Let the Hacking Begin
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jray3
Location: Tacoma area, WA
Soo, I'm close to committing to an i, but being a card-carrying National Electric Drag Racing Association member, am eager to squeeze a little more out of this jellybean. Hotrodding the i may be more challenging than with a dc-motored car, but extending the range should be easier, via two options. First would be a supplemental battery pack in the cargo area to drop in either for those long(er) trips or shallower daily cycling. I'm envisioning a lightweight pack such as under 100 lbs of 10 Ah Headway cells with hardware, adding another 16 miles worth of range, or even a LiPo pack that could blister the meats on a friday night dragster, while also propping up the i on occasion. The 330V pack matches my DC EV voltage, so I'm hoping for some synergies between the two cars, while giving the wife something more civilized to run errands in than raw Zilla power!
Beyond a supplemental 'suitcase pack', serious range extension would require a trailer. Of course, Mitsu doesn't recommend pulling a trailer, but the rear suspension mounts are easily accessible, and it looks like designing a trailer hitch might not be too hard, enabling one to pull a larger pack, or just mount a jellybean genset on a hitch receiver. I'd expect that a hitch for the JDM iMiev CARGO might follow it's introduction, and that van supposedly has the same rear suspension and underbody.
Anybody penciled on a trailer hitch yet- perhaps one of you lucky Japanese or New Zealanders?
I'd expect some software to prevent charging and driving at the same time, but it mightn't be too hard to make a supplemental charge look like regen to the controller.
btw, the first shipments arrived at Seattle-area dealers today, and my test drive is scheduled for Thursday. I drove a JDM version this summer, but am curious about the driving feel of the fattened-up US version. The widened track improved the looks, in my book.
2012 i-SE "MR BEAN" 110,300 miles
2016 KIA SOUL EV, 90 kW, 27 kWh, 34k miles
2000 Mazda Miata EV, 78 kW, 17 kWh
1983 Grumman Kurbwatt EV,170 kW, 32 kWh
1983 Mazda RX-7 EV 43 kW 10 kWh
1971 "Karmann Eclectric" EV 240 kW 19 kWh
Re: Let the Hacking Begin
Considering the amount of support the Nissan Leaf has gathered, and how many engineers and other well educated people have bought and are driving the electric vehicle, I'd say it's only a matter of time before somebody starts 'hacking' the Mitsubishi i-Miev to do some of the things you mentioned.
I guess the driving force behind starting to open up the Leaf was to improve the battery charged display and information to give the driver more accurate and useful information.
Again, following the Nissan Leaf's lead, this Mitsubishi i-Miev forum will probably be one of the places that lot's of that stuff happens.
Location: Silicon Valley, California
Having much better control over regen than the Leaf is what sold me on the iMiev, in addition to its smaller physical size and lighter weight. What I would really like is a joystick or perhaps a paddle on the steering wheel to allow me to control regen manually. I have MIMA on my first generation Honda Insight (77+mpg lifetime) and love the joystick control over the electric motor for both acceleration and regen.
Certainly, getting the 120vac adapter to deliver the full 15A available from our mandatory "dedicated" home outlet should be the first hack, IMO. Increasing that recharge rate to, say, 5miles/rechargehour (over the existing nominal 62/22=2.8mi/rechargehour) would work for me.
For some initial hacks, improved feedback to the driver such as trip kWH/mi or mi/kWH would be preferable than that miles-remaining anxiety-inducing number (wonder if it'll be any smarter than the Leaf's?).
jray3, adding a pack of Headways had also crossed my mind, but it's a matter of wait-and-see until I actually get the vehicle and determine if my 73-mile round-trip commute (in off-peak hours) is doable. I see integrating the added pack with the existing built-in BMS as the first challenge as simply paralleling the existing pack may not work depending how they're doing coulomb counting.
Sadly, I have little spare time to play and hope others can run with it.
EVs: 2 Wht/Blu SE Prem., '13 Tesla MS85, 3 156v CorbinSparrows (2 Li-ion), 24v EcoScoot(LiFePO4)
EV Conv: 156v '86 Ram PU, 144v '65 Saab 96
Hybrids: 48v1kW bike
ICE: '88 Isuzu Trooper. Mothballed: '67 Saab (orig.owner), '76 MBZ L206D RHD RV
Dan O
Location: Bloomington/Normal, Illinois
Are you Nuts?
Dan O wrote: Are you Nuts?
Aren't we all?
Personalizing one's car has made generations of happy hackers. The i certainly has plenty of room for improvement, as making it more 'carlike' is something that Mitsubishi is advertising, so they make no apologies for depriving me of actual data. Joystick control of regen, even accel-decel by joystick could be fine features that no OEM will offer.
I think the simplest (though less efficient) method of adding battery capacity would be to tap into the DC bus and shuttle charge with a Manzanita Micro charger, but as Joe S says, not counting coulombs correctly could create chaos. Inputting to the HV DC side would bypass the charger's limitations, open up opportunities for range trailers, and quite possibly sidestep the interlock that prevents driving while plugged in. Part of the fun of having a secondary, limited use car is that it's not the end of the world if you break it. End of the warranty, maybe, end of the wife's budgetary permissiveness, definitely, but not end of the world.
jray3, adding a pack of Headways had also crossed my mind, but it's a matter of wait-and-see until I actually get the vehicle and determine if my 73-mile round-trip commute (in off-peak hours) is doable.
Whoa Joe, you do have charging at work, don'tchya? Or like all EV drivers, you live at the bottom of a hill? Using the EPA number of 62 miles range, that'd be 267 wh per mile (if all 16 kwh are useable). Charging on only the 8 amp 120V cord would make you wait at least 3 hrs to get the 11 miles of range you need to start home.
http://www.autoblog.com/2011/10/26/2012 ... ve-review/
"How does that work? Well, the EPA measures electric vehicles using a two-cycle (city/highway) test and then subtracts 30 percent from these numbers to approximate "real world" driving. 70 percent of the i's city range (98 miles) is 69 miles. 70 percent of the car's highway range (78 miles) is 55 miles. In calculating a combined (city/highway) driving range, the EPA weighs the formula slightly more in the favor of the city range (55 percent) versus the highway range (45 percent), thus: (98 miles at 55 percent) + (78 miles at 45 percent) x 70 percent = 62 miles. That may make some sort of regulatory sense, but there should no longer be any doubt that your mileage may vary when it comes to EV range estimates."
I have no problem hypermiling during the off-peak traffic hours. Anyone worth their salt can easily beat the EPA ratings by at least 30%, and there are Level 2 EVSEs on the way if I get into trouble. Still in discussions regarding providing 120/240vac at my destination.
Yep, jray3, you've got it right: my commute home culminates in a four-mile climb from town
I can certainly understand customizing ones vehicle, but why would you void the warranty on a $30,000.00 Vehicle?
In all seriousness, I wouldn't do anything to void the warranty until I was extremely familiar with the vehicle, sure of the need, and financially prepared to deal with the consequences... But, there's a lot that we should be able to do without voiding warranties, such as pulling data from the OBD, trying different tire and wheel combos, etc. And though I know that the dealer/mfr has the heavy hand, it's generally their burden to prove that a modification has caused failure in the warranteed system.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnuson-Moss_Warranty_Act
The Nissan Leaf people have been doing a bunch of this sort of stuff already: http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=44&t=4131
And they're not doing anything that's voiding warranty, at least not that any of them are aware of
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