How I Recondition Cells

That is why I never buy loose module unless all are from one prius, 28 modules, all the same date code and serial number series, they cant all be bad, I have only bought loose modules like that once, all the rest I sourced from cars in salvage and removed myself after checking they were factory modules in sequence.

If I bought single loose modules I want 30 day money back with seller paying return shipping.

 

I dont have anything for sale. As for equipment, well you need a meter, you need a way to charge and discharge.

The device I use to charge, which can also discharge, but wont make any graphs, is about impossible to find anymore, i know, i just looked. Appears discontinued, so for a base charger solution, I would ask others here for suggestions, you should be able to set it for the following

Charger
For 6 cells, designed for NIMH and has end of charge detection that preferably you can set, eg 400 millivolts or whatever.
Charge amps from 0.1 to 6.5 amps
Limit it by TIME ( i never use that)
Limit it by Amp Hours In (I use that all the time).
Optional, limit by temp, i have that, i have never used it.

The charger I use does NOT come with a required power supply, which they expect you to provide HOWEVER there is a plug in base designed specifically for it and impossible to find and if you do, we are talking 200 to 300 dollars for all of it, if you can find it.
X1 PRO Multi Charger, although someone at a RC hobby place may have one on clearance you never know.

If the charger can also discharge, then again, you would prefer 0.1 to 6.5 amps
Graphing would be a plus


For a solution to monitor and graph the charge, but not control the charge or provide charging that will also support discharging, and provide graphing, I use the West Mountain Radio CBA 2 which is old and has been replaced by a newer model, out of stock but supposedly inbound. CBA V - Computerized Battery Analyzer is the new one for 190 to 230 bucks, the extra money allows you to fine calibrate the unit (not needed unless you are really anal) and some sensing cable, dont know what that would be for, maybe temps, you would have to find out. The calibration is you check the battery with a meter and it says 7.102 and the cba 5 says it is 7.107. For 190 you cant fix that, for 230 you can.

I think the chinese resistant tester is a good tool if you can drop 70 bucks, it can help you steer away from any obviously damaged modules before you waste time on them, all of mine test 6 to 7, i have a 9 and 10 and i wouldnt even mess with them now that i have the meter.

YR1035+ is the model
LeTkingok 4 Line YR1035 Battery Internal Resistance Test Meter

As for my stuff that I have from years passed, it is a violation of Federal Law to sell anything that has been subject to a recall by the CPSC, thats why I have nothing to sell

 

If I has seen that 80 dollar combo I would have cleaned out all their inventory lol

 

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In the end, Panasonic and industry, that have billions of dollars in this, say dont do it.

As for deep self discharge, honda dealers were informed to start and charge the car using a defined process, i believe it referred to 3,000 rpm but i dont recall.

As for prius, I am sure someone can chime in as to what toyota has directed them to do, the honda has a standard 12 volt starter as a backup, unlike the prius, and can start and charge the pack up.

I tried the lower than 6 volt outlined by others and saw zero improvement in various cells of various condition, but all of those cells had already been subjected to some sort of recondition by me first. I never tested a virgin cell.

The actual lower limit is under 1 volt, but I will say 1 volt, as I see no reason to go below it. When someone posts WHY and HOW this going below 1 volt does something beneficial ,then I will revisit it.

With the global widespread adoption of the NIMH over two decades, if lower than 6 volt worked, it would be widespread knowledge, not voodoo magic in some internet posts here and there

I am not aware that sitting even for years would cause a new in stock battery, or even a used one in good shape, to so deep discharge in voltage well below 6 volts.

 

I have seen all that before
There is no CADMIUM in a prius module
All of that article refers to CADMIUM crystals and then interjects a lot of supposition to nimh.

Breathing high levels of cadmium damages people's lungs and can cause death. Exposure to low levels of cadmium in air, food, water, and particularly in tobacco smoke over time may build up cadmium in the kidneys and cause kidney disease and fragile bones. Cadmium is considered a cancer-causing agent.

There us no cadmium in prius cells

 

intergranular corrosion of the coherent twin boundary is the issue NOT some phantom crystallization.

Removal of them requires a 10,000 volt nano second pulse repeatedly, I have not figured out how to introduce that, as of yet.

fyi that batt university site is full of bad info on all batt types

“Pure nickel is mostly corrosion resistant. But when we charged it at the cathodic (passive and lowest energy) side, which is even less likely to corrode, we did, surprisingly, see visible corrosion trenches on coherent twin boundaries,” says Mengying Liu, graduate student at the department of materials science and engineering at Texas A&M University

Coherent twin boundaries are areas in which the material’s internal structure pattern forms a mirror image of itself along a shared border. They occur when crystal formations on either side of an atom-wide border line up without disorder or disarray. These types of boundaries naturally occur during crystallization, but can also be the result of mechanical or thermal influence.

For years, researchers have operated on the assumption that coherent twin boundaries resist corrosion. They have even worked to create metals that have more of these boundaries in an effort to reduce corrosion.

“This finding takes decades of assumptions on metal corrosion and flips them on their head,”

“In an effort to reduce corrosion, people have been making metals that contain as many coherent twin boundaries as possible. Now that entire strategy will have to be reconsidered.”

 

Another issue is oxygen taken place in the HOLE in the nickel where the hydrogen is supposed to go, this can only be fixed by using high temps that would destroy the battery altogether.

If crystals were an issue in NIMH there would be a ton of peer reviewed papers on the subject, post them here, I'll wait.

 

Coherent twin boundaries are areas in which the material’s internal structure pattern forms a mirror image of itself along a shared border. They occur when crystal formations on either side of an atom-wide border line up without disorder or disarray. These types of boundaries naturally occur during crystallization, but can also be the result of mechanical or thermal influence.

YOU HAVE TO REMOVE THE CRYSTALS BEFORE THE CORROSION, REMOVING THEM AFTER IS LIKE STOPPING SMOKING ONCE YOU HAVE CANCER

 

This is from one of HUNDREDS of peer reviewed industry supported research papers, this one has 337 reference works footnotes by hundreds of other researchers

Nowhere is CRYSTAL formation in NIMH an issue

Find the paper about CRYSTALS where someone with a scanning electron microscope shows them in NIMH and also points to them as an issue with performance , I wont hold my breath





The word crystal shows up once in that paper

The mechanism of reaction for Co in alkaline solution
is rather complicated [ 38 ,221 ], but a simplified version for electrochemical engineers can be used as
a guideline. Co in a +2 state is not a good conductor for electrons or protons, and it is only slightly
soluble in 30% KOH. Co can be oxidized into the +3 state through solid-state reaction [ 222 ], and it is
a good conductor for both electrons and protons due to the half-filled proton plane between two Co-O
layers in the CoOOH crystal structure; however, the reaction is not easily reversible. The presence
of Co4+ through a solid-state reaction can be detected at charge rates greater than C/5, and it can be
reduced back to Co3+ at a potential of 1.05 V versus Cd-electrode [220 ]. There are three general methods
for incorporating Co into the positive electrode of Ni/MH batteries, which leverage the irreversible
oxidation of Co2+ in the normal operation voltage range (>0.63 V versus Cd-electrode [220 ]).

 

Common sense tells you the lower than 1 volt to remove crystals is a fantasy. There are no CRYSTAL REMOVAL chargers for NIMH on the market

There are DESULFATING modes in chargers for lead batteries, why ? To get more money from the user because they can point to research that proves desulfation works

There are CYCLING modes for NIMH chargers, mine has them, cause they can point to research, and get more money for a charger that has CYCLING.

There are no crystal removing nimh chargers, cause its a myth, to produce such a mode or charger would lead to class action lawsuits lol.

Common sense

 

If I had used the charge algo I have used here, where I got 100% capacity back, and altered it, and taken the batteries down using the methods others promote to "get the capacity back" by going lower than 1 volt, then who was right, my algo ? or their algo incorporated into my algo lol

You will never prove what they are telling you because they cant provide a baseline module (before after) to compare to another algo because their algo does the same thing but goes lower, possibly causing some type of long term damage, we dont know.

If their algo is right, then I should be able to apply it to mine AFTER my algo, where the cell only makes 90%, and get some more back right ????

I didnt, I lost a few percent, I tried it, my module was injured by the process