The tricky part is that the voltmeter isn't going to help much (voltage on NiMH batteries is almost constant until the moment they die). The ammmeter will but you'd have to count and add up the current*time to count coulombs of charge delivered and keep track. You also need to know the kWhrs of the battery but I think thats available.

I work on handheld electronic instruments. We use a NiMH battery pack and a "gas guage" happens to be exactly what I've just been looking at.

 

The nominal HV battery voltage is 330v.
The manufacturer rates the pack at 5.5 AH

So 5.5 x 330 = 1815 watt hours, or 1.8 kW hours.
But FORD only allows 20% drain before a recharge.
( this gives it a 15 year lifespan )

In effect, we all have a 360 watt-hour battery.
About the same as the Mars Rover ( that weighs about 300 pounds and travels about 5 feet per minute )

So the fact that we can move a 4000 pound vehicle ( with a couple passengers ) up to 40 MPH for up to 2 miles off 360 watt-hours is pretty darn impressive in my book.

The charging voltage ( during regen for example ) is about 390v.
The discharge voltage ( during acceleration ) is about 270 v.

What is interesting to me is, the FEH NiMH gets 1.3 volts per cell.
( there's 250 cells )

Every other NiMH cell on the market is rated at 1.2 volts per cell.
Not a big difference, until you have 250 cells in series!
That's 25 extra volts!

 

Back to the scangauge thing, I never heard of it until I became a member here, I am going to get one soon for my F-150 to help me maxmize fuel economy and stuff like that. I don't think I need one for the FEH since it has average econ, dte and stuff.

 

Hi Josh

You can swith the SG from vehicle to vehicle to learn how to drive them for the best FE. I recommend you put the SG in the vehicle that you put the most miles on. Like you, I have a gas hog V8 Explorer that I reduced driving and now make the FEH the family vehicle and put the most miles on. I do have the EB package which has a message center in my Explorer, but the SG and the FEH has been enough to teach me how to go from 15mpg to 24mpg in my Explorer.

The SG and the FEH are learning tools to help me fight the rising cost of gas. Of course the enviroment is getting a break from me also. As soon as the SG11 W/UBS come out in late Aug., I'll have a SG in both vehicles.

GaryG

 

Gary and fellow FEH drivers,
Just pluged the SCII in the FEH and was wondering where everybody is mounting them? We'll be using it as gauges mostly (although I did use it to scan/clear a MAPcode on our P T Cruiser). I couldn't believe there isn't a coolant temp gauge as part of the intrument cluster.. (no nav. here or overhead console) So I think we'll be using it as coolant temp., intake air, mpg and something else probably engine load for starters...
Looks like it's going to be a useful tool for driving the FEH more efficiently. still breaking us and ours in... finally getting our ave above 30mpgs...
Thanks
Mike

 

I have an 05 FEH with out the factory NAV(I installed a double DIN in-dash Eclipse NAV/DVD/MP3 player etc. in mine that blows away the optional piece of crap factory NAV unit for less than 1/2 the price & looks like a factory setup)

I mounted a ScanGauge II in front of the shifter at the edge of the pocket in the center console. It is out of the way & easy to read there. With a little experimentation, I was able to custom match the lighting color so it perfectly matches the green glow of the factory gauges.

~John

 

So the basics are done, it looks ugly, but it works, I plugged it in last night and was playing around getting various bits of information.. It's just the rs232 <-> obd2 conversion, and should eventually be replaced by a different interface.

Now I just need to work on the interface to the LCD screen that can go in the dash, and temporarily there is some open source software that runs on a palm/pocket pc, that I could look at modifying to get the info on one of our portable devices.

Here's some pictures:
(I just need to drill some holes in the lid (not shown) to put the LEDs through)




and from the top:



jeff.

 

Oh, and another question, does anyone know how the scanguage calculates the instant FE?

That's the only other thing that usually bothers me while driving, is having an instant FE guage that is just a bar graph with no meaningful numbers on it... so I plan to fix that as well.

jeff.

 

I'm curious to know the answer to that myself. I think it may be just measuring the flow through the mass airflow sensor, although that would make it inacurate when it races the rpm up to 4K at times when you are slowing down with your foot off the gas.

~John

 

Jeff,

How is your project coming along? I'm quite curious. I'd love to replace the factory unit with something aftermarket but still be able to have a SOC and FE readout somehow. I'd love to put a touchscreen monitor in the dash and run a car PC with OBD software, MP3 files, GPS, etc.

Is your little "contraption" pulling codes from the OBD-II connection? Have you looked into the wiring harness on the back of the Nav unit that carries info to that unit? I'm wondering if the on board setup splits out the relevant info and sends it to the nav through this connection?

I believe it is the wires labeled ACP-A, ACP-B, and ACp- sys on that probably provide the data to the hybrid system readout (by process of elimination comparing the wiring diagram to the back of the unit).



I think it is the one with the Green plug on the upper left.