Gen II Prius Individual Battery Module Replacement

You learn faster than I do... I have 14.

Keep them. They are GREAT for deep discharges at low current and follow-on charge.

 

they do ok as a door stop but only if wind is low!

Interesting how do you even manage a follow-on charge with these things? seems every time I try to do a charge they hit capacity way too early

 

That's a major issue with the cheap Chinese knock-offs. After a deep discharge, I'm not concerned that it gets pack to 100% SoC, I just want to make sure it get's some capacity in it, so it doesn't dwell at the low voltages for a long time. Even a few hundred mA is useful.

You can maximize your chance of deltaV cut-off by setting to 20mV, but it's still hit or miss.

Steve

 

Ahh yep good plan, I have enough trouble with the b6 on consumer level batteries but I will keep them in mind for deep discharges

Just took the lid off my original failed traction battery from my 2008 (replaced with salvage yard pack 6 weeks ago) at the time I could not spot the bad module they all tested 7.8 - 8v (straight out of the car)

Six weeks of self-discharge later its now rather obvious!
#1 = 6.92v / #2 = 7.11v and #28 = 6.70v ... Rest of the pack 7.41 - 7.44v throughout.

High mile vehicle and spent half its life in tropical climates

 

hi I purchased 2 chargers but they have not arrived yet. Eagle CDC #1796 and Eagle CDC #1628

7a charge / 20a discharge. I don't think the discharge voltage is adjustable though, from what I read online it defaults to .8v for 6cell and about .9v for 7cell, will that be a problem ?

 

Those look like clones of the Integy, which suffer from the same limitation. setting to 7 cells will cut off at 6.3V/cell. That's what I do.

 

Yes one looks pretty much exactly the same the other very similar just has pretty coloured decals

Does this mean I will need to man the charger and manually toggle between 6 and 7 cells for each charge /discharge cycle?


thanks for your help S Keith

 

No. Set to 7 and forget it. That only affects deltaV cut-off. Set deltaV to 3mV/cell, so it will cut-off when it senses a 21mV drop. Most chargers default to 4-5mV/cell resulting in a 24-30mV when set to 6 cells, and 21mV is conservative.

 

Got it!, thanks very much I will post my results in a few weeks once finished

 

I'm in the process of cycling my modules with a HiTec X4 AC plus. I'm having some successes for sure, having a bit of fun, but also have some questions for the experts.

Allow me to share results from a few modules: (Module # - DCHG1, CHG1, DCHG2, CHG2, DCHG3, CHG3)
# 23 - 2731, 7050, 5056, 7050, 5522, 7050
# 6 - 4150, 7050, 5782, 7050, 5955, 7050
# 1 - 3773, 7050, 5936, 7050, 6055,7050
# 3 - 4298, 7200, 5855, 7200, 6031, 7200
# 9 - 3891, 7050, 5663, 7050, 3111, 7050 This one was looking good. Any idea what might have happened?

I definitely think 23, 6, and 1 are looking pretty good at 3 cycles with a 7050 mAh capacity on the third cycle. I guess maybe another discharge / charge cycle could get the numbers up a bit higher? Should I do that as well as maybe increase the capacity cutoff like I did on module 3? This car has 205k miles on it. I want this repair to last awhile, but what numbers would you consider good and should I be happy with?

Also, ideally, I would want all the modules to have close to the same capacity, right? Is there any realistic DIY strategy that I should be employing to attain that?

The next big question has me scratching my head but it has to do with my charger. For some reason port number 2 doesn't seem to be charging the modules correctly. Take a look at these numbers for two modules that were charged on port 2 using the same exact settings as all the rest of the charging ports:
#10 - 3416, 3219, 3131, 2977, 2907, 2600
#26 - 3943, 3621, 3509, 3200, 3128, 3020

I cycled module 10 again on charging port 4 and got these results which looked OK:
#10 - 2478, 7050, 5712, 7050, 5837, 7050

I thought there was a defect with the charger so I took it back and exchanged it. The next cycle from port 2 with the NEW charger produced these results:
#27 - 2889, 3213, 3143, 3088, 3011, 2954

What gives?! What could be going on there? Why would port 2 not be getting a module to proper capacities when a different charging port on the same charger gets the same module to acceptable levels? I have no theories.

 

Hi how are you?
that's so strange, are you running all 4 ports when this happens? have you tried running only port #2 ?

I'm just thinking if port#2 is the last port to get power from the input supply maybe its starving of power? if so more input power..

 

You're getting 7050 because you have the capacity limit set to 7050. You're not concerned with the CHG capacity (what you put in the battery), you're concerned with the DCHG capacity. It also appears you have one set to 7200.

 

Yes, yes. I know that the discharge capacity is what matters. I reread my first paragraph and it is not very clear. My apologies.

What I meant to inquire about is the final discharge capacities of those modules. On the third cycles respectively for modules 23, 6, and 1 are discharge capacities of 5522, 5955, and 6055 mAh. Those seem like good numbers to me but should I keep going? Maybe 6055 mAh is good on module 1, but module 23 which I only got to 5522 mAh, maybe I should cycle it again until I reach closer to 6000 mAh capacity level? What would be some good numbers for me to aim for?

