Another score - Prius battery modules on eBay!

[Christ]

Just bought 4 for $60 shipped... he's still got a bunch, and he's very reasonable with the price.. $12.50 each, I paid, and $9.99 shipping up to 16 modules.

Toyota Prius 7.2V Nimh Battery Module 6.5ah:eBay Motors (item 120445523249 end time Dec-04-09 13:25:56 PST)

[Christ]

Oh - The reason I bought them.. Well, they're NiMH, and 7.2V, and 6Ah... so basically, they're enough to run my TwinStar!

I figure that one of them will run the TwinStar, the other 3, I can use for something else when I get around to playing with stuff... 7.2V won't bother the bike's 6V electrical system, and I can wire in LED's in place of all the lights for 7.2V instead of 6.

The Modules are approx 1/2 of the Ah rating of the flooded lead acid battery that came OEM on the TwinStar, but lighter, smaller, and dry, all of which are huge pluses.

OTOH - I'm still going to see about washing the OEM battery that came on the TwinStar and seeing if I can revive it with new sulfuric... Just for kicks, I guess.

[SVOboy]

I know a guy with a bunch, should I enquire on his price? Good find!

[cfg83]

Christ -

Coolio. How will you charge them? Is it just a simple "attach to trickle charger" and off you go, will you need to fab something to work with the 7.2/6 volts/amps, or ...... ?

CarloSW2

[Christ]

Originally Posted by SVOboy

I know a guy with a bunch, should I enquire on his price? Good find!

I figured that to make a 6Ah pack on my own, at 7.2V, the cheapest I could find for individual cells was over $20, closer to $40, plus shipping/tabs/weld time/other materials.

Even at $12.50 each, I'd imagine the guy made a profit, he's probably not paying $100 for the complete battery packs, then parting out the modules.

It would be nice to have a point of reference, although I doubt I'll buy any more any time soon.

Just think, though... With 4 of them, I could have a 7.2V 26Ah pack, a 14.4V 13Ah pack, a 28.8V 6.5Ah pack...

I could do alot with just 4 batteries, considering the things that I normally play with.

If I ever do an EV swap, though... great source, I'd say. When else are you going to pay ~$10 for a 7.2V 6.5Ah cell?

There's 28 of them in the GenII pack... so for under $300, you could build yourself the Prius pack with any configuration you needed!

[Christ]

Originally Posted by cfg83

Christ -

Coolio. How will you charge them? Is it just a simple "attach to trickle charger" and off you go, will you need to fab something to work with the 7.2/6 volts/amps, or ...... ?

CarloSW2

The TwinStar's electrical system is already 6V, which outputs nearly 8V at the battery at times... I think it will be happy doing the job.

For the other batteries, I'll probably source out some charge cords I have. I'm sure I've got a few 7VDC or 6VDC inverters laying around (AC/DC, like Nintendo power cords, etc. I hang on to them for years.) that I can wire into a charge bank.

[Christ]

I wonder if I could build a decent 14.4V pack with a VR that could replace the normal starting battery in a vehicle (and the alternator)? Maybe I'll end up buying a few more, eventually, if that would work out, especially if the old battery is on it's way out anyway. It'll just be one more time that I don't have to go swap cores at the parts store... I think they're getting a little put off about it.

[Wonderboy]

how would one go about charging these properly/effectively? this may be a good source of power for my conversion...

[Christ]

Will -

Good question. I'm hoping I can do it with the AC generator on the bike, and the alternator in a car, possibly eventually.

AFAIK, the Prius charges the pack with an AC generator as well (the drive motor, I think), so I don't see why it wouldn't work. If it doesn't, I'm only out for $60 (if I blow them all up before I figure it out.)

Being NiMH, I'm just working on the assumption that you can charge them the same way you charge regular NiMH cells, like AAA in your house, and I know I can charge those with an alternator from a car, as long as they're wired up as a proper pack.

Being EV use in your case, and assuming that you're not going to have regen, I'm sure you could charge them with a 6/12V charger plugged into the wall. Your charge circuit would have to be wired independent from your traction circuits, though.

Alternatively, if you could find a normal SLA charger for the same voltage you're working with, I'm sure that would work as well. I'll let you know how well it works on the first warm-ish day after I get them, since I plan on taking the bike out for a quick run.

[cfg83]

Christ and Wonderboy -

I might get a few for "future projects". But you have dibs, so I will wait for you to decide what you do before I buy some. I don't know what I would do with them (yet).

How many of these are in a normal Prius?

CarloSW2