Just as a few recommendations. Instead of using a 12V car battery load tester, and a 12V/6V battery charger, just buy a RC Battery charger/discharger which is designed for a NiMH battery. A common charger people use for this is something like the SkyRC iMAX B6 or equivalent. That charger allows you to discharge it safely at up to 2A, and you can charge it at up to 6A. They run around $50 and would probably be cheaper than the car battery setup used above. If you find a bad cell, you can see if it is caused by voltage depression/memory effect and do a few discharge cycles and see if you bring it back to life. The recommended method appears to be to charge the battery fully to about 8V, discharge it to 0.9V, charge it back to 8V, discharge it to 0.5V, charge it to 8V and the discharge it down to 0.1V, the final step is to fully charge it back to 8V. Ideally, these battery banks should all have identical linear cells that discharge equally. On an old battery pack, this will obviously not be the case. If you have a cell or cells that have to be replaced, the recommendation would be to get cells that are very close to what you have already. The idea is to have the pack as balanced as possible so you don't have any outlier cells that are very good or very bad, but all mostly average. You will never get it perfect but get it as close as you can. Keep in mind when doing this you are dealing with high voltage (200V or more DC) and you are dealing with a battery that can deliver a lot of energy in a very short period of time if you short something out and don't pay attention. Be very careful when assembling and disassembling the pack and carefully watch any metal tools around it so you don't accidentally short something out. Many of those packs have issues due to heat, corrosion on terminals, connectors and wiring, clogged vents and cooling fans etc. Before you rip the pack out and even check it, make sure you are using a OBD tester and getting code P0A80. You don't want to be fixing a battery pack and have a faulty inverter or something else. Then clean all terminals and check all connections before focusing on the modules themselves. Clean the vents and cooling fan and make sure it isn't full of dust and fur. Heat kills batteries more than anything else. Overcharging and undercharging, especially for long periods is second. Keep in mind that you can diagnose a ton of these issues with the pack still in the car. Get a ELM 327 Module and plug it into the OBD2 port on the car. Get a Torque app for your phone and the correct Prius PID and you can check the voltage on each module pair using your phone. Doing these module rebuilds is just like doing anything else. Study first, inspect second, troubleshoot third, repair last.
OK, no prob, there are many options out there for that. I would still recommend a different charger and discharger setup, as you don't want be using a 40A car charger to charge a NiMH battery that is not really rated for that.
I wish I could give you a million likes. This is just about the most helpful Post in regards of load-testing and balancing, regarding these Toyota modules. Thank you for spelling it out and sharing this information.
Also for anyone charging these modules, They need to be compressed between 2 blocks of wood, or they will expand as you charge it. You will risk not being able to fit it back in the pack.
If you use the SkyRC iMax B6AC v2 charger, it only charges at 6 amps (actual is about 5.2 to 5.4 amps) for about 5 minutes. The battery usually stays cool and does not expand with this charger. I have used a power supply that puts out more amps which did cause the battery to swell.
thx, typically a fat battery is from charging to fast with to much amperage, it will shrink as it cools....slow charge is better, old batteries tend to get fat
You should use a fan over this battery when you do this... Also, it is the low voltage that the prius battery computer cares about...It is the one that will bring down the entire system... In other words, a load tested battery that reads, 13.00 volts will bring down the baseline off all the batteries to 13 volts (as explained by Toyota).... It is the ''load testing'' that counts and that is the rate it will ''match to''... You have to test these batteries under real loads as you would a normal car battery. BE CAREFUL of the battery temperature - do NOT exceed roughly 90 degrees. Next time, load it to 50 amps and watch where your gauge goes -- do this with ALL your batteries for the same time cycle and the odd-ducks out are the ''weak'' batteries that you can attempt to rejuvenate.
Construction Engineering & Photography I couldnt find any official data regarding highest safe amperage to load them down, so i did just enough to safely get the job done. These "good used" batteries were just to replace the ones that were already deemed bad by the computer in techstream. The car ran great for months with no errors until i sold it.
