Been waiting for this. Nice interface with that bms. You could program a relay circuit to power a small heater pad, insulate the battery, then solar disconnect would probably not trigger unless it's super cold. Nice job as always. You have a ton of temp sensors on that pack 😁😂 total overkill. Nice
@@AdamWelchUKthey are really cool bms watched your journey with them , i was thinking same as other comment heating pad or inclosed box with heater fan , also with start temp cut off temp settings. Plenty of options great video keep it up very informative cheers thanks.
Thank you for the video! You may heat you pack with that solar energy once it is disconneced due to the lower temp. I think you can charge the battery then.
Easy way to do that is to rewire the large relay so that the solar panels get redirected to some Peltiers under the batteries. A little like the dog cooler that Naomi Wu built but working the other way around! Also, using the solar panel to power the large relay would reduce the current draw.
@@NiHaoMike64 Agree. They are as efficient as Joule heaters plus they can steal a little from the cooler. The question is what to cool with the pelties in the shed... And yes, they are more poisonous and expensive than the resistive heaters. For latter I suggest a silicone heating band and a rug around for warmth
@@GhVost Thermal storage would be one. Thermally couple the cold side to a water tank and have the Peltiers freeze the water to extract the heat. Then use the water tank as a heat sink for some devices.
Hello there Adam! Quite curious and I’ve built a 16S4P cell using the diyBMS... so I’m looking forward to this video and implementing much the same on mine.
Just wondering if you would run into a situation where the battery voltage would drop sufficently to cause the relays to close again. Thinking of a long dark winter and current draining the relay coils. Suddenly you have a situation of charge current going into low batteries in sub-zero weather. Perhaps running normally closed connections would be better. A latching relay could help but would require more complex circuitry.
Yes I think there is a risk here, but for me I hope that risk is very low because I regularly check my packs voltage and I have some warnings set through my home automation software if I miss something. Switching so the relays are energised might be sensible if the pack was to be left unattended for a long period of time, but equally powering the relay constantly would speed up the undercharged issue. I’ll see how it goes. Cheers Dale.
If it's cold maybe divert the solar energy to some form of heater to keep the frost off the electronics etc? Make use of that energy your not using or possibly a grid tie inverter
Since you're putting relays on the solar outputs is there anyway a switching from parallel and serial connections for cloudy or sunny days? Thanks for the video very interesting
On my solar panels I have noticed that they perform better in series in winter so I now manually change them in summer/winter, doing this via relays is a good idea.. I squeeze an extra 5a (approx) by switching them in winter
could have the yellow on the relay to supply a heat pad under the batteries but i guess in this weather with so little solar supply its not really worth it. Hydro or wind maybe it would be different. Still havent got around to hooking my pittaway bms to my calbs but ive had alot of things going on.
Just curious why you used the NC connection between the solar panels and the charge controller. Wouldn't this mean that to disconnect the solar panels in low temp conditions you would have to have a constant load on your cells? Is there any potential that the cell voltage drops below the relay threshold, causing it to de-energise and reconnect the solar panels while the temp is too low? If you energise the isolation relay when the temp is in a safe zone, then it could be energised with solar power rather than battery power and would safe guard your setup. The only trick here would be cell drain overnight, and the potential need for bootstrapping the isolation relay. I suppose it comes down to trading off between cell protection and system performance - something you've likely already weighed up.
Would be great if you could DIY a mosfet based relay that could be switch by the 5v relay board, as I wanting to switch large battery current up to 100 amps, similar to BMS switching current I have tried using SSR but they failed badly over time
If temperature goes low and charge relay gets open , won't the relays keep draining the battery until the battery is completed drained and then once it drained the relays will open and the battery will start charging again until again relays activated and drain again.
Why dont you use this relay to start heating yours batteries by the solar and/or by itself. You can add and use some heat panel at the bottom of the batteries. imho
Exactly my thought. You don't even need to change circuitry or programming - just have it fed by the yellow lead on that 12v relay so that when solar is disconnected heating kicks in.
@@simonmasters3295 obviously you would have to paralel them as you require and proper heatsink required. I just thought using relay to activate another relay not the best option.
@@3dmixer552 Sure, and I would say that a year ago my electrical engineer and I said let's do this MOSFET and after six months we were nowhere. In contrast the NO, NC binary choice of a relay makes the choice a no brainer in my view.
@@simonmasters3295 we,ll, the issue i can see is that using a 10A relay will require another relay to be able to handle let's say 60A charging. In this setup you would use a 10A relay to switch a 60A relay. With mosfets you could cut the middle man out
@@3dmixer552 Yes I know that, I'm not daft. Please show me (a) the product you intend to use (b) an estimate of installation time. Then I will scale for 1, 10, 100 and 1000 kW
Been waiting for this. Nice interface with that bms. You could program a relay circuit to power a small heater pad, insulate the battery, then solar disconnect would probably not trigger unless it's super cold. Nice job as always.
You have a ton of temp sensors on that pack 😁😂 total overkill. Nice
Cheers Will. I definitely need to insulate the battery bank and I’ve got an idea about heating the pack of the relay is triggered.
@@AdamWelchUKthey are really cool bms watched your journey with them , i was thinking same as other comment heating pad or inclosed box with heater fan , also with start temp cut off temp settings. Plenty of options great video keep it up very informative cheers thanks.
What a nice setup Adam, with the diyBMS, controller board and sensors. Understandable, complete and I expect 100% effective.
Thank you for the video! You may heat you pack with that solar energy once it is disconneced due to the lower temp. I think you can charge the battery then.
Easy way to do that is to rewire the large relay so that the solar panels get redirected to some Peltiers under the batteries. A little like the dog cooler that Naomi Wu built but working the other way around!
Also, using the solar panel to power the large relay would reduce the current draw.
@@NiHaoMike64 easier to use a resistive heating mat, peltiers are not terribly efficient.
@@kienanvella Peltiers are pretty efficient as heaters.
@@NiHaoMike64 Agree. They are as efficient as Joule heaters plus they can steal a little from the cooler. The question is what to cool with the pelties in the shed... And yes, they are more poisonous and expensive than the resistive heaters. For latter I suggest a silicone heating band and a rug around for warmth
@@GhVost Thermal storage would be one. Thermally couple the cold side to a water tank and have the Peltiers freeze the water to extract the heat. Then use the water tank as a heat sink for some devices.
Adam you need to update the firmware, lots of new features and bug fixes. Includes adding min/max rules for the relays
I knew there would be an update - I’ll get on it. Thanks Stuart
@@AdamWelchUK It'd be nice to see what the updates provide Adam - thanks Stuart for a magnificent design.
Excellent work Adam
I see some people are using thermal heating pads in winter 😀
Hello there Adam! Quite curious and I’ve built a 16S4P cell using the diyBMS... so I’m looking forward to this video