Current State of the Art in Battery Balancers?

Just in case anyone is looking, the G9510-47063 hybrid battery (2010-2011 probably others gen3 prius) is now available for $1535 new. The 28 modules inside are 100% interchangeable with the Gen 2. You can essentially have a brand new Gen 2 battery, built with the latest Gen modules if you're able to DIY the module swap. You'd probably want to buy a new sensor harness also for about $60.

 

I'm still learning how to identify bad modules.

I cleared the P0A80 with a generic code reader and by disconnecting the 12V small battery, it keeps coming back

The Delta SOC was 40

All three cycles the battery was charged to 237V - 238V

I had the metal cover off and a box house fan on top running on medium for the entire process

The before charge-discharge-balance volt test showed a .05V difference between high and low modules. (Picture on my post #36 above)

The after charge volt test also shows a .05V diff between high and low modules. (pic attached)

Haven't done a volt test after discharge, will do so. So any module that is lower than .03V from the highest module is suspect bad?

 

How many hours did you charge the hybrid battery to achieve the 238v?

I do not think you charged the battery long enough to top balance the complete battery pack. Try charging the battery for 24 hours. The battery voltage should go to 243v to 245v and then it will decrease a few volts. Then, you know you have achieved balancing of all the cells in the battery pack. If you do a top balance of the battery correctly, the DELTA SOC should come down.

Read the online Prolong reconditioning instruction about top balancing the battery pack.

 

I think you may be right, Prolong says for the last topping and balancing it's around 24 hrs and up to 48 hrs. So on the last cycle it was 24 hrs, and it went from 125V to 238V, but never got higher. Between that and not finding the bad cells to replace is probably the issue

 

The Prolong WILL NOT cure a failing module. It may hide it temporarily, but it will never cure it. Voltage readings, without a load test can be deceptive.

 

Yeah, there is a couple of YouTube vids where they are taking timed voltage readings as they're doing a load test

 

You are in a situation that has already been discussed here on the forum years ego. The Hybrid Automotive's method of discharging the entire battery to 84 volts will not fix the P0A80 code. There are several weak cells in a few modules in your battery that won't recover until you discharge the whole battery below 84 volts. The battery with 125k miles is unlikely to have dead modules that can no longer be recovered. A situation with 3 bad modules, with code P0A80, occur closer to 200k miles on the 2010 prius.
I would do one cycle by discharging the entire battery to 3-5 volts and then discharging it on the car to 40% and checking the voltage of each module after 10 minutes if the voltage does not vary more than 0.03 volts. The discharger can be assembled, as in my photo, from 40-watt light bulbs.

 

Thanks for your help, I should be on Priuschat more often but my Prius hasn't had too many problems until now.

So discharge to 3-5 volts total for the entire pack, using 2) 40 watt bulbs and a voltmeter, full charge/balance with the Prolong charger, then discharge it on the car, by driving it, and monitoring with the Dr Prius app to 40%, or using the Prolong discharger to 101V (which is about 40%?)

Do you ever do the balance where all the modules are turned to face the same way and a wire is run across all the + and all the - terminals (in parallel) and let sit overnight? Or do you prefer the Prolong balance method?

When this is all done I'm going to do a full right up on the process from start to finish, if I can't find that has already been done. There's so much conflicting information.

 

Just discharge to 40% with the Dr. prius app, as it is done during the battery test.

Balancing modules by connecting them in parallel looks nice until you install them in the car. The Prolong balance method balances all modules by capacity when all modules are original.

There are several processes. The process for this Frankenstein battery will require all existing methods to bring it back to life.
Hybrid battery - how bout just changing bad cells without "reconditioning"? | Page 2 | PriusChat

 

Are the 2 bulbs 120V?
And wired in series means each bulb is getting 120V when the battery is at 240V?

Could you put 4 bulbs and raise the discharge amps to speed up the process?

Some of the people charging/discharging the modules individually with hobby chargers are discharging at 5 amps.

 

I bought 4 Tenergy T100's and am charging/discharging individual modules from the core batteries I bought.

First I tried discharging down to 5.5v per module, 1st cycle is getting them up to 3500 mAH capacity

Then trying discharging to 0.2v per the 1st cycle is getting up to 4500 mAH, so this should speed things up and get a better end result.

everyone on YouTube only discharges to around 6 volts with the individual module method

I'm just wondering why Prolong isn't doing a deeper discharge?

 

Each bulb is 120V connected in series = 240V.
You can use higher wattage bulbs to raise the discharge amps, but to restore the capacity, you need to discharge it with a low current, as scientific sources say.

 

RC chargers cannot restore the capacity as Prolong does.
Hybrid Automotive stick to scientific rule don't discharge below 0.9 volts per cell i guess.

Years ago, when I had 2 batteries with the code P0A80 in which I could not detect faulty modules. I tried to recondition them with RC chargers.
I found an article online describing a way to restore a hybrid battery by discharging it to 0 volts. I think there was also a charger circuit. I knew the 0.9 volt rule at the time, so I didn't trust this article. Then I found an article about restoring nimh batteries used in aviation, something like a brief instruction for the maintenance crew (I searched for it a couple of years ago and couldn't find it), which described discharging the whole battery to zero volts and leaving it so for 24 hours. Then I decided to give it a try. I bought a charger from Hybrid Automotive and was surprised by the result.

 

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I discharged to 7v, it wouldn't get any lower. As soon as I took off the load it rebounded to 40v

So you leave it for 24hr before any recharging?

 

It will go lower if you wait a little longer.

I usually start discharging at ~11 pm and stop at 8-9 pm.
After three cycles, the battery capacity rises to ~8000 mA, but after installing it in a car, it drops below that.

 

How did you run the battery blower?

 

I couldn't get the blower to work on Prius C so I just replace it with a Prius 30 blower for the duration of the cycles.

 

Does a gen 3 blower fit in the traction battery air enterance way of the Prius C without modification?

 

Yes, but it's impossible to bolt it down if I remember correctly.