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Balancer, 16-cell from All-Battery

Discussion in 'Prius PHEV Plug-In Modifications' started by overlap, Jun 5, 2010.

  1. overlap

    overlap Junior Member

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    I hope to soon receive Jack's cool new 16-cell "active" balancer. BTW, does anyone know if it uses the capacitor method to distribute charge from the high-voltage cells to the low-voltage cells? It daisy-chains into the heavy connector to control the charger too it looks. Since the 4KW batteries are buddy-joined, if one was to add another 2KW of batteries asa 2nd 48-volt string of non-buddy-joined batteries, it appears that Jack's new balancer cannot be used for that 2nd string.

    Has anyone used and tried the All-Battery 16-cell balancer? Can the it be used to ONLY balance as the DB8 Chargery balancers can?

    www all-battery com
    protectioncircuitmodulefor3cellslifepo16batterypack15A.aspx

    See the installation PDF and at leats 1 wire needs to be soldered to it to arive at the 17 wires needed to balance 16-cells. I'd then also add a set of the ProgressiveRC Cell Loggers to show the individual voltages.

    I would probably be willing to try the 16-cell Chargery balancer if it existed, although the three DB8's that I have I think are of the lowest quality and barely acceptable.
     
    #1 overlap, Jun 5, 2010
  2. dan2l

    dan2l 2014 Prius v wagon

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    Hi Overlap,
    I could not get your link to work.

    Anyway,...
    The BMS16C is reported to use inductors to store the energy being transfered from cell to cell. this is like a switcher power supply.

    For a 6K system you would want to triple buddy your cells. This is needed to protect the cells from cascading failures where one cell going bad can kill the whole string. If you triple buddy then you can still use the BMS16C.

    The BMS16C does not control the charger. It does provide an automatic cutoff switch that causes the charger to turn off when any one cell goes high for more than 2 minutes.

    I am Beta testing a BMS16C. It is clearly better than the DB8s. I do not understand your question about "only balance".

    I am also using 2 CellLog8s with Loud alarms and collecting the data on every charge/discharge cycle.

    Thanks,
    Dan Lander
     
    #2 dan2l, Jun 5, 2010
  3. dan2l

    dan2l 2014 Prius v wagon

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    Ok, I did get to this site finally.

    This unit is too small. It is rated at 15a and the Enginer system can draw up to 100a. Note that the balancing current is only 1/5th of the DB8, so that is not acceptable.

    Thanks,
    Dan
     
    #3 dan2l, Jun 5, 2010
  4. overlap

    overlap Junior Member

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    The resistors are too small. This is what I meant by balance only. Just as the Chargery balancers we have are 10 amp IIR where the charger is run through the balancer, but the Enginer system does not use that functionality and only uses them to "balance only." With this in mind, and if the All-Battery balancers could work the same was as the Chargery ones can, then the 15 or 30 amp rating does not matter. (Would be nice to have a BMS that managed both input and output, charged through the individual balance wires and was beefy enough to limit the total output amp draw.)
     
    #4 overlap, Jun 5, 2010
  5. dan2l

    dan2l 2014 Prius v wagon

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    Hi overlap,
    This balancer may be a charger shut off, but it can not balance systems with the size of cells that we have. They are 5 times worse than the DB8s and the DB8s are unacceptable.

    On the other hand the new Enginer BMS16C does shut off the charger (with a 25a rating). It also balances 6 times better than the DB8s.

    Rather than looking for something new you need to contact Jack and get on the list to get the BMS16C to retrofit your system.

    Thanks,
    Dan
     
    #5 dan2l, Jun 5, 2010
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