[MaHiHy]

Get well and be carefull my friend.
[/QUOTE]
Thank your for your time and support. I'll let you know how it goes when it goes.
And stay safe.
-G

 

[MaHiHy]

Finally past the covid but some residual fatigue is still there for me. But I did do a home made reconditioning. In the photo you can see I breadboarded the whole thing and used alligator clip jumpers to make connections. I am an experienced audio designer working with vacuum tubes so I didn't bother to package this and 360 volts doesn't scare me. Also you pull the disconnect plug on the side of the pack and it breaks the battery pack into 2. Since it floats, i.e. not grounded to the chassis, that makes it relatively safe to work on.
Also I didn't plan to keep doing this so breadboarding was enough packaging for now.

I used the directions from Prolong to hook up the high voltage. I had to research on my own how to get the fans to run. I bought a 3 amp 12 volt power supply and hooked the fans up with 5 ohm resistors in series with each. I had to ground the speed control pin in the connectors to enable them to spin. The fans draws 2.5 amps at full speed and around 1amp with the 5 ohm resistor. However the power supply would run 5 seconds shut down for 1 and turn back on as the overload protection kicked in and out. No harm to the power supply and the fans ran fast enough to do the job.

https://hybridautomotive.com/install-hh1pnp/

Also note that I had a larger fan blowing on the whole battery pack but it wasn't enough to keep it cool until the I had built in fans running during a sunny day.

My initial charged reached 339.4 volts and would not go higher. So I did a discharge as per the Prolong directions. I had to use 3 200W bulbs in series to start then dropped to 2 60 W bulbs when the voltage was low enough for them. I went through the whole procedure 3 times and the last charge got up to 344 volts max.

When I did a deep discharge the 3rd time I took some voltage readings on the battery modules in the HiHY. There 2 blades in each one 15 modules total, i.e. 30 blades. I found at least 7 modules that drained down to a few volts or less and some others held up to around 15 volts. So knowing that I dialed back my expectations for a revival of the battery. Although it did improve.

While I did this I used Dr. Prius app to obtain readings. It has a nice recording feature of the parameters so I was able to dump them into spreadsheets.

Attached are photos of the charger and the whole mess at work.

Rough schematic. I used a 1 ohm resistor in the ground leg to monitor current, which allowed me to also switch to voltage easily. However I didn't include switches or or the fan circuits. I hooked up the fans with alligator jumpers. Also it shows 2 ways to build fan control modules for a Toyota fan but doesn't show the 5 ohm resistors or a necessary 555 pulse width modulator to control fan speed fi you don't want to do the 5 ohm resistor.

I could not find the connectors online to hook to the fans or I would have built a more complete circuit. If anyone knows where to get them let me know, though I know this isn't a Toyota forum.

Here are some Dr Prius screen shots.
Before, heavy discharge, and after.

Again, thanks for all the help and inspiration. I will be looking for some decent blades to rebuild the pack or I may just spring for a rebuilt battery with a warranty with gas is at $5/ gal.

All in all, I have a much deeper picture of the health of this battery however this just took a lot of time.

Yours truly,
George

 

[megamuffin]

Again, thanks for all the help and inspiration. I will be looking for some decent blades to rebuild the pack or I may just spring for a rebuilt battery with a warranty with gas is at $5/ gal.
All in all, I have a much deeper picture of the health of this battery however this just took a lot of time.
Yours truly,George

MTL_hihy has a Highlander Hybrid discussion at PriusChat.com

MTL_hihy discussions and charging

Reputable Toyota blade rebuilds

2010 up Toyota Highlander Refurbished 30 Module Brick – 2nd Life Battery

 

[fitboyawesome]

Please give us the supply name and part number you found.


I know nothing about the Toyota's battery system (or the cooling fan voltage etc requirements).

Good storage batteries will normally charge to some fully charged voltage and try to limit further voltage rise. BUT the battery(s) will also start dissipating the heat generated by the overcharge and can (in extreme cases [think of the exploding hover boards!]) vent, explode and or start fires. Depending upon the batteries chemistry, some lithium batteries can be ruined by over voltage charging and too low a discharge voltage.
That's I always recommend a guide about Toyota highlander years to avoid (Toyota Highlander Years to Avoid [Best & Worst Time] - Nerdy Car)
Part of the apparent higher battery pack charged voltage will be the internal resistance of the pack's cells and wiring due to the charging current and ambient temperature.

In general, follow the manufacturer's recommended preventative maintenance schedule and it will last a long time. There's no need to replace the timing chain if you have the 3.5 2GR-FE because the 3.3 has a belt and I believe it was still used in some models that year (hybrid, perhaps?). I can't be certain). If you haven't already, replace the coolant by draining the block and the radiator and refilling with Toyota Red or Zerex red Toyota coolant. Your oil leak is most likely caused by valve cover gaskets, which can be replaced (front is easy, rear requires a little more finagling). Because you have to remove the intake to get to the spark plugs, this is an excellent time to replace them.
If you have the 2.7 motor (4cyl), replacing the valve cover gasket is simple. However, I don't believe they shipped awd 2.7s. I hope this helps a little. Oh, and if you ever need a power steering pump, go with OEM; aftermarket Toyota reman pumps are garbage. I had maybe 20 and at least half of them failed before I stopped buying G Cardone's reman junk.

 

[Jsimmonizer]

I am looking to build a simple grid charger for rebalancing on my 2006 civic IMA. I saw some post about the meanwell drivers had changed and are not constant current.. I found these really cheap and in series would be correct volts, need about 200v.
Can you tell me if these should work? I am not sure how to tell if constant current or what happens if I use one that is not?
I figured I'd ask before I just tried it.
I took pack apart and sort of balanced each cell and I worked great for about 4 months. (I was not very scientific about my approach though) need to do it again and switch out bad cells but would like a monthly grid charge going forward.
Thanks

 

[Jsimmonizer]

.

 

[olrowdy01]

I am looking to build a simple grid charger for rebalancing on my 2006 civic IMA. I saw some post about the meanwell drivers had changed and are not constant current.. I found these really cheap and in series would be correct volts, need about 200v.
Can you tell me if these should work? I am not sure how to tell if constant current or what happens if I use one that is not?

Typically the output current of these LED power supplies are either current limited or constant current. From the specs shown on the picture I would expect both of them to be constant current. But truthfully with cheap Chinese power supplies you can't be sure until you test them yourself.

I figured I'd ask before I just tried it.
[snip]

Thanks

The problem I see with those two supplies is that the output voltages and power output ratings aren't the same. You're in uncharted ground trying to use them in series.

As a test I would wire a 40 watt, 120 volt light bulb to the output of one supply at a time and measure the output voltage and current to see what they actually do. The higher voltage supply should output 300 ma at some voltage around 120 volts. The lower voltage supply may require a lower wattage bulb to test at 60+ volts.

Either way, I doubt the lower voltage supply will work with the large voltage difference in ratings between the two supplies as a series connected pair because the two power supplies have different maximum output -power- specifications when the the battery pack will be charging.

By the numbers shown on each supply, one is rated at ~37 watts output and the other at ~18 watts. That's not a recipe for a good match when wired in series.

I would definitely use output protection diodes (as my two charger designs do) to prevent the higher voltage supply from putting a reversed voltage into the lower voltage supply even as a test!