Good luck with this project! There are quite a few who will be interested in your progress and results.
Converting my Nimh CRZ to Lithium (Cells & Supercaps) and boosting IMA performance...
I'm a long time member/admin on the Insight Central forum and have worked on lots of the Honda IMA cars developing gadgets and doing Lithium conversions.
I've just bought a nice CRZ for myself and intend converting it to Lithium, upping the IMA power output and developing manual IMA control and info display devices.
I'll be documenting it in detail on here.
However for background reading visit www.insightcentral.net.
That's were millions of posts and most of my daily work is as I still have two G1 Insights and support owners worldwide.
The IC link below gives you a heads up and a few details on my ideas.
Honda CRZ Nimh to Lithium Conversion.
![62506]()
I've just bought a nice CRZ for myself and intend converting it to Lithium, upping the IMA power output and developing manual IMA control and info display devices.
I'll be documenting it in detail on here.
However for background reading visit www.insightcentral.net.
That's were millions of posts and most of my daily work is as I still have two G1 Insights and support owners worldwide.
The IC link below gives you a heads up and a few details on my ideas.
Honda CRZ Nimh to Lithium Conversion.
1 - 20 of 400 Posts
Just got a second battery assembly on the bench ready to do the necessary mods.
Nimh sticks removed and will be making the BCM Fooler and high current wires later today.
Should be very simple to reassemble it and swap it over for the unit in my new car.
The LTO lithium packs will just be sitting in some sort of tray in the boot for now.
Couple of disassembly videos and pics. All looks fairly straightforward.
CRZ 125A Fuse versus G1 Insight 100A fuse.
![62507]()
Inside the BCM/MCM Combo unit.
Note the HV isolated section on the right.
![62508]()
Vacant space after batteries removed.
![62509]()
You might be able to get the 2 LTO blocks in here but I need to look at the actual space/height in the car.
![62510]()
Nimh sticks removed and will be making the BCM Fooler and high current wires later today.
Should be very simple to reassemble it and swap it over for the unit in my new car.
The LTO lithium packs will just be sitting in some sort of tray in the boot for now.
Couple of disassembly videos and pics. All looks fairly straightforward.
CRZ 125A Fuse versus G1 Insight 100A fuse.
Inside the BCM/MCM Combo unit.
Note the HV isolated section on the right.
Vacant space after batteries removed.
You might be able to get the 2 LTO blocks in here but I need to look at the actual space/height in the car.
Modifying the CRZ switchboard for Lithium and adding a BCM Fooler.
Note this fooler is made from 7 x 10k 0.1% tolerance resistors.
I have also allowed for potential higher voltage hacking with a pre-resistor.
![62512]()
![62513]()
Tomorrow i will be looking at the temperature sensors, IPU serial comms and battery current sensor.
TanZf1 not quite sure what you mean?
Weight a bit heavier but not measured yet.
Note this fooler is made from 7 x 10k 0.1% tolerance resistors.
I have also allowed for potential higher voltage hacking with a pre-resistor.
Tomorrow i will be looking at the temperature sensors, IPU serial comms and battery current sensor.
TanZf1 not quite sure what you mean?
Weight a bit heavier but not measured yet.
No, maybe, possibly. The OEM Lithium pack is much more complicated, rarer and expensive.
I won't be looking at that unless someone gives me a free OEM Lithium pack to examine or funds my purchase of a second hand one here in the UK. .
But my present work if successful will make it possible to shoehorn any suitable homemade Lithium pack into an NIMH car.
The associated voltage and current hacking work may also significantly improve on the OEM 10kw maximum assist level.
The standard G1 Insight IMA motor can do 30kw with voltage and current mods. The CRZ should be very similar.
Testing the IPU (Intelligent power unit) with my HV supply whilst gathering data and I took it up to 200V without issue.
(I wasn't expecting any to be fair as the IMA motor will stress it far beyond that if the main fuse blows at any time and the engine is at high rpm.)
Over 250V output is not uncommon for the unloaded IMA motor at high rpm.
Early research is indicating that simply substituting a higher voltage pack 3 LTO blocks (172V Nominal) instead of 2 (115V Nominal) will be worth attempting later.
Initially if the 48 cell works ok I will add another half block (12 cells) for 144V Nominal.
Obviously some mods are required for the car to accept this configuration, you will see these as we go along.
A few pics of some bits today.
9.1k Temperature sensor resistors. (Should get us around 25C)
![62515]()
Underside of MCM pcb.
![62519]()
Battery current sensor inputs. 82k resistor to ground then 15k resistor into nether regions of board.
![62520]()
Phase Currents sensor inputs. 10k resistor to ground, then 2k resistor into nether regions of pcb and beyond!
![62521]()
(I wasn't expecting any to be fair as the IMA motor will stress it far beyond that if the main fuse blows at any time and the engine is at high rpm.)
Over 250V output is not uncommon for the unloaded IMA motor at high rpm.
Early research is indicating that simply substituting a higher voltage pack 3 LTO blocks (172V Nominal) instead of 2 (115V Nominal) will be worth attempting later.
Initially if the 48 cell works ok I will add another half block (12 cells) for 144V Nominal.
Obviously some mods are required for the car to accept this configuration, you will see these as we go along.
A few pics of some bits today.
9.1k Temperature sensor resistors. (Should get us around 25C)
Underside of MCM pcb.
Battery current sensor inputs. 82k resistor to ground then 15k resistor into nether regions of board.
Phase Currents sensor inputs. 10k resistor to ground, then 2k resistor into nether regions of pcb and beyond!
1 - 20 of 400 Posts
