My Battery pack seems to have topped off near 185.5 with the charger still running (350ma) I have seen a .1 rise in the past hour or so. How do I know when it is fully topped? I ask because to get from ~160 to here took just over night, I thought it would take longer.

 

The initial voltage rise is very rapid as all 132 cells are increasing. As cells or groups of cells hit peak voltage, there are times it seems to plateau. Assuming you have adequate cooling, charge AT peak voltage for 5-8 hours, but do not exceed 24 hours total.

If you do not have adequate cooling, stop. Get adequate cooling and resume.

If the cells at the air exit do not exceed 100°F, you have adequate cooling.

 

I have a box fax blowing air in and a box fan sucking air out with some pretty red neck cardboard batting to direct as much through the pack as possible.

I just checked and I am up to 186.5v after 17 hours at 350mA I started at ~160

 

Your box fan cooling solution is more adequate than mine.

Mine peaked at 188.5 after 24 hours this past weekend

Generally speaking, healthier packs tend to peak at lower voltages due to lower internal resistance and better cell balancing.

Looks like you've got about 7 hours to go

I've had best results letting the pack sit overnight before I turn the ignition on. It doesn't hurt anything, but the high voltage can confuse the BCM for a while, and it tends to cause 1-2 additional calibrations before the BCM and battery get in sync.

Steve

 

24 hours from start of charge I just hit 188.1V

I will do the discharge start some time tonight

 

Good deal. Let us know how it goes.

 

Took several hours to discharge the pack, I probably should have put the light bulbs in parallel rather than serial. I brought the entire pack down to 1.94V then charged it up to just above 120V. I installed a switch on the 12V battery to make the resets easier (yeah I get lazy) and did a 3x reset, installed the now 120V battery back in, 3x reset (again), had to remember where my nav code was, started the car and it immediately lit up the IMA light and showed no bars (I expected this to happen after all the battery was at 120V) it then proceeded to charge the large battery up to 3 bars then stopped obviously charging.

I am not certain how to force it to charge more without driving the car, I have it idling outside the kitchen window right now.

So the process is almost done I think, I still need to finish charging the large battery, pull it back out, top it off, reinstall it then drive 400 miles back home

 

One of us misinterpreted. 12V resets involve, 1) disconnecting the 12V, 2) reconnecting, then 3) starting and idling until battery shows full.

Revving the car above 2500 should force charge, but it's generally not necessary on the HCH2.

 

When you say "full" do you mean all the bars on the gauge? Because it charges up to 3 bars then stops autocharging everytime I do it.

 

One of my '06 does that, while the other goes to full. I don't know why. I believe both have been flashed to the latest firmware, so it may be a function of the battery installed. I haven't tried all packs in both cars.

After a 12V reset, do you get approximately 40-50% of the green bars indicating charge at idle? That's what I get.

Was the first charge a lengthy one? I would expect 15-20 minutes or maybe even more. Resets 2 and 3 would be progressively shorter. For me, the third time barely charges.

If the car has charged the battery at ~40-50% (on the green gauge) for 20-30 minutes total over the course of three 12V resets, I would say you're good.