So I have a complete full battery of a 3rd gen that I wanted to see if I could learn how to recondition modules with, I cannot afford the pricey Prolong chargers so I opted for RC/Hobby chargers. I got a Quad CQ3 charger, Quad Hitec X4 Plus and 2 Tenergy T180 (not using these at the moment) for pretty cheap off of FBMP. So I will started the process 06/16 and 1 week later I have been able to recondition 11 cells and have 2 bad cells. My settings on both chargers are: - 3 Disharge/Charge Cycles - Capacity set @ 7500 mAh - Discharge at 1a / 6v cutoff - Delta Peak Sensitivity DEFAULT - Targets: 5000 mAh low / 7500 mAh (If both are NOT met, I do another cycle. Some have reached the desired target and others have dropped, for example 2 cycles, the discharge does not reach 5000 min but hits CAPACITY of 7500 mAh twice and on the third try to attempt at reaching 5000, the CAPA drops below the target and am left with a cell where neither is hitting its targets now) All in all with these settings I have been getting good results However, voltages from the charger to the actual battery terminals vary by as much as .12v and that has caused early dicharge and charge cutoffs. I tried to remedy this by making my own cables and same issue. I have copper ring terminals on the module and gold plated screw on banana clips into the chargers using 14g cable and now off by .06v-.07v. 2nd issue may be linked, as the cutoff times vary and most never reach the 6v min while discharging. I have been 20 points from reaching a target and the voltage on the machine reads 6.40v and it will stop and rests for the charge cycle. I have searched high and low and no answer anywhere online as to why this happens abruptly and machines choose to ignore my settings. Finally, all in all, I am enjoying this project and am logging all the data in hopes to then put this battery to use on my gen 3 then recon the on in the car now. I do think I will look into investing in the prolong once Im ready to do the next as this is def very, very, very time consuming and almost feels like caring for a newborn since yo u have to be attent to the temperatures, end cycles, data and so on. All ideas, improvement comments, tips welcome.
I would recommend to not charge them to 7500mah, you're probably cooking them and your battery doesn't have that much capacity anyway. Stick to 5ah and focus on efficiency. 5ah in, how much out? Really good modules are in the 95 to 99% range. Good usable modules can be as low as 85% but anything less is questionable. A good pack will have very similar efficiency across all modules. You can also test AC resistance using a handheld tester from Amazon, YR1035. Good modules test in the low 6s, weak modules approach 8. Anything higher than 9 I would toss.
I appreciate your response to this thread that appeared to go unnoticed but glad that what appears to be an expert chimed in. So, I did reduce the charge to 6500 mah after seeing others also recommend that mentioning that any charge past 6500 is dead and useless and all it will cause is heat. I found that out til the end though, I did that on my last 8 modules and found that most were not even reaching 6500 mah. The 20 that i did using 7500 mah most all reached 7500 on charge and 5000mah+ on discharge. The last 8 that I did using the 6500 mah were all in the center of the pack and all had erratic readings. Only 1 is still charging that has had the discharge climbing every time after 8 cycles its last discharge reading is at 4890. Finally, the last thing I would appreciate clarification on before I buy my replacement modules is, are the 8 replacements suppose to be matched in similar mAh readings? I ask as multiple videos have said, you have to replace those with other blades that have similar readings to your pack but I do find that somewhat difficult as not every blade sold is paired with a matching blade and also, how do I check other than take the sellers word that its a good blade before purchase if everyone recommends to run them again on a 3 cycle discharge/charge to see if they are good. I have seen others simply buy replacement blades and install those and call it a day. My understanding is, you place the cells with the highest discharge mAh on the outside of the pack and the least towards the inside. I saw a video by Jose from HybridSolutions who said if I have a really good blade (i.e 5800/6500 mah) but do not have another one either very similar numbers, to leave that one out of the pack, in other words do NOT use it. So a good clarification on this is what I am really looking for as recommendations are all over the place on youtube. P.S…I got the cq3 settings from GregFesto’s video who also said to use 7500mah charge setting since putting it lower would run the risk of you not reaching capacity. I also tried Fix it Fox’s recommendation of using 5a charge / 2a discharge also with a cutoff at 6500 capacity but I found my blades would swell up during the charge process more than at any other setting so I stopped using 5a.