Premium fuel only, awesome...and I can add my data now... 3amps and keep them cool... Even though they may expand, do not panic, leave them out for about 48 hours and they will shrink back... I did a charge and drain... a cycle of 5 times... Using 2amps, as the drain load and 3 amps as the charge mode.
Premium fuel only, I will make a video soon, showing the car's system will balance the batteries and also they cycle... Even temporarily jumping to 90 volts! I used a real tracking monitor and when you brake suddenly, etc. the car's charging system bounces this up AND even takes amps way up also... In other words, just throw the new battery in and truss the computer system to balance... Finally, the packs are not charged all together, in real monitoring, it looks like a random graph...very highs, and very lows...but, alternating all the time...
I replaced two bad cells on my car I ended up charging RC lithium battery charger all cells and got voltage to 770 took a little bit of time it fixed I would also recommend cleaning every battery terminal it no triangle.
I got 2 busted modules in mine and they are still running perfectly. All I did was put in new bus bars and cleaned up each battery terminal with a wire brush. I replaced all the nuts and wire brushed the block management eyelets and my car now has more power than ever before and my MPG increased from 45 to 48. Even with the busted modules. I have to open it back up to replace those though.
Lots of opportunity to misunderstand this process. Rule 1: don’t discharge faster than the module (6 x 1.2v = 7.2v) amp/hr rating; which is about 6.5 ah. This means a max. Discharge rate of 6.5 amps. A simple taillight (1.5 amps), or headlight bulb (4-5 amps), would be much more appropriate than the giant amperage capacity of the unit used.
I did this and dropped voltage on all cells to 7.5 and now that my battery is back in the vehicle my engine is overworking itself to keep the car running and the HV battery according to the lcd is not charging at all it's at one bar and I have lots of engine noise!Also the car cut off at one point,started back up ?PLEASE HELP
Make sure to clear all codes and disconnect the 12v battery. I had the same issue after I refurbished by battery pack. If you're still having an issue the problem could be your ECU.
@@fernandom999 ok we did that but still car is not charging the battery after we dropped the load on the individual cells.Gonna be getting a new battery for the car soon and seeing if this will fix the issue
@Roger Pack YES! I almost want to say some of the cells in the battery were still salvagable because technically we were able to load a good enough charge on th cells that were coming up low from the voltage meter but ultimately after trial and error and to avoid damaging other components I found a prius battery small business where this guy pretty much had some Frankenstein prius batteries with a small warranty of course and he gave me a recycled ♻️ fully balanced battery that ended up lasting me the rest of the time I had the Prius for a reasonable 😀 price. What a journey 👏🏾
Premium fuel only: Can you tell me what you are using to charge the individual modules prior to ;oad testing? In other words, do you take the other modules individually and charge them to 8 V and then load test them to see how fast the voltage drops?
could you explain the procedure you would use to charge up an individual cell. I ask cause i've never tried to do it and wouldn't want to do it wrong and mess a cell up. Thanks
amasterofbation I would hook the battery terminals up to the rolling charger, set it on the 6V 10AMP setting, put on safety glasses then turn it on. Verify with a meter that the charger is outputting above the target voltage. (like 8v, 6v wont do anything) You only want to turn it on for a few seconds at a time, then turn it off and see what the voltage of the battery is with the meter. Just keep doing it until the battery voltage is like the rest of the batteries. As long as you charge it a little at a time and dont just leave it on and walk away it wont hurt anything. Its like slowly putting air in a tire, If its taking too long, leave it on a little longer at a time, but I woudnt go over 10 AMP setting.
Thanks for the info and your help. one more question for you. What specific schumacher charger do you use? I've been looking online at several different ones but thought I'd ask anyway.
amasterofbation I have a SE4020, But I just realized it puts out over 40Amps at 6 volts. So I dont recommend it to others. Might be ok for short bursts but its a faster charge/higher risk. Theres the Schumacher SE-82-6 Dual-Rate 2/6 Amp Manual Battery Charger that puts out 6Amps. I think its less risky to use but I dont have one to test.
