That is awesome, I will be installing one this afternoon in her car, there's one with a 5y warranty for 5$ more, so I'll have two batteries for the price of one by the sounds of it.

The 2 bar to 8 bar quick charge it does, would that be caused by the 12v also or we looking at the IMA for that? So many questions....

Either way, I think a proper grid charge would help, just need to find some specs on building one.

Thank you so much for all your help! It's insanely helpful!

 

No. Recalibrations are due to the hybrid battery being deteriorated or out of balance. If the 12V is causing excessive load, then it could contribute to the frequency of recalibrations.

If your IMA light turns on when key-on/engine-off prior to start, then you're probably right. You can DIY, but you absolutely, positively can't grid charge without cooling. Period. All civic hybrid IMA fans are PWM controlled meaning you can't just put 12V to it. Plus, it's a leaf blower. You need a 12V/100W PSU to drive it full speed. If you go that route and can provide that kind of power, short the PWM wire to the ground wire, and that will pass 12V to the fan and run it full blast, but again... you'll need 12V/100W power supply for that alone.

Check the link in my sig. It's old, but it's a start. 2X APC-35-350 in series with diodes for protection and a monster 12V supply will get you there in-car.

Since you haven't coded yet, and it's very easy to pull, you might want to just pull the battery and blow through the pack with a box fan. My favorite is a carpet dryer:


That thing on low will blast through the pack. Silent, efficient and effective.

 

So these LED drivers hooked up in series is uber simple! I could build one in under half hour, and make a harness in 10 minutes. I have a crazy Server PSU that would do the job quite well to cool the pack down with a little shroud, it can hover if placed on the floor, and would totally cut your finger off if you felt like trying. I'll order a few of the APC-35-350 and go from there, hook up my multimeter for the first go until I decide to build it as a standalone unit in a PSU case or something. Curious, what diode would you put? I also assume it's installed on the Pos leg of the charger out to avoid reverse current?

Cheers

 

3 APC-35-350 are overkill. You only need 2.

Any diode of > 350mA and > 200V will work. The ones I use are 1A/400V, but I can't remember the P/N.

Yes on (+), but I put them on BOTH leads to prevent back flow in case one fails. Cheap insurance for $0.10. Yes, entirely unnecessary, but I jut feel good about it.

Fuses inline on the AC and DC sides aren't a bad idea either.

You need to give consideration to discharging. 2X 110V bulb sockets in series work great. Make sure you put the diode on the charger leads and not in the harness itself, or you won't be able to discharge. Also, make sure the harness has reasonable protection from being a shock hazard...

 

I plan on building a relatively simple harness with either permanently installed wiring that will be terminated by either a round trailer connector or a airplane connector, seal it off to avoid accidental death and the like. Discharge seems pretty straight forward, same leads, just to a bulb instead of power.

Fuses are absolutely a must, my experience with small electronics is that when stuff decides to go, it either goes quietly, or with a surge, I rather not have that.

Thank you so much, you answered many of my questions in such short time, and gave me the confidence in knowing that I was in the right direction. With a new 12v 51r battery, and a balanced pack, her car should give more life. Likely grid charge it a second time in dead of winter in the shed, it'll be cold, and at 350mah, i don't see there being an issue with heat..

Cheers!

 

Just make sure your connector is rated for high DC voltage. I use a 3 prong extension cord cut in half. End with the female gets connected to the car. 3 prong end is the charger - a bit dangerous when plugged end. 3 prong is handy for orientation as well. I just wire something separate for the fan.

No. grid charging in bone cold is either 1) ineffective or 2) just as bad as doing it in the heat.

Yeah, I know it's mild, but 350mA into a battery at 0°C ambient resulted in 50°C battery temp. You're still delivering 60W+ of power, and when the vast majority of that is being bled off as heat as the pack nears full, that will heat a battery up nicely. Imagine a 60W bulb inside a styrofoam insulated box the size of about 6 shoeboxes...

warm.

When possible, charging should be done with ambient above 0°C and active cooling... even if you have to put a space heater in the interior...

 

I just want to confirm you don't wire anything to ground, and just use it for proper pos/neg orientation and so that batt+ and batt- connect at the same time, correct??

so female end of the plug shouldn't have have 3rd wire, just the prong?


thanks.

 

Correct. 3rd prong is simply for orientation to prevent accidentally reversing polarity.

 

Would an AGM battery be less vulnerable to that? I am having this same issue as the poster, and its probably because my 12V is over 5 years old, but the car still starts up strong regardless. I just had this issue today that the poster had described with both the battery and IMA light coming on at once, and the 12V battery may be the issue given how old it is, but are there any other possible causes?

 

An AGM would just be a more expensive solution.

If the 12V/IMA lights aren't because of a weak/failing 12V, the other likely cause is a failed hybrid battery.