I agreed to help a woman with a honda civic out she is on her second hybrid battery. I have never worked on hondas. I own a CRX. It will need work someday

 

link:
http://www.hobbypartz.com/73p-t6x4-charger.html

Unfortunately, that charger is only marginally better than the IMAX B6. It has an 80W charge and 8W discharge capability. It is like having 4 IMAX B6 in 1. "Professional" does not apply to this charger.

If you test individual sticks, it will take you at least 30 minutes to charge, 5 hours to discharge with 20 minutes of wait at either end. Double that for pairs. If you do the traditional 3 cycles, you're looking at about 18 hours per stick. You can do four at a time, so it could take you as little as 6 days. In the end, you will have accomplished very little.

Here's my advice:

Per stick (not pair):
Set NiMH delta-V cut-off to maximum.
Disable safety timers.
Set capacity limit to 8800mAh.
Set delay timer to 20 minutes (between CHG and DCHG).
Charge at 0.55A (will take 16 hours to get to 8800mAh).
Discharge at max to 6V (record this number - it is the stick's capacity)
(you can set the above up as a CHG/DCHG cycle)
Discharge at 1A to 0.1V
Discharge at 0.5A to 0.1V
Discharge at 0.2A to 0.1V

Set NiMH delta-V cut-off to default
Set delay timer to 0 minutes (between CHG and DCHG).
Set charge to max
Set to DCHG/CHG 1 cycle
Discharge at 0.2A to 0.1V
Once 0.1V is hit, it will fully charge the battery

This method will reverse 5 of the 6 cells in the sticks. It won't hurt them at these low currents. I have done this several times with good results.

The reason cycling works is that it pushes the voltages of the weakest cells to well below 1V/cell and sometimes reverses them. This eliminates the "voltage depression" that looks like what is referred to as "memory effect". I haven't seen cycling make any significant difference; however, I have seen up to 25% capacity improvement with deep cycling.

You have a big job in front of you. Good luck.

Steve

 

Wow! That lays it all out. Thanks. I have a couple of questions. These sticks are welded together. To work on one stick is best? You would connect to it ignoring the other half and that works?

 

Yes. 8W discharge on a pair will be pitiful - 10+ hours to discharge a pair at a frightfully low rate and you'll be limited to about 4.3A charge rate as you'll be hitting the 80W max.

Orange sticks are (+) at the threaded end, and green sticks are (-) at the threaded end. The welded bar joining the sticks will be (-) for the orange stick and (+) for the green stick.

I recommend that you NOT work both sticks in a pair at the same time. Pick 4 pairs, and work stick one in each pair, then work stick 2 in each pair. I had issues with B6 working two sticks in the same pair fed by the same power supply. I expect your X4 charger would suffer the same issue since one power supply drives all four chargers.

Again, good luck. I can't encourage pursuit of a grid charger enough. The chance of your efforts producing a lasting result without a grid charger is low. The deep discharge will maximize the recovery, but you likely have some very tired cells that will self-discharge significantly more rapidly than others.

Steve

 

Ok so the first cycle has a 20 minute delay between charge and discharge. Then set up 3 more cycles with no delay and cell charged to the maximum hitting Delta V? Makes sense just checking to make sure I understand the process. One or more of these cells is performing below par. When I find it I want to replace it. Where are good replacements for these battery sticks generally found. This is a huge help!

 

Yes.

No. One, 16 hr chg + max dchg cycle (record capacity).
Manual discharges as described.
One last Discharge/chg cycle.

The goal of the last "cycle" is to drive the cell to zero and IMMEDIATELY charge it to full.

If you want, you can repeat a dchg/chg cycle to record an "after" capacity. I am completely against cycling at this point. It's a waste of time. The gentle discharge/reversal gives more benefit than cycling. I have done dozens of sticks, and haven't seen a single significant improvement with the 3-5X traditional cycling recommended.

Cells can't be replaced. Stick pairs can. You will have to scour online to find them.

Steve

 

I am on second cycle of the group of 4 cells. I see 3 of the cells tali a Very long time to discharge. One however drops look a rock. It would take maybe 10 min at most to discharge at the rate its dropping. I stopped the process fo that cell. What is the reason it is dropping so fast? Would this be the cell that is worn out?

 

All four cells are going down, discharging at different rates. One VERY quickly. The other 3 are all somewhat close but differing. Cell 2 is down to 2.95V cell 3 is 4.46 cell 4 is 4.61. All are being discharged at same rate at same time by same charger discharger????

 

Let's be clear. Cells or sticks?

When you drop below 6V/stick, there is a lot of variability.

When you say "cycle" that implies charge/discharge or discharge/charge. I am not recommending actual cycles beyond the following:

Charge at 0.55A (will take 16 hours to get to 8800mAh).
Discharge at max to 6V (record this number - it is the stick's capacity)
(you can set the above up as a CHG/DCHG cycle)
Discharge at 1A to 0.1V
Discharge at 0.5A to 0.1V
Discharge at 0.2A to 0.1V
(3 progressively

Set NiMH delta-V cut-off to default
Set delay timer to 0 minutes (between CHG and DCHG).
Set charge to max
Set to DCHG/CHG 1 cycle
Discharge at 0.2A to 0.1V
Will charge at max to delta V cut off.

If you view all of the above as one "refurb cycle," I'm okay with calling it a cycle, but it should only be done once.

 

Its just the individual one half of the cells. I'm only doing one half. They are very different. I stopped one because it was discharging so fast it would have been done in 15 min.