LiPo bulk charger

www.recumbents.com

www.recumbents.com

10 kW
Joined
May 26, 2008
Messages
951
Location
Chicago area
I'm looking for a plug-n-play LiPo bulk charging solution that doesn't break the bank. This charger appears to be configured to charge LiPo batteries and shut down when charging is complete.

http://www.bmsbattery.com/alloy-shell/27-alloy-shell-600w-lifepo4li-ionlead-acid-battery-ebike-charger.html

Is that right? Opinions?

They have several models with different wattages.

Thanks,

-Warren.
 
You will need to balance eventually over time. So it is best to have a balancing charger if you do not have one.

It looks like the voltages to charge to are not correct. OR they are not stating the voltages that they charge to, which would be a fun mystery you'd get to sort out when you take it out of the box.

I would use a meanwell or modified server charger over this.

us.itselectric.ca sells a bulk lipo charger for 42v ( 10s ) but it only does 2A.
 
you can trim the voltage. this guy's got one, from DH ebike from rome, italy

rather than citing nominal, they seem to be citing full charge voltage, as in 4.2v per cell, so 20s=84V... good to trim it down to conserve the life and avoid unpleasant out of balance situations...
 
I just bought the 900W version. 120V 5A. This will be used to bulk charge the 125V pack in the Bomber. Landed price is $143.00 Not too bad. Hope it works OK. I will be blaming you guys if it doesn't :)
 
Yeah I think I am going for the 600 watt model. I know these guys are slow. I'll be sure to report how long it takes and how it works. They really should post shipping prices. That adds another $50 on this $72 charger. $122 total.

Still looking for that plug-n-play lipo solution.

-Warren.
 
I received the 600 watt charger from BMSBattery yesterday. It arrived in good condition and It looks beefy. I'll use this for bulk charging the 12S LiPo. It took about a week to process the order and configure the charger to my specs, and then another week to arrive via DHL from China.

I was concerned because their shipping number never showed up on the DHL system, and when I contacted them their responses were terse. They just responded that with the shipping number and a link to the DHL HK site. I'm not sure where the disconnect is, but I'm sure this is a large part of the reason why BMSBattery gets a bad reputation.

Specs:
Alloy Shell 600W LiFePo4/Li-Ion/Lead Acid Battery EBike Charger - Customized
Battery type: Lithium Ion (LiPo)
Charge voltage: 49V
Charge current: 10A
AC voltage: 90Volts~132Volts
AC plug: USA 3 grounded
DC plug: Anderson
$72.90 + shipping

I'll follow up with unit testing and pictures later...

-Warren.
 
Sounds great! So they set it up with the proper cutoff voltage for you? That would be a nice charger to have handy for sure! I am interested in how well it works!
 
I ordered the charger on 4/7
BMSBattery said the charger was shipped via DHL on 4/14
The item never showed up on the DHL site, but it showed up on my doorstep on 4/21
bmsbattery_charger.jpg


The charger arrived in good condition, and looks beefy. The connectors for the battery were not exactly as I have envisioned but I can change those.

I still need to test it.

-Warren.
 
Cool rig. Interested in seeing the results.
 
Test it test it!
 
Test1 -
Add smaller Anderson connector. - ok
Turn on PSU, measure voltage with Fluke - 49V - ok
Plug into fully charged pack (50V) - PSU shows green "charged" LED. - ok
PSU still works? - ok

Next testing will need to wait until after all this rain so I can discharge the battery a bit.

-Warren.
 
Awesome! I am hoping this will be a reliable setup since I rarely ever need to balance my packs. I figure ill just throw the balancer on there once in a while and charge regularly!
 
I check my lipos regularly, but rarely (almost never) need to balance them. I normally only run them down to 30 or 40%. The few times I have gone down below 20% (that is very rare and very hard on them), I have had them go out of balance a bit. I had two cells drop to zero voltage because that pack was dropped below 10%. But, that was my own fault.

I just obtained a 800 watt Zivan NG1 at a deep discount for bulk charging. I also run Hyperion EOS 12 10i chargers. Those are 12s RC chargers. So, I never need to separate my packs into 6S bricks for charging. However, even my Hyperions do not ballance charge. Therefore, I have always charged without balancing. But, again, I check them periodically.

Matt
 
Yes me too! gotta love the Lipo! There really is NO other option in my book!
 
Ok, I finally was able to ride the e-recumbent into work a couple times, and tonight I tested bulk charging with the BMSBattery 600 watt charger.

12S-2P LiPo pack
44V, 10Ah

I had used up about 5Ah of the battery after bulk charging at work. I connected the charger the fan went on and two red lights showed. One is power and the other is charge status. It only took about an hour for the green light to go on and the fan to shut off, indicating that it was finished charging to 49V. I measured the pack with the Fluke and it said 49.0V. I took the pack apart and check the cell groups individually with the RC balance charger and each was 4.1V. Excellent!

So, I'm happy with the BMSBattery LiPo charger, am now confident that I can bulk charge 10 times or so between balance charges.

-Warren
 
I've got mine going now too. I got the 900W version 120V. Charges at around 5.2A.

I was hoping to open it up and find an adjust pot so I could set it up for my 125V 30S lipo setup. Had a look inside and found 7 adjustable pots. I am trying to get some further info on the charger but until I know exactly what to adjust, I wont be touching it.

Solution was to go 29S. So now I have four 6S and one 5S pack in series (all 5Ah packs and the same brand and C rating). I was worried that I might have some balance issues with this config but ended up not being an issue at all. All Cells are holding great balance at the end of the charge cycle topping out 4.15V per cell.

It is so nice to bulk charge now. I was getting sick of re configuring packs to parallel charge using RC chargers. Also checked what the difference in charge capacity was between charging to 4.15V as apposed to 4.2V like an RC charger does. Basically taking the pack straight off the bulk charger, then on to the RC charger to top it off added another 250mah to the 5000mah pack. Considering I only ever use 4000mah, reduction in capacity using the bulk charger is approx 6%. I can live with that. Its actually not a bad thing for me as I have steep hill to go down when I leave home that I can now use regen on even after coming straight off the charger

I am now thinking of getting their smallest 120V charger and mount it permanently in the bike for charging when away from home.
 
Awesome guys! I will be getting one as soon as funds allow! Thanks!
 
I have never done anything but 12S charging. I have two Hyperion EOS 1210i chargers (12S) and a Zivan NG1. I have never broken packs down for charging and I have never balance charged. I do, however, check my packs for balance from time to time. Basically, each winter, I take the time to check and balance them if needed. They are normally only a few .01 volts apart anyway. :)

Matt
 
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