Lipo Wiring Parallel and Series Simultaneously

I'm using currently iCharger to balance charge my 20s16ah battery pack. But its a bit pain on the ass to disconnect 5 wires and connect 10 wires to iCharger (5 main and 5 balance leads). Would there be some way to balance charge this pack without BMS without disconnecting any wires? I do not want to use BMS since we use these same packs in different configuration on my child ATV and E-Trial bike.

Solutions?:

1) Balance leads could be paralled and always connected to charger. Switch between every pack to switch between parallel and series connection. Using balancing 4s lipo charger.

2) Using bulk charger to charge cells up to 4,05v and then using Inboard balance charger which is connected only to parallel leads and charge to 4,05v -> 4,1v. This could be always connected and just using simple switch on first wire of balance wire to power it on and off.

3)Using bulk charger to charge cells to 4,1v and balance charging every 2 week

4)?

I use 5x4s 16000mah multistar batteries connected to Sabvoton. But planning to go 8x4s16ah in 16s32ah configuration. Thats the absolute max my frame can handle.

First off, forget about trying to parallel the balance taps above 2P, even doing it to a 2P string is hard enough and of questionable effectiveness. So that means bulk charging and using Battery Medics.
I use a Mean Well HLG-320-54A, which only goes up to 14S and don't know about the praticality of connecting power supplies in series, so I would build two sub-packs w/ the easiest way possible to sub-divide for charging.
That would be(using 4S/16Ah bricks) two sub-packs of 2S/2P (31V/32Ah) and connect them is series for a 62V/32Ah pack. The serial connection should be fairly easy to "break".
But here is your next problem, Hobbyking is Out of Stock on those bricks and have been for a while. In fact, the only vendor I could find that has them is;
https://www.rakuten.com/shop/hobbyking/product/912700012-0/
$116 ea., plus shipping I presume, ouch. But hopefully(if the bricks you have are not too tired) you only need two. If the bricks you have now ARE getting tired, remember, the total pack is only going to be as stout as the weakest bricks.

Paralling balance leads works amazing. I have 6 pieces of 25c 5s 5000mah turnigys that are 3 years old now with over 200 cycles. We have used them on my son's Electric Motocross bike and on ATV. I have every time charged them on 6P paralled on balance and main wires with iCharger. The cells are all between 4mv after charged still after 3 years.

motomech said:

First off, forget about trying to parallel the balance taps above 2P, even doing it to a 2P string is hard enough and of questionable effectiveness.

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why should that be? every 18650 build is made that way. i'm paralleling 10 cells, and i did parallel 4x 6s zippy lipos for years. there are no issues what so ever.

redline2097 said:

Paralling balance leads works amazing. I have 6 pieces of 25c 5s 5000mah turnigys that are 3 years old now with over 200 cycles. We have used them on my son's Electric Motocross bike and on ATV. I have every time charged them on 6P paralled on balance and main wires with iCharger. The cells are all between 4mv after charged still after 3 years.

Click to expand...

I'm using currently iCharger to balance charge my 20s16ah battery pack. But its a bit pain on the ass to disconnect 5 wires and connect 10 wires to iCharger (5 main and 5 balance leads). Would there be some way to balance charge this pack without BMS without disconnecting any wires?

Click to expand...

Look, you asked about how to get away from "breaking the string" and fiddling w/ a bunch of wires and balance boards and I told you what many of us here are doing, getting away from the RC balance chargers and bulk charging w/ Mean Wells.
If what you are doing is so "amazing": and you don't want to change, why did you even bother to post?
All I'm saying is, if you were willing to get out of your "toy" charger mindset, you could series two Mean Wells and have a "plug and play" solution, only needing to do a quick ck w/ a Battery Medic at top charge. Just connect the charger, it would be faster and easier w/out the risk of dis-connecting and connecting a bunch of leads.
W/ my HLG, when I connect it to the pack, it starts charging instantly @ 7.5 Amps w/out starting and stopping the charge cycle to read the cells as many balance chargers do. It will bring my 20,000 mah pack to top charge from 75% discharged in 1 1/2 o 2 hr.s, w/ no irritating fan noise. It requires no power supply , is weather-proof and since it's potted, it can be carried on the bike. Going from RC chargers to it has been the best move I have made concerning my Ebikes.
And the fact that your cells stay in line probably has little to do w/the fact that you are currently balance charging every time(whether they need it or not). I have been using the Multistar since it came out and have almost never have to balance them(just ck them every cycle). Unless they are run down below 3.65V, they just never get out of balance. I can't even remember the last time I balanced the cells on my pack.

Yeah I think the bulk charger could be the best option. BMS-Battery has some options for 20s but I'm not 100% guaranteed of their quality. Would rather take 2x meanwell in series if someone could do the wiring for me.

I had a BMS Battery charger that was supplied w/ a bottle battery and it was total junk. I do remember some really old threads here on how to adjust the the Pots on their big chargers.
I think your decision concerning Mean Well's has more to do with which model(How much do you want to spend), than how to connect them in series. The higher end models have a protection diodes built in and have isolated grounds, so it's simply a matter of connecting the out-puts in series. Anyhow, once you decide on which Mean Well's, there's plenty of info here and on the Net.
https://www.power-supplies-australia.com.au/blog/connecting-mean-well-power-supplies-series
If you went w/ the superb HLG series, you need to make sure it's the version w/ the suffix A. That is the one w/ adjustable Current and Volts.
Concerning Battery Medics-I only know of one vendor that sells genuine Battery Medics;
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/150W-3-in-1-RC-2s-6s-Lipo-Li-Fe-Battery-Balancer-LCD-Voltage-Meter-Tester/716017404.html
All others, including the ones HK sells are junky clones. The black ones are the worst.
How many-Theoretically in a perfect world, only one to ck, but it doesn't quite work out that way. Battery Medics are very slow to discharge/balance and as I said, I have seldom had to balance, but there has been times when I had to discharge. The scenaro is this;
When I come back from a ride, I charge to a storage Voltage of 3.90V/cell and right before I go out I top charge. There have been times when I top charged and for some reason, didn't go out and I had to bring the pack back down to storage Voltage. The fastest way would to have a Battery Medic on each brick, or in your case 8. If you were to go ahead and parallel balance taps, then 4 would do it, but it would take all nite for a big pack like you have. Fortunately, BM's are passive and benign, so they can be left to work unattended. When they reach the set value, they just sit there and gently beep.
So, if you went w/ two high-end Mean Wells, like the HLG series and 4 to 8 BM's, you could, like me, have $300 into the charging set-up. But I look at it this way, I buy all my Multistar when it's on sale and stock up(IT keeps forever in the fridge)and have saved way more than $300 over the years compared to what a Li-Ion pack of 20Ah would cost. My main pack is comprised of 4) MS 6S/10Ah, wired 2S/2P. Those bricks are currently $75 w/ free shipping, so ,my 12S/20Ah pack costs $300. Nothing out there can even come close to the value of Mulistar when bought on sale.