Ok Lee, where in the heck did you get a "spare" Prius drive train? Your basement/garage must be more packed than mine! Rod
Lee Hart wrote: > Alex Karahalios wrote: > >>One thing I was thinking of was that you could leave the entire >>transaxle assembly alone (MG1, MG2 & differential) and attached an >>electric motor in place of the ICE engine. This would not obviously be >>the most optimum setup, but would get the job done. The electric motor >>could just be a DC motor rather than AC. You would then treat the motor >>like the ICE engine. Regen would be accomplished by MG2 as usual. > > > That is an interesting idea. It is very much like the Ward-Leonard > system, which used 3 motors to provide precise speed and torque control > in the days before electronics. > > The DC motor could be a simple permanent magnet DC brushed motor, simply > connected directly across the battery. No controller would be needed for > this motor; all speed and direction control, and motor vs. regen > operation entirely controlled by the AC controllers for MG1 and MG2. > > >>One interesting thing with this setup is that you could recharge the >>battery pack by powering the new electric motor which drives MG1 to >>recharge the battery. > > > This would require that the motor replacing the ICE was an AC motor, or > had a big rectifier and filter. The cleanest approach might be to have > MG1 powered directly from the AC line (it is already an AC motor), which > spins the new DC motor to work as a generator to recharge the batteries. > > >>Again the biggest problem would be to find a place for the Li-Ion >>battery pack. > > > I have a Prius, as well as a spare Prius drivetrain sitting in my > garage. I think the *biggest* challenge would be to modify the black-box > controllers that presently run everything. > > >>weigh only about 230kg (500lb). Based on the dimensions, a pack could >>be constructed that is about twice as tall as the current NimH pack and >>fit in roughly the same space (42"Lx18"Wx14"H). > > > The present nimh pack is about 36" x 12" x 6" (and only about 3/4 of > that volume is actually the batteries).
