new IMA battery, recognized by car, but not charging?

[rpearson]

So just to make sure we're clear on terminology:

When you refer to our "Honda pack" you are referring to the old battery which is now dead?
On the old battery pack the wire that you showed that was snipped is NOT snipped.

On the refurbished pack that wire is completely absent.

[S Keith]

Honda pack = your old pack.
New pack = greentec

Yes you would, but I don't think ECU flash will be free. Personally, I would go the resistor route.

here is the unmolested plug:



The Blue with yellow stripe should connect to the red with a 20 Ohm resistor.

Steve

[S Keith]

Okay.

I peeled off all the insulation tape off my harness. Your harness is fine. you just need to connect the red & blue/yellow wires with a 20 Ohm resistor.

[rpearson]

A 1/4 watt 20 Ohm resistor will be fine?

[S Keith]

Originally Posted by rpearson

A 1/4 watt 20 Ohm resistor will be fine?

Yes. You could go as high as 36 ohms and any higher wattage you like.

[rpearson]

I put the 22 Ohm resistor between the red and blue & yellow wires and the P1639 error code stayed off. After driving across town two new error codes popped up: P1600 and P1449.
I reset them several times. After the last reset I climbed a hill of, dunno, 500-1000 feet and the lights haven't come back on yet. Is there any chance the battery needs to go through a few charge/discharge cycles before it works properly or do I now need to begin debugging the P1449 error code?

[S Keith]

Good on the resistor.

Aside from the need to periodically reset the codes, is the IMA system behaving normally, and where does the SoC gage stay most of the time?

P1600 is the generic IMA code, and P1449 is a deteriorated pack code and is likely a symptom of the low voltages you observed or an imbalance at the stick-pair taps.

As the pack is cycled, it may improve. I recommend a 12V reset and idle charge to full SoC. If it won't charge at idle. rev it to to 3500 and hold. If it charges there, back off the rpm to the lowest it will charge at and hold it there until full SoC. You might repeat this procedures up to 3 times consecutively. You know the car has fully charged the battery when the charging terminates almost immediately (within a minute or so) and the SoC gauge climbs to full.

Steve

[rpearson]

We did the 3 charge/discharge cycles as per your advice. On the first charge we had to charge at 3500 RPM. I misread your instructions so we didn't lower the RPM on the subsequent recharges. My wife test drove the car up hill 2000 vertical feet. SOC discharged on the way up and recharged on the way down. The IMA and check engine lights did not come on. The car worked as it should on that test which is a considerable workout for the IMA. Maybe the cycling worked. Fingers crossed.

[S Keith]

No problem on the rpm. Just annoying to keep it at 3500 for so long. Did the final charge terminate quickly?

Sounds like you have a working pack now. Sorry for not catching the PTC issue earlier. The P1639 code distracted me.

You might consider my DIY charger/discharger:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...it?usp=sharing

Technically, you don't need the 12V supply since you can't run the HCH fan without a PWM signal, but it's useful as a terminal block, and hey... who doesn't like an extra 25W 12V PSU, amiright? You don't need the board either. You could use pegboard and zip tie everything down.

Pack charging needs to be done outside of car with a box fan blowing through it.

Your "new" pack could probably use a 24 hr grid charge it to "top balance" the cells, and balanced cells last longer. It's also something you might consider doing every oil change or every 6 months to maintain balance.

You could also do it to your original pack and probably get some useful life out of it as a spare. Do a 24 hr grid charge/discharge to 60V/charge for 2 hours and then put it on a shelf indoors. I bet this process would restore your original battery to functionality. You might even be able to swap out packs every six months to do the charge/discharge.

Regardless of what you plan to do down the road, You really should do a topping charge on your "new" pack.

Steve

[rpearson]

for sure we want to get a grid charger. The plan is to maintain this new battery, and recondition the old one, then maybe sell that one. Or hold onto it as a spare, but I have a feeling this new battery might outlast the car. I'd like to get to 300K with the car. (currently 185).

We're leaning towards building one as it's so much cheaper although it does require some time...but the local ski area doesn't have much snow yet so our weekends are pretty open at the moment. This morning I was saying to John that we should eco-mod the car to use both battery packs. :-) We have so many mountains here, that the battery gets used up quickly, and charges quickly. Although not sure anyone actually does this.