6s balancer reccomendations?

[jimmyhackers]

need a 6s lipo cell balancer.

am retrofitting an old 1000w psu with a diy 18650 lithium battery pack.

it will be charged up by (120watts max) solar panels/solar charge controller.

i think i want one that jut plugs into a regular jst 7 pin balance lead and im done......essentially only burning off overvoltage and balancing the cells.

however ill probably want one that i also wire up the main battery leads to.

anyone got any advice bout this?thanks in advance
jim

 

[jonyjoe303]

The best balancers, are the active balancers. I use it on my 4s 110ah lifepo4 that is charged from my 240 watt solar panel/mppt controller. You can get them in 6s versions. My panel maxes out at about 15 amps charge power and the balancers easily handle that.

They aint cheap, I payed 92 dollars last year for my 4s version (work on both lifepo4 or li-ion). They are worth the price, they are always balancing in the background while charging or discharging, they can handle up 10 amps peak (per cell) while charging that means it will keep up when your fast charging at high amps. The balancers don't waste any amps, they transfer from high cells to the low cells. The cheaper balancers I seen will bleed voltage at max 1.4 amps but it doesnt start to bleed until the battery is almost full, these won't handle your pack if your fast charging and the battery goes out of balance, but will work if you mostly slow charge at less then 5 amps.

You can find these balancers at electriccarpartscompany, they have more info there. For me these balancers worked great because I like to fast charge my battery at high amps and that always triggers the BMS early without fully charging the battery. Since I got the balancers, I havent had the BMS shutoff the charging, the mppt controller can shutdown bulk charging when the battery reaches a certain voltage. The BMS on the battery will protect the battery from under/over voltage and should just be a last line of defense in case everything else fails.

active balancers, they are connected to the battery through a 4s balancing connector.

 

[jimmyhackers]

thanks for the info, exactly what i need....just checked the site, $205, that's a little out of my price range i need like a sub $50 version

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/6s-24v-Li-ion-Lithium-Cell-60A-18650-Battery-Protection-BMS-PCM-Board-w-Balance/282140999613?hash=item41b0e9ffbd:g:fFwAAOSwMtxXtY3K

i was thinking something more like this initially. i was unsure as to whether i could just plug in the balance lead and it would provide balancing.

i was hoping to not have to interrupt the connection between the battery and the psu and the battery with the solar inverter.
if i have to, the 60 amps output it does should be enough for the 1000w psu inverter.
the bleeding of excess power rather than reusing it does seem wasteful.

120watts of panels at 18v makes for about 6.5 amps in....although the most ive seen so far is about 2 amps so it should be ok.

on a side note...its currently a 6s li-ion but might become a 7s or even an 8s to compensate/overcome the 1000w inverters battery cut off protection. am i better off getting a 8s protection board and it will still work with a 6s in the interim?

 

[ScooterMan101]

I do not know if this will work when you are solar charging, however once you finish charging ( each night ) you can plug this in.

and it is in your price range.

https://alofthobbies.com/isdt-bg8s.html