Need help! In a predicament in Dallas, TX.

Remind us again the current condition of your battery (good and hasn’t failed, weak and showing signs of failure, replaced a module or 2).

I’ve seen benefit from doing only one cycle (one charge up, discharge to 134 ten charge back up).

Depending on your batteries condition that might be all you need.

 

Prolong® Deluxe Reconditioning Package (( PDR-HH )) package.
Your charger model label should show an output rating of 360 VOLTS DC

The instructions are fairly generic, and not to difficult to understand for someone that has already
done several charge/discharge cycling routines with a pack or two or three.

In no way are they easy to understand for a beginner or novice.

Mostly to the fact that all the charger model SKUs have basically the same procedure
with different voltage ranges all mixed together into one set of instructions..

Important: Pack cooling with the fan(s) is important for safety. One fan should be sufficient cooling
for a pack being charged at 350 ma

One issue I see already is that your pack has three module blocks, each with it's own ducting and fan.

You will want to make sure you have air moving through all three ducts while charging/discharging.

It's best if you can monitor difference of air temp going into and coming out of the pack.

At 350 ma charge rate you don't need a huge amount of air moving but three fans might be worth the effort to
make sure you have movement in all three ducts while charging/discharging.


There are so many other safety features built into the GC01 that I take for granted and some I've yet to fully comprehend
it's hard to remember all of the basic safety cutoffs
Then try to transpose them to a system requiring 288 volts as a starting point and acquiring 330 - 340 + VOLTS fully charged.

charge/discharge cycling is what it is. It is what works best for most NiMH packs that have
imbalanced cell issues

not all packs respond to charge/discharge cycling.

although most that have been documented respond positively to some degree, many to a large degree after charge/discharge cycling.

It is the first step of the cell balancing cycle.

in short yes. If you only charge once all you accomplish is to raise the pack voltage higher than the Highlander will charge the pack.

After you get a plan together you should talk with Matt again and see if he agrees.
There are so many conflicting versions of what works best,
untangling them and figuring out what works best for your pack and vehicle is the most difficult part of the process for a beginner. !

 

Maybe, no one supplied the info you needed, cos at first, you just weren't... You were just scared. I bet if such info about tgr voltages were supplied, you still wouldn't have being able to do it. Simply because of the psychological fears, maybe?!

 

I thought the Highlander pack was a nickel metal hydride chemistry?!

 

@Dxta. Glad you brought that up.
I forgot to make the correction previously.
I got confused by watching the the lithium video and associating the module block structure of the newer lithium
to the older bigger NiMH module blocks. It's the first I've seen the module block stuff.
I'd also forgotten this thread was concerning Highlander and posted as if it was a gen2 or gen3 prius.
apologies ....

highlander thread

 

We ALL learn every day!

 

good

position thermocouple at intake and exhaust openings of the pack ducts.

No
Techstream provides module temps which are much more accurate than relying on airflow temps.

But the cars computers are not setup for monitoring grid charging/discharging.

Better than no monitoring at all but not very accurate with the temp sensors so far from the pack.

In this instance I'm talking about charging
I'm also not talking about "1 cycle"
I'm also not talking about any specific equipment.
I'm referring to only charging the pack.

If you only charge the pack without discharging the pack, all That's accomplished is to raise the voltage of the pack higher than the voltage the vehicle will charge the pack to.

I don't know of any vehicle, except maybe drag racer (and probably not them either) that would use grid charger produced top end voltage from the pack.

It just doesn't make much sense ( to me anyways ) when looking at the battery packs power curve.

In this instance I was referring to charging the pack. Not cycling the pack.

The first Precharge - Discharge cycle can be thought of as a baseline of the packs current condition.

Yeah I remember! Or "Percharge" - discharge - depending on your point of view.....

much different scenario
than Charge - Discharge - Charge = 1 cycle
And I suppose there is a pack issue that might call for a cycle using no Precharge before Discharge.
But I couldn't tell you what that might be.
Maybe someone else has seen this as optimal scenario in their situation.

There's a lot of theoretical stuff I haven't looked at while I continue to untangle the practical application of keeping my car running
with it's own unique set of circumstances.
YMMV

 

Glad to hear you got the covers off and finished the install. Sorry it was such a painful process for you. Those fan clips can be pinched & released from underneath with angle pliers to remove them from the battery box sheet metal. I suspect you know that by now.

We recommend a charge first prior to discharging to ensure the cells are as balanced as possible while deep discharging. You can spread it out over a couple weekends if needed, although it is better to do it all at once if possible.

 

The pack should not self discharge when no load is present. Degraded packs can self discharge but this is a negative indicator of battery health (i.e. bad packs do it, not good ones). The fact that it did not (assuming it was at 313V two weeks ago when you parked it) is a good thing.

 

@TMR-JWAP has used some Android based software to log & graph battery parameters as a verification of health.
He is the best one to explain further since some of that information is scattered throughout a lengthy thread.

You will find the apps mentioned in this post. The thread is full of graphs from good & bad packs.

Just Another HV Battery Thread and Experiments | Page 2 | PriusChat

 

All you've said makes sense as I try my best to read between the lines.

Put your fears aside....
it all reads fairly normal to me, even though it doesn't make sense to you yet.
That is just how the process works.

The reason you see voltage bounce around is that it is between where it wants to go (one higher ) or stay where it is.
Further - while charging voltage can actually decrease ( typically as charger amperage is reduced ) ( though not in your case but it does happen )

and it can take a long time for weaker cells to fully charge as stronger cells have already reached their fully charged state. 12 sometimes 24 hours
Anyways ?!?!?

In General - Although what you see so far doesn't make sense to you yet, it will eventually as you progress through the process.
From what I've read so far you haven't made any great errors I can see.

Again, you might want to run your concerns by someone that you trust in person.

edit: it is already known that cycling takes a long time
To reduce that time in half cost twice as much for the more powerful and safety featured equipment.

Some have tried to do it 5 times as fast, but the results have not been good, from what I've heard from them.

 

Contact Matt at Texas Hybrid Batteries. The guy is an amazing wealth of knowledge and more than affordable. Get it fixed right the first time.

 

The op's problem & this thread's roughly ½ dozen years ago - in case anyone cares

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