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Another charging question

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by Azoroth, Dec 22, 2023.

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  1. Azoroth

    Azoroth Junior Member

    Joined:
    Mar 25, 2021
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    Location:
    Idaho Falls, Id
    Vehicle:
    2007 Prius
    Model:
    ----USA----
    Long story with a short question...

    TLDR Question(s):

    How critical is being able to set the max mAh on a hobby charger to recondition?
    Accidentally set to over discharge 2 modules. Are those two shot?

    Backstory:

    Jumped in the car to go run errands. Got about.... 5 blocks away from my house. ROTD came on and car went into limp mode. Checked the codes. Got P3011 and P3012. Which seems like blocks 1-2 are low. Thought maybe it was just due to being cold and not having been driven for a bit as I work from home. Cleared the codes and made it about another 5 blocks. So turned around and headed home to use my truck.

    I came up with a theory. My car has a problem with water leaking into the trunk area from the seam seal by the rear door. Which sounds like a typical issue. I knew it was there but hasn't been a problem and so wasn't too high on my todo list. With the snow melt and such, the inside of the car was fairly humid. My thought was that the bus bars could have become corroded with the extra humidity. So figured I'd take it out and check and clean them.

    Moved a couple of my motorcycles out of the way and got the car in my shop. Much warmer. In disassembling the car, I found a couple pretty decent puddles in the rear underneath the 12v and the storage cubby. Of course they were frozen ice puddles... Got the battery out and apart. The bus bars were pretty bad. (I tried to attach a picture.) Now, I know I could just clean them, but a new nickel plated set on Amazon is super cheap.

    I then pondered since I had everything torn apart and everything, and I'm not even 100% sure that the cleaning would actually solve the P30XX codes, I figured maybe might as well get a charger to maybe get some life back into the battery. I found one on amazon that seemed to have what I wanted. It's the HTRC T400 Pro Duo. Dual channel, 100w, 12A charge 2A discharge per channel. Can set rates and min v\cell as to not over discharge. When I went to go use it, I realized that there is not an option to set a max mAh charge setting. Thought maybe I'll just give it a shot a pray. From what I understand, the typical rating per module is 6500mAh. Is it a huge issue to not be able to set this? Should I get a different charger?

    I set it up to try a round. Set to 5A charge 2A discharge 3 times. 1v\cell min discharge voltage. Pushed go. Came back a little while later to check. Voltage was SUPER low. I remember a 2, I believe it was 0.2v but now I'm second guessing if it was 2v. Apparently, the program save does NOT save the min charge voltage. Switched it over to charge and went to bed. In the morning, the modules had 8.14v and 8.18v. Most of the other modules measured between 8.02. and 8.04v before charging. Both said they took about 7500mah (+\- 100mAh.) I'm (correctly) running another 3x cycle on the same modules to see what they say. But, will the deep voltage drain and over 6500mAh ruin these modules? I'm hoping that since they were not sitting at the low voltage long that they'll be okay.

    Any input or experience? Sorry for the long post if you read the whole thing.
     
    #1 Azoroth, Dec 22, 2023
  2. Desert

    Desert New Member

    Joined:
    Mar 22, 2024
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    Location:
    Neveda
    Vehicle:
    2007 Prius
    Model:
    II
    Azo,

    Came across this old thread while looking for insights on the t400 pro. So I thought I would pull this thread up and keep it in the loop.

    Yes, there is no way to charge or discharge on the t400 pro, by MaH. You can only do amps, which you can set from less than 1 amp to 12 amps. Then when you start the process of charge or discharge, you can see the MaH of the action on the screen. Which is helpful. However, like if I'm charging from 6 volts to 8 volts, it's showing how many MaH, is being used or added, Yet , I usually charge at 5 amp, but getting closer to the 8volts, I want to lower that to 1 amp or less, I have to stop, and change settings, which also erases the MaH that was up too, and starts the process all over at lower amperage. I don't know, if it has settings to do this without losing the MaH reading. I'm working on it.
    It advertises it can read internal resistance of nimh battery. However, I can't SIMPLY access that in settings. I don't even see it in settings, it may be for RCcars, or whatever that have a sensor built into their module that they can plug into the T400 pro, and then it can read resistance. T400 pro has many slots and connectors to plug into. Unfortunately Prius nimh module does have a connector we can plug into the T400 pro.

    I plan on taking it down to a hobby shop and see if I can get some tips and tricks for my nimh modules. Otherwise it's just usable as a 2 module charge discharge for those seeking to recondition prius modules. I'm researching to see if my money is better spent on different product.

    As far as cutoffs go, like shutting off as safety parameter in charge and discharge, it seems spotty ,like sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. So until I figure the settings out more, which it's not easily discernable in settings, you just have to keep an eye on your limits physically. Until you figure it out.

    Hope that helps.
     
    #2 Desert, Nov 22, 2024 at 11:59 AM
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