diy solar

diy solar

ISO 12v BMS that can handle series 36v, high burst and iPhone bluetooth app

Always. And I intend to have headroom and stop charging at about 75%. My concern is that I'll never get a 'top balance'. Install one of these little auto-active balancers like this? How could balancing all the time be a bad thing, isn't that what these do?

If you buy the overkill you don't need a active balancer nor would i use one I don't see the point. Balancers use these tiny wires and takes weeks or even a month to balance a pack. (they scrub voltage like a drip on a facet if you wait long enough you fill the tub.) The only balancing act that needs to occur is at top or bottom. not during use or all the time.
The overkill has parameters to adjust balancing start voltage. I pulled mine down to start at 3.4 I also dropped my pack voltage down from the standard 14.1 to 13.7 to max cycle life basically limiting my pack to around 80% usable amp hours . you can change anything in the app. Balancing is fine an necessary just mostly at the top or the bottom. With the ovekill on top balancing you could pull it down to start at 3.2 or 3.3 and it would be a active balancer as it would always be in balance mode. in the battery state area of the app you scroll to the right and you can see it balancing in real time.

I'll always have a breaker/switch on the positive accessory lead close to the battery, plus the fuse block upstream, connected with fat copper. I always disconnect that breaker because there are lots of items with little draws lurking.

I wonder if you could add some redundancy to this system in case you forget. maybe a relay or soleniod that cuts power off the "no bms lead" through the ignition switch. Just in case the boat takes a vacation you don't want to pull the packs to low or they may be dead forever. Lead bounces back with reduced capacity in a boo boo situation lithium might but usually does not.
 
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Always. And I intend to have headroom and stop charging at about 75%. My concern is that I'll never get a 'top balance'. Install one of these little auto-active balancers like this? How could balancing all the time be a bad thing, isn't that what these do?

If you buy the overkill you don't need a active balancer nor would i use one I don't see the point. Balancers use these tiny wires and takes weeks or even a month to balance a pack. (they scrub voltage like a drip on a facet if you wait long enough you fill the tub.) The only balancing act that needs to occur is at top or bottom. not during use or all the time.
The overkill has parameters to adjust balancing start voltage. I pulled mine down to start at 3.4 I also dropped my pack voltage down from the standard 14.1 to 13.7 to max cycle life basically limiting my pack to around 80% usable amp hours . you can change anything in the app. Balancing is fine an necessary just mostly at the top or the bottom. With the ovekill on top balancing you could pull it down to start at 3.2 or 3.3 and it would be a active balancer as it would always be in balance mode. in the battery state area of the app you scroll to the right and you can see it balancing in real time.

I'll always have a breaker/switch on the positive accessory lead close to the battery, plus the fuse block upstream, connected with fat copper. I always disconnect that breaker because there are lots of items with little draws lurking.

I wonder if you could add some redundancy to this system in case you forget. maybe a relay or soleniod that cuts power off the "no bms lead" through the ignition switch. Just in case the boat takes a vacation you don't want to pull the packs to low or they may be dead forever. Lead bounces back with reduced capacity in a boo boo situation lithium might but usually does not.

I see what you're saying. That's great the Overkill bms can be adjusted like that and cool you can see balancing happening.

The problem with a power cutoff tied to the ignition is I need power for many hours while the engine isn't running. I'm totally careful to disconnect power with lead batteries, and I can see why you do NOT want to make that mistake to draw down the cells too low, lithium plate your anodes (?) and trash your cells, right? Point taken, I'll think of something...
 
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