I read somewhere that it is recommended to charge at a rate between 3.25 to 6.5 amps (to reduce the memory effect while charging). On the SkyRC charger, I set the manual charge rate to 6 amps and set the time limit to 5 minutes (and I watch closely to ensure the voltage does not go above 8.40 to 8.50 volts). It usually charges at a rate of 5.2 - 5.4 amps. Using the Torque Pro app, I noticed the block voltage in the car varies between 15.75 to 18.5 volts and as much as 17 volts (8.5 volts per module). So I think it is okay to charge them up to 8.5 volts. The Torque Pro android app shows block voltages in the car (using the Prius PID) and the Dr. Prius app is useful to see which blocks have a problem. I use them both. The Torque Pro app can be used to check for codes and clear them.
@@PremiumFuelOnly move the inside batteries outside in the rack....they will never all read the same voltage, but the closer voltage to each other the better...
Just as a few recommendations.
Instead of using a 12V car battery load tester, and a 12V/6V battery charger, just buy a RC Battery charger/discharger which is designed for a NiMH battery. A common charger people use for this is something like the SkyRC iMAX B6 or equivalent. That charger allows you to discharge it safely at up to 2A, and you can charge it at up to 6A. They run around $50 and would probably be cheaper than the car battery setup used above.
If you find a bad cell, you can see if it is caused by voltage depression/memory effect and do a few discharge cycles and see if you bring it back to life. The recommended method appears to be to charge the battery fully to about 8V, discharge it to 0.9V, charge it back to 8V, discharge it to 0.5V, charge it to 8V and the discharge it down to 0.1V, the final step is to fully charge it back to 8V.
Ideally, these battery banks should all have identical linear cells that discharge equally. On an old battery pack, this will obviously not be the case. If you have a cell or cells that have to be replaced, the recommendation would be to get cells that are very close to what you have already. The idea is to have the pack as balanced as possible so you don't have any outlier cells that are very good or very bad, but all mostly average. You will never get it perfect but get it as close as you can.
Keep in mind when doing this you are dealing with high voltage (200V or more DC) and you are dealing with a battery that can deliver a lot of energy in a very short period of time if you short something out and don't pay attention. Be very careful when assembling and disassembling the pack and carefully watch any metal tools around it so you don't accidentally short something out.
Many of those packs have issues due to heat, corrosion on terminals, connectors and wiring, clogged vents and cooling fans etc. Before you rip the pack out and even check it, make sure you are using a OBD tester and getting code P0A80. You don't want to be fixing a battery pack and have a faulty inverter or something else. Then clean all terminals and check all connections before focusing on the modules themselves. Clean the vents and cooling fan and make sure it isn't full of dust and fur. Heat kills batteries more than anything else. Overcharging and undercharging, especially for long periods is second.
Keep in mind that you can diagnose a ton of these issues with the pack still in the car. Get a ELM 327 Module and plug it into the OBD2 port on the car. Get a Torque app for your phone and the correct Prius PID and you can check the voltage on each module pair using your phone.
Doing these module rebuilds is just like doing anything else. Study first, inspect second, troubleshoot third, repair last.
Captain Crunch I was using techstream to see battery voltages. Thanks for your comment.
OK, no prob, there are many options out there for that. I would still recommend a different charger and discharger setup, as you don't want be using a 40A car charger to charge a NiMH battery that is not really rated for that.
I wish I could give you a million likes. This is just about the most helpful Post in regards of load-testing and balancing, regarding these Toyota modules. Thank you for spelling it out and sharing this information.
This was so helpful. Thank you so much!
Excellent comment
Also for anyone charging these modules, They need to be compressed between 2 blocks of wood, or they will expand as you charge it. You will risk not being able to fit it back in the pack.
