TOM Module Upgrade

[PNWkarma]

Hi @PowerSource. It's helpful to get such a rapid and detailed response. The throttle position sensitivity (if that's a fair description) is not what I consider a design fault of the TOM, however on my commute I drive from the mountains through the foothills, then open country, then city. Because of this I rarely have plain open road where I can set my speed of my own accord. I'm somewhat forced to go along with traffic. I use Stealth mode in the mountains and use ER downhill in the foothills and open country. It's when I'm on the flat in ER mode that I have to be careful with my foot position. Too light a foot pressure and my charge rate drops to 10kw, too much foot pressure and the charge rate either drops to a low rate or completely to negative of course. I've found this window to be quite small. If I have enough open space, the technique I use is to accelerate to speed then very, very slowly back off the throttle until it's just right. If I'm careful I can get the charge rate all the way to 20kw. The problem I have is that just when I get this at it's sweet spot, someone in front of me starts day dreaming and slows down, so I start over again. Just driving through the country in a line of cars is my typical commute and this is mostly when my throttle and the ICE is oscillating gently from charge to draw. I blame it mostly on people's inability to drive straight and at a constant speed, I mean, come on people, there are other folks on the road too... pay attention! Sorry, got a little caught in the moment there

I understand your comment about transitioning from charge to accelerate without any latency, and yes, that is important. In fact, I wouldn't want it to be any less smooth or less fast than it already is. Just on occasion when in ER mode and driving around a tightening corner, if I punch it, it'll lag just a bit. At first I thought it was me but now I know how to make it happen, it's quite repeatable. I didn't mention it in my previous post though because it's one of those rare instances of decelerating and then punching the car hard while it's still slowing from scrubbing the tires. Now if I could just get the rear tires to break loose, I could exit the corner in a nice drift Seriously though, the Ferrari 430 with traction control on does exactly the same thing. Not a big deal and easy to adjust driving style for that particular corner.

[PowerSource]

Originally Posted by PNWkarma

Hi @PowerSource. It's helpful to get such a rapid and detailed response. The throttle position sensitivity (if that's a fair description) is not what I consider a design fault of the TOM, however on my commute I drive from the mountains through the foothills, then open country, then city. Because of this I rarely have plain open road where I can set my speed of my own accord. I'm somewhat forced to go along with traffic. I use Stealth mode in the mountains and use ER downhill in the foothills and open country. It's when I'm on the flat in ER mode that I have to be careful with my foot position. Too light a foot pressure and my charge rate drops to 10kw, too much foot pressure and the charge rate either drops to a low rate or completely to negative of course. I've found this window to be quite small. If I have enough open space, the technique I use is to accelerate to speed then very, very slowly back off the throttle until it's just right. If I'm careful I can get the charge rate all the way to 20kw. The problem I have is that just when I get this at it's sweet spot, someone in front of me starts day dreaming and slows down, so I start over again. Just driving through the country in a line of cars is my typical commute and this is mostly when my throttle and the ICE is oscillating gently from charge to draw. I blame it mostly on people's inability to drive straight and at a constant speed, I mean, come on people, there are other folks on the road too... pay attention! Sorry, got a little caught in the moment there

I understand your comment about transitioning from charge to accelerate without any latency, and yes, that is important. In fact, I wouldn't want it to be any less smooth or less fast than it already is. Just on occasion when in ER mode and driving around a tightening corner, if I punch it, it'll lag just a bit. At first I thought it was me but now I know how to make it happen, it's quite repeatable. I didn't mention it in my previous post though because it's one of those rare instances of decelerating and then punching the car hard while it's still slowing from scrubbing the tires. Now if I could just get the rear tires to break loose, I could exit the corner in a nice drift Seriously though, the Ferrari 430 with traction control on does exactly the same thing. Not a big deal and easy to adjust driving style for that particular corner.

you should compare the stock stealth mode (using the bypass dongle) to stealth mode with TOM plugged in . The difference seems to be pretty significant.

[Fabulist]

@PNWkarma, Have you tried the EV Mode? When I first got the TOM, I would spend most of my time in either pure Stealth or ER mode, but lately, I have been using EV mode more and more. EV mode, in my experience, gives you the best features of both Stealth and ER and you don't have to modulate your throttle setting like you are flying a U-2 in what pilots call the Coffin Corner (Yes, my nerdness extends beyond EVs into the world of aviation).

I usually drive in stealth mode down to about 30 Miles EV range and switch to EV mode. It gives me good performance and plenty of power when I need it, but when the drive turns into a steady-state cruise, it starts charging up the battery, not as agressively as ER mode, but fast enough. My favorite time to use ER mode is when I am sitting in heavy traffic, where I can get 10-12 KW charge while crawling along.

