Basic Nissan Leaf 7 module Lithium setup with Generic Chinese BMS

[yensidcamper]

BobBob, I really appreciate you taking the time to take that picture. I contacted the company on that charger and they said it couldn't be adjusted. I guess they really don't want anyone messing with them.

Sergio, great tip to take a picture of the pots before I mess with it. I found as I built this, I forgot to take some pictures I wanted to document along the way.

I heard back from the Yarlan store and they said the Amazon date is wrong and it would be here next week, which is more like what I saw when I ordered it. So for now, I am waiting to see if it shows up next week. If not, I will be expediting an order for a UY600.

WalterM6, I am glad you reminded me to do that. I have been reluctant to run it too much since I don't have a charger yet. As soon as I get a charger I will set my BMS settings so it will cut out earlier on both LV and HV than needed and see if it works.

I ran it about a mile today just for fun and I still have about 51.5v. I have stored it with the tow/run switch in both tow and run. It dropped about a .1 volts overnight on run and the same again from this morning. It did not drop at all overnight when the switch was in tow. I don't have my voltage reducer hooked up right now so I wonder what is drawing it down? I realize it isn't much but it is more than when they were just sitting there on the bench with nothing connected to them for a couple of weeks.

[Sergio]

The BMS only has one way to disable the LV and HV, so the best initial test is to use the Bluetooth app on your Phone and press the "Lock" icon to disable the BMS.

That will reproduce what happens when the BMS triggers on a fault, it is also an excellent cart disable key.

Later You can test the actual operation by purposely setting the BMS to trigger an LV or VH event.

Remember that when the cart is on "RUN" the controller is always working and monitoring the motor for movement through the powered speed sensor.

When the cart is on "TOW" there is a lot less drain on the pack.

[Bobbob]

Sergio I followed your advice on adjusting my pots. I noted the position of each pot I adjusted to find the correct position of each pot. Then made sure I set each pot to the same position as factory direct. The only pot that affected the voltage was the one I pointed too. With out the diagram of the power supply it is really just a guessing game on which is the correct potentiometer to adjust. I have a direct current amp meter hooked up to measure the current input to the battery pack. It shows a current input of 1.5 dropping to about .4 after about 3 hours of full charging. I will let it go for another couple of hours just to see if it drops any further. The voltage has remained constant at 56.1 V DC during this whole process.

On my system right now I am by passing all relays and connecting right to battery as a stand alone pack.


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[yensidcamper]

Originally Posted by Sergio

The BMS only has one way to disable the LV and HV, so the best initial test is to use the Bluetooth app on your Phone and press the "Lock" icon to disable the BMS.

That will reproduce what happens when the BMS triggers on a fault, it is also an excellent cart disable key.

Later You can test the actual operation by purposely setting the BMS to trigger an LV or VH event.

Remember that when the cart is on "RUN" the controller is always working and monitoring the motor for movement through the powered speed sensor.

When the cart is on "TOW" there is a lot less drain on the pack.

I just checked the app and the iOS version has buttons for batt on and batt off. Turning the batt off does prevent the cart from running. I can hear the solenoid click but the cart will not run. So I would say the BMS and relay system is doing its job! I still need to set the BMS settings but I will do that when I get the charger installed.

I did not realize the controller was always "on". I will make a better point of turning it to tow when I leave the cart for long periods. I will also make use of the batt off feature when I am parking the cart in the public.

[yensidcamper]

Once the BMS/relay box was complete it was time to mount it on the battery box. I first put the sides of the box on the batteries using the all thread. I used 5/16" instead of the 1/4" rods that came with the box. You only need 1 foot rods if you are doing a 7 pack. I bought 2 foot rods at Home Depot and ended up cutting them down to a foot. Once my box arrived the rods they sent were also 1 foot. I didn't get a picture of this stage but the nuts were tightened to 88 in-lbs.

Picture 1 shows the attachment of the sensing wires. I used the diagram in post #90 to mark the wires and the terminals. The + and - terminal bolts are torqued to 49 in-lbs. The center terminal screws are torqued to 11 in-lbs. (I didn't have anything that would measure that low so i did my best guess with a screwdriver.) Make sure the harness tap is not connected to the BMS while you are attaching these wires.

