Prius inverter disassembly
A wonderful opportunity was presented to me -- to have a spare Prius inverter assembly to do whatever I wanted with, and even a few extra bonus modules thrown in. While the technically-astute segments of the Prius owner community are already fairly aware of what's inside these things, having the parts right there to play with and do deeper analysis on adds a whole new dimension of understanding, which I can try to bring to the viewer in as much detail as possible. This project in part follows some earlier footsteps laid down by the National Labs at Oak Ridge and Argonne, where they did fairly thorough analysis of the third-generation Prius as part of the transportation research arm [funded, I might add, by your tax dollars, and yet producing few if any *effective* initiatives with regard to weaning us off oil.] Sometime after data-gathering and early stages of this began, news of the Embedded Systems Conference live-on-stage "Prius teardown" emerged and they've got some interesting results to look at as well. But some different directions have been taken here, possibly leading toward being able to actually re-use the unit in a working car or even as part of an entirely different vehicle project. Where it all heads remains to be seen.Sections
- Part 0: The package arrives
- Part 1: Mechanical disassembly
- Part 2: Some component teardown
- Part 3: Electrical analysis
- VH: A side discussion about the boost circuit
Prior / Concurrent Art
_H* 070531, 080522
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