Embedded Battery Management System for the Jaguar

[ikemole]

Here are some that I found:

1. Battery Protection Circuit Board for 22.2V 6S Li-ion and Li-polymer battery pack :
   
2. Protection Circuit Module (PCB) for 6 Cells Li-Ion/Li-Polymer Battery Packs w/ 6A Working & 10A Cut-off
   

Steve, is this the kind of stuff we need?

[ikemole]

Also, we could just extend the wires outside the robot using extension wires like this or this. That way, it's easier to charge with our existing equipment without having to remove the battery. Like this:

[mcguire-steve]

The BMS is part of the solution. A BMS provides for overcurrent and overvolt protection, but doesn't function as a balance charger. In re the extension idea, that can work, but we'd need to have both Tamiya plugs (the two conductor ones) and the balance JST plugs (the 7 conductor ones) extended to provide a complete harness per battery pack half.

Maybe something like this could be usable:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/252134945802?ul_noapp=true&chn=ps&lpid=82
Small enough and dumb enough to just embed into the system for each battery, with a diode isolation unit on the mains that can handle high amps to the motor controllers.

[mcguire-steve]

The external power plug would just then be something like a high-amp DC input at say 15V:
The charger draws 80W, so two of them draw 160W - maybe something like: http://www.trcelectronics.com/View/Mean-Well/LRS-200-15.shtml
to have some margin. The pins used to transfer external power would need to handle the combined amperage of 13.3 A, so a minimum 15A rating if only two pins are used, 7.5 if we split it up across four pins (2 supply, 2 return).

[mcguire-steve]

Might also be useful to open the cases of the chargers and reroute the status LEDs to the outside for monitoring purposes.