Grid Charger
Grid charger owners and location, as well as some service links for hybrid services
Grid charger code V3.0 manual
Understanding the charging and balancing process
Pack discharger
SOC reset device
Insight Battery pack lifter
Grid charger test adapters
Reprogramming the charger
Installing the Genesis One Universal grid charger in an Insight
Installing the Genesis One Universal grid charger in a First Gen Civic
Harness options
The Universal Grid Charger
MIMA Pack Whack and rebalancing the battery
Battery pack rebalancing?
Building the Solar HV charger/rebalancer
Building the HV probe for the + attachment
failure mode #1 Shorted Cell and the cell Zapper fix?
current indicator
Equilization test #1
fast pack rebalancing 101
Getting better signals
Grid charger/Balancer 1
How do I test the sticks to determine which I need to be replaced
Hybrid Battery Repair
IMA battery smart discharger
Looking better on the second cycle
more tuning of the controller/ Datalogger
Not really rebalanced just changed????
Overnight two stage charger
pack rebalancing test 1
Rebalancing?
Refining the tester
Replacement for 1 Watt LED
Insight Battery pack Solar charger/rebalancer
Subpacks 1-8
Subpack tested first high current run
Subpack tester first test
The HV panels can bend and will shock the S**T out of you
universal dual stage grid charger
What is wrong with the subpacks?
Mikes Insight
EV Insight with a Prius heart
Grid charger Operating Instructions V1.2
Designing a PHEV system for the Civics, Insight 1 and 2 ------------Micro V-Buck PHEV
Doug's V-Boost
Randall's Insight
Paul's Adventures in alternative evergy
Western Washington University X-Prize car
BlueBird1
Finding The Best Hybrid Mix
E-wheel for any vehicle

What is wrong with the subpacks?

What is wrong with the subpacks?
tapping the subpacks at the cell level

After hearing about battery pack failures for the last ten years, I decided it was time to actually see what goes wrong with the subpacks, and see if there is a way to restore some of them. Ron from Hybrid Battery repair gave me a couple of dozen subpacks that had failed for various reasons, so that gives me some examples of the failure modes.
I made some rugged hard copper spring clips from a piece of 1.5" copper tubing. The tube was cut in half, then reformed over a 1" steel rod in a vice. This worked perfectly. The copper clips had a heavy copper braid soldered to each, so I can charge or discharge with high current at the cell level, or zap the cells individually with a capacitor discharge.
First subpack was totally discharged by shorting each cell until they were totally depleted. This is safe when it is done on a cell by cell basis, as the cells cannot reverse.
I put the subpack on a 350ma charge and I will let it charge until it reaches a stable max voltage.
Then a high current discharge while watching the voltages. I hope to finally determine the possible failure modes and see if anything can be done to fix them?