Any BMS with a manual?

defuzo

10 mW
Joined
Jun 8, 2012
Messages
31
Hi.

Question: What BMS exist with a proper manual?
(and maybe isn't a black-box to use in general??)
 
The ones costing hundreds of dollars, not designed in China usually do.

REC, Electrodacus, Neptune...
 
http://bestechpower.com/
might have a good english language manual, should be something posted somewhere on E.S. about their bms' and their cs support.
 
john61ct said:
The ones costing hundreds of dollars, not designed in China usually do.

REC, Electrodacus, Neptune...

Okey? Or use without any BMS, that I did for a while, by using a hobby balanced-charger, and a pocket battery checkers, but that becomes inconvenient. Dono if I need Bluetooth, Can, UART.. -A panel with a handful LED should be sufficient (with a manual) Does "Service Manual" exist for anything these days??

The Youtuber jehugarcia built his own Electric-car, and don't use any BMS: https://www.youtube.com/c/jehugarcia

I was attempting to reuse 2 old BMS, on 2 battery (self repaired and built). But the BMSs are the same, see attached pictures.
Google return NOTHING on these CSW-10SZTE-PCM or CSW-ELO177A

Thingy is also, the faulty batteries these BMSs came from, the same group was dead, the last one. 1 of 10. Coincident? Atm I have 1 working battery (dono what the BMS doing), and 1 that breaks after 3s (again, dono what the BMS doing)..
 

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JK BMS has actually has a decent manual I found in English. My JK-B1A24S-15P 150a version has been working flawlessly for over 3 months and 700 miles.
 

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Amperry417 said:
JK BMS has actually has a decent manual I found in English. My JK-B1A24S-15P 150a version has been working flawlessly for over 3 months and 700 miles.

Okey, "JK BMS", thats a fancy BMS, with Bluetooth, Can -bus, active balancing..
https://circuitdigest.com/article/cell-balancing-techniques-and-how-to-use-them
https://www.analog.com/en/technical-articles/active-battery-cell-balancing.html
(lots of components, more than for passive balancing, chip producer are "Texas Instruments")

btw, I was searching "smart bms" on Ebay, all are shipped from China (except one from Italy, a Jk Bms, btw).

But, I want something more ordinary, passive balancing, LEDs that tells status.
(not using a smartphone as display at the bikes handlebar)

Not a black-box bms, and not all bells and whistles.
 
Then of course they are super cheap Chinese, it is just as likely to fail and/or cause problems (battery murdering system), and you don't get a manual in English.

Where they ship from of course has little to do with where it is made - anywhere other than China will certainly be expensive, and "fancy" - I would suggest you prioritise "reliable".

Note there is no need at all for a BMS while riding, much less a need to watch a display.

Make sure you build your packs so that the BMS can easily be removed and replaced.

A BMS is really just a collection of functionalities and most of those are better covered by other devices.

There is no sensible reason to prefer a passive over an active balancer, whatever that distinction happens to mean to you.

And genuine TI parts? you won't get those in the cheaper ones.

 
john61ct said:

john61ct, okey, I agree.

Last dumb question, what BMS are you using?
(Saw you once mention you have a dedicated "active balancer")

One more question, for balancing, why not have a (say active switching) device that say, that change the output to 1 single capacitor (turning on 1 cell-group over it at a time say clockwise). I have google -search but not found anything like that. This will cut the component count drastically, more central integrated solution, and less thing that can go wrong. Ehm, usually on BMS there a voltage referense/shunt/thingy TL431 (or DW01A, HY221, or zenerdiod), for every cell-group (guess that can be replaced with 1 Xs single Xor that activate the switching circuit).

Another, I guess the balancing -mode ordinary only "tops out" (so the balancing -mode is only active when the cells are full?), does your "active balancer" work for a half full battery also?

It would not hurt to know what node the BMS is:
-cell balacing
-over/under voltage
-short circuit
(3 LEDs as indicator)

Maybe I will settle for any BMS that only have 1 LED, or bell, dono..
 
john61ct said:
The ones costing hundreds of dollars, not designed in China usually do.

REC, Electrodacus, Neptune...

I thought Neptunes are produced by a Hong Kong company...?
 
defuzo said:
One more question, for balancing, why not have a (say active switching) device that say, that change the output to 1 single capacitor (turning on 1 cell-group over it at a time say clockwise). I have google -search but not found anything like that.
That's called a flying capacitor type active balancer. They are quite common. E.g. https://amzn.to/3HKsava .

You can wire it up to a battery at the same time as a protective BMS that can cut off charge and discharge (which typically can only balance by discharging the highest cells into a resistor when the pack is almost fully charged).

Personally, I prefer active balancers that can convert voltages when transferring charge like:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B3D5JCRC

Which is about as fancy as you can get before the next highest models which have things like data bus outputs, Bluetooth, apps, etc..
 
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