I added in alot above fyi. I may get myself one of his "BCM Interceptor"s to replace the SoC gauge.


what do you make of that one tap which held 13v even as all the rest were 11 or less? Two really good sticks or two sticks which held on to their charge when they should have been letting it out?

 

Be advised that he doesn't necessarily take all his products to a commercial conclusion. Most of what he does is for the Insight, and it usually doesn't translate directly to the HCH1.

My recommendation is to still cycle the pack as you will likely get some SD improvement. SD is a concern given the tap voltages since the April time frame.

 

dropping off the vehicle at the dealer tomorrow for the airbag recall, so it appears ill have time to do the third reconditioning on the B pack.

started at 1800 yesterday so 30 hours will be up at midnight. Probably will let it go a little past that, I don't believe 27 hours had reached a full balance (voltage was still climbing).

the oddball super tap is bringing up the rear so far but not alarmingly so ( 176.5 pack voltage, this tap 17.57) the lowest one is tied for first, but still not near as bad as the bad tap on pack A.

 

Don't give too much weight to tap behavior when they're as close as they are.


If you're really flowing 350mA, there really is no need to go beyond 30 hours even if you're getting a very slow voltage rise. At that point, you've put in > 10,400mAh, and given that you've started from a point that you KNOW all sticks were empty or nearly so, there is little to be gained.

 

I shutdown 20min early, the macro voltage hasn't moved in almost 2 hours and the micro voltage was probably within the dmm' s error tolerance. (One tap up .005 and it's neighbor down the same). In addition to this, I have really good airflow but I still think they air has been at least a little warmer than ambient for at least the last 2 hours. Ended .9V under the peak voltage on the first charge.

17.82
17.92
17.92
17.85. (Superman)
17.93
17.93 (problem child)
17.86
17.85
17.965
17.945

going to let it sit the 12 hours.
taking the car to dealer with pack A should be fun... the SoC now reads nil (though it continues to IMA start the ICE) and its showing the charging system warning under 1500rpm or over 3500rpm. This is after sitting 3 days (had planned on letting pack A sit for 7 days before measurements on Saturday for parity with pack B measurements a few days later...but that was before remembering I really should get the airbag done)

bet I got quite a few codes now!

once I get it back I'll try reconditioning it with the time I have left this week. Maybe tag team the packs on the charger.

so for pack B we have the initial long self discharge before purchase, two full charges and one discharge to 106V

what do you think? Let it sit 12, measure, then drain to 120v and then one more full recondition loop?

 

Your tap variances on Pack A are probably so severe, the pack is isolated. This would account for your charging issues.


There is as much value in an as-removed snapshot as there is in a 7 day sit. If my theory is correct, the pack is already isolated and has been "resting" for some time.


For pack B, repeat the last cycle in an identical fashion with data captured at the same intervals.

 

Good point on A. Id say it's coming up on a week since it stopping using the pack for anything except starting.

pack B 13 hours after completing a charge to 178.7

167.7

16.81
16.81
16.8
16.77
16.78
16.77
16.79
16.82
16.83
16.82

a whole volt each overnight. Normal?

 

Very normal.

Yet another way NiMH voltage confounds. Voltage decreases over time. In a week, they will likely be about 16.2V. In a month, 15.7-15.8. It equates roughly to loss of charge, but it's tough to establish a relationship.

Imbalance within the subpack also complicates it. One can have two subpacks with near identical voltage, yet one has substantially lower capacity.

The .06V total variance is encouraging.

Cell-to-cell variation within a stick is a very good indicator as well. The nice thing about the Honda sticks is you can pierce the shrink with voltmeter leads and check the individual cell voltages. If you're up for this, it's another check that can give further confidence. The best time in your process is after the 7 day rest and load test with at least a 30 minute rest after the load test. It's hard to say the limits, but it's another opportunity for outliers to expose themselves.

 

well I'm borderline excited that down at 150V I'm looking at .03v highest to lowest!

This is at a load of .58amps

began at .39 and came down to .37 just before swapping the bulbs (wanted to get it done before 4am)

so .38 x 1.7
and .575 x 5.17
3.6Ah down and still at 150 volts.
Seems pretty good to me though only a meager capacity increase ( less than .25Ah), the taps are more balanced so far.

 

Just be advised that with a current change, keeping track of time is critical in order to do the capacity math.

The pack may indeed be fairly healthy. The only concern is the fact that the taps were so low with only 4 months of storage. The cycling may improve that, and all will be revealed after the 7 day load test.