I am an auto buff - by other addiction er hobby, and on the car forums I have seen quite a lot of chat about LTO - from Honda Plug-in hybrids IIRC. They have often talked about doing a manual balance a few times per year "if needed" or checking the balance every few months. This was why I asked the OP if they 'needed' 10-amp balance - since it didn't seem to add up with what I have read over the last few years in the automotive area.
agree.
Some proper connections, bus bars and cases would be a great start. He said five packs - so this was not some spur of the moment set up, just to test an idea for a few days, this was a build. Hope he comes back and learns something from the more experienced among the forum.
I have to wonder if the voltage range for those LTP allowed his current to climb as the voltage dropped down lower and lower, I can imagine from the comments about "pushing the system to the limit" could mean the voltage dropped to sub-48v and the amperage climbed to maintain the power output increasing heating at a poor connection leading to the arc and cell exploding. Too bad there wasn't a camera set up to record the whole event, we could have seen what happened. I should put a cheap aftermarket dash-cam in my solar room, to watch and record in a loop what is going on in there!
If as you say, if he replaces the blown cell, what are the other changes this set up needs to be safe(er):
Proper bus bars and cell holders,
proper sensor wires and ring terminals for the BMS leads,
metal cases for each pack,
Heat and smoke detectors in the vacinity - alarm in the house and link to his phone,
some relays to allow remote disconnect of the ESS ?
I would be interested to know what the rest of the system set up looks like, and what loads are being applied.
www.safetyemporium.com
