Valence Power U-Charge P30-36C

[batman-NI]

Hi everyone, I’m a battery supplier in the UK and I have bought a load of these batteries from a bus company, they have come out of test bus’s and have only done about 100 cycles max, they have been stored correctly - this is why the cycles are at around 100 most of these are to keep the batteries right and would only have about 10 full cycles when test driving the bus. They all have a green light flashing on them.

I want to link up to the BMS but can seam to find the software anywhere, can anyone help me with getting the software to communicate with these batteries to get full information on each one, also I’m looking for a connector to plug in to the original plugs, can’t find them either?

Any help is very much appreciated.

Thanks Batman

 

[amberwolf]

If a quick google didn't find anything on them, your only really likely source of info is the company that made them; it's pretty rare to find anything like software or communications protocol, data format, etc., out in the wild.


If it uses a standard interface like CANbus you might be able to "poke" at it with terminal software and a suitable adapter on your computer, and see what responses you get out of it for various data, as others have done for assorted devices around here on this forum and others. No guarantees you'd ever randomly come across something that works, but worth a try if you get no info any other way.


To help find the connector, we'd need to have pictures of the one you have. Often connectors have company names molded into them (though this can be on the PCB side of PCB mounted types, not helpful when looking them up).

 

[batman-NI]

If a quick google didn't find anything on them, your only really likely source of info is the company that made them; it's pretty rare to find anything like software or communications protocol, data format, etc., out in the wild.


If it uses a standard interface like CANbus you might be able to "poke" at it with terminal software and a suitable adapter on your computer, and see what responses you get out of it for various data, as others have done for assorted devices around here on this forum and others. No guarantees you'd ever randomly come across something that works, but worth a try if you get no info any other way.


To help find the connector, we'd need to have pictures of the one you have. Often connectors have company names molded into them (though this can be on the PCB side of PCB mounted types, not helpful when looking them up).

Hi Amberwolf

Thanks very much for your reply, I will have to try contecting to it to see what happens ( I took one of the lids off the BMS and think I can just join into the cables on the inside of the bms, I will keep you posted

What are these worth? I don't know much about them but what IV been told they are very good quality? And have had Very little use.

I will try my best to take pics and log what is happening in the hope it helps someone else down the line?

 

[amberwolf]

What are these worth? I don't know much about them but what IV been told they are very good quality? And have had Very little use.

A used untested battery is best thought to be worth nothing, until it is tested, proven to be good and worth something.

The best real guide to prices of things like this are previous sales of them or similar ones, and whatever they sold for, assuming similar conditions to yours. If places like BatteryHookup and the like have ever sold any, you might find old product pages to tell you about them there, too.


If you can't access BMS data / info, you can manually at least voltage test the cells first static as they are right now, to see if they are all balanced (if they aren't, it's an indicator that the cells different from the others already have problems).

The best tests would be under a discharge current load of various levels based on the data sheet for the individual cells, and then under a charge current based on that data sheet.\


BTW, if you can't find a datasheet for the cells, then you can't really know what they can do, and so can't easily judge what they would be worth (can't know what kind of job they'd be good for).

 

[batman-NI]

A used untested battery is best thought to be worth nothing, until it is tested, proven to be good and worth something.

The best real guide to prices of things like this are previous sales of them or similar ones, and whatever they sold for, assuming similar conditions to yours. If places like BatteryHookup and the like have ever sold any, you might find old product pages to tell you about them there, too.


If you can't access BMS data / info, you can manually at least voltage test the cells first static as they are right now, to see if they are all balanced (if they aren't, it's an indicator that the cells different from the others already have problems).

The best tests would be under a discharge current load of various levels based on the data sheet for the individual cells, and then under a charge current based on that data sheet.\


BTW, if you can't find a datasheet for the cells, then you can't really know what they can do, and so can't easily judge what they would be worth (can't know what kind of job they'd be good for).

Hi Amberwolf

I totally agree that's why I'd like to get into the BMS as we have hundreds of these and it would be alot faster to plug the laptop into them than testing each cells also it would be a shame to have to break any seals when they are in such good condition, they have come with a sheet the bus company had to keep a record of them but I'm sure that might not mean alot to someone buying these today, I have come across software to link to these but it is for windows and I use apple Mac, I will test it on an old windows laptop and post the results.

Thanks again Batman.