If you use the SkyRC iMax B6AC v2 charger, it only charges at 6 amps (actual is about 5.2 to 5.4 amps) for about 5 minutes. The battery usually stays cool and does not expand with this charger. I have used a power supply that puts out more amps which did cause the battery to swell.
thx, typically a fat battery is from charging to fast with to much amperage, it will shrink as it cools....slow charge is better, old batteries tend to get fat
You should use a fan over this battery when you do this... Also, it is the low voltage that the prius battery computer cares about...It is the one that will bring down the entire system... In other words, a load tested battery that reads, 13.00 volts will bring down the baseline off all the batteries to 13 volts (as explained by Toyota)....
It is the ''load testing'' that counts and that is the rate it will ''match to''... You have to test these batteries under real loads as you would a normal car battery. BE CAREFUL of the battery temperature - do NOT exceed roughly 90 degrees.
Next time, load it to 50 amps and watch where your gauge goes -- do this with ALL your batteries for the same time cycle and the odd-ducks out are the ''weak'' batteries that you can attempt to rejuvenate.
Construction Engineering & Photography
I couldnt find any official data regarding highest safe amperage to load them down, so i did just enough to safely get the job done. These "good used" batteries were just to replace the ones that were already deemed bad by the computer in techstream. The car ran great for months with no errors until i sold it.
Premium fuel only, awesome...and I can add my data now... 3amps and keep them cool...
Even though they may expand, do not panic, leave them out for about 48 hours and they will shrink back...
I did a charge and drain... a cycle of 5 times...
Using 2amps, as the drain load and 3 amps as the charge mode.
Construction Engineering & Photography Sounds good. Thanks for your comment.
Premium fuel only, I will make a video soon, showing the car's system will balance the batteries and also they cycle... Even temporarily jumping to 90 volts!
I used a real tracking monitor and when you brake suddenly, etc. the car's charging system bounces this up AND even takes amps way up also...
In other words, just throw the new battery in and truss the computer system to balance... Finally, the packs are not charged all together, in real monitoring, it looks like a random graph...very highs, and very lows...but, alternating all the time...
So you are saying not to balance them? Put the new battery in the computer does it?
this only balance the module, and inside???
I replaced two bad cells on my car I ended up charging RC lithium battery charger all cells and got voltage to 770 took a little bit of time it fixed I would also recommend cleaning every battery terminal it no triangle.
I got 2 busted modules in mine and they are still running perfectly. All I did was put in new bus bars and cleaned up each battery terminal with a wire brush. I replaced all the nuts and wire brushed the block management eyelets and my car now has more power than ever before and my MPG increased from 45 to 48. Even with the busted modules. I have to open it back up to replace those though.
@@Lilmiket1000 Still going OK?
Lots of opportunity to misunderstand this process. Rule 1: don’t discharge faster than the module (6 x 1.2v = 7.2v) amp/hr rating; which is about 6.5 ah. This means a max. Discharge rate of 6.5 amps. A simple taillight (1.5 amps), or headlight bulb (4-5 amps), would be much more appropriate than the giant amperage capacity of the unit used.
Yep the Nimh chargers wont discharge more than 5a.
I did this and dropped voltage on all cells to 7.5 and now that my battery is back in the vehicle my engine is overworking itself to keep the car running and the HV battery according to the lcd is not charging at all it's at one bar and I have lots of engine noise!Also the car cut off at one point,started back up ?PLEASE HELP
Lamir Ranee
I would start first checking for codes. Hard to say over the internet.
Make sure to clear all codes and disconnect the 12v battery. I had the same issue after I refurbished by battery pack. If you're still having an issue the problem could be your ECU.
@@fernandom999 ok we did that but still car is not charging the battery after we dropped the load on the individual cells.Gonna be getting a new battery for the car soon and seeing if this will fix the issue
@@lamirranee6997 Bad cell/connection? Did the new battery fix it?
