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Electrodacus: Open-Source Solar Battery Management System Introduction and Setup

7 points by devy 6y ago

throwaway189262 6y ago
This is awesome! Some background for those not familiar with the space. A BMS is used to keep Lithium Ion batteries charged property. When building a large Lion battery, you typically do it by stringing a bunch of small ones together. You can do this easily at home. But chaining lithium ion in series is dangerous without a battery controller. Overcharged cells especially. This limitation has really hampered the DIY solar and EV communities. Solar equipment and EV parts for small vehicles like scooters are readily available. But there's no affordable BMS for using lithium batteries. The cheapest ones are around $1000. That's why this project is so important. Used lithium ion batteries with plenty of life left are becoming common on the grey market as EV market penetration increases. The battery packs from hybrids are the perfect size for solar backup power in vans and RVs. Tesla packs are also great because they're built subdivided into conveniently sized modules that run about 24V. This is a great voltage for using existing RV power equipment. The problem is, these battery modules have BMS integrated with the vehicle electronics. They won't work without one, so until now the only option is to pay $1000 for a commercial unit. Since the packs themselves cost less than that, it's not viable to reuse EV batteries. Automotive batteries are otherwise perfect for solar and RV use. They're about 5 kilowatt hours for hybrid packs and tesla modules. This is enough power that you can throw a bunch of panels on the roof and run your whole RV solar 24/7 in sunny places. Even the AC. Car modules also support extremely high charge/discharge rates. So you can run big stuff like toasters without worrying about damaging the batteries. Tesla EV modules are about 6X lighter than the equivalent traditional RV batteries, and can handle maybe 30X the current. And they're half the cost. 100% solar RV's are finally realistic with used EV cells. Heat pump, AC, induction cooking. You can supply all needs except food and water with solar. An affordable BMS is the last barrier for me to use EV cells, so it looks like I'm going to have a fun project coming up :) The author of this video is a brilliant guy with a ton of other videos on off grid power. The site for the new BMS http://www.electrodacus.com/ http://www.electrodacus.com/

7 points by devy 6y ago

This is awesome! Some background for those not familiar with the space. A BMS is used to keep Lithium Ion batteries charged property. When building a large Lion battery, you typically do it by stringing a bunch of small ones together. You can do this easily at home. But chaining lithium ion in series is dangerous without a battery controller. Overcharged cells especially. This limitation has really hampered the DIY solar and EV communities. Solar equipment and EV parts for small vehicles like scooters are readily available. But there's no affordable BMS for using lithium batteries. The cheapest ones are around $1000. That's why this project is so important. Used lithium ion batteries with plenty of life left are becoming common on the grey market as EV market penetration increases. The battery packs from hybrids are the perfect size for solar backup power in vans and RVs. Tesla packs are also great because they're built subdivided into conveniently sized modules that run about 24V. This is a great voltage for using existing RV power equipment. The problem is, these battery modules have BMS integrated with the vehicle electronics. They won't work without one, so until now the only option is to pay $1000 for a commercial unit. Since the packs themselves cost less than that, it's not viable to reuse EV batteries. Automotive batteries are otherwise perfect for solar and RV use. They're about 5 kilowatt hours for hybrid packs and tesla modules. This is enough power that you can throw a bunch of panels on the roof and run your whole RV solar 24/7 in sunny places. Even the AC. Car modules also support extremely high charge/discharge rates. So you can run big stuff like toasters without worrying about damaging the batteries. Tesla EV modules are about 6X lighter than the equivalent traditional RV batteries, and can handle maybe 30X the current. And they're half the cost. 100% solar RV's are finally realistic with used EV cells. Heat pump, AC, induction cooking. You can supply all needs except food and water with solar. An affordable BMS is the last barrier for me to use EV cells, so it looks like I'm going to have a fun project coming up :) The author of this video is a brilliant guy with a ton of other videos on off grid power. The site for the new BMS http://www.electrodacus.com/ http://www.electrodacus.com/