BMS blew on discontinued 12v 'solar' battery

[radiorental]

I was given a nice 12v 100A lithium battery, here's the old Amazon page with some specs
https://www.amazon.com/StarkPower-SP-12V100-EP-Capacity-Lithium-Ion-Storage/dp/B009GMQAPC/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8

It's been working fine but I recently hooked up a Hazard Fraud 12Vdv - 115Vac inverter and left it on until it drained the battery. Then the battery wouldn't take a charge from the solar panel.

After some investigation there is 12V across the negative in/out on the BMS, I took it out of the package and can't find any obvious schmoo or smokey smells. Rather than try to debug it further I think the easiest option (time-wise) is to replace this thing
https://photos.app.goo.gl/sFym9JGjCLXCWNnJ8

The problem is, the original battery manufacturer 'Starkpower' is defunct. Anything I find online is the cheap Chinese products with lots of fake reviews on Amazon (and the one star reviews point out the balancing is very questionable)

Can someone point me at a well regarded shop or specific product 12v 100A 4S that I can swap in?

many thanks!

If anyone is interested, those 12V drop-in car battery form factor lithium batteries fit perfectly inside a pelican case where you can include all the other 12V gizmos for a single portable package. I use it for camping and portable power around the yard - https://photos.app.goo.gl/QpNSoEo11nX1JdmK9

 

[eee291]

Did you check the Cell voltages yet? I'm curious to see how far the BMS has let the Cells get drained.
I would charge the Cells directly until the BMS kicks in again at least, I wouldn't want them sitting around completely empty and risk Cell degradation from under-voltage.

My guess is you need a Lifepo4 BMS:
https://www.aliexpress.com/w/wholesale-4S-bms-100a.html?spm=2114.search0104.0.0.592a29e5zqlBpc&site=glo&g=y&SortType=price_desc&SearchText=4S+bms+100a&groupsort=1&initiative_id=SB_20190426120059&needQuery=n
Close your eyes and pick one :lol:

 

[radiorental]

Great question, I dont recall the exact voltage when the unit 'died'. it was int he 12v range. I did put a charger across the battery and it currently is 0v-3.2v-6.5-9.8-13v, effectively 3.2 from bank to bank.

Do you think that's too low for this particular BMS. I had applied 14.7 across all four banks from the charger, maybe I should do 3.7 per bank and that will kick it into life??

thanks for the tip!

 

[eee291]

If the BMS does not kick back in when fully charged I guess you could try disconnecting and reconnecting the balance wires.
One more thing you could try is to charge it through the BMS after you charged the Cells some. Some BMS's need a Charger plugged in to kick on.

If that doesn't do it then you might have to look for a new one.

 

[radiorental]

Thanks, super helpful

 

[radiorental]

Some BMS's need a Charger plugged in to kick on.

ding ding! that did the trick, thanks for all the help.

 

[eee291]

I'm glad that worked, I was running out of ideas :lol: