Daly BMS not showing SOC

[Freeman656]

Hi,
I'm having some troubles with the SmartBMS app regarding the SOC and MOS status.
They are not showing up at all.
The BMS is a Daly 16S 60V 150A with active balancer (280Ah batteries).
I can change nearly all the options in the app, the only one not responding is the SOC, I cannot set it to 50% manually for example.
The app is also asking me to update the firmware, but earing all the drama around the new firmware, I guess I'll wait a bit unless it's proven safe for this version of BMS.
Any idea of a problem causing the SOC and Amps not beeing displayed ?

Btw, is it possible to change the language of the app ? It seems to be taking the language of the phone which is annoying...

Thanks

 

[SeaGal]

Wild guess here as I have a different make of BMS, but would enabling the charge and discharge MOS settings allow a current to flow and trigger the Amps to display? Worth a try IMHO... et le Francais est pas si mal

 

[Freeman656]

This little green switch is actually not a switch but just an indicator, the real switch is located in the setting in another parameter page of the app.
Charge switch is ON and discharge switch is OFF currently because I'm only charging the battery.
Another information is that the BMS is working fine, the app is just not showing the Amps/SOC.

 

[vejeriego]

The app is also asking me to update the firmware, but earing all the drama around the new firmware, I guess I'll wait a bit unless it's proven safe for this version of BMS.

Very wise!

Which version of SmartBMS are you running?

Daly updated the broken Android SmartBMS App with Version 2.4.3 at the end of December. However they did say that if software still asked to do an update of the firmware, this was to be ignored and it "would be removed later".

 

[Freeman656]

I'm on the 2.4.3.
Btw, it also seems that the overvoltage protection of the cells doesn't work as expected, I've seen a cell at 3.7xxV, overvoltage protection is set at 3.6...

 

[vejeriego]

Btw, it also seems that the overvoltage protection of the cells doesn't work as expected, I've seen a cell at 3.7xxV, overvoltage protection is set at 3.6...

That is really NOT good

Let's hope that Daly get their collective finger out and correct their software when they all get back from their New Year holidays.

 

[Freeman656]

Yeah, in the meanwhile I shutdown the charger and all the value are now back to 3.45-3.5V, I hope it was just some missreading of the value from the app or something.
I'm still on my first charge (waiting for the sun), and I'm going to top balance with a parallel cell arrangment in the next days.
I don't really know what to do more than wait for Daly to get a new firmware/software out right now, maybe put some more security in the charger instead of the BMS.

 

[Freeman656]

I got a strange reply from Daly :

through the bluetooth app, the active balancer can't see and set the soc, charge and discharge mos, it is normal, because the bluetooth you connect is the active balancer, you only can see the parameters of the active balancer
if you want to see and set the soc, charge and discharge mos, you need to connect the bluetooth to smart bms, but the bms you buy is nonsmart

Indeed, the bluetooth is connected to the balancer, but what crap are they talking about ? nonsmart bms ??

This is the one I bougth : https://fr.aliexpress.com/item/1005...st_main.5.21ef5e5bV1XloO&gatewayAdapt=glo2fra

Has anyone an idea or faced a similar issue ?

 

[Xhumeka]

That link you sent - did that include both the BMS as well as the balancer?

They are saying that when you connect via bluetooth, you aren't actually connecting to the BMS, but you are connecting to the balancer. I guess the app is the same and it's hard to tell the difference?

Does your BMS have a bluetooth dongle? (similar to the dongle shown connected to the balancer from your link above) If your BMS does not have a bluetooth dongle connection then you don't have a smart BMS, meaning you can't connect to it via bluetooth and you will never be able to see/set SOC etc.

 

[Freeman656]

Yes it includes bms and balancer, with some kind of Y cable to connect to both the bms/balancer and the cells.
It's indeed the same app, I can see the active balancer tab showing which cell is beeing balancer and at which rate but that's all.
No bluetooth dongle for the bms and also no port on the bms itself.
This is very strange because it means that cannot even configure the bms ... overvoltage, undervoltage, etc... ?

 

[MisterSandals]

Yes it includes bms and balancer, with some kind of Y cable to connect to both the bms/balancer and the cells.

