Re: Electrophoresis Box for Grid Charging - 2005 Civic Hybrid
 

I have used all three of those to charge the replacement battery I just installed in the car 2 weeks ago. They charge that pack just fine. The pack on the bench was giving me severe troubles in the car especially in the winter where it would just basically drop the zero overnight and provide no assist.

​​​​

Re: Electrophoresis Box for Grid Charging - 2005 Civic Hybrid
 

A pack with the taps as you describe will give you nothing but problems. It has a failed cell. Failed cells can't be fixed and will perform poorly regardless of how many times you. Since you haven't stated anything about protection diodes in your power supply leads, there's no evidence the supplies are functional. I warned you of this 16 months ago in post #2.

You can test them by setting them to 120V and 0.5A. Try to light a 60W incandescent bulb with them. Alternates: 120V/.33A for 40W, 120V/.2A for 25W.

If you can't light the bulbs, you've damaged the supplies.

Worth testing any of the big resistors on the junction board as well.
​​​​​​​
Let's analyze some of post 19:

1. Pack measures 151V - indicates the battery circuit is intact.
2. After connecting the charger, it begins dropping in voltage very quickly - the only way this can happen is if you've completed the circuit and are allowing current to flow.... through the charger. This is bad. They are not designed for this. If you're passing reverse current through the power supply, you've damaged it. It is NOT designed to be hooked up to a battery. It is designed to supply a voltage and a current to a 0V resistive load.

Re: Electrophoresis Box for Grid Charging - 2005 Civic Hybrid
 

No diode ​. I installed a switch so that the leads would not be live in the trunk when not charging and also allow me to connect to the charger without arcing or damaging it.

After a 30-hour charge ending today here is what I have:

Charge:
Starting voltage: 151V
Ending voltage after 30 hours: 176V

Discharge:
Starting voltage (After 2 hours rest): 171V
After 2 hours: 156.2

That's quite a drop for such a short period of time with a 100 watt bulb. Is it worth continuing?

​​​​​​​

Re: Electrophoresis Box for Grid Charging - 2005 Civic Hybrid
 

So why did it charge? It was reading 0 amps. You couldn't get it to charge on 3 different supplies two days ago. What did you do different?

Do the math. 156.2/120 = 1.302V/cell UNDER LOAD. Not "quite a drop" at all especially since you've likely exhausted about 1/4-1/3 the pack capacity. Quite normal except it's likely 1V lower than it should be due to the failed cell you've already identified.

Re: Electrophoresis Box for Grid Charging - 2005 Civic Hybrid
 

Sorry Keith I changed the points at which I was applying the voltage from the charger. It appears the main taps don't work because the relay doesn't close to energise them when not in the car. I got no voltage reading at them with the pack power switch on.

I found a different charging point by using my voltmeter.

So are we back to square one? Pack is toast? Time to move on???

Any point to pulling the stick pair that was significantly lower than the others and trying to reserruct it?

Re: Electrophoresis Box for Grid Charging - 2005 Civic Hybrid
 

Sorry. I assumed you knew this. I had no idea you were charging with the ignition switch on. You have to go with the hot side of the relay.

Pack may be toast, but the data says you have one bad cell in one bad stick. Maybe in two.

Continue discharge to 96V.
Charge for 30 hours.
Set aside for 2 weeks.
Spend those two weeks looking for a source for sticks.
Measure all 20 stick voltages.
Replace outliers.

Re: Electrophoresis Box for Grid Charging - 2005 Civic Hybrid
 

I'm referring to the on/off switch on the pack. If you have the pack out of the car and the switch is on the terminals where you connect the heavy duty voltage cables feeding the rest of the IMA system have no voltage on them.

I stopped the discharge this morning and noted a dim light bulb. Thep pack measured 29.9V at 6:00 a.m. two hours later at 8:00 a.m. and it's bounced back to 124V

In regards to sourcing sticks there are at least a few people that are selling them on eBay. One that comes to mind has sticks that he says are refurbed and that measure 8.1V which would be 16.2V for a pair. Is that enough of a difference between the other 9 pairs around 15.28V to upset the battery management electronics?

​​​​

Re: Electrophoresis Box for Grid Charging - 2005 Civic Hybrid
 

I said discharge to 96V for a reason. There's little to be gained by discharging so low and lots of risk associated with so deep a discharge with the dozens of cell polarity reversals.

Note that I didn't indicate "let it sit for two hours" after discharging. Please charge for 30 hours immediately.

The 8.1V, 16.2V, 15.28V numbers are all meaningless. Most ebay sticks are junk. You need to make sure they are genuine Panasonic sticks and not Chinese aftermarket. Make sure they have a notable warranty - at least 6 months.

Re: Electrophoresis Box for Grid Charging - 2005 Civic Hybrid
 

Sounds like a safer path might be to buy a pack from eBay or a salvage yard and try to rebuild at least one good pack.

Re: Electrophoresis Box for Grid Charging - 2005 Civic Hybrid
 

Browbeat? Really?

You "just found out" that you could drive the fan by shorting the PWM to ground and turning on the ignition? You mean like when I told you that in April of last year?

https://www.greenhybrid.com/forums/f...30/#post267929