hbpowerwall
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- Joined
- Oct 7, 2016
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Ths thread shall serve as the new home for my BMS journey.
I must start by saying that I've not only tried to talk myself out of a BMS but also many on the interwebs have also been anti-BMS also. I don't know if I was just taking more notice of their side of the story or it was just what I wanted to hear.
Recently in the past few months, I've been thinking more and more about a BMS during one of the MANY trips back and forth to the battery shed to manually check the voltage several times a day that there really needs to be a better way. At first very happy to do it but now it seems more of a chore - Guess that also where complacencysneaks in and issues might start to occur.
I have ventured into playing with BMS's when I had the PIP2424MSX unit (24V system) from memory I purchased 4-5 different BMS all from ALI or eBay. The Large 200amp unit I bought was a 200a unit (well on the sticker) but was so poorly put together just turned me off. I mean it worked kinda - if you call 40mv balance working. And would have been safer than not running one at all. But the question in my head was what if the BMS fails and I'm not going down there all the time to check it?
So moving through several different ones either through my own fault for letting the pixies out or just plain DOA I gave up on BMS.
Ones I've looked into since have been the REC BMS unit looked fantastic but considering I have so many packs/banks of batteries it would have got quite expensive fast. Asked for a price & let's just say the wife was around... Wasn't horrible but by the time I was done I would have needed five or more. Wasn't happening
So then to the 1S units, some are using with success others aren't. They seem to work but given a hand full of people that have contacted me directly saying they have had the odd one or two failed either DOA or after a few weeks kinda turned me off. Price per Unit is $39au each with no temp control or data loggingby the time I got to 50kWh hours it would have cost $2730au :huh:So that was a deal breaker also.
So it brings us to Damian's post on FB DIYPowerwalls group. I'm a visual person and seeing his post
I needed more, instantly started googlin' like mad, as time passed a few more comments come up in the post and I was in full creepy stalk mode trying to get info without looking... well creapy/desperate/ or overly interested. Few more minutes passed and the old FB message notification popped up. Checked as I do and it was Jaron from Batriummessing me hoping he hadn'tbreached our 'rules' when it comes to commercial advertising. "Not a problem buddy, I know the boss" lol
Lots of questions & a few quick skype calls later I received a package.
Please note this is not a "Paid" gig Can't buy bread and milk with a demo model to test and evaluate
Some things so far that impress me -
I'm going to be installing a test rig within my workshop for now just to learn it and begin the process of trusting what is on the screen. I plan on putting it through its paces by maybe building a really bad pack out of really bad cells and hooking it with a pack full of gray LG's or something and see how it handles the balancing of such an indifferent pack. I'll have the thermal camera on hand to really keep an eye on it.
This little project can move in may directions - if you would like certain tests done or have ideas on how it should be done let me know I'm keen to accommodate where possible.
I must start by saying that I've not only tried to talk myself out of a BMS but also many on the interwebs have also been anti-BMS also. I don't know if I was just taking more notice of their side of the story or it was just what I wanted to hear.
Recently in the past few months, I've been thinking more and more about a BMS during one of the MANY trips back and forth to the battery shed to manually check the voltage several times a day that there really needs to be a better way. At first very happy to do it but now it seems more of a chore - Guess that also where complacencysneaks in and issues might start to occur.
I have ventured into playing with BMS's when I had the PIP2424MSX unit (24V system) from memory I purchased 4-5 different BMS all from ALI or eBay. The Large 200amp unit I bought was a 200a unit (well on the sticker) but was so poorly put together just turned me off. I mean it worked kinda - if you call 40mv balance working. And would have been safer than not running one at all. But the question in my head was what if the BMS fails and I'm not going down there all the time to check it?
So moving through several different ones either through my own fault for letting the pixies out or just plain DOA I gave up on BMS.
Ones I've looked into since have been the REC BMS unit looked fantastic but considering I have so many packs/banks of batteries it would have got quite expensive fast. Asked for a price & let's just say the wife was around... Wasn't horrible but by the time I was done I would have needed five or more. Wasn't happening
So then to the 1S units, some are using with success others aren't. They seem to work but given a hand full of people that have contacted me directly saying they have had the odd one or two failed either DOA or after a few weeks kinda turned me off. Price per Unit is $39au each with no temp control or data loggingby the time I got to 50kWh hours it would have cost $2730au :huh:So that was a deal breaker also.
So it brings us to Damian's post on FB DIYPowerwalls group. I'm a visual person and seeing his post
I needed more, instantly started googlin' like mad, as time passed a few more comments come up in the post and I was in full creepy stalk mode trying to get info without looking... well creapy/desperate/ or overly interested. Few more minutes passed and the old FB message notification popped up. Checked as I do and it was Jaron from Batriummessing me hoping he hadn'tbreached our 'rules' when it comes to commercial advertising. "Not a problem buddy, I know the boss" lol
Lots of questions & a few quick skype calls later I received a package.
Please note this is not a "Paid" gig Can't buy bread and milk with a demo model to test and evaluate
Some things so far that impress me -
- It's logging function 10 yrs!
- The number of batteries that can be hooked up to one device!
I'm going to be installing a test rig within my workshop for now just to learn it and begin the process of trusting what is on the screen. I plan on putting it through its paces by maybe building a really bad pack out of really bad cells and hooking it with a pack full of gray LG's or something and see how it handles the balancing of such an indifferent pack. I'll have the thermal camera on hand to really keep an eye on it.
This little project can move in may directions - if you would like certain tests done or have ideas on how it should be done let me know I'm keen to accommodate where possible.