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Where can I find hybrid battery charger

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Technical Discussion' started by blue 04, Oct 4, 2014.

  1. blue 04

    blue 04 Junior Member

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    I have found a complete Gen ll traction battery for sale out of a wrecked 08. I would like to buy it. Its been 8 weeks since the wreck. If I get it I need a way to keep it "alive" I'm not sure if its even still working now. Does anyone know of a reasonably priced charger I could get? Better yet possibly some other way to charge it? I'm considering taking the battery out of my 2004 and putting this one in but that's a lot of work. Thanks in advance for anything you can tell me

    Charles Ware
    Huntsville, Alabama
     
  2. vskid3

    vskid3 Active Member

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    jeff652 likes this.
  3. Aaron Vitolins

    Aaron Vitolins Senior Member

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    Check venice hybrid tech. They sale grid chargers
     
  4. goldfinger

    goldfinger Active Member

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    You could build one. There's no hurry here. You want to trickle charge. A rate as low as C/100 would be more than enough. A small machine tool transformer, diode, and current limiting resistor could be put together cheap from internet components. This would be a high voltage dumb charger. You would have to supply the smarts. If you don't know exactly what you're doing the smartest move would be to buy a smart charger.

    No matter how you elect to charge please don't kill your self.
     
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  5. TampaPrius.com

    TampaPrius.com Active Member

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    Make sure you have a fan on the pack while charging and keep it in a cool place to avoid overheating the modules. The slower the charge the better.
     
  6. LEVE

    LEVE Member

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    I picked a HV Traction battery grid charger up at:

    Venice Hybrid Tech

    It's on Ebay at:

    Ebay Grid Charger

    Since I've three Prii, I won't be without this little tool. I use it on both a Gen 1 and Gen 2 Prii to grid charge the traction batters. This is NOT a fix for bad modules/cells.

    Raj (Owner-Sale and Techie) is Excellent and I can't say enough good about his help on a project.
     
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  7. TampaPrius.com

    TampaPrius.com Active Member

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    Great price on the charger but I believe the battery needs to be cooled whenever charging. If you use this charger you need to put power to your cooling fan or utilize and external fan. Despite the claims on the website, :

    "While I am not in favor of running the fan as the charger supplies only 350 mA of current and as such does not generate significant amount of heat but due to customers demand, I have now included the instructions and power source to run the fan while charging the Hybrid Battery for Honda insight."

    there is heat build up with 350mAh charging (I only have experience with genII Prius) . I used my grid charger out of the car one day w/o the fan and only charged for two hours. One hour later there was still hot air coming from the pack when I put a fan on it(ambient temp around 80F).
     
  8. Aaron Vitolins

    Aaron Vitolins Senior Member

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    I also bought the venice grid charger but I'll be hooking up an external fan.
     
  9. Aaron Vitolins

    Aaron Vitolins Senior Member

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    Good to find someone else with this charger! I haven't installed mine yet (hopefully Wednesday) has yours worked well? Any tips or advice? Thanks
     
  10. ericbecky

    ericbecky Hybrid Battery Hero

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    I would generally recommend that you do some discharging on your packs as part of routine maintenance.

    And for future reference,

    The chargers/harnesses sold in the PriusChat store have discharge capability.
    The maker of the PriusChat store grid charger helped sponsor the PriusChat To Go Before, Prius owner event.
    Heck, they even gave away three chargers at the event. (Hybrid Automotive is the maker.)

    Also, don't forget, the ones you buy through Venice Hybrid do not support PriusChat in any way.

    The ones purchased through the PriusChat Store help keep PriusChat free for every one.
     
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  11. LEVE

    LEVE Member

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    Yes, it has worked well. I'll be using it on a spare battery that I purchased last week for my Gen II Prius. The install is straight forward. I secured the harness connection to the charger up under the trunk-lip near the left hinge. I sheathed the harness in split-loom, sometimes called convoluted tubing, and hid it behind the trunk carpeting. Bear in mind that there's full battery voltage on that harness. You don't the wiring to be hit/crushed or the end connector to get wet. That would not be a good thing. It's fused, but the harness is also long and could take a hit between the fuse and the battery. You must guard against that, hence the split-loom.

    I do like the idea of running the fan during the charging. That's something I'll have to look into! If it helps keep the battery temp low, then I'm all for it. I didn't even think about that.
     
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  12. Aaron Vitolins

    Aaron Vitolins Senior Member

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    Thanks! Did you do the, charge 3 nights in a row for 10 hours? If so do you suggest me to do the same?
     
  13. LEVE

    LEVE Member

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    No, I only charged one night, about 9 hours. The car had sat 7 months, no problems on start.
     
  14. wjtracy

    wjtracy Senior Member

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    The best idea, some feel, is to replace the Gen2 modules with Gen3 modules from a wreck.
    So I am not sure I would be speculatively buying a used Gen2 wreck HV battery, if I understand correcty, that you have no immediate use for.
     
  15. TampaPrius.com

    TampaPrius.com Active Member

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    Here is a homemade grid charger that one of my customers made.

    IMG_1878.JPG
     

    Attached Files:

  16. wjtracy

    wjtracy Senior Member

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    ...without understanding much about what I am looking at, but, alligator clips?
     
  17. blue 04

    blue 04 Junior Member

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    He, I finally got the Venice grid charger. I'm excited and wanted to use it but there are no instructions In the box. No one at Venice answers my call to either number and no email response. Did you get instructions?
     
  18. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    what is it, chinese?
     
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  19. Aaron Vitolins

    Aaron Vitolins Senior Member

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  20. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    cali with no instructions and no one to answer the phone? worse than china, north korea?