@Roger Pack YES! I almost want to say some of the cells in the battery were still salvagable because technically we were able to load a good enough charge on th cells that were coming up low from the voltage meter but ultimately after trial and error and to avoid damaging other components I found a prius battery small business where this guy pretty much had some Frankenstein prius batteries with a small warranty of course and he gave me a recycled ♻️ fully balanced battery that ended up lasting me the rest of the time I had the Prius for a reasonable 😀 price. What a journey 👏🏾
Where did you get that battery module? Looking for one myself but not sure where to buy from
Ebay, plenty of salvage sellers on there.
Premium fuel only: Can you tell me what you are using to charge the individual modules prior to ;oad testing? In other words, do you take the other modules individually and charge them to 8 V and then load test them to see how fast the voltage drops?
I dont charge the other modules, I leave them in the car, the computer will charge them up.
@@PremiumFuelOnly thanks for your video, dude. Happy New Year!
@@plumkey197 No problem, good luck,
I did not know that so I had regular ruel in the car I charged all to 7.5 now engine is overworking and hv nit charging according to lcd display
i dont understand why youre scared of the high voltage ecu code
Hybrid cell show volt on meter 7.5 after load 20 second show 7.00 is it OK cell?
Yes it ok
Also car runs and drives just rough cut off and not charging
is there a way to do this to raise the voltage on each cell?
I have a Schumacher rolling battery charger that could charge at 6V (but its more like 8v which is perfect).
could you explain the procedure you would use to charge up an individual cell. I ask cause i've never tried to do it and wouldn't want to do it wrong and mess a cell up. Thanks
amasterofbation
I would hook the battery terminals up to the rolling charger, set it on the 6V 10AMP setting, put on safety glasses then turn it on. Verify with a meter that the charger is outputting above the target voltage. (like 8v, 6v wont do anything) You only want to turn it on for a few seconds at a time, then turn it off and see what the voltage of the battery is with the meter. Just keep doing it until the battery voltage is like the rest of the batteries. As long as you charge it a little at a time and dont just leave it on and walk away it wont hurt anything. Its like slowly putting air in a tire, If its taking too long, leave it on a little longer at a time, but I woudnt go over 10 AMP setting.
Thanks for the info and your help. one more question for you. What specific schumacher charger do you use? I've been looking online at several different ones but thought I'd ask anyway.
amasterofbation
I have a SE4020, But I just realized it puts out over 40Amps at 6 volts. So I dont recommend it to others. Might be ok for short bursts but its a faster charge/higher risk. Theres the Schumacher SE-82-6 Dual-Rate 2/6 Amp Manual Battery Charger that puts out 6Amps. I think its less risky to use but I dont have one to test.
So for loading one bank battery i must charge it ok 8v but minimal amperage ? 0.5 a will be ok ?
Davvidss Yes but it might take awhile.
Thank you for answer, so what is the best voltage and amperage in your opinion ?
Davvidss As the previous comments mentioned, I would do about 3 amps in short bursts and watch the temperature.
I read somewhere that it is recommended to charge at a rate between 3.25 to 6.5 amps (to reduce the memory effect while charging). On the SkyRC charger, I set the manual charge rate to 6 amps and set the time limit to 5 minutes (and I watch closely to ensure the voltage does not go above 8.40 to 8.50 volts). It usually charges at a rate of 5.2 - 5.4 amps. Using the Torque Pro app, I noticed the block voltage in the car varies between 15.75 to 18.5 volts and as much as 17 volts (8.5 volts per module). So I think it is okay to charge them up to 8.5 volts. The Torque Pro android app shows block voltages in the car (using the Prius PID) and the Dr. Prius app is useful to see which blocks have a problem. I use them both. The Torque Pro app can be used to check for codes and clear them.
you don't have to do that just hook it up to a 12 lamp with a voltmeter connected that's done
this vid is incorrect, the goal is not to get all battery voltage drops to be the same, the goal is to charge all the batts to same voltage
How can you do that if some are charged more than others?
@@PremiumFuelOnly move the inside batteries outside in the rack....they will never all read the same voltage, but the closer voltage to each other the better...
Another one stupid DIY video how tho properly destroy your battery pack
Your video is no working pls check it.thks