The batteries are in and despite not being able to get the wheels to turn, I went ahead and hooked up the MiniBMS and battery charger. You can google MiniBMS and see what they have to offer. I have used this now for two years and am very happy with it. Each module costs about $12 and you need one for each battery. I'm using the 3.6 cutoff version so the batteries never overcharge.
The Manzanita Micro PFC charger is one of the best you can buy. At least that's what the owner says. : ) The nice thing is once you have it set to your pack's voltage, it will automatically throttle back one it starts to get close to full. Combine that with the MiniBMS which turns off the charger when one battery hits over 3.6V and you have a great combination that ensures your batteries don't get toasted. At $120 a battery that's a whole lot of toast!!!
This is the headboard, or at least an older version of what Dimitri sells now. In addition to turning off the charger it will also slow the car if a battery gets too low, that way you can limp home. I had this happen once when some batteries that I had added to the pack weren't balanced with the rest of the pack.
The PFC will take anything from 110 to 220V and 20 amp to 50 amps!! That's some serious voltage. I have several adapters I've made to plug into 3 wire 110V and 220V.
It's hard to see but each battery has a red light. Right now the batteries are top charging. After the BMS turns off the charger because one battery has hit over 3.6V, I run the charger again at just under 2 amps, this allows the pack to stay in balance. Balancing is a hot topic amongst the Yahoo Thundersky Forum Group. Several folks are against it, some are for, some do a bottom balance.....it goes on and believe me they can get really heated about it. And the language, techno jargon that most non-engineers can't even understand.
Top balancing works for me.
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