non-grid charging results 2000 insight

[Bhote]

I would certainly like to know your tips, as my "new" 247,000 mile 2000 Insight is having battery issues: P1449 and a few related. I have been planning to install a grid charger,, but would like to hear all advice. (My neighbor and I are going to install his new Bumblebee battery in his Insight together so I may follow that route too) One step at a time.

[kaypee171]

If you don't want to spend the 800 some odd dollars that one of Mike's chargers costs, I understand. My budget doesn't really allow for that right now either. So go read the thread on building a dumb charger. I have about $30 in mine and use it about once a week. It puts out 300mA at the most, so I just leave it plugged in overnight now that the weather has cooled off. The key part of that equation is that it balances the cells in the pack. While your method may do that as well, to a certain extent, it could also overcharge the first cells to fill at a high enough load to damage them. The hybrid system doesn't charge at low enough levels that the batteries can dissipate overcharge as excess heat fast enough. With that said, I am not an electrical engineer (although I suspect we have a few on here). Your idea might work. But for $30, a dumb charger would work better and be less costly in the long run.

[Jivko57]

I have been using a "dumb " charger on my battery for almost 2 years now nad cannot find words to recommend it more . It revived my almost dead IMA battery and went from 2-3 recals a day to no recals in years . the average mpg went from 63mpg to 70 mpg , the battery felt like new for almost a year. unfortunately the battery continues to deteriorate and now at the end of the second year I feel the capacity decreasing.

I hae had the car for 3 years and the IMA ligt was on from the day i got it. So i started with a 10% or less battery from day one , now it is probably much less, but it is drivable and thanks to the grid charger the car is not constantly back charging .
(Lately the back charging has come to ~ 30-40% of the time I am driving) .

But I would recommend a "smart" charger for those who can afford it as the danger of an accident is probably higher when using a dumb one.

would recommend installing fire alarms in the garage too, together with keeping handy fire extinguishers for electrical fires .

So my next step will be in getting one of Mike's smarter chargers ....

Still do not understand why Honda did not include a factory charger in the car with wi-fi connection and monitoring and all.... that would have saved them a lot on replacing IMA batteries.....

[Eli]

Oregon2000 stopped by today, so we took his car for a spin. I can confirm the altered driving style. It took me approximately 1.5 miles to trigger the negative recal, and despite somewhat gentle charging, resulted in a positive recal and IMA light a few miles later.

The battery was very weak, dipping well below 100V under full assist. The batteries internal resistance calculates out to 0.55 - 0.65 ohms. In comparison, a brand new MaxIMA battery is ~0.25 ohms and a refurbished Honda battery about 0.35 ohms.

We pulled approximately 400mAh (0.4 amp hours) out of the battery before the negative recal. Surprisingly, this didn't trigger the IMA light. I suspect this is because it had been a long time since the last recal. However, inputting only approximately 650mAh (0.65Ah) before the positive recal did trigger the IMA light.

Here's a graph of the results with some highlights pointed out.

[retepsnikrep]

What was that data output/recorded with?