1. Attachments are working again! Check out this thread for more details and to report any other bugs.

Spare traction battery maintenance

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by Tommyudo, Dec 11, 2021.

  1. Tommyudo

    Tommyudo Junior Member

    Joined:
    Mar 9, 2021
    1
    0
    0
    Location:
    Central NJ, USA
    Vehicle:
    2007 Prius
    Model:
    N/A
    Hi All,

    This is my first post to the forum so please forgive incorrect terminology, etc. About a year ago, a good friend rehabbed a high-mileage '07 Prius that had warning lights on the dash about the traction battery. He had bought it for a low price from another friend who just wanted it gone. He bought a used battery locally, and then replaced the worst modules in the car's battery with the best modules from the used battery. I bought it from him for my 17yo to drive to school and it's been a great first car for her. No returning warning lights in the year she has been driving it.

    Along with the car came the used "spare" battery pack, put back together with the poor modules from the car's original battery as well the remaining modules from the used one. The copper "bus connectors" are not on the battery, so all the modules are electrically isolated from each other.

    What I would like to do is slowly and independently charge each of the modules one at a time periodically to maintain it so I can use the best modules from it if I ever have to repeat process of swapping modules into the car. I bought a SkyRC iMAX B6AC v2 charge on amazon last year, but I have yet to attempt using it (I don't have experience with NiMH RC car charging, which I'm sure would have helped). Any help with setting the charger up would be hugely appreciated. Note that I'm not trying to rejuvenate modules here, just apply a conservative charge to the modules to maintain them.

    Thank you!
    Tom
     
    #1 Tommyudo, Dec 11, 2021
  2. alftoy

    alftoy Senior Member

    Joined:
    Mar 16, 2009
    1,132
    513
    0
    Location:
    Saskatchewan, Canada
    Vehicle:
    2008 Prius
    Model:
    Base
    #2 alftoy, Dec 11, 2021
  3. Andrew_Ph

    Andrew_Ph Junior Member

    Joined:
    Nov 26, 2017
    46
    4
    0
    Location:
    MI,USA
    Vehicle:
    2007 Prius
    Model:
    II
    Its not that big a deal. Just charge or discharge at 1 or 2 amp setting, the RC charger will automatically detect voltage and end time.
    But unless you are trickle charging or charging fairly slow, you need to keep them compressed to gether, or at least a big weight on top of them so they dont bulge out, although if they do, it may not be fatal if you compress them back again.
    I found this quote from one of the above articles informative:
    "Discharge down to 5.8 volts at 1.5 amps (or 0.8 amps if a 5w model), have it wait about 20 minutes, then charge at 2 amps (or whatever you're comfortable with, I suppose) with a max charge of 8200mah. You should be able to just keep whatever default delta is in the setup for detecting when fully charged."
     
    #3 Andrew_Ph, Dec 14, 2021
  4. Another

    Another Senior Member

    Joined:
    Jun 22, 2021
    1,802
    512
    0
    Location:
    Naples, Florida
    Vehicle:
    2007 Prius
    Model:
    Touring
    Wouldn’t it be easier just to sell the spare battery to someone who currently needs it and save the money you receive to buy new modules when and if you need them? Why put yourself through the misery of maintaining it in the interim?
     
    #4 Another, Dec 15, 2021
    Gaetano likes this.
(You must log in or sign up to post here.)