Just installed my 2nd user enginer 4 kwh kit.

everything you wrote was very helpfull, and for a change in a language that makes sense, I pluged it in as is, figured I'd try to get a charge in, I don't have the kill a watt or any other toys yet, I will soon, neither did I bother to drain them even yet, I have 2 leds on the charger on, and a third one outside the car, the display is showing that is climing fast, last I checked was at 60% within a mater if minutes, I'm sure that is not acurate, mostly because it's pluged in, there is a fan running, sounds like the charger and I asume it's normal, I'm told it will take about 4 hours so I am watching the clock, are the leds supposed to turn off when charge is complete?
and when you speak of checking which cell trips the pack first, do you mean you sit there and watch the display as it charges/discharge, for that matter?
I shall definately tinker with it, and if there is some wrong I shall corect it, our job is 10 miles away, I'm told a good pack is good for about 40 blended, I could charge at work too but that may be overkill, all in all 40 is about our dayly routine, if I can get it dialed in should be able to just plug it in at night.
as for age I am told 2 years, that makes 700 cycles, what kind? theres no telling, the guy that owned it, was not clueless but at the same time looks stock, temp sensors were plugged in so, I don't know I say its safe to say 80% discharge so far, pretty sure he used it to the max, I also seen on Engineers website these models are 2010 and up, so 3 years max, 1000 cycles at 80% worse case, I'll go with that for now

 

they are pretty even taking a charge, or at rest for thet matter, display showed 100% within the first half hour, I'm at about 3.4v now, it's only been an hour led's are still on looks like its still charging, from what I can tell the pack is rether well balanced, however I would like to say some cells hold a charge better than others, now where does one sourse those poches from, I asume Ebay, I also seen some used ones on the classifieds, wonder if I should try that too, pick and chose the better ones, build an extra pack of the rest.

 

well it's only been about 2 and a half hours, looks like cell 16 tripped it just now , settled at about 3.5, one led on the unit still on, fan still on, the other led off, and the one outside off, is this it?

 

at rest they are pretty even, .07v difference, #12 low at 3.26 #15, 16 , 13 high at 3.33v, however my ev button apears to be operating ok, but as son as I turn the Engineer on, Ice starts to charge the batery briefly, while the system shows 9amps, some cells are just shy of 3 v, the difference gets larger, I know voltage is not everything, but it does seem some hold up a lot better than others under load, the system apears to be working fine the way it is, it bumped the OE into the green rather quick, I had it unpluged while doing all this, just playing in the driveway it showed as low as 73% charge, I pluged it back in and it started charging again, figured I'll try and top it up see what happens, I thought some chargers are smart and they do that on theyr own guess not this one, when it's done its done, ether way I am nowhere near settleing at the 3,8 you mentined

 

I get what you are doing with the bulb and I also get that there are some particularities to these systems, I was wondering what if instead we alternated packs, as in swap the left for the right, Enginer says dont, but I dont think it would mater if we swap them completely, andersons and bms,
on mine I have reason to believe cell one and 2 need help, #12 seems the more stable, low on rest/discharge/charge, it does not change much, 1 and 2 however are the extremes, high on charge low on discharge, actually very fast changes, they are all pretty well arround 3.35v - 3.4v at rest after charge and I topped it 3 times, as soon as you turn it on 1&2 drop below 3, 12 which lowest at charge/rest, remains pretty much unchanged, my SOC drops very drasticly when turned on, within 5 moles it showed 10 %, thou the system was still operating well, after 15 miles with a 15 min stop ( SOC 75 % while it rested) , the converter was rather hot could not hold my hand on it.
I noticed 15 16 high, not so much 7&8 but I may have missed it, I think I am going to swap the packs arround for a while thow I'm afraid 1&2 need help, they can't hold voltage very well, they also apear rather high on charge ( highest even ) almost like there is no internal resistence compared to the others. I dont care much to balance them for a living, worst case I'll get the aftermarket bms I read about, unless there are better solutions, right now swaping the packs is my ideea unless there is something I don't know about that would make this a bad Ideea, I almoast would want to wire them a bit differently to where I can swap cells arround as I please, I think quick connects in the 7 whites might do, maybe the power outputs too, I almoast wonder if there is a multiswich or something available that I could use, kindof turn a dial from time to time swapping cells arround, I am a bit more old school don't take well to all those electronics, and I do have better things to do, my thought process is that swapping cells arround would rotate them giving them all a even duty, achieving relative results as your charger and bulb technique while pack is in use.
What do you think?

 

after a break it settled at 76%SOC, they are all rather even, .07 v difference, they apear rather well balanced at rest, not the same under load and I do believe that shows their true condition

 

I had the same Ideea, replace a cell or two if lucky as for swapping them over granted it does not change the condition of the cell, but aparently this system keeps somes cells better charged than others, and that would even out some of those diferences, we took another short trip, motor did not start at all, these erands used to kill the average, the HV bat dropped to 5 lines, I may have to up the amps but so far 100mpg average I just tont like those cells

 

cell 1an2 definately needs help on mine, 4, 5 not far behind, 3, 6 thereafter, I am about to tear apartt a 1kw ebike batery I think it's made out of the same stuff, maybe different brand still lifepo4, it's brand new so I hope to get some use out of it, I had it topped off 3 times last night, and it did better, this morning only had it on the charger till the led turned green, 10 miles to work did ok, one hour break 3 miles onthe way back 1&2 2.6v, there is a .6v difference between them and the highest under load, pretty well balanced at rest thou, they have to go, I believe3456 may not be so bad but these are killing them too, therefore they are lower

 

I think that is exactly what happened, I asume 12345678 is the left pack, still has the seal on, he mentioned he had the pack checked and balanced and a couple cells replaced recently, that was the right one, seal broken, 910111213141516 are behaving rather well, bet that cost him a penny, now good thing is I am in michigan, enginer was not far from here, he gave me a number from the guy that bought the inventory when engineer went bust, this is not far from where I live, I will check on that tomorow.
thing is I can charge at work but I still am not ok with that, those weak cells are making the rest work harder, onces it gets to a point where it snowballs the whole pack is junk, from monitoring the pack while in the passanger seat, 1 and 2 are very weak under load, chances are the ones next to them are ok, but they are taking a beating therefore they show a bit lower too, I am not ok with that not even for 10 miles, I took my ebike batery apart but is the cylindrical cells, bummer, I looked on ebay last night and no realforce, some 123's I bet they would do fine , simmilar chemistry/specs, I dd not look to far into it, 20ah is good enough for me, but if you feel otherwise please say so

 

something odd happened today. I tried to balance the pack somewhat however it appears those two cells are too far gone, I have made some progress, last I seen it .5v difference between high and low, I don't have much for range, some dirty math maybe I got 600w out of it before those 2 cells tripped the discharge, that being said I have to open that pack see what's in it
the odd thing is, I must have done something wrong while at it, cell 10 and 11 was showing 36v last I had it on, I checked them with a volt meter they were at about 3.2, red light came on the display was beeping, something must have cooked in that bms, either way I don't care much for it, I find it odd the way it manages these cells anyhow, and honestly there is no reason those 2 cells should have taken a crap in 2 years if managed properly, previous owner mentioned he already changed 2 this spring in the other pack.'
is this common? anybody ever had such readings before?
Guess I am on a quest to find a better bms, everything seems to operate properly otherwise, I did get some brief good results with it, any thoughs or previous experiences please don't be shy.