main battery rebuild

Have charger set for nimh 6 cell @ 5a, was charging at 8.6v roughly. Have I damaged these cells? What are your suggestions? 2nd gen cells BTW.

 

My charger (Supermate DC6) also works at 5a charging and 5 watt discharge but it knows to automatically cut the charging rate as the module approaches full charge and then shuts down at the limit. It is told that the battery is a NiMh unit (also supports NiCAD, Pb Acid, and Lithium), self determines the number of cells in a module and the limits are set automatically. Overheating a module does tend to ruin it.

JeffD

 

Appears I caught the overheating in time, swelling has gone down and modules seems to be fine. I'm using a supernova 250s charger as well as a electrifly triton Jr. Are these suitable or should I just pick up a supermate? The supernova is currently charging at 8.89v and 2.6a, is this acceptable? Is it ok to discharge at greater then .7a?

 

I didn't see voltages much above 8.5 v when I charged my modules. There is a drop in the wires so it is more accurate to check the voltage at the module being charged with a digital voltmeter.

The 0.7 amp limit is the 5 watt heat dissipation limit in these units. Our modules can source/sink 100 amps (130 amps in Gen3) for short periods and 6.5 amps for an hour (the capacity limit) as long as they don't overheat.

JeffD

 

I am starting the charge/discharge on my first battery...Do I set my discharge to 1 volt?

 

Doing this on a 02 prius

 

My discharge limit was 1 volt per cell (6 v for 6 cells).

JeffD

 

I am new at this..So i need to set my discharge limit to 6volts correct? I did my first discharge down to 1 volt, hope I didn't screw the battery up..

 

My Supermate DC6 wants you to set the discharge limit per cell so that would be 1 volt for a NiMh module.

JeffD

 

Jeff, I ordered two supermate dc6's that will be here next week. Have abandoned the chargers I was using until the supermates get here, didn't like how they were behaving.

P.s. crap! This is josh2008, forgot that the wife's account was logged in.

 

I called him a few times but no one answer the phone. I don't know what happened to him or his business. Is there any different way that I can contact him? Thanks

 

Try: Remanufactured Hybrid Vehicle Battery Packs
919-774-3332 (Eastern)

Bob Wilson

 

Thanks Bob but the price is almost like the new battery from dealer. I have no job now so I try to get something cheaper.

 

Where are you located?

Bob Wilson

 

I am in Virginia near Washington DC

 

Jdenenberg, Please check your inbox.

 

Owch, you're 14 hours, 730 miles away. I don't know if anyone locally might be able to help.

Bob Wilson

 

I rebuilt a battery pack, but imho it is at best a short-term fix. the battery starts at 6.5ah, and it can get as bad as 1.5ah before it fails, so once any cell fails, the rest are pretty much close to bad already.
Brand new batteries have become inexpensive compared to years ago, so my suggestion is just by a new one,
forget the "rebuilt" ones or trying to do it yourself, Champion Toyota sells them new for $1800, and they
should last another 100k miles.

2001 TOYOTA PRIUS Parts - Champion ToyotaWorld

 

This seems like an attractive option, vs. a ReinVolt etc. It is actually cheaper, at $1,724.25 (+ core) according to the linked web site. A new battery pack does involve more work to transfer components from the existing battery to the new one, correct? I am a fairly competent shadetree mechanic (clutches, brakes, R&R transmissions, rebuilt a couple of engines, etc.). I am assuming the work to transfer my existing components would be within my ability, but can someone point me to a thread, or document that would give me a better idea what would be involved?

 

hey Jeff,
i need a little clarification for discharging gen 1 modules with the supermate charger.
i know i'm a little late on this but when you talk about "3 cycles" are you talking about charging each module 3 times, or programming the supermate to discharge 3 times during the charging/balancing sequence? i never noticed the supermate discharging at any time when i programed it to do it 3x with a load of 0.7 ah, min. cutoff of: 6 volts. pretty much all the modules took 30-50 minutes. with two supermates set at 2.5 ah (to stick around 8.4 max charging voltage) it took me a day and half or so to do all 38. why did it take you 5 weeks? thanks.

brandon