Old BMS General Thread

[retepsnikrep]

I did but you might not have to, depends on available space.

It does look quite neat mounted on the dash in it's normal position but was too tempting/vulnerable to theft IMHO.

If you garage the car every night and don't leave it anywhere then it's bettert on the dash IMO.

[retepsnikrep]

Bloody Hell I've still got this so*ing stinking cold

Anyway just three photos showing old OEM Insight Nimh battery box (batteries removed) with Master board attached (This will be covered when connections completed)

I have completed both ends of the data and BCM connections to the battery packs and Insight contol board/modules.

Still to do on the old OEM battery box are

1) 4 high current connections using Anderson plugs to match the ones on battery packs.

2) Charger relay mounting

3) Main data feed from Master to front display/console

4) Current sensor install into main + battery feed

5) Find VSS signal in Insight loom and route it to Master

6) Arrange Insurance Any ideas?

I'm making pretty good progress should certainly be able to fire up the bms on bench for further testing over the wekend.

www.solarvan.co.uk/insight/OEMBatteryBox3.jpg
www.solarvan.co.uk/insight/OEMBatteryBox4.jpg
www.solarvan.co.uk/insight/OEMBatteryBox5.jpg

[retepsnikrep]

Measured up various cables for install and cut them to length with terminations, attached Insight High current cables to rear of OEM battery pack control board, these cables would have originaly attached to ends of NIMH cells behind the OEM board in the battery box, but now they attach to the Anderson connectors of the Li-fepo4 cells.

System up and running on bench I'll leave it going for next few days to see how it goes.

www.solarvan.co.uk/insight/Tour7004.jpg
www.solarvan.co.uk/insight/Tour7005.jpg

Just waiting on my NG3 charger now which I may be able to fit into the old Battery case If I cut out some of the spacers.

[dillond666]

Peter, you could try Adrian Flux for insurance.
I used them for my old Lancia twin cam powered Lada riva and they were fair. They are quite popular with the street rodder types too.
I got a couple of the Kicchips to play with but have not done anything with them yet.
I have made no progress on the BMS lately as the wife is making me do onerous DIY type jobs
She has authorised my battery pack expenditure though so I will be ordering next week 12v 160ah 13off.
Link is below, hope I'm doing the right thing

http://www.secbattery.com/content/image ... 006-11.pdf

[retepsnikrep]

I have made no progress on the BMS lately as the wife is making me do onerous DIY type jobs

I have decorating to do as well, however I took my life in my hands and told Sarah I wasn't doing any until the Insight was up and running

Do I get a medal for bravery

Just a quickie http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8hw730clL4

[retepsnikrep]

Security.

No one wants anyone stealing their pride and joy, even if it's just the local pond life joyriding. So to this end I have added a security code function to the BMS. The code can be as long as you like and is entered using the 5 menu buttons. The system knows if you get it wrong and enforces a 30 second wait even if your power off the BMS or reset it

The BMS Master drive inhibit opto isolated output can control a low power 50ma 12v relay which can be used to interrupt some vital cable/system on your own particular vehicle to prevent it starting or being driven

If the correct code is entered the relay is activated, if no power or the wrong code is entered it remains off. If you power the BMS off then the code has to be entered again to enable driving.

The BMS still operates even without the code to control overnight charging etc, the code is only reqd to enable the drive function.

The code is set by the user in the Master software and then loaded into the Master in the normal way using the serial link. I might tinker with this to improve code security.

The system is not foolproof but it adds another useful layer of protection IMO and would certainly prevent opportunist theft.

Master Software with security function.

www.solarvan.co.uk/bms/MASTER201008_V45_2400BAUD.TXT

Youtube video demonstrating me getting code wrong

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OubQ1oQoHyI

[Edit] Sadly my NG3 charger is not going to be here until 01/12

That's buggered up my plans nicely, may just get it installed in time for Christmas.
If it all works that would be a nice present though

[retepsnikrep]

I have made no progress on the BMS lately as the wife is making me do onerous DIY type jobs

I have decorating to do as well, however I took my life in my hands and told Sarah I wasn't doing any until the Insight was up and running

Do I get a medal for bravery

As you were Due to delay with Charger not coming until 01/12 I've now been conscripted into the decorating

[qdos]

As you were Due to delay with Charger not coming until 01/12 I've now been conscripted into the decorating

Ho hum

[retepsnikrep]

Thanks for that Qdos but I haven't started decorating yet, my fingernails are scrapping along the bench as I'm being beamed into the black hole of diy home improvements

Having invested in a couple of 8 pin dip I2C serial 64kbyte eeproms good for over a million R/W cycles and some low power 433mhz transmitter/reciever modules I'm looking at some limited data logging (possibly wireless) to fill my time before charger arrives.

The AT24C512B eeprom can store 512 x 128 bytes (64kbytes)

128 bytes just happens to be the size of the Picaxe 28X1 ram area, 50 bytes of which I am already using to store the cell voltage data

What do we need to store for later analysis and how often?

One minute intervals?

Cell Voltages
Average current for last minute
Temperature
Soc

Basically we have masses of room in the Picaxe RAM to store all the parameters the BMS measures/displays, and transfer them to the eeprom at one minute intervals I'm sure this would produce a pretty graph

If I was to store the 128 bytes of ram into the eeprom every minute that would give over 8 hours worth of data. Quite a lot in operational terms and pretty easy to implement as the 128 byte transfer each minute won't impinge much on Picaxe CPU time.

As I only have 50 cells I could possibly squeeze the data into 64 bytes and so double the eeprom capacity to 16hrs of data.

The picaxe can output the data via cable at 9600bps serial 8, N, 1 to a suitable terminal type application to get the data into a PC or at 2400bps serial 8,N, 1 via a simple radio link with the same end.

The Picaxe Master software can also format the stored data as it's sent to the logging application by inserting commas etc or whatever is reqd into the data.

Thoughts?

[centrex]

Just wondering is your Honda still being used while you are doing all these mods and waiting for bits to arrive.