As @PowerSource said, using the cruise control is the best option in both modes and as soon as the car settles into a steady state, you can see the positive KW number come up and stay up on the energy flow screen. But that's not always possible, especially in the kind of traffic I experience, and EV mode seems to do a good job adjusting the conditions, without me having to pay a whole lot of attention to it.

Needless to say, YMMV, but I would suggest you start exploring EV mode along with ER mode during your travels.

[PNWkarma]

Thanks @Fabulist. I certainly will give it a try. I feel like I have a good baseline now for both stock and ER. Time to move onto the next experiment... EV. As with anything new, I'll probably spend the first few hundred miles trying out different styles of driving (most likely based on your suggestion) then fine tune until I have the most efficient method for my driving. The only thing I want to avoid is the having the ICE rattle away in stopped traffic, so my technique will always use Stealth for city driving. It shouldn't take me long to rack up some miles again, so I'll report back soon and let you know how it goes!

[PNWkarma]

So, too early to draw any conclusions for me yet, but I have to say you're right @Fabulist, the EV mode is WAY smoother than ER. The ICE runs at a lower rate and is barely noticeable on my drive. Because I'm always stuck behind surging traffic I think I still get about the same overall rate of charge as the ER. It seems that EV also shuts the ICE down when below 5 or 10 mph which is nice at the stop lights. I'll book another 3,000 miles before I can see what the impact on mpg is. So far, I've adjusted my drive so that I use mostly EV for the drive into work, then I can just about get home on the 45 miles of Stealth. Regardless of the mpg, I'm pretty sure this EV mode is going to be the goto mode for me. Oh, I haven't yet done any acceleration tests in each mode, but I'll do that soon.

[PNWkarma]

So despite being away for about a month, I've managed to rack up another 3000 miles, this time relying on the EV mode to extend the range, per @Fabulist suggestion. I tried using the Stealth mode driving to work, then as my miles ran low I switched over to the EV mode. I also tried using EV on the back roads and burning up my Stealth miles in town. There seemed to be no detectable variation in gas mileage between either technique. Over all, I was able to increase my average gas mileage over the 3k miles to 46 mpg. Very respectable in my eyes, as I'm not one to dawdle and much better than without the TOM unit.

The most significant difference I noticed with using the EV mode is how much smoother the drive was vs. the ER mode. The engine was not nearly as noticeable and seemed to be more in tune with the type of driving I was doing. Regardless of the economy, I would choose the EV mode as my favorite, just for this smoothness during extended ranges. I especially like the way that EV mode doesn't use the ICE at super low speeds, thereby avoiding the embarrassing 4cyl rattle at stop lights. Having gotten used to the EV mode, I was never even tempted to use the ER mode, although it's still a nice feature to have available.

As a side note, I have well over 10k miles since upgrading to the TOM unit now, without a single issue.

[Champp1974]

Hi ,
I have recently bought a Fisker Karma 2012 Ecochic and would like to install this TOM.
Though, I do have some questions:
- is there maybe a video somewhere showing how to build it in?
- Can any garage build it in?
- the limited draining of the battery in stealth mode is then really removed? - So, also in stealth mode I can use the full performance (2x150kw)?
- the compulsion enginge is recharging the battery independently from throttle? (Fisker hasn't done this smart at all. The compulsion engine is generating electricity relative to hitting the gas instead of producing electricity constantly on an optimal level).
- Is Powersource still alive?
- Can these modules still be ordered?
- Which module I should order?

Best
Chris

[steven]

Originally Posted by Champp1974

...- Is Powersource still alive?...

Hi Chris,

Congratulation on you new car. You will love it.

PowerSource is absolutely still alive and kicking. They are a great help on this forum; from giving great advise on "how to" to diagnosing problems. You couldn't be in better hands. Everyone who has a TOM is very happy. The more expensive version supports the latest (buggy) software upgrade. If your car hasn't upgraded to the latest 3.x version, you can buy the less expensive version.

I'm sure you will be hearing from PoweSource soon.

[Champp1974]

Great. Thanks a lot for the post.

How difficult was it to install the TOM unit?
I assume it really make a big difference. I am sure the car could have been very successful on the market if Fisker had done this battery management properly itself from the beginning ..

[PowerSource]

Originally Posted by Champp1974

Great. Thanks a lot for the post.

How difficult was it to install the TOM unit?
I assume it really make a big difference. I am sure the car could have been very successful on the market if Fisker had done this battery management properly itself from the beginning ..

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thank you