Hi All, Does anyone have a recommendation for a known good quality, currently available online, AC powered charger/discharger unit for conditioning traction battery modules? In searching this and other forums I have come across several recommendations for units that are no longer available for sale or that the manufacturer has made changes to important features and software. I would like to ideally purchase a 4 channel charger capable of logging charge and discharge voltages (retaining history and/or pc downloadable) and programmable for multiple cycles. I would consider a 2 channel unit if it is the only good option out there currently. The charger needs to be able to discharge and dissipate a "reasonable" amount of power. I am not sure what a "reasonable" load is for the conditioning cycle since there are many conflicting recommendations out there. Is there any strong consensus on this? Some chargers I have seen list discharge power ratings of 10 watts or less, others claim as much a 50 watts or more per channel. What is generally recommended? Any suggestions or recommendations would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Will
As covered here: Gen II Prius Individual Battery Module Replacement | Page 117 | PriusChat The Turnigy Reaktor series changed a while ago and no longer gives us the capacity numbers that we need. According to: Turnigy Reaktor 2x300W 20A Balance Charger now with NiZN and LiHV - RC Groups and It looks like the Charsoon Antimatter range is what we need to choose from. They can be bought via AliExpress.com - Online Shopping for Popular Electronics, Fashion, Home & Garden, Toys & Sports, Automobiles and More. (ie search for Charsoon Antimatter on there) Buy Charsoon Antimatter and get free shipping on AliExpress.com For cables I use: Mayitr 2pcs Copper 4mm Banana Plug to Shrouded Alligator 15A Banana Plug to Alligator Clip Cable Leads 1M For Testing Probe-in Alligator Clips from Home Improvement on Aliexpress.com | Alibaba Group (ie from: Son Day Day Up Store - Small Orders Online Store, Hot Selling and more on Aliexpress.com) I also bought a pair of these, which are supposedly rated higher: 2pcs 1M length 13 awg32a TL332 2.5 square power supplier super soft silicone manostat alligator clip output line-in Alligator Clips from Home Improvement on Aliexpress.com | Alibaba Group Apart from the alligator clips I can’t tell the difference between the two sets of cables (ie the cabling on both sets looks identical). I haven’t tried either set on regenerative discharge (ie 20A).
If you want to buy something a bit more local then consider one of the iCharger DUO range (ie 308 DUO, 406 DUO and 4010 DUO). I've got a 406 and its 80W discharge capacity discharges at around 10A (ie depending on the voltage of the module). The 130W discharge capacity of the 4010 DUO will give around 20A discharge. Setting up regenerative discharge will ensure a 20A discharge but the iCharger DUOs discharge at relatively high rates whilst running off a normal power supply.
Phildo, thank you for the detailed information and the link to the battery module replacement thread. I ended up purchasing a quad charger locally (San Jose California) that works well but has some issues. The major issue is that it can only handle ~5 watts of discharge power per channel. This ends up taking way too long to discharge a full module and may not have the desired effect of stressing the battery. I am thinking about ordering dual charger off of Amazon that can discharge more of a load (the EV-PEAK Duo Lipo Balance Charger). It claims to be able to can sink 20 watts per channel. It would be trading off the loss of two channels for 4 times faster discharging. Another option is manually discharging modules at ~3A down to ~6.5 volts using a headlamp and then using the charger to take them the rest of the way to ~6.3V. I still do not have a good idea of what an ideal discharge voltage is. There seems to be a number of opinions on this.
The only ones that have a decent discharge rate are the iChargers, the old-model Reaktors and the Charsoon Antimatter chargers. You also want to make sure that you get the cycle-info, ie the mAh numbers from each charge and discharge. The above do, but a lot of chargers don't have that info.
I've just checked all these charger/dischargers are all made in China. Any brand made in USA? I haven't found any so far.
