'06 Prius battery upgrade to LTO 55Ah cells

When the extended range 40Ah battery was operational in the silver Prius, the extended range battery would dump into the traction battery when the voltage dropped to a certain level (all adjustable) and the capacity shown by the blue and green bars would change as well as the capacity % on the scan gauge .... but I rarely used that function (only a choice of 4 readouts on the little screen) so I mainly used current going in/out of the traction battery, traction battery voltage and ..... can't actually remember what the other two outputs I monitored were it's been so long .....

T1 Terry

 

We are experiencing the 40*C days followed by 7*C days in the same week, just depends if the wind is blowing down from the north or up from the south bring the Antarctic cold to freeze us. We would normally be in the 40*C plus weather by now, but the body doesn't know if it should pile on the fat to keep warm or dump it in an attempt to cool off ..... well that's the excuse I'm using this yr anyway :lol:

Hope you all have a very safe and happy Christmas, we have 6 days to do a mths work at the workshop, then the son flies over from Sydney to spend Christmas with us, so no working then ...... He is only here until Boxing Day, then he has to fly back to start work the next day ..... no rest for those in the parcel delivery business either it seems .....

T1 Terry

 

Well, so much for getting heaps done on my battery project. I got slammed by some sort of gut attack boxing day and still haven't really recovered, but at least I can eat again without it going straight through me.
The problem with the river flooding septic tanks all the way up the river means there is every chance there are blastocystitis in the water along with a heap of other nasties, so it could be one of those or just a bad case of food poisoning or a mosquito borne virus, there are a lot of mozzies about over here at the moment so every chance I've picked up something that way .... who knows.

Anyway, the battery pack has progressed no further and it might be a few weeks before I feel well enough to tackle it again.

T1 Terry

 

Well, sadly the LTO project is at an end it seems. Our workshop caught fire and burnt to the ground, well except some of the steel corner uprights, but a lot of those folded over in the intense heat. Needless to say, the LTO cells didn't fair well, the cases are still intact but the pressure plug has popped in all of them, including the 150 plus that were still in boxes upstairs.
It was so hot, the melted aluminium battery boxes look like dripped solder on the concrete floor.
Here is a video of the fire news report

hopefully that works.

The Prius itself has a lot of the plastic pieces melted or warped across the back where it faced the building, even though it was at least 10 mtrs away. All the original extended range LFP cells went up in the fire along with all the control gear for that set up. As well, the traction battery modules I had collected along with wiring and battery computers and contactors, plastic body trim panels for the rear interior .... just too much gone to resurrect the project. I will probably parts it out to improve the comfort in the ex taxi Prius, and hopefully sort the issues it has developed in sympathy for its lost friend or something ......

T1 Terry

 

Insurance didn't cover any of my stuff, it wasn't part of any actual jobs the business was doing.
But on the brighter side, I ended up putting a sheet of stainless over the hole I cut in the rear floor and installing the new genuine traction battery and the battery accessories from the ex taxi Prius ..... and it is alive again

The repowering project is just delayed, I'm waiting for a sample of sodium ion cells to arrive so I can torture test them to see if they can stand up to the treatment the Prius hybrid system puts on the traction battery ....... if it pans, I believe I can get the required number of cells in the same spot the original traction battery was located, so that is the objective now ..... 15Ah capacity to replace the 6Ah on a good day capacity of the NiMh battery

T1 Terry

 

Just because a few hundred projects went up in flames, it doesn't mean I won't look for replacement projects :lol:
I don't believe it's the bloke who dies with the most toys wins, it's the bloke that lives long enough and still has enough marbles rolling in the right direction to complete all his projects before he dies is the winner ..... the wife and kids will say every time, "but he did finish all his projects" well, if they live long enough ......

T1 Terry

 

Yeah, the sodium ion cells arrived. They certainly look good, now to see if they can pass the tests I'm planning to put them through .... The project is again alive

T1 Terry

 

There are no actual lab tests for these cells, but hearsay claims of 10C, so I ordered test samples to do side by side testing at different C ratings along side a set subjected to 0.5C each way to get a graph of the degree of degradation the higher C rating causes to both capacity and internal resistance by graphing the voltages required for the charging and discharging cycles to maintain the same C rate charge and discharge.
There are something like 50 different sodium ion products out there already, the "salt water" electrolyte has already proved to be a poor choice, but there are so many electrolyte compounds and anode/cathode designs, just like anything with "lithium" in the title, they aren't all the same

T1 Terry