As we all know, the cost of a BMS system is a big part of the total cost for a battery pack solution. For example, I've considered buying 72 cells of 40 Ah from http://elitepowersolutions.com/. If one is to buy their Energy Management System, the cost for this is almost 50% of the cost of the batteries. BMS systems from other vendors such as Elithion are also fairly expensive. I'm thinking, one way of reducing the cost and also complexity is to get rid of the "master BMS"/"central CPU". In our applications, we already have advanced ECUs, current sensors etc. We are rather implementing the BMS functionality ourselves. So, the only thing we need is either batteries with built in balancers/sensors or separate balancers/sensors which we can interface directly with. Our ECU have both "LIN" and "CAN" interfaces. If CAN is too complex for the actual cell boards, then one can consider an architecture where a more simple communication protocol is used between the boards, plus a simple CAN or LIN interface/conversion board.
So: What kind of cell balancing/sensors boards are available which you can interface & communicate directly with? Measuring cell voltage is a must, as well as support for bleeding/balancing. A few temperature sensors is also good but not a requirement.
So: What kind of cell balancing/sensors boards are available which you can interface & communicate directly with? Measuring cell voltage is a must, as well as support for bleeding/balancing. A few temperature sensors is also good but not a requirement.