Pictures 2 and 3 show the progressive voltage as you measure across the terminals. They should get higher by roughly 3.6 each terminal. Once you know this accurate you can attach it the BMS. (I had to use a straight pin to get into the tiny connectors to take the measurement.) Then make sure you have the B- connector on the BMS hooked to the main battery negative post. This will fire up the BMS, if you don't do this your BMS won't measure properly. Thanks to PingEye3 for catching this for me in post #202.

In picture 4, I have attached the 6 ga wires to the main + and - battery terminals and closed up the relay box. I plan to change the 6 ga wires to 2 gauge at some point. Be careful to make sure to cover the bare connectors so nothing shorts out.

Picture 5 shows the make shift cover I made. I used corrugated plastic yard signs and took advantage of the fact my batteries had additional posts on them. The corrugated slipped right over them. I also put black duct tape on the inside of the metal box to insulate it just in case.

[yensidcamper]

I began playing around with the BMS App to set the cut offs and such. Well the iOS version is different from the Android version. The first three attachments are where I can change the values. The App reads the values from the batteries. Man is there a lot of info there. i believe the protections are the main things I need to change and I think I have a handle on that. However, I am confused about the balancing settings. The last two images seem to let you calibrate the current and voltage but it gives you dire warnings not to mess with it unless you know what you are doing, and I don't. Anybody got any ideas on the best way to set this up?

[Sergio]

Since You are not passing the charging current through the BMS, You need to disable the "Bal. only when charging" setting.

Also, the current units are in mAh so You can use 50,000mAh (50Ah) for "Designed Capacity" and 40,000mAh (40Ah) for "Cycle Capacity".

Those settings are mostly informative since you are also not using the BMS for discharge so it cannot read the current anyway.

Disable "Load Detect" for same reason.

I charge my pack to 56.7v or 4.05v average per cell.

These are my settings, the locations of the data are different but you should be able to cross reference them to the IOS app:

Set your Balancer "Start Voltage" to 3900mV for the first several charging cycles until the cells get closer in balance then change it to 4050mV to match the charger final voltage.

Don't use the calibration functions.

You can leave the other settings alone for now, some of the other values will automatically change as you change these settings.

That should set a good baseline.

[DaveTM]

Nice post Sergio!! Lots of quality information!! Kudos to you!

[yensidcamper]

Originally Posted by Sergio

Since You are not passing the charging current through the BMS, You need to disable the "Bal. only when charging" setting.

Also, the current units are in mAh so You can use 50,000mAh (50Ah) for "Designed Capacity" and 40,000mAh (40Ah) for "Cycle Capacity".

Those settings are mostly informative since you are also not using the BMS for discharge so it cannot read the current anyway.

Disable "Load Detect" for same reason.

I charge my pack to 56.7v or 4.05v average per cell.

These are my settings, the locations of the data are different but you should be able to cross reference them to the IOS app:

Set your Balancer "Start Voltage" to 3900mV for the first several charging cycles until the cells get closer in balance then change it to 4050mV to match the charger final voltage.

Don't use the calibration functions.

You can leave the other settings alone for now, some of the other values will automatically change as you change these settings.

That should set a good baseline.

Originally Posted by DaveTM

Nice post Sergio!! Lots of quality information!! Kudos to you!

Dave, I couldn't agree more.

Sergio, I assume you didn't set out to take me or others on to be your apprentice; but you have been one of the best teachers I have ever had. Thank you.

[yensidcamper]

Well it was time to close up the battery box and test fit it in the cart. The first picture shows the battery box completed. The second picture is the batteries that removed. Each battery weighed 68.5 lbs for a total weight of 411 lbs. The Leaf box weighed 74.5 lbs. That is a weight savings of 336.5 lbs. The last picture is the test fit and I just couldn't resist a quick drive even though it wasn't secured and the process wasn't complete. It worked great.

Next step is to clean the box, remove the OBC and Club Car charging connector, and install the new charging connector.