BMS or Charger for a 4p4s Vehicle Mounted System

Greeting, everybody!!!

I have 16 Shenzen Basen 280 Ah cells in a 4p4s (12V) configuration. It is 14 kWh, and it will be used in my motovan to charge my two Alta electric dirt bikes.



I can't seem to find a good charger or a good BMS. I want to be able to balance the cells.

Right now I have an iCharger 406 Duo. It is good for 70A, which is fine when charging from shore power, or from the alternator.

But it has several major flaws:

1) The charger input ground can NOT be connected to the charger output ground. If connected like that, it says it will blow up. If I charge from a 110V power supply, this is not a problem. But what if want to charge from the alternator? I can add an isolated $300 DC-DC converter, but this will be an inefficient and bulky $300+$300=$600 solution.

2) This charger is not a BMS. It has to be started manually. Not a big deal though.

3) The charger, apparently, has to be powered on before it is connected the the battery. It still works if I power it later, but the manual says not to do it.

So.... Are there better charger or BMS options?

And a silly question: Can I use a solar charge controller to charge from the ~14.4V vehicle alternator? I will have solar panels on my van's roof eventually.

This won't give me any cell balancing though.

Many MPPT solar charge controllers require the input volts to be +5 over the battery voltage before it will begin charging the battery. You won't reach that threshold with the alternator. Once charging starts, the input volts must be +1 over the battery voltage. Your MPPT solar charge controller may not have those same thresholds.

Hi, I also have 16 280 ah cells coming in from Shenzen Basen and I'm looking for a good BMS solution. For the alternator and solar panel system I ordered the Renogy DCC50S 12V 50A DC-DC ON-BOARD BATTERY CHARGER WITH MPPT. I'm not sure if that's what you're referring to with the $300 dc-dc converter, wish I could have been more helpful.

It looks like people have been using Daly BMS systems from Alibaba or Amazon. They are pretty cheap. They could be installed between the car battery/alternator and the lithium batteries.

But something still has to limit the current to not run the the alternator at a 100% load all the time.

Victron offers such a DC-DC load limiting gadget. But it costs $450 and is good only for $30A of charge current. I think I want about 60A.

MotoVan said:

It looks like people have been using Daly BMS systems from Alibaba or Amazon. They are pretty cheap. They could be installed between the car battery/alternator and the lithium batteries.

But something still has to limit the current to not run the the alternator at a 100% load all the time.

Victron offers such a DC-DC load limiting gadget. But it costs $450 and is good only for $30A of charge current. I think I want about 60A.

Click to expand...

You would likely be happier with an Overkill Solar BMS if it meets your needs for output current.

The biggest problem with charging these cells from your alternator is the fact that they act like a dead short. Unless you have something limiting current, they can absorb 280 amps without breaking a sweat and will overheat and eventually kill your alternator.

MotoVan said:

Victron offers such a DC-DC load limiting gadget. But it costs $450 and is good only for $30A of charge current. I think I want about 60A.

Click to expand...

The Victron Orion Tr 12/12-30 is about $220. I suppose if you used two of them in parallel that would be close to your $450 figure.

I think I have found a good solution!

I will keep my iCharger 406 Duo. I like it because I can program it with the buttons and not have to fiddle with Bluetooth opening apps. I can adjust the charging current to be anywhere between 0 and 70A.

In order to have an isolated ground, I will power it from the Chargery S1200 power supply.

The Chargery S1200 will be powered from either the alternator and a 1500W inverter, or from shore power! This would allow me to easily charge from the alternator and from 110V!

With this system I would be able to charge the lithium batteries to 14.4 or 14.6V, even if my alternator produces just 14.1V.

The van has a 240V inverter-charger, which is also capable of additional 80A of charging from 240VAC shore power. So, that is 150A of charging, when I am in a hurry!

Plus, I will have solar. All of these systems will be connected to the lithium batteries in parallel, and they will be able to charge them together or independently.

Just John said:

would likely be happier with an Overkill Solar BMS if it meets your needs for output current.

Click to expand...

Yes, I have seem their nice website. What I didn't quite understand was why was it called "Solar BMS"? Does it also work as a solar charger and can accept the high and low voltage directly from the solar panels?

"Overkill Solar" is the name of the company.