I'm curious to know how many people sit in the car without starting it and listen to music or talk on your cell phone (using the bluetooth feature)? I occasionally do this during my lunch hour in my other car. I only ask because I wonder how the battery will fair if done on a regular basis?

I've never had a problem doing this in my other car and didn't know if this would be a problem in the TCH?

Thanks everyone.

 

I've done it on a few occassions. No problems although I think it's a little (mildly) disconcerting that I need to leave the system in the RUN mode to do this without dropping the bluetooth. This means my headlights et al are still on.

 

Thanks again Randy...I didn't realize that it would have to be in the 'run' mode in order to use the bluetooth feature.

 

You don't have to be - but I've yet to figure out how to go from RUN mode to Accessory mode on the fly without blowing the bluetooth session away.

The only time I actually sit in the car yaking on the phone is if I am involved in a conference call or other call when enroute and the call persists after I've arrived at my destination. I just sit there with the car in Park and the Run mode engaged.

 

I think I saw somewhere how to put the car in ACC mode without shutting everything down. Not sure where I've seen it or if I just dreamt it up though, but here's what I can recall.

After you've stopped the car, DO NOT shift to park. Just power off - supposedly this puts you in ACC mode. Then you can shift to park. I haven't tried this myself so I dont know if it works or not.

On another note, you could also transfer the audio to your phone, power down, then go to ACC mode, then transfer the audio back to the TCH's bluetooth system.

I've left the car on run "Ready" mode plenty of times. When I go to pick my wife up from her work, sometimes I arrive 5-10 minutes early, so I just put it in park, but not turn it off. I turn off my headlights by putting the headlight selector switch to "DRL-off" and turn everything off that I'm not using. That way the engine wont fire up when the car is started. I simply just put it in reverse, get out of the parking lot and go.

 

If you've been driving the car, and you're parked the car will drop to battery and you can run any/all accessories you'd like, it will run off the main NiMH battery (not the 12v). If you use Eco mode, you can run A/C, heating, defrosters all without major impact to power draw from the battery.

If you start the car from off, it will start up the engine and will run it until the battery is either charged or batteries are warmed up.

IMO, it's not intuitive, and I may be doing it the difficult way, but at least it's possible.

To place the car in accessory mode without killing it and pressing the START button with your foot off the break, I place my car in Neutral, open the driver door and press START. The button lights up orange, and changes over the accessory mode. I then put it in Park and it will stay in Accessory mode until the fob walks away (me) or I turn it off.

 

Geckoboy is correct about how to switch from READY mode to ACC(essory) mode without going through OFF. I posted this to a different thread on this Newsgroup a while ago. It was mentioned on the Toyota tag hanging from the gear-shift lever on delivery.

OmegaOmega, the only devices that run off the high-voltage NiMH battery are MG1 and MG2 (the motor-generators), the air-conditioning compressor, and the dc-to-dc converter that charges the 12-volt battery from the NiMH battery. That's the only way the 12-V battery gets charged, and the charging can only occur when the car is in READY mode. All other devices are powered by the 12-V battery. In ACC mode, the current drain from the 12-V battery (with all accessories off) is ~4.5 amperes, meaning that the 12-V battery would discharge in under 10 hours. In ON (but not READY) mode, the current drain is ~9.7 amperes, under which condition the 12-V battery would drain in under 5 hours. I posted these measurements in a different thread on this Newsgroup.

Stan

 

Stan - I think that's what I meant to imply (re-reading my post...) I assumed in accessory mode that it would use everything off of the 12v battery and eventually kill it... But if the car is in READY mode, you're parked, and no engine is running, are all devices not running off the NiMH battery? Similar to if you were parked in a running car, the devices would be running off the spin of the alternator... Does that sound correct?

In other words, sitting there in E-Mode (or on battery) while the car is on (READY) would cause drain on the NiMH batteries to the point where the ICE would kick back on to recharge the NiMH battery. OR, were you indicating that all power draws come from the 12v battery, regardless?

 

Yes and no. While in ready mode all the accessorys would be running off the 12V battery, but the DC to DC converter would also be running, so it would bring the traction battery down. Once the traction battery was down, the engine would kick on to charge it. I sat in a traffic jam leaving an air show a few months back. We had the a/c runnning and the engine kept cycling on and off every 5 minutes or so. We sat there for about 1 hour, and it dropped my tank average from 38 to about 34. (Rough numbers from memory)

 

OmegaOmega, I agree with both you and ag4ever. The other devices in use would slowly deplete the 12-V battery. But it's continuously monitored and recharged by the NiMH battery. The ICE kicks in when the ECU decides that the NiMH battery needs topping up. My ScanGaugeII can show the 12-V battery's voltage. As soon as you switch to READY, it jumps from ~12 V to over 14 V. This likely means that in READY mode the dc-to-dc converter is probably supplying all the needed current to satisfy the load on the 12-V battery. In ACC or ON modes, however, the 12-V battery is on its own.

Stan