I had done a lot of reading (at least I thought I did) and followed a procedure that was outlined by 99mpg (
http://99mpg.com/projectcars/mimapackwhack/ There were several posts on Ecomodder that corresponded to the procedure and so read that material as well. I set up a chart and then used five Superbrain 977's and one superbrain 989 to test each stick. The tests involved discharging and changing each stick. I discharged at 4 amps and charged at 5 amps. The 989 would allow higher amperage but I thought it would be good to keep the amps all the same. The 977 can only do 4 amp discharge and 5 amp charge. I am now down to 3 of the 977's due to silly mistakes during the procedure.
I did 3 cycles on each stick. If the numbers looked good to me, I did not do additional cycles. Typically, if the charging produced consistent numbers between 6700mA and 7100mA while charging, and within 20% of that during discharge I considered it good. So the discharges were typically around 6000mA.
After the last charge of each stick, I sat them on a shelf for a week. Once the week was up I topped off each stick and note the additional mA as a percent. This was the discharge capacity. Typical sticks put into the pack had charge rates above 6700mA and discharge rates after a week of 13-16 percent.
Since I do not have knowledge on measuring internal resistance I can not do that test. If it is just math I think I can do it but would need a formula.
At one point in the process I became concerned about the bending of the PTC strip tabs because I was doing numerous assembly and disassembles of the sticks into a battery. Now I am not so worried since the PTC strips are out of the loop. It appears if the tabs break off it is of no concern.
The only other piece of equipment I have is a multimeter.
So looking at the numbers above and the procedure I followed, is there anything you would suggest I try prior to or instead of ordering a new battery.; in order to locate 20 usable sticks out of my 60?
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