Can you post a pic of this that shows all the wiring?
Maybe some of the eyes here can spot something.

 

[Pim57]

Daly uses the same app for both the balancer and bms. In your case the app connects to the balancer and you can only see/modify parameters that has to do with the balancer.

The bms itself is the “dumb” type, so you can’t configure anything else.

The video in your Ali link also shows no SOC.

 

[Freeman656]

@MisterSandals Nothing fancy with the wiring, just the standard stuff.

@Pim57 , yes I agree with the dumb type of BMS. But how can they sell such a crap unit, it doesn't make any sense to have a BMS that have no overvoltage protection (one of my cell was above 3.65 and the bms didn't shutdown the charge).

I'll try to get some refund with no real hopes

 

[MisterSandals]

I'll try to get some refund with no real hopes

Why not try upgrading the firmware?
I wonder if you get a different firmware (English?) if you set your phone language to english when upgrading.

Can you post a pic of your charge settings? Thats unfortunate it does not prevent a cell getting to 3.7xx volts.

 

[Freeman656]

The bluetooth is connected to the balancer, this means that my charge settings (which are related to the BMS itself) are not used at all.
They are set on overvoltage 3.55 and undervoltage 3.00. But I think the balancer does not commuicate with the BMS (no cable between the two) so the setting in the APP are not relevant.

 

[Pim57]

The ‘dumb’ or ‘non smart’ Daly bms has the overvoltage set to 3.65 ±0.05 V and under voltage to 2.30 ± 0.05 V.

You were unlucky to buy the ‘non smart’ bms and a ‘smart’ balancer. And I agree that the advertisement on Ali is not so clear on that.

 

[MisterSandals]

The bluetooth is connected to the balancer, this means that my charge settings (which are related to the BMS itself) are not used at all.

Oh i see. I did not catch that.
It looked like a clever product design but really comes up short. At least the ad has cool graphics, spiffy colors and only misspells "LiFePo4" consistently.

Looking at the Aliexpress ad, they show LiFePO4 and Li-Ion models. You have the LiFePO4 model right?

and under voltage to 2.30 ± 0.05 V.

Yow, this would be a deal breaker for me.

 

[Xhumeka]

How do you know the "dumb" BMS isn't protecting your cells? Neither your BMS nor your balancer has a way of displaying to you the voltage of a single cell, so if you were going by a reading on the BMS app it should not be trusted. I would hook up a multimeter to the cells while charging to see what's going on.

I have quite a few "dumb" BMSs and they work quite well, but you can't change any settings as mentioned.

Your other option would be to buy a "smart BMS" and use that with your balancer... I don't think the balancers are tied to a specific BMS (unlike their parallel units which apparently have to be programmed to a specific BMS).

 

[Freeman656]

The balancer is displayed the voltage of each cells through the app, the same way the (smart)BMS does.
I agree with the last sentence, buying a smart BMS would solve all my problems, I would just have two bluetooth modules, one for the bms, the other for the balancer. I guess some people are already doing this (at least I saw a youtube video a few weeks ago, the guy just added a smart balancer to his system).

 

[Freeman656]

I got a response for daly, and it seems that I've order a Li-ion BMS, which is rated for 4.25 overvoltage.
This is really confusing because on ali they sell lifepo4 15s and 20s, but the 16s is for li-ion, so if you don't watch it very closely, the mistake is quickly done...

 

[Freeman656]

Just to let the community know, here is the latest reponse from Daly about the 16s lifepo4 bms which is not available in the Ali list of items :

dear, and we have lifepo4 16s, you just need to make the order of li-ion 16s and mark lifepo4 16s and we will ask the factory make lifepo4 16s for you

what a straightforward marketing strategy...

 

[burbo]

Hi, I'm new and I also stumbled upon the same mistake.. I thought that the active balance equipped with bluetooth indicated the percentage of charge, I was wrong and also all the settings that are entered are ignored by the "normal" BMS. The equalizer, can only balance the cells. If you want to modify and display the parameters of the bms, it must be the bms smart

 

[Freeman656]

Yes, you have to buy a SmartBMS AND the Smart Active balancer separatly (as far as I know) in order to be fully smart...