How the Prius Hybrid Synergy Drive System operates, for all of those curious, but afraid to ask! There are some groovy animations too!

[ul][*]http://eahart.com/prius/psd/[*]http://privatenrg.com/#Nomograph[/ul]

 

bet you the guy that designed that drive system is one rich sucker...not to mention smart......

 

It doesnt cover the braking all that much, although slightly in the 2nd article. It actually uses the electric motors as alternators to brake the vehicle as well. When you apply the brakes the electric motors start to draw current and have an opposite effect on the transmission to perform braking. Its handy for recovering some of the energy.. but it kinda sucks for ride quality. The first 1/3 of the brake pedal acts smoothly but when you hit a certain point it starts using the mechanical brakes as well and it feels like someone stepped on a second pedal making a jerk in the decceleration. I wish theyd have worked that out more.

 

I work for a company that makes/creates Variable Speed Drives for propulsion and process applications (for AC and DC applications), and trust me, if I had funding, myself and my group at work could make a pretty sick *** electric car.

John
BT

 

hey btbtbt,

I am anelectrician, we mainly work at water/sewage pump stations/treatment plants....so u guessed it,I am working with vfd's all the time.

 

now if only someone could create an achine that reuses heat as that energy is lost through the combustion process...

 

You can actually produce electricity using thermocouples. We dont have any very economical ways of producing electricity through this process but I know that some of the satellites that we send out toward jupiter use thermocouples and radioactive elements to produce the heat needed to power the satellite. Its gonna be a while before we invent better ways of producing electricity directly from heat that we might use in different applications.

 

right. I should have been more clear, that we need a practical, efficient method of producing energy from heat loss. I'm not a mechanical engineer, so I don't know the exact specs, but I believe a car operates at less than 10% total efficiency, due mainly to heat loss.

 

When I went to hybrid school for Lexus, I found it interesting how the inverter assemblies are getting smaller. The first Prius's and RX400H's have giant parts under the hood, and the newer LS and GS hybrids have smaller inverters as well as smaller batteries. I think most people would be suprised how far you can get on battery power alone. We disabled the engines on them and found that you could only get like a 1/4 mile.

 

Wait you sure that 1/4 mile is right? I'm sure they can get farther on batteries alone.. what year prius are ya talkin about?