diy solar

diy solar

JBD BMS Wi-Fi Module

LOL haha I knew it... I also spent many an hour mining on my warrior blacksmith!

Incidentally, my forum name is the name of my UD mage in classic
That's cool, coincidentally i just started a mage on Shadowlands, i have much to learn as i started as a healer and a tank, DPS doesn't seem as exciting as healing or tanking.
 
That's funny, i just got into Shadowlands on Saturday and started a Mage. I've been mostly a healer and tank, DPS has never excited me but im having fun with the "glass cannon".
 
Got all the parts and built the board. I can ping it and access the web interface but that's as far as i got successfully. The transmit light blinks when i have the JBDTools open but im not seeing any TX from the virtual serial.
bms.PNG

I've doubled checked my wires just cant see whats wrong, any help would be very much appreciated.
 
Joe, I sent you a PM - give me a call.

Also per your screenshot, set Conn LED to disabled. Also, disable MQTT. I haven't used that yet and honestly I don't know if it will interfere with the console I/O.


1611849704552.png


By the way, this EXACT situation happens on my work laptop (running win10) when I try to connect using Virtual Serial Port + JBDTools. It sends and I see activity, but it doesn't receive. I'm on the same Wi-Fi network as the module/BMS. When I try the same thing from my desktop on the same network, it works perfectly. I had assumed it was windows firewall or one of the 8000 "security" agents running on my laptop so I just didnt use it again.

Honestly, you might check your firewall and add VSP
 
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Yea I looked at several port aggregators like this ... and I'm sure they work great. I was looking for a wireless solution as I have fourteen (soon to be 15) 48v 80AH packs. I really didnt want to run that much cable for CAN or 485 or Serial (or loop it, etc). I tried bluetooth but had too many issues with it (both the C and python implementations). I put a cheap netgear AP in with the packs and get updates from the BMSs every 30s now (a Raspberry Pi collects and controls everything). I made extra modules in case 1 failed but none have as yet. Every now and then a module will stop communicating and a simple reset fixes it but it tells me I need to make my own custom firmware.

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I built this wifi dongle and I'm struggling a little bit. It seems that when I plugin the dongle to my bms (JBD 150a) it pulls the voltage down provided from the BMS to around 5v and my 3.3v no longer has 3.3v but less than 2 volts. I'm not sure what I did wrong or if the BMS can't proved enough power for the ESP? I tried hooking it up to my bench power supply and giving it 12v and the ESP boots up and I have regular 3.3v to it. I'm far from an electronics expert :(
 
I built this wifi dongle and I'm struggling a little bit. It seems that when I plugin the dongle to my bms (JBD 150a) it pulls the voltage down provided from the BMS to around 5v and my 3.3v no longer has 3.3v but less than 2 volts. I'm not sure what I did wrong or if the BMS can't proved enough power for the ESP? I tried hooking it up to my bench power supply and giving it 12v and the ESP boots up and I have regular 3.3v to it. I'm far from an electronics expert :(
You might try something off the shelf.


I haven't used this one, but it has it's own power supply, just not wifi. Solutions for this problem have existed for a few decades, just mostly not on wifi.
 
I built this wifi dongle and I'm struggling a little bit. It seems that when I plugin the dongle to my bms (JBD 150a) it pulls the voltage down provided from the BMS to around 5v and my 3.3v no longer has 3.3v but less than 2 volts. I'm not sure what I did wrong or if the BMS can't proved enough power for the ESP? I tried hooking it up to my bench power supply and giving it 12v and the ESP boots up and I have regular 3.3v to it. I'm far from an electronics expert :(

Can you hook just he UART cable to the BMS to make sure it's putting out 10-12v? I haven't tried that little switching regulator on anything less than 10v.

if you are, indeed, getting 10-12v on the VCC pin from the BMS, then plug the UART cable into the Wi-Fi module *without the ESP chip plugged into it*. Then insert a pin into the 3.3v connector where the ESP plugs in and one into the GND and make sure you have 3.3v between them. If you don't, then something has happened either with the voltage regulator or somewhere in between. I always test my voltage regulators before soldering them on. Now you may have a different BMS than me that behaves differently but the Engineer @ JBD I talked to said it should work on all of them.


The link John provided might work for you. Personally, I needed 15 of them, so it was a no-go for me to spend that much on each one.


I hate to bring this up, but I saw this just today:


You'd have to split out the UART cable, but this might work. I have no idea what kind of voltage regulator is on here, so I don't know if it'll work OR even if it will even go from 12v to 3.3v (says "accepts 5v from your arduino," so maybe). I can't really see what the regulator chip is.
 
Can you hook just he UART cable to the BMS to make sure it's putting out 10-12v? I haven't tried that little switching regulator on anything less than 10v.

if you are, indeed, getting 10-12v on the VCC pin from the BMS, then plug the UART cable into the Wi-Fi module *without the ESP chip plugged into it*. Then insert a pin into the 3.3v connector where the ESP plugs in and one into the GND and make sure you have 3.3v between them. If you don't, then something has happened either with the voltage regulator or somewhere in between. I always test my voltage regulators before soldering them on. Now you may have a different BMS than me that behaves differently but the Engineer @ JBD I talked to said it should work on all of them.


