best way to charge a Valence battery with no bms?

[t3chN0Mad]

I am expecting it to be delivered today 10/2/2020 I need to read about it. I’m clueless as I learn something new about lithiums often. If it includes the low voltage disconnect and low temperature disconnect I’ll be in heaven.

Pages 2 and 3 of their manual talk all about how to use high and low voltage disconnect relays; I don't see anything in there about temperature cutoff.

If you used an open source BMS, such as seb's Arduino-XP-BMS, it is capable of low and high voltage disconnect with external relays, as well as temperature cutoff.
https://github.com/seb303/Arduino-XP-BMS
Seb's project is based off of the one that I started:
https://github.com/t3chN0Mad/OpenXPBMS

 

[floridianman27]

If you ordered the VC1, why wouldn’t you use the outputs from it to control a disconnect relay?

Hello technomad. I got my thunderstruck BMs vc1. Plugged into my computer and batteries. The batteries are locked now. They also sent me 60 amp dc relay and a 20bamp ac side relay. I asked for some guidances on how I need to install these relays. Thunderstruck reply was to go online and learn about these relay. That wasn’t the answer I was looking for. This Relay stuff is still over my head on how they need to be hooked up. Can anyone here help me out. I brought three valence batteries for my 36 volt trolling motor.

 

[Goshishi]

Following your journey floridianman27, as I want to utilize 3 valence batteries for my minn kota 36v trolling motor. considering ordering the vc1.

 

[floridianman27]

This BMS VC1 is a major pain in the ass. I’m tired of this run around with thunderstruck. I told them I do not know how to read the wiring diagram of how to hook up my relays. Going to ask one more tine if they can tell me which wire to which. I have invested far too much money to risk these batteries as I do not want to hook it up incorrectly to damage anything. If anyone can assist me here that will be great.

 

[Goshishi]

This BMS VC1 is a major pain in the ass. I’m tired of this run around with thunderstruck. I told them I do not know how to read the wiring diagram of how to hook up my relays. Going to ask one more tine if they can tell me which wire to which. I have invested far too much money to risk these batteries as I do not want to hook it up incorrectly to damage anything. If anyone can assist me here that will be great.

sorry, that you are having issues. Was hoping this would be the answer for my trolling motor. Have you tested how much capacity your used valence batteries are getting? I picked one up to test out I got under half capacity.

 

[Deleted member 9967]

Hey maybe you can help me out please? I have one of the valence batteries like yours. I’ve had it for about 4 months and it’s been working fine. Until now. I have it installed in my truck, in the bed. It’s enclosed in a camper shell and weather tight. I charge it with a Renogy Rover 20 amp MPPT with two 100 watt panels. I have two fridge/freezer DC compressor coolers running 24/7. Usually I park my truck in it’s normal spot where it gets great sunlight daily and according to renogy software I get 60-70 ah a day. So everything should be fine. But recently we got our 2nd vehicle back from the shop and my wife took my parking spot. So Ive been parked in the shade. This morning I checked on my coolers and they weren’t running. My inline battery meter was showing 10.8 volts and the battery was blinking red every five seconds. I disconnected the load side of the battery and hit the road. I was in a hurry to get to the airport and didn’t have time to trouble shoot things. While driving I monitored the Rover and the battery voltage rose to 13v in about 45 minutes of 180watt charging from the Rover.

when I got home the battery was still blinking red with 13 volts and I started googling. I can’t find ANYTHING about the red LED accept for a different blink pattern. I’ve since removed the battery from the truck and it sits with an open circuit on my garage floor. I’ll note that it was hot today, about 103F.
Your post states low voltage red LED. Is my battery fried or just low? Any input would be greatly appreciated, thank you.

Do a slow charge of ten percent the capacity or less [IE if it is 100 amps then charge at 10 amps or less].
Once it is full then cycle it a couple of times. If it is stable after that then they are fine. If not then find the cell or cells that are way out and replace them.
Hope this helps.

 

[57sailplane]

This BMS VC1 is a major pain in the ass. I’m tired of this run around with thunderstruck. I told them I do not know how to read the wiring diagram of how to hook up my relays. Going to ask one more tine if they can tell me which wire to which. I have invested far too much money to risk these batteries as I do not want to hook it up incorrectly to damage anything. If anyone can assist me here that will be great.

hey, floridianman27

i have been looking at these batteries for over 3 years now for exactly the same reason you are.. have you had any luck getting this figured out. still haven't pulled the trigger as i am not understanding how to charge the system via the bms, and how it all works together. in the rc world the bms is part of the charger not the battery. i think this system would be way better if a person could get it to all work. it would be better then any other battery system out there for trolling motors because the batteries would be under constant surveillance.

 

[t3chN0Mad]

hey, floridianman27

i have been looking at these batteries for over 3 years now for exactly the same reason you are.. have you had any luck getting this figured out. still haven't pulled the trigger as i am not understanding how to charge the system via the bms, and how it all works together. in the rc world the bms is part of the charger not the battery. i think this system would be way better if a person could get it to all work. it would be better then any other battery system out there for trolling motors because the batteries would be under constant surveillance.

Valence batteries definitely require an external BMS. They were designed to be managed as large banks where each battery in the bank communicates to the BMS via RS485. I have already linked in a previous post a couple of open source projects that have the RS485 communications working to provide BMS functions and there are commercial products available as well. If you're not comfortable setting up a BMS that uses the RS485 data link, then I would not buy these batteries; a lot has changed in the last year and there are much more cost effective batteries/cells on the market now.