I switched to nickel plated copper busbars

I think Mendel posted the XGAUGEs back in #26. Those will work as-is with a ScanGauge II, and can also be (probably already have been) translated for use with the Torque phone app, and other similar things).

 

i knuckled down and entered the X-Gauges for hybrid battery resistance values. Have set up the gauges to display the first four, but for some reason it just shows the gauge "name", not a value. Likely something absurdly obvious; it's been so long since I've had the ScanGuage hooked up. I'll give it another look tomorrow.

 

And I still hobble along with ScanGauge.

 

I'm still not clear: are you able to fenangle the case off, get to the cells, without removing the battery from the car. I'd be interested to take a peek at ours, but don't relish complete disconnection and dragging it out of the car.

 

There are nuts on the bottom side of the modules, so not as easy as it seems.

I’d be wary of doing bus bar swaps or module swaps in the car as voltage transfers are easier with metal.

 

Hello how did these bus bars work out for you??? were they manufactured NEW or re plated? 36 in the kit but wondering how much ? THANKS!

 

so how are you going with the nickel plated bars. Has your mileage been consistently increase, would love to hear about it.

 

It is possible for one PID to return multiple values, packed into the bits of one message. You can see that if you look closely at XGAUGEs for two adjacent bits of data and they have the same TXD but different RXD.

Toyota definitely has packed some values, like the battery block volts and resistances, together like that.

Some ScanGauges are old enough (mine is) to have a bug where if you have two or more XGAUGEs selected for display at the same time that are packed into the same PID, it will display blank values for all of them. You can go ahead and program in the XGAUGEs for all of the block resistances, for example, you just have to make sure if you select more than one of them for display at the same time, they're at least two blocks apart (or four blocks, however many Toyota packed in per PID, I forget).

Later ScanGauges don't have that problem. I think it may be possible to send an older one back and they'll return it with updated firmware. So far I haven't done that, not wanting to be without the ScanGauge that long. Right now I guess would be the ideal time, as I'm using the car so little.

 

Similar to my factory battery. The Car Scanner app was run after Dr Prius this afternoon while stopped.

Dr Prius 22 milliohms



Car Scanner 0.02 ohms (rounding or truncating the lsb digit)

 

Which part of California are you near that would create that level of oxidation in under 2 years?

Do you generally park inside, outside, sunny, shaded, and with or without the windows down some?

 

On a side note...this is not true. Gen 4s NiMH batteries do NOT have plated busbars. Stated from the experience of having several disassembled Gen 4 carcasses in the shop.................

 

So I installed Dr Prius app yesterday and connected it to assess the battery. This was in a stationary car, does the increased resistance indicate corrosion??

Thanks

 

IIRC I got similar resistance numbers. "DELTA SOC" warning regards voltage variation; getting out of balance?

Someone that knows should be along shortly.

 

@Soh

Are you under the impression that you have a problem with the HV battery? Your highest voltage is a 16.33 and lowest is a 16.27. With voltages >16, I would assume the battery had recently been in a 'being charged' state, even though it is now showing a 1.6 amp discharge.
The resistances are all 22 or 23 mohms. Going just by these numbers, you have no problems at all.

A more accurate indicator would be to let the car sit unused overnight or for an entire day, press the power button 2x with your foot off the brake (this prevents the engine from starting, which would charge the HV battery for a few moments) and then read the voltages. Any time you look at idle voltages shortly after the engine has been running, they will be high and fairly even, which hides weak modules.

When looking at resistance values, I wouldn't become concerned unless you have a 3 number divergence, like if one was reading 25. That would be indicative of a module or connection issue.

 

FWIW
I thought copper was the best conductor of electricity ...ref: Spark Plug test - copper vs platinum etc.

My thought for preventative maintenance would be to coat the buses with di-electric grease.

Whether removal of the busses to coat their undersides it a debatable, especially for the risk of over torqueing and experiencing a broken part.

Interesting thread.

 

@TMR-JWAP
Thanks for the response. Yes it is a 2009 car so I was concerned about the battery.
Car runs very short distances and due to the prevalence of cold weather the engine keeps running. That is also a sign of a poor HV battery, ergo my concern and to rule out other causes of high engine running.
I shall update with the testing method you have advised.
Getting a good supply of bus bars and nuts is a bit difficult here in Oz specially as I live regional.