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WhiteBird
Since the unprecedented success of the PHEV conversion of Ryan Fulcher’s Prius at the Make Fair last year, Ryan, a member of the Seattle EV Association and a contributor to the EAA-PHEV web site, has been furthering the cause for PHEVs throughout the Pacific N.W. Through these public relations efforts Ron Johnson-Rodreguez , head of the Economic Development Council for Eastern Washington State’s Chelan County contacted Steven Lough, president of the Seattle EV Association, and a fruitful working relationship has developed over the last 6 months. After several trips back and forth between Seattle and Wenatchee Washington, plans were set in motion to convert several county Toyota Prius vehicles to PHEV.
Using technology from Hybrid Interface Canada ( http://www.hybridinterfaces.ca/ ), and the very versatile ( DC/DC – AC/DC) charger from Rich Rudmands Manzanita Micro company, ( http://www.manzanitamicro.com/) and much volunteer help from Seattle EV Association members, Chelan county’s Advanced Vehicle Initiative, (http://www.ncwctc.com/205.html) and the Automotive Technology program at Wenatchee valley College, The first project was put on the road in PHEV mode this October 15th.2006
Both the PiPrius-Blue of Ryan Fulcher, and the just completed Chelane County car named “CCPort Whitebird” both use the PFC40 charger which doubles as the DC-DC converter between the Add-On pack and the Prius OEM pack thereby maintaining Prius battery voltage for use of the E-Button electric drive only mode. In the systems final configuration both DC-to-DC “feeding” of the Prius pack, as well as Grid charging of the Add-On pack will be switched automatically. Also through the Can View, and programming from the Prius Screen, several different charging algorithms will be controlled automatically as the car is driven on E-Mode. The BMS are Rudman Reg Mark 3’s on each of the 15 Genesis lead-acid batteries. It is fully protected on charge mode and discharge mode. The BMS is programmable with a laptop, with no security locks (open source).
Feel free to contact Manzanita Micro’s Rich Rudmand, or the Seattle EV Association for more details.
Submitted for your review, and editing by: Steven S. Lough Pres. SEVA
