I have CQ3 chargers. I was getting some strange results in the recorded data. The charge and discharge readings would go up, way down and up again on the same modules. I could not tell a good module from a bad one. I felt that using alligator clips was not good. I then noticed that the banana plugs have a swivel in the end of the 4mm plug. I took my old bus bars and soldered the charger wires onto them and attached each bus bar to the screw studs on the modules. And, I soldered the swivel on the banana plugs to solder bridge the swivel. The CQ3 delta peak responds to a very small fraction of a volt. Thus, the connections must be consistent and solid from the charger to the battery modules. When measuring the discharge capacity, the amount of the previous charge is important. Sometimes, for some reason, (bad connections?) the charge did not reach the full amount (7500mah). If this happens, expect that the subsequent discharge reading to be reduced. And, due to the self-discharge nature of NiMH batteries, do not run a discharge/charge cycle, wait a day or two and then expect to get the highest discharge reading. I made that mistake. With good solid battery-charger connections, it seems that almost all of my charge cycles go to the maximum of 7500mah. Therefore, it does not go past the first cycle. I must monitor the charger and manually restart it for multiple cycles. The delta peak is set to default which is maybe too insensitive? Maybe the CQ3 is not detecting full charge or maybe all of my modules are faulty. Any ideas?
Having the same issue myself, always get the Capacity message. This is really slowing the process down.
Same here. What did you come up with a solution, or did your soldering solution work? Please give us an update.
I reported this thread to the moderator and asked that it be removed to the Gen 3 forum. The OP owns a Gen 3 Prius.
@Seymour1 Thanks for the tips above. Any progress on getting the CQ3 to work more effectively? I've hit CAPA a few times now and it's definitely slowing things down.
I'm having a very similar issue. I'm wired up using banana plugs to ring terminals. To try and solve for this, I'm playing around with the Delta Peak sensitivity. Recommendations are all over the place from default (7mV) to 20 mV). I am currently testing a range of different DPs to see if I can find the sweet spot between pushing the cell a little harder, but being able to get multiple D/C cycles. One more confirmation I was hoping to get, the CQ3 displays Delta Peak as mV per CELL, however there is no way to input the number of cells. Is it safe to say I can read it as mV per MODULE?
Crazy, I was just about to post about some issues I am having with this same exact Baguad CQ3 (red/black) charger. I just got it and using it for the 1st time on a spare 3rd gen battery. Perhaps i could post here rather than making a new thread? If not, I can start a new one. Here are my settings: Charge 3.0a Discharge 1.0a / 6v Capacity cut off 7500 mAh Delay between cycles 15 min 3 cycles 1st issue: I noticed on one of the modules that the CHARGE voltage increased all the way to 9v which I understand safe V is between 8.2v and 8.6v. The amperage fluctuates between 0.1v and 3.0 and when at its 3a max is when it can read 9v. 2nd issue: Modules do NOT discharge down to the 6v I have set it to, the ones I have caught 2 modules discharge to about 6.44v and one 6.87v and then go into DELAY and begin to charge after the 15 min wait. Why is the charger overriding the values set? 3rd issue: I like the others above, have gotten the CAPA message twice on one of the cells, which indicated it met its 7500 mAh set. I could not get a data reading so reset the cycle and 8 hours later got the CAPA message again and this time it gave me 5518 for the low and 7500 mAh which indicates good module. All in all this module took 20-22 hours to do 3 cycles and ultimately give the 2 CAPA messages. 4th issue: On the cell above, it would not give me a DATA log for the second cycle just the 1st cycle. It showed 0000 for cycle 2 and 3. Is there a reason why its not logging the data for the other cycles and only the 1st meeting its CAPA? I have seen various videos on youtube of others using this same charger but havent seen one where they address these issues. Any help from those who are familiar with this charger would be greatly appreciate.
