Is Project Lithium / Nexcell a scam battery?

There's additional regeneration / more charging to the battery pack if the mechanical brakes aren't offering as much friction as usual and lithium can't handle overcharging but NIMH can so V2 circuit was created to manage that type of malfunction, as well as manage corrosion in voltage sensing system malfunctions and temperature optimization and more aggressive voltage balancing. Then V2.5 (current version) further refined that circuit because V2 was two aggressive and created more heat and needed more cooling and also addressed a cold cranking amp weakness on Gen3 which has a bigger motor-generator than Gen2. There's versions beyond V2.5 that are being tested in multiple hybrids for past 6 months and many more months of testing to do before newer and far more advanced versions come out towards the end of 2024.

 

Since we have a guy dictating what he THINKS HybridPit means when they have a green button that says "Available to Order" and all you lurkers who misunderstand and come to the website thinking the same thing....(Official Notice)...it means it is still being manufactured and yes we can order it for you but do not have it in stock. All of Prius Overlanding product (and only this last item his Skidplate) has a large colored disclaimer saying out of stock and we'll notify when available so therefore it's NOT available. I'm also telling you we will not be carrying it in the future either (whether Overlanding still has these made or not). It is up on the website because the owner likes certain product to be visible without commitment to order or purchase and show options. Is this clear enough?

 

Thank you, my brain hurts too much answering dumb questions all day during the week now here with this. (I keep telling myself "Stay off this stupid site they're going to make you crazy"). He owes you a sandwich for your time.

 

I understand the concept of dragging brakes affecting regen, but trying to understand how changing brake pads in a properly functioning system would be of significance.

Based on the quote I used in my previous post, not changing pads will kill a hybrid battery. All I'm asking is for an explanation of why that is.

Now, if we're saying an improperly functioning brake system can hurt a hybrid battery, I can agree with that, without further explanation.

 

"There's additional regeneration / more charging to the battery pack if the mechanical brakes aren't offering as much friction as usual" so if the pads and rotors are not offering as much friction as usual, what usually does that mean to you?

 

At any point in this conversation, you can stop acting like a douchebag. I'm on this site frequently and do my best to help other members, including often sending free parts, ect to help them and even doing free work if they're local. It would be nice if you had just a small amount of respect.

How does changing the brake pads of a properly functioning system change "as much friction as usual"

 

Dumb questions get dumb answers. I'm sure you're smart enough to already have done the homework and you're just trying to play the "gotcha!" question game at this point.

 

Regardless of how you interpret it, post 30 was a 100% legitimate question. I read a post by @black-jmyntrn several months ago stating he made a high performance rotor/brake kit or something similar that increased his battery regen. At the time I thought it was unusual, but whatever. Now I read you saying a similar thing about pads. Seemed like a good time to request info about it. If there were certain pads that offer a difference from the OEM, it would be a cool trick to try. BUT, so far, all I've gotten in return for asking the question is a bunch of heartache, so F it.

 

Neutron likely didn't make such a thing, but if he did..it likely didn't make any difference. Just replace your pads and rotors with factory new and trust me..

 

Yes... that is correct.

All the problems that have led to newer versions of the pack design were related to improperly functioning systems, especially really beat up 2004-2006. Also every time the customer disconnects the 12v to clear an error code without addressing the error code the Toyota BMS forgets how much charge is in the pack and has to re-learn, which is no big deal with NiMH, but causes problems and a need for a more robust protection circuit of you don't want to damage lithium cells. Of course you can only do so much to fix stupid... And lithium is not resilient like NiMH is when it comes to people ignoring/clearing their error codes.

 

"Improperly functioning brake system"...We are talking about pads with 1-3mm depth on them and grooved, worn out rotors. Words and Definitions matter. I find it hard to believe someone with nearly 6k posts on this forum has not once come across this topic and researched this, color me perplexed. Jack even did a video about this several months ago, much to my chagrin it appears to have been removed in the restructuring of his Youtube channel.

 

this thread is funny, i feel bad for the o/p

 

Gen 3 did not come with a lithium iron phosphate battery pack from the factory. Why would the vehicle have a low temp cut off for the stock nimh battery? There’s no low temp issues running nimh batteries at low temp so that battery chemistry never had a low temp cutoff bms.

 

Folks in Canada and Alaska would beg to differ on that one. Oh yeah...and Mongolia. Do you even know where that is on a map Grit?

 

I excluded outliers because it would require too much typing, outliers don’t fit commonality and outliers will never conform to every statement on here

 

In fact, the issue with cold weather battery destruction happens on Nickel or Lithium and has more to do with the actual battery ECU and other components. Try again.

 

If the gen 3 has a bms, why do people take cells out to cycle charge and balance the pack? And companies sell balance chargesr with special connector for specific Toyota hybrids? A bms handles all that, so that means there’s no bms and definitely no low temp cut off.

 

Lithium requires a better bms than NiMH. It should interface tightly with the hybrid system. It has been done by Toyota. Gen3 Prius v’s have lithium almost everywhere in the world except here. Power tools have a better bms for lithium than some aftermarket retrofits.

I like the idea of a safe, reliable and well monitored lithium retrofit for our vehicles. Someday we may get it but the gen3 market is shrinking while Toyota is routinely selling new NiMH packs for $1600 and still making good money.

So the retrofit company who has qualified electrical engineers, control specialists, reverse engineering software gurus and manufacturing capabilities may bypass the US gen3 retrofit opportunity.