The G1 Insight thread.

[HyperMileQC]

When I do my charge/discharge cycles I charge ~24-28 hours before discharging. On my grid charger, the charging indicator LED stops glowing when I am at 176 + volts. This is my way to know if my battery is fully charged. For the discharge cycle I use a 500w electric heater. It usually discharge in ~5 hours going from fully charged (175v) to discharged, I stop at 130v but there is some people out there who discharge at lower voltages.

I have seen my battery go from ~4.9-5 Ah to 6.5 Ah with 3 full cycles and since then I never had a recalibration or forced regen. For me deep discharging has done wonders to my battery.

[Baltothewolf]

Got my best record going to work on Saturday! My previous best was 89mpg, and I did 50-55 all the way to work. This time I only did 58-61 and got 91.8MPG. I think the newer battery I got really, really helped. I say 'newer' because it's not a brand new battery, but it was only 2 years old from Honda with low miles and running great but had thrown a P1568 (PTC strip code), then sat for like a year (or close to it). Did the P1568 bypass and it works great! I have a ton more battery and the car doesn't background charge nearly as much as it used to.

Also, HyperQC, I honestly don't think just charging a battery does much for it. With my old battery, if I just charged it, it would run ok for like 2 days then code again. With a deep discharge (0v discharge) my battery would last 3 weeks to a month before throwing P1449 again. I would just repeat, and kept the battery working for 7 months before getting my current battery.

[Ecky]

Great mileage!

I had been reading about deep discharges a few weeks ago. When I saw "0v" I was alarmed because of what I have read about cell inversion.

How can I drain my IMA battery deeply? - Insight Central: Honda Insight Forum

Originally Posted by Eli

Deep discharges are the key to rejuvenating Nickel based cells. However, to do it safely, you must do it at the cell level.

When doing it at the pack level, this is the question: Is the damage sustained during cell reversal worth a balanced pack?

I guess the answer could be yes, if you don't have anything to lose?!

Regarding the OP - yes, deep discharges by resetting the SoC like you've done will give marked improvements. Graphs to follow if I can find them.

Originally Posted by 3-Wheeler

eq1,

I would agree with Eli, in that the only way to *safely* get to a cell voltage of 0.78 volts would be to monitor all six cells per stick, when performing a discharge, and then watch for the lowest voltage cell to start dropping out.

Maybe if your current was low enough, one could stop the process it time and still get below 0.78 volts?

I would venture a guess and say that the current draw would be way less than 10 amps.

I can see one other scenario happening:
- the level of the cells starts to drop below 0.78 volts, but the other cells are still going strong.
- how do you get all the cells in the stick to get below the 0.78 volt threshold without reversing the lowest voltage cell?
- I suppose one would have to charge up the lowest cell first, and then continue on the discharge for the entire stick?
- Oh, now it dawns on me: one could simply discharge each cell of the stick, one at a time, and get each one below the threshold.

Jim.

[Baltothewolf]

Originally Posted by Ecky

Great mileage!

I had been reading about deep discharges a few weeks ago. When I saw "0v" I was alarmed because of what I have read about cell inversion.

I don't agree with them, my experience tells me the exact opposite of what is thought to be true. When it comes time to discharge my used-new pack, I'll be taking it to 0v.

[cowmeat]

What did you pay for it btw, Balto?

Pretty pricy item to be experimenting on, especially if you're taking the IC guys' advice, since none of them seem to agree on the subject and one of them has a Davy Jones pic as his avatar . . . .

[Baltothewolf]

Originally Posted by cowmeat

What did you pay for it btw, Balto?

Pretty pricy item to be experimenting on, especially if you're taking the IC guys' advice, since none of them seem to agree on the subject and one of them has a Davy Jones pic as his avatar . . . .

Nothing :P. I'm actually serious 0$. Anyway, I will only be discharge/charging once every 6 months, so yea.

[cowmeat]

I'm curious:

What grade of gasoline do you guys use in your Insights? I've tried every grade there is, including ethanol-free, but never saw any measurable gains with any of them, so I stick to 87 octane now. Car runs fine on it, but I'd like to know if anybody has had any better results using another grade. Maybe I didn't give the other grades enough of a chance.

KFM says the owner's manual suggests 91 octane? Guess I could have read through the manual at some point, lol!

[Ecky]

Somewhat of a duplicate post, but:

I run 87, as 93 showed no noticeable improvement. I wonder (suspect) that the "91" in the service manual might be RON while we use AKI in the US.

91 RON ~ 87 AKI

Octane rating - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

~

In other news, I discovered what a low 12v battery is like in our cars. I posted over on InsightCentral about it, and their best guess was that one of the cells inverted, because I was unable to put more than about 8-9v in my battery even leaving it on charge overnight. Symptoms of a 12v battery:

Turn key, and the display comes on, but with no backlight. Car starts using the backup starter (and amazingly, starts with only 8v). FCD button does not work. Odometer does not go up when driving. Tons of warning lights are on, including EPS, ABS, battery, parking brake and seatbelt. Odometer still shows RPM when driving, but I don't think the engine temperature gauge ever went up. Battery gauge reads empty. Power steering does not work. Car drives strange, pressing the pedal to the floor causes it to shudder and buck, need to feather the pedal to get up to speed. No electric assist or regenerative braking. I have a suspicion that the DC-DC converter also was not coming on.

Despite all this, I was able to drive to classes and later take it to Honda for a new battery. I wonder if using my maintainer ever night killed my 12v? It was about 5 years old, but its death was very sudden. For now, I'm leaving the charger in place but will not be using it nightly.

[cowmeat]

Take a battery about the size of a large lawn mower battery, couple it with a bunch of electronics, and throw in some Florida heat. I assume the 12V will have a short life span here, and mine is three years old already.

Thanks for the description! Those are some pretty weird symptoms, especially to come out of the blue like that.

[KFM]

My brother got me some new rain guards for my birthday and cowmeat and I installed them. Later, my brother helped me swap out my steering wheel for his old S2000 wheel. Both make a huge difference, rain guards in temperature, and wheel in overall feel. It's so smooth..