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Camry 2007 battery refurbish question - not clear on charger operation

Discussion in 'Toyota Hybrids and EVs' started by katit, Jul 25, 2020.

  1. katit

    katit New Member

    Joined:
    Jul 25, 2020
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    Location:
    St Louis, MO
    Vehicle:
    2007 Prius
    Model:
    Plug-in Base
    Hello team! New member here.. Just got Camry 2007 Hybrid and working on fixing it..
    When I got it - Hybrid battery was bad. Standard "stuff"
    P0A80, P3020, P3021, C1259, C1310

    After reading for a long time, watching various topics - I decided to give it a try. Replace bad modules and recondition all.

    I got HiTec X4 AC Pro charger
    I did first base measurments, all modules show ~7.75. All passed "bulb" test approx the same.
    Except for 2 modules. #9 and #19 were 6.5 from beginning. I get it, they are bad.

    QUESTION #1:
    Code points to block 10 and block 11. I am not sure how numbering works in Camry, but doesn't matter which side I count from - #19 can fall into block 10, but #9 cannot be anywhere. Fluke? What else might it mean?

    Next.. I read more and realize this HiTec charger is not good as it doesn't show discharge mAh. Well.. According to manual it does. And it clearly shows those numbers while charging and discharging. I didn't finish full cycle yet, but manual says once done I can go through each cycle numbers.

    QUESTION #2:
    Is this charger OK? Maybe it's old "knowledge" and now they do show those #s?

    Yesterday I started condition 1/3/5/7
    Initial program:
    NiMh
    2A discharge (in reality shows 1.3 and goes up to 1.6 by end of cycle
    5A charge
    1V cut-off (I understand its 6V since 6 cells). Correct?
    120Min safety timer
    7500mAh charge limit
    3x cycle D/C

    So, I programmed all 4 channels THE SAME
    Started process on those cells.

    What I observed is that 1/3 behaved very differently from 5/7
    QUESTION #3:
    Nothing looked differently but discharge times were different. Is this related to charger ports AB vs CD? But they programmed the same?

    So, batteries started to lag compare to each other. Channels C/D errored out on "time out" = 120mins on charge.

    Battery 1 got swallen. On outside temp was 30C vs 20C other modules
    I shut down for the night afraid of fire/damage.

    I started to read and see other people use 3A charge.

    So, I reprogrammed to following:
    NiMh
    2A discharge (in reality shows 1.3 and goes up to 1.6 by end of cycle
    3A charge
    1V cut-off (I understand its 6V since 6 cells). Correct?
    720Min safety timer
    7000mAh charge limit
    Delta V disabled

    3x cycle D/C

    Started process again.
    Currently battery 5 get's swallen (see output on charger - channel C), temp ~22C on outside
    QUESTION #4: Is swallen batteries OK?

    So, am I doing something wrong? Should I change something?
    When I connect my Fluke to terminals of battery - I see voltage about .1 higher than what charger shows.
     

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