The link John provided might work for you. Personally, I needed 15 of them, so it was a no-go for me to spend that much on each one.


I hate to bring this up, but I saw this just today:


You'd have to split out the UART cable, but this might work. I have no idea what kind of voltage regulator is on here, so I don't know if it'll work OR even if it will even go from 12v to 3.3v (says "accepts 5v from your arduino," so maybe). I can't really see what the regulator chip is.
Probably uses the lm317 (one would hope). They are about 79 cents each, add a couple of resistors and done. Quantity one, the off the shelf board you are using is easier and cheaper, but if you design your own pcb, might consider that approach instead.
 
I disassembled my pack for the moment so I'm not able to do any further testing right now but I'll try to answer as best as I can....
Can you hook just he UART cable to the BMS to make sure it's putting out 10-12v? I haven't tried that little switching regulator on anything less than 10v.
Yes, I've double checked that. It seems to be putting out around battery voltage. But when I hooked up my dongle it pulled the voltage down right away. On my benchtop power supply it was only drawing something like .3A if I remember right so it shouldn't have been enough to drop the voltage like that I don't think.
if you are, indeed, getting 10-12v on the VCC pin from the BMS, then plug the UART cable into the Wi-Fi module *without the ESP chip plugged into it*. Then insert a pin into the 3.3v connector where the ESP plugs in and one into the GND and make sure you have 3.3v between them. If you don't, then something has happened either with the voltage regulator or somewhere in between. I always test my voltage regulators before soldering them on. Now you may have a different BMS than me that behaves differently but the Engineer @ JBD I talked to said it should work on all of them.
I tried this too. It is putting out proper 3v3 on the board without the ESP plugged in, so maybe a bad voltage regulator that can put out voltage but not keep up with the current? Not sure.

One thing that brought me back to this is that I was reading somewhere that the JBD BMS uses 5V logic on the UART connections instead of 3.3v. I went back and looked at the spec for the ESP-01C and it says that it should be 3.3v logic too. Is it possible that the ESP is doing crazy things because its seeing 5v logic on the UART port?

The info I found says "All esp8266 arduino compatible modules must be powered with DC current from any kind of source that can deliver stable 3.3V and at least 250mA. Also logic signal is rated at 3.3v and the RX channel should be protected by a 3.3v divisor step-down. You should be careful when using this module with Arduino or other boards which supplies 5v, because this module usually do not come with overpower protection and can be easily destroyed."

But... @melkier your wifi dongle did work so I don't know if I'm not understanding something properly?
 
The only thing I can think of is that it has to be the voltage regulator. However, when you say "the JBD BMS uses 5V logic on the UART connections instead of 3.3v. I went back and looked at the spec for the ESP-01C and it says that it should be 3.3v logic too," a few questions come to mind. First, are you seeing 5v from the UART? It should be 10-12v. Also, you mention the "ESP-01C" twice, yet I cant find that device ... I'm using an ESP-01S (1M), and the firmware I provided in my post is for a ESP-01s. I know esp-link exists for 512k (non-S) chips, but I haven't tried it yet. What you read regarding 3.3v only for the ESP-01 is true - don't give it more than 3.3v.

What voltage regulator are you using? The amazon one I provided a link to in my post or another one? Yes, I had to go over the ADJ trace several times with a razor blade to make sure it is cut. I had a few of them that were bad (no voltage, not 3.3v despite cut line + solder 3.3 pad, etc), but I have 14 of these modules running in my battery bank right now and I will never go back to bluetooth.
 
Yea but I really wanted a switching (buck) converter and provide for some isolation. The one I chose may not be top quality but it has both an inductor and caps. I really didn't want to damage the BMS and these (mostly) ensured that.
 
good call to go the extra meter for some isolation between important components

edit: maybe i miscommunicated/misunderstood

logic signal (not power)

either way this thread is awesome
 
Yea but I really wanted a switching (buck) converter and provide for some isolation. The one I chose may not be top quality but it has both an inductor and caps. I really didn't want to damage the BMS and these (mostly) ensured that.
Why not using some optocouplers?
 
Why not using some optocouplers?

Honestly after I found out about the 12v issue (I cooked a cheap HC-01 bluetooth adapter) , I needed a complete solution (something I didn't need additional parts for) that I could adjust to 5v or 3.3v and wire them inline. These fit the bill pretty nicely. After making my own cable for the bluetooth adapter with one, I then got the idea to make a board for the ESP-01 (which, sadly, I've become addicted to using any/everywhere) and I had like 8 of these leftover so I used them. In a word "availability" ... and "laziness." Ok, that's 2 words lol.

If I put together a board for JLPCB I'll definitely pick your (and the communities) brain on what do for the layout. College was a very long time ago and I got away from hardware not long after that (and into software) and "use it or lose it" coupled with age ... and, well, you know.
 
If I put together a board for JLPCB I'll definitely pick your (and the communities) brain on what do for the layout. College was a very long time ago and I got away from hardware not long after that (and into software) and "use it or lose it" coupled with age ... and, well, you know.
Yes, I do know since I am over 60 and last dealt with hardware issues in the mid 1990s running a test lab at Motorola. Fortunately I was around for a good bit of hardware design when a lot of technology was first introduced. Great thread and work, BTW.
 
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