Little more work done. Built the end plates yesterday and still performing the initial cell voltage balance. The batteries are so high capacity it takes a few hours for each to bring them down 0.2 volts each! This will likely take most of the weekend. Not something you can walk away from, if the voltage gets too low you can ruin a cell. By balancing the cells so they are each within +/- 0.001 volts this will give the largest capacity. Since the BMS will shut down on high or low voltage of any cell if they are out of balance you either won't get the other cells to full charge or get a full discharge before the BMS shuts down the system. So it's worth the time to do this. Of course I could have paid 150% more and bought a drop in system from Lithionics....
Once I'm done with the balancing I'll install them in the compartment and start wiring the cells.
Yesterday my heavily muscled son came by so I had him move the cells into the compartment. Probably won't see him for a while.....
I plan to build a shelf above the batteries and will have about 12" of height. Plus the rear battery compartment will be empty and I'll use the 2 pull-out shelves for more storage.
Finally finished balancing the cells. They are all within .003 volts after resting overnight. Probably overkill, but can't hurt.
Got the cells all wired up. The BMS is working properly. Haven't switched over yet. The Victron battery monitor is not working. Hope it's just the RJ12 plug on the cable that I might have damaged fishing it through the floor. I have a cable tester and crimper somewhere in storage but won't get there for a couple days.
The BMS cell boards each have a red led that blinks a code to tell you if everything's ok or you have or had a high or low voltage event. Well one of the boards led wasn't lighting up. Thought I had a bad board or I let the smoke out of it. Nope, the boards are coated with black plastic and on this one the plastic was covering the led. So after lightly scraping the plastic off it is now blinking.
I know this sounds like quite a bit of work but I'm flying blind here. Not a lot of info out there on these batteries. But if anyone wants to do this on their coach I'll be happy to help. And the second time will be much easier and quicker. I work pretty cheap, burger and brew and I'm happy, happy, happy!