Module 3 I set the capacity to 7200 because I wanted to see if its capacity would increase more compared to the modules I cycled previously at 7050 mAh. I don't think it made a huge difference, so I'll probably keep cycling the modules with a 7050 mAh capacity cutoff.

ozmatt - Yes, this has happened when all 4 ports were charging a module. I also tried it without a module on port 1 and still got the same low results from port 2.

I have not tried running only port 2. Maybe I'll give it a shot, I just don't want to waste time that I could be cycling 3 other modules to isolate that variable. This charger has a built in power supply so I can plug straight into the wall and run off of 120V AC. The charger has a low input voltage cutoff for each port and each is set at the default of 10 Volts.

I may just call HiTec support and see if they have any ideas to explain what's going on.

 

Hi guys!

First time posting here and I was hoping to get some help. I got the triangle of death.

Here's my 2007 Prius battery data recorded under load with a halogen bulb ~55W.
MODULE VOLTAGE
1 7.18
2 7.41
3 7.41
4 7.44
5 7.44
6 6.91
7 7.38
8 7.45
9 7.42
10 7.43
11 7.38
12 7.4
13 7.44
14 7.45
15 7.32
16 7.48
17 7.18
18 7.47
19 6.15
20 7.45
21 7.41
22 7.44
23 7.46
24 7.44
25 7.47
26 7.45
27 7.44
28 7.24

Here are my battery settings per recommendation here on the site.
Settings: HItech X4 running 8 chargers
Charge at 5 amps up to 7250mAhr
Discharge at .7 aMhr down to 6 volts
DSCH<CHG for 3 cycles.
Other settings: I set the timer limit to 720 minute cut off. I also set the cool down period to 5 minutes.

First rookie mistake: I didn't tighten the bolts and the battery started swelling. I stopped the process but before I go on I need this answered.

1. There's no setting on the charger to limit the voltage when charging. It looks like it's going to go to 10V. Is this okay?
2. I am replacing module 6 and 19, but 4 others are suspect. What do you think?

 

View attachment 104858

2) Assuming all your voltage values were taken after the same load duration, yep. 1, 15, 17 and 28 are all in question as well.

1) 10V is indicative of high internal resistance in the module. I would not expect all of the modules to hit those voltage levels. Aggressive (1-2C) charging of healthy modules tends to peak around 9.6V. Your toy charger is also likely not particularly accurate. Confirm voltage with a trusted voltmeter.

You may find that after cycles, those four modules may improve.

 

Thank you. I compressed the modules and they're cycling now. I will take a look at those 4 after this cycle.

 

Hi guys.I got 2 brand new hitec x4 chargers and same problem on both chargers,port # 2

 

I have to concede, that S Keith was spot on when he said to drop my B6 chargers, and get the Reaktor 300w. I bought two (and want a few more), but they are by far a better charger, and worth the investment. Thanks, man.

Tj

 

Welcome to Crazytown...

 

Here's an update on my battery cycling. I still have a few that are not done but I wanted to get some guidance if there's a need to recycle any of the batteries one more time. Also, do I need to recheck the voltage under load again? specially for the 4 that were questionable (modules 1, 15, 17 and 28)

Battery | Voltage | Discharge mAh | Charge mAh | Discharge mAh | Charge mAh | Discharge mAh | Charge mAh |
1 7.18 110 7250 5157 7251 5334 7250
2 7.41 2689 6847 4451 7250 5018 7251
3 7.41 1108 4259 2613 5847 3665 7250
4 7.44 2387 5891 3805 7250 4790 7250
5 7.44 NaN NaN NaN NaN NaN NaN
6 6.91 1188 7250 5203 7250 5407 7250
7 7.38 NaN NaN NaN NaN NaN NaN
8 7.45 NaN NaN NaN NaN NaN NaN
9 7.42 2617 5856 3896 6732 4835 7250
10 7.43 1185 7231 4967 7250 5330 7250
11 7.38 2499 5746 4173 7119 4746 7251
12 7.4 2449 5374 3542 6479 4692 7220
13 7.44 1317 3402 2342 4507 3142 5992
14 7.45 1533 3890 2725 5693 3650 6401
15 7.32 NaN NaN NaN NaN NaN NaN
16 7.48 1771 4759 3254 6485 4115 7242
17 7.18 527 2920 2119 3537 2642 4662
18 7.47 3263 6497 4774 7250 5318 7250
19 6.15 2055 6006 4477 7251 5127 72500
20 7.45 768 6730 4497 7250 5050 7250
21 7.41 1386 4138 2806 5865 4005 7250
22 7.44 NaN NaN NaN NaN NaN NaN
23 7.46 NaN NaN NaN NaN NaN NaN
24 7.44 NaN NaN NaN NaN NaN NaN
25 7.47 3623 7251 5203 7250 5506 7250
26 7.45 1720 4274 3169 5495 4019 7250
27 7.44 2603 5361 4120 7251 5490 7250
28 7.24 2030 7251 5500 7250 5566 7251