Photos
  • Participant Photos and Bios
  • Write in updates to hard copies of instructions and parts lists

Video

  • Video interviews
  • Multiple time laps video
    • (2second frames at 30 second interval on 60 minute tape equals 15 hours of recording).
    • Hatch mounted camera looking down into rear end, frame bumper to rear seat.
    • Windshield mounted camera, looking through from outside at dash into rear, lay down seats.
  • Wandering guy(s) taking closeups and comments from visitors
  • Bring your video stabalizer thingee if you've got one.
  • Ryan is filming the trip down-and-back (same timelaps as above).
  • We'll also be filmed by Chris Baldwin of Shoulder High Productions

Audio

  • Audio descriptions of individule tasks for voice overs.
  • Long Play Audio recording of the play by play to capture any choice spontanious commentary.

Presentations

Things that we might want to bring along to display durring the conversion.

Banners

EAA Chapter, CalCars, PlugInPartners

Sponsors

CAN-View, Charger, Batteries

Fliers

CalCars talking points, etc, ...

Bumper Stickers

EAA, CalCars, Maybe sell some?

Audio/Video

(need power, not just to charge)

  • Ryan has 19" LCD and computer system for EV/PHEV videos, PPT presentations, of perhaps the website.
  • Maybe power up the Prius 12v system and play videos on the MFD screen from external composite video source.

Post EVent

These are photos from the Inaugural Maker Faire of Ryans 2005 Prius named PriusBlue, we also have local Maker Faire Photos.

Post Conversion Events

See PriusBlue EVents to see where it's been and how to see it.