Hybrid battery balancing

I use a red lead and a black lead on each channel, connected directly to the (+) and (-) terminal of the module. I don't use any of the other connecting points/plugs.

 

Thanks
Much appreciated. Trying mine out this week.

 

I had the same problem once I started doing more than 1 battery at a time. The solution wasn't available to buy, yada yada yada and I ended up with a high voltage battery cycling system with fully automated workflows, smart charging/discharging and graphing/logging. It's true when they say necessity is the mother of all inventions.

 

So what do you do to balance them all at the end once they are all cycled and full TMR-JWAP? Do you discharge them to same voltage, or just done with it?

 

For anybody new to this discussion and facing the issue of a dead Prius HV battery, I throw my hat into the following viewpoint in quotes below. I believe most people are not ready to tear apart the back end of their Prius, disassemble a complex and powerful battery module just to wait while they buy individual modules and specialized high dollar chargers. On a hope and prayer it all works. Usually people want something fixed reliably and forgotten about until they sell their car. Does anyone buy and recondition used 12v batteries, used water pumps, or used alternators? I realize we are talking bigger money but then again a Prius may well of saved someone $10k over 200k miles already. This discussion is not just for 2009 or earlier model years, generation 3s are now dealing with it.

Further Jadziasman thoughts:

"If your Prius has relatively low miles <150,000 you should splurge for a brand new pack from Toyota. If more than 200,000 miles the decision is easier; do a DIY repair and balance and be happy with doing so every year or every other year if you are lucky. Modules will continue to fail as the years and miles pass by."

"Whatever you do, don't spend upwards of $700 on a fancy charger/intelligent discharger. It's not worth it with an old HV pack like yours. You can charge the pack with a less expensive pack level charger ~$300 and use incandescent light bulbs of decreasing wattage to discharge it to regain some lost capacity."

"A pack level charger has many advantages - the one I think is best is the ability to charge and discharge the pack in the car without removing the interior panels or the pack itself. But when a module fails.....it's disassemble city no matter what you have."

"There is no "approved" written procedure for balancing, it's not as simple as that - unless you get the system @Prodigyplace just mentioned. These systems do have procedures unique to their equipment and work well."

"New Toyota batteries from a dealership can be had for about $2100+tax if you install it yourself. First you must pay a $1350 core charge which is a PITA but unavoidable if you DIY. Another issue is getting a dealership to actually sell one to you - many will not. There are some independent hybrid battery installers who have very reasonable prices and the two I know of are located in Texas and Florida. The one in Florida would be a possibility for you once you repair the pack sufficiently so that your Prius could make the trip there."

"Don't even consider a refurb. I don't know enough about the Bumblebee battery except that it is new and may contain cylindrical modules - not the prismatic modules that the OEM battery pack contains."

"So there are your two options - do a DIY with a brand new pack or go to a installer who does it all of the time. I considered the latter the better option after my pack failed because the price difference between DIY and installer was not very much. The hybrid battery installer gets to keep your old pack which usually contains about 10 to 15 good modules that he/she can use to make a refurb pack with. You get a brand new battery, installed for you, without the hassle of a core charge or a search for a dealership willing to sell you one."

#jadziasman, Sep 26, 2017

 

What about if you start at 5000mAh instead of the 530am you choose? What would happen? I just got the CQ 3 chargers also.

 

Dxta,

The 530am is actually (5:30 am). Since my CQ3s seem to only like performing one discharge/charge cycle at a time, I start a cycle just before leaving for work in the morning (5:30 am). Then, when I get home from work, I record all that data and start another cycle at around 5:30 pm. This way I get 2 full cycles performed each day.

 

Is it on, if I set the cutoff capacity to first 2000mAh, at the first charge, then the second cycle can be stepped up maybe to 4000-5000mAh?

In my case, power supply in Lagos, Nigeria, is t stable. So, can't use the time format.

What do you suggests I use as my settings for the discharge/charge cycles?

Thanks

 

So what do you do to balance them all at the end once they are all cycled and full TMR-JWAP? Do you discharge them to same voltage, or just done with it?

 

Hi. I got some cq3 chargers last month. Please what sort of setup settings do you employ?
Please correct me, if my setup is wrong.
1. Discharge 6.0V
Discharge current 5.0A
2. Charge current 1.2A
3. Cutoff capacity 7000mAh

My observations:
1. At this setup, the charging of the modules, seems not to get to the set capacity (7000mah). But tends to stop at maybe 1000, or sometimes 1830mah.
2. Other times, when charging/discharging, I get to see DRY displaying on the display screen of the charger.

What do you think could be the problem with my setup?

Thanks

 

I don't think there should be any balancing done again. The chargers takes care of all that.
If you were using any hine made customized chargers, that's when you'd maybe think about how to balance them

 

I'll get the total setup when I get back tot he shop later today but I believe:
Discharge to 5.8v
Discharge current is set to 1.5 amps (actually electronically limited due to the 10W limit of the CQ3)
Charge current at 2.0 amps
Charge limited to 7200 mah
safety timer off
delta set to 20mv

I'll verify these and get back with you this evening

 

Then they will be at different volts?

 

Thanks for the reply. Expecting you when you're home then.

 

OK, maybe top up some of the voltages of the modules, to make them uniform.

 

Here we go.

On the PROGRAM SELECT---USER SET menu:
Precharge Time ----OFF
Wait Time---CHG>DCHG----20min
NiMH sensitivity D. Peak 20mv/cell
NiCD sensitivity D. Peak Default
Temp Cutoff......OFF
Safety Timer......OFF
Capacity Cut-off......7200 (I vary this anywhere from 5000 to 8200 depending on the modules)
Input Power low Cutoff.....11.0v
Key Beep....ON
Buzzer.....ON
Back Light.....50%
Battery end volt LiPo...4.2v/c

Then PROGRAM SELECT----NiMH Battery
NiMH CHARGE Man
CURRENT 2.0A
NiMH CHARGE Aut
CURRENT 2.0A
NiMH DISCHARGE 1.5A 5.8V
NiMH CYCLE D->C
C=2.0A D=1.5A 1

 

Thanks a thousand, sir! Would try this out with some of the modules I have in the garage.

 

Do your chargers switch off through their delta V setting? I bought a couple of B6 (most likely clones) and only the 50W version seems to work. The two 80W versions don't detect any delta V and are therefor worthless unless you gamble with capacity cutoff.

Never did anything with Prius batteries yet, still gaining experience with electrical bicycle batteries. My original 20 D-cell serieswired 24V NiCd had very limited range. Two cells were dead, brought them back to life with lagre current spikes (30V 0.2F capacitor shorted a dozen times made it come to life) but it didn't last. Got some free different bicycle batteries (they get thrown out because the electronics guarding them are horrible, a little moisture and the battery fails to communicate with the 'brain' of the bicycle and cannot be used anymore even though the cells may be in excellent shape), but also 20D-cells but now NiMH (one of 9Ah and one of 10Ah) Tested these by charging 10 series wired batteries per charger and ran into those "not detecting delta V" problems. Obviously too late to send them back to China or get refunded as they don't do what they are supposed to do...

 

Hmmm! Chinese stuff? Well...

 

Hmmm! Chinese stuff? Well some of them seems to be great.