Orion Jr BMS Review

[Fred]

I thought I would post what I think are some pros and cons of the Orion Jr 2 BMS. I have been running it for about 10 days now.

Pros:

• Very accurate monitoring of cell voltages and DC amps
• Many many settings and options allow you to customize everything to fit your needs
• I can connect a laptop to it to change settings, monitor cells, log data over time.
• Cell balancing.
• Multiple configurable outputs that can be used to control relays for disconnect, charger enable, most anything. They can only sink 175 ma max so relays are needed for most things
• BMS comes in an enclosure (not a bare PCB)
• Uses voltage and amps in/out along with user defined voltage/SOC correlation points (drift points) to calculate an accurate SOC
• Produces error codes and event logs to help diagnose problems.

Cons:

• Complicated. This BMS is designed for EV applications mostly so it has a lot of options and controls that I probably will never need. Took me several days to mock up a small bank, get the BMS working, move it to my big bank, set everything up. Three manuals to learn.
• No LCD on the BMS to display basic status info such as SOC. You can buy a simple display but it is bare bones.
• At the present time, customer service from Orion is severely lacking to non-existent. Can't speak with a tech and several of my emails have had no response as of today (several days after sending).

 

[Ampster]

Cons:

• Complicated. This BMS is designed for EV applications mostly so it has a lot of options and controls that I probably will never need. Took me several days to mock up a small bank, get the BMS working, move it to my big bank, set everything up. Three manuals to learn.
• No LCD on the BMS to display basic status info such as SOC. You can buy a simple display but it is bare bones.
• At the present time, customer service from Orion is severely lacking to non-existent. Can't speak with a tech and several of my emails have had no response as of today (several days after sending).

I agree with your assessment of the Orion BMS with the following comments.
Yes it is complicated because it is designed for an EV. Lots of detailed documentation.
It does have a CANBUS connection to a screen designed for a EV. That costs several hundred dollars and has no input to change parameters. The SOC display is just a small graphic that can be useful once you get the SOC calibration dialed in. I can see how it would be essential for an EV. The best enhancement they have added is the Wifi connect that uploads key information that can be queried from my phone or my laptop from any location. The information is displayed in graph form over time and includes weeks of history. The data includes temperature, pack voltage, amperage in and out and cell deltas. That has given me more insight into my inverter than much of the data from my Outback Skybox which also has remote monitorying.

I recently needed sales advice on a current sensor/shunt and initially did not get a response from the website message system. I called and got a helpful person on the phoned who told me everyone was working from home. She emailed me and we had a dialog that included some other people because I was ordering a sensor for an older model. Ultimately Andrew Ewart joined the dialogue so I was pleased with the outcome.

In the meantime I just connect an Original BMS that I had purchased for a project 2 1/2 years ago and was never used. I have a cell voltage reading error and this morning emailed Andrew Ewart for advise. I will update with his response. I don't know if he is the only tech person responding. Stay tuned.
NOTE: I did hear back from Andrew with the 30 minute time to edit this post and he gave me the tip on wiring that I did not see and it seems to be fixing the problem. It is an Original BMS issue so I won't go into details here.