CHADEMO stops at 66% ?

[michael8554]

I have just bought a 2012 i-MIEV.

My first CHADEMO charge from 30% stopped at 66%.

I removed and re-inserted the plug and started a new charge, but it only ramped up to a very low charge rate, so I gave up.

I thought it would go to at least 80% ?

Could this be due to charger temperature ?

The coolant level (under the boot floor flap) was just at the bottom of the filler tube, when the pump was on, coolant was being pushed onwards.

I'm thinking of the "Supplemental Cooling" mod, a fan in the area under the boot floor flap ?

Many thanks

Michael

 

[MickeyS70]

Hi Michael

Just had a similar experience yesterday, first time in ages I used CHAdeMon, so this is what happened

- once charging starts AC comes on and battery blower goes full speed
- after a couple of minutes AC/fan turned off
- I use an OBD adapter with an app called CanIOn to monitor what was happening
- I watched the charging current and initially it ran @ over 100A but then it started to reduce gradually.
- the battery monitor showed one cell reaching 4.1V way ahead of the others and to avoid overcharging the BMU reduces charging current.
- once any cells reached approx 4.105V charging stops altogether.

This is most likely due to a cell with high(er) internal resistance compared to the others, common problem with old LEV50 cells, not much you can do about it I’m afraid

The effect is less pronounced if you do (slow) AC charging as the BMU has more time to balance the individual cells, does the car fully charge this way?

Mickey

 

[michael8554]

Thanks Mickey.

Yes the car reached 100% / 55 miles on my home AC Rolec "charger".

I've got CanIon on my Android tablet, says it's connected to the iCar Pro dongle, but I get no data ?

Though I see that dongle is not on the Approved list.

Michael

 

[michael8554]

Wow!

The approved Scantool OBDLink LX costs £84 from Gendan Automotive !

The 20 quid V-Gate iCar Pro works on PHEV WatchDog for my Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV.

 

[MickeyS70]

The approved Scantool OBDLink LX costs £84 from Gendan Automotive !

.. you might give HobDrive a try; developer claims it works with most dongles, although you need the paid version to connect to your IMiev…

 

[michael8554]

The OBDLink dongle, ordered last night, arrived this morning.

Boy that's a really fast service !

Battery volts range is 4V to 3.995V - seems unusually good for an old car ?

Capacity % is not one of the readings ?

Michael

 

[JoeS]

Using CaniOn, look for Ah (ampere-hours). When new, that number was around 45Ah. Expect low to mid-30s, a function of mileage and how the battery was treated.

Your voltages show nicely balanced at the top end. How do they look at, say, 30% SoC?

 

[MickeyS70]

Battery volts range is 4V to 3.995V - seems unusually good for an old car ?
Capacity % is not one of the readings ?

Michael

Certainly a good start, but high impedance cells only show discrepancies during high current events like DC charging or heavy regen…

Look for the Ah history tab, however this value may not be accurate if the battery calibration procedure hasn’t been performed regularly.

I suggest to perform the CAP2 function in ODBZERO app, it will show (but not correct) actual vs BMU calculated battery capacity.

 

[michael8554]

On a trip out yesterday we passed a Retail Park with CHAdeMO chargepoints from BP, Instavolt, and Gridserve.

But the locations on ZapMap and Google where so poor I only had time to find two of them.

And I forgot to take CanION with me :-<

Tried several Instavolts with 20 miles of range showing.

They did a countdown displaying a green light, eventually Clunked, but went straight to a Red fault light, and charging never started.

The BP Pulse wouldn't connect.

I'm sure I got some charge from that first CHAdeMO in August with Shell Recharge.

Just measured Battery Volts with 3 miles range showing:

3.755V Cell 40
3.685 Cell 63, 65.
Diff = 0.070V

I will try our local Shell Recharge with CanION.

 

[michael8554]

Tried the CHAdeMO at our local Shell Recharge.

Forgot to take my CaniON tablet with me - AGAIN !

First attempt didn't start charging.

Second attempt worked.

At the start the EVSE display showed:

SOC 58% Charging Rate 8kW
Car was showing 20 miles and petrol gauge was around 55%.
I should have counted bars :-<

After 8 minutes:
SOC 62% Charging Rate 6.2kW 1kWh added

Stopped charging at 19 minutes:
SOC 71% Charging Rate 4.7kW 2kWh added

The Kona on the other half of the EVSE was charging at 20kW on CCS !

Pleased that CHAdeMO was working.

Irritated that BP and Instavolt didn't work, only Shell Recharge seems to work.

Battery volts about 30 mins after getting home SOC 57% were:

Most at 3.94V
Three at 3.945V
Fifteen at 3.935V

What "brands" have worked for you ?

 

[JoeS]

Michael8554, those charging rates are not out of line as the SoC gets higher. Your cells seem to be nicely balanced. What was the temperature at the time?

Glad to see that Shell worked for you. I just noticed your location and deleted my own experience with our Northern California CHAdeMO stations - you might consider updating your profile (which will show your location by your username whenever you post), the procedure described here:
http://myimiev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=3196

 

[michael8554]

Hi Joe

Temperature was about 10C, we'd just driven 10 miles.

I've update my Profile.

 

[JoeS]

Michael8554, thank you for your update.

Your CHAdeMO finish charge has crept up from 66% to 71%, an improvement. What is your Ah capacity?

Since the car is new to you and its battery history is unknown, I would be inclined to baby it as much as possible to preserve what you have:
* slow ac charge and avoid dcfc, especially in cold weather,
* keep occasionally balancing the pack by slowly charging from 20%-to 100% but be sure to never let the car sit at 100% and drive it down right after charging,
* avoid SoC extremes and charge often.

With winter here, be resigned to not driving more than about 25 miles without a recharge and get to know all your local charging stations.and opportunity charge whenever you stop rather than pushing the car's limits.

I've been keeping my two i-MiEVs between 25% and 75% for years, storing the car around 50% when not using it.

 

[michael8554]

"What is your Ah capacity?"

In CANiON the Ah History showed 30aH at 91%

2011 55K miles.

A genuine 55 miles range driven during the summer.

 

[MickeyS70]

In CANiON the Ah History showed 30aH at 91%

2011 55K miles.

A genuine 55 miles range driven during the summer.

That will give you a SoH of roughly 66%, probably accurate given the age, mileage and cell chemistry (LEV50) but if you want to know for sure use ODBZero’s CAP2 function

 

[michael8554]

How long does it take to Balance, to get to where the Charging Indicator on the dash goes out ?

I've charged for 8 hours of 4hr Off-Peak electricity periods at 16A, sits at Full on the "Petrol Gauge" but the Indicator never goes out ?

 

[MickeyS70]

How long does it take to Balance, to get to where the Charging Indicator on the dash goes out ?

I've charged for 8 hours of 4hr Off-Peak electricity periods at 16A, sits at Full on the "Petrol Gauge" but the Indicator never goes out ?

That depends on the ‘spread’. Connect your OBD dongle and check cell voltages, SoC and charging current. Don’t forget the 12V aux is also topped up.

 

[michael8554]

So no estimation of how long it might take to really get to 100%, or to Balance, whichever is taking so long?

 

[JoeS]

michael8554, when the car was new it would stop charging within an hour after reaching 16 bars, with the power draw being a downward curve followed by a sharp cutoff. One of my i-MiEVs has a capacity similar to yours and I *think* I've seen maybe two hours when someone in the family inadvertently left it plugged in.