reconditioning discharge voltage

I like to go down to at least 1 volt on the third round and when I first learned in 2018 Hybrid Automotive was saying you need to go down to 0.06v but that takes so long I use 12v 50w & 20w light bulbs to speed it up. It comes down to stress testing versus how many modules do you want to ruin before you put that pack back in... Thermal camera helps alot at finding bad cells too.

 

Which thermal camera are you using?

 

Cheapest one with largest sensor...

 

Yeah... They raised that lowest number more than once. It's not easy selling a product like this to consumers who are going to yell at you if you kill their pack.

The other aspect of this is that my buddy Joe in Oregon who has $30K in lab-grade battery rebuilding equipment with robust software never has to go below 6v in his three rounds of reconditioning and the reject modules he deems not good enough for the packs he rebuilds, but still good, are the ones I buy from him and they're always the strongest module in a pack I add them too.

He thinks it's thoroughly amusing that he gets better results than us only going down to 6v and can't comprehend why we would waste so much time going so low and getting less favorable results.

 

When I did my pack, if a module didn't have good capacity on a discharge after cycling down to 6.0V, there was nothing to lose (except time) by going down to 5.0V or 4.0V. Either a module improved to at least 5500mAh where the others are, or it's junk.

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

You are misunderstanding how the prolong system works.
You will NEVER see:

First Discharge: 134V / 28 = 4.8V
Second Discharge: 101V / 28 = 3.6V
Third Discharge: 84V / 28 = 3.0V

It will never happen because that's not how it works.

 

You're just misunderstanding how the Prolong (or any grid discharger/charger system works.

Read this:

Inconsistent Hybrid battery readings | PriusChat

 

If the modules are "good", a bit of voltage difference between them won't cause a problem. They'll even out as the car is used. I have a thread in here somewhere in which I purposely repaired a battery by replacing a failed module with a module reading about 0.5 volts lower than the others. Worked just fine. The important thing is that it's a good module.

 

Thanks, but I would have thought you would have sourced a reasonably priced one. Possibly one less than $300, maybe one you found on ebay. $300 is certainly a no go for just measuring cell temp. Which one are you using or is it just your buddy in Bend using one?

Since the cameras are infrared, why not an infrared laser thermometer for $30.

 

Maybe load test each module to find good or bad module.

Prolong Battery Module Load Tester User Guide | Hybrid Automotive

Or make one yourself.

 

If your measurements are that inconsistent, there is something wrong with your setup or the equipment you're using.

 

Yea, I always try the cheapest solution first... Problem is there's 168 cells in a Prius pack and it was a total fail pulling the trigger on a cheap laser thermometer 168 times every time you want to check the whole pack compared to a quick glance at cheap thermal camera that color codes the hottest cells.

The one I currently have is the cheapest Seek Thermal that plugs into your phone and is a bit over $100 because we bought it used on ebay... The flir works way better because it allows you to blend an image sensor with a thermal sensor. Here's a picture of what I'm talking about. These bad modules tested out fine by every other measure. But clearly they're about to fail due to heating up:



It's worth the money because there's lots of uses for these cameras if you're for example trying to make winter home heating more efficient, or sourcing an exhaust leak or optimizing cooling systems in your house, etc...