Ping battery - 48v 20AH - 14 lights on BMS

[gwolosh]

Hi all,

New to the forums and just starting my new ebike. This is a version 2.5 battery. After ~9 hrs in the charger the light on the charger is green but only 14 of 16 lights on the BMS are lit. Normal? BMS bad? Bad cells? Help!. I sent and email to Ping and I'm sure he will respond but I thought I would also check here.

Thanks

--Gedaliah

 

[barneys34]

all 16 lights will come on after u charge the pack for a while when the led is lit this means that that group of cells are up to the max voltage they will then go out after a short while so u need to watch the leds during charging to see this happening

 

[dnmun]

yes, the led comes on when there is maximum current flowing through the shunt resistor, make sure your charger puts out enuff voltage to turn all the leds on. leave charging. if the last 2 don't come on, you may want to raise charger voltage a little bit.

 

[gwolosh]

As a followup - the 2 leds remained unlit after almost 24 hours on the charger. I took the battery off the charger and let it balance overnight. When I checked in the morning there were two leds flashing. All of the others were out. The two that were flashing were the two that were not lit previously. After about an hour one of the two went out. When I came home from work the final led was out. According to Ping this is normal behavior.

Now that I think about it this all makes sense. The output of the charger is ~60V. When the charger can't stuff any more current into the battery it stops. This does not necessarily mean that all of the cell are at the maximum current. When I took the battery off of the charger the battery put out 60V. Then the BMS goes to work balancing the cells. The two that were unlit were not at the maximum current and took the longest to balance. After balancing the final voltage is 56V.

Now to get the rest of my kit and put the Ping to work...

--Gedaliah

 

[dnmun]

it really only balances when the current is flowing in from the charger.

that is neat that mr ping put the leds on there, so people have something to see, gives a feeling of knowing that it is working right, you have a nice pack.

 

[gwolosh]

it really only balances when the current is flowing in from the charger.

Then why are the BMS lights flashing all over the place when the battery is removed from the charger. What is the BMS doing?

that is neat that mr ping put the leds on there, so people have something to see, gives a feeling of knowing that it is working right, you have a nice pack.

Or not as the case may be

 

[dnmun]

i thought the leds went out when you removed the charger. but the two which were low were flashing when the charger was disconnected?

 

[dogman dan]

It should balance better, and faster after a few cycles. Mine really settled down and needs very little balancing unless I ride it to cutoff.

 

[gwolosh]

i thought the leds went out when you removed the charger. but the two which were low were flashing when the charger was disconnected?

After almost 24 hours on the charger 2 leds remained unlit. I removed the charger from the battery. All of the leds started flashing apparently randomly. I did not reconnect the charger. I let this go overnight. When I checked in the morning there were 2 leds flashing. These were the same 2 that were unlit previously. After about an hour, one of the 2 stopped flashing and went out. When I got home from work, all leds are unlit. My assumption is that the flashing leds indicate moving charge around from cell to cell in order to achieve balance.

 

[gwolosh]

It should balance better, and faster after a few cycles. Mine really settled down and needs very little balancing unless I ride it to cutoff.

I imagine this is true. Once balanced it should stay reasonably balanced. What I found disconcerting was 2 leds unlit. When I see a bunch of lights I really only feel comfortable if they are all the same. All lit and the same color, all unlit, or all flashing. Seeing 14 lit and 2 unlit did not fall into my comfort level. I manage racks of servers and look at lights all day. I hate when lights don't do what I expect them to

 

[dazzassj6]

heyyy

i just got my 48v10ah 2.5v ping pack yesterday, i was so shocked wen i saw those lights were all on wen i came home. I didnt know that the new ping packs had lights to indicate each cell. That is very cool. Yeh if it doesnt turn on it while its charging, and the rest is all lit, then it means the cells arent at their maximum voltage.

when you unplug it, they should all still be lit straight away, 5 minutes later they should be flashing, but one by one they go out, because their voltage is dropping to a stable level, not their max.

I think if those 2 cells of urs arent lit, give it a few cycles, and see wat happens. usually it takes about 5 cycles to kick in full potential of each cell (amp hour).

oh yeh and its no long the 'duct tape' packs, that ping uses. Its a hard shell, heatshrink, with some hard cover over the cells, so it wont be damaged easily.

oh and the pack comes with 4 wires this time, unlike my v1, which only had 3 wires. that is 2 for charging, 2 for discharging.

the 48v charger is top notch, its the same size as the 24v one i had, and its got a small fan, its very neat, and powerful. No problems at all.

 

[gwolosh]

FYI from Mr. Ping --

The leds on the BMS is not indication for full charge, but for troubleshooting. "All 16 leds on" means "fully charged and balanced". But "Not all leds on" doesn't mean "not fully charged and balanced".

--Gedaliah

 

[NeezyDeezy]

I have just got my Ping pack and have started to charge. None of the BMS lights have come on. Should they flash on when the charger is plugged in? How long would it take for the BMS lights to begin to come on? I wonder if I have a bad connection in one of the wirings to that stupid XLR connector...

 

[gwolosh]

It takes several hours to initially charge the pack and start seeing some lights. After 3 or 4 cycles all the lights on the BMS finally lit up.

 

[DSX]

In my experience all the lights came on several hours into the initial charge. Its quite freaky waking up to find this occuring in the middle of the night. After a few charges it seems to occur faster - but who stands around watching the battery charge? OK - I admit I checked it often in the first few days.

Remember to leave battery on the charger as much as possible. Also, after reading about this then experiencing it, plugging the charger into the battery can cause quite a zap - think blown BMS. Plug the charger in switch it on then connect - no zap.

This is some of the sage advice on Ping batteries I've gathered from this forum......

 

[NeezyDeezy]

DSX - did you ruin your ping battery that way? What did you do?

 

[NeezyDeezy]

It takes several hours to initially charge the pack and start seeing some lights. After 3 or 4 cycles all the lights on the BMS finally lit up.

Did the issue of the two blinking lights ever get resolved? Did it just take a few cycles of discharging (use) and then recharging for it to all work out? Now when you charge do all of them stay lit?

 

[DSX]

No - but I remembered reading a thread about this (I 'm at work so can't figure out where)s o I thought .. Aha...thats what they were meaning
in that thread.

I don't think the battery will suffer - but they're pricey little numbers especially when paid for in NZ dollars. I'm just being cautious......don't want to cause any unnecessary damage or expense $$$$.....

 

[gwolosh]

Did the issue of the two blinking lights ever get resolved? Did it just take a few cycles of discharging (use) and then recharging for it to all work out? Now when you charge do all of them stay lit?

Yes, after 4 or 5 cycles. These two cells are the last to come up but I do see all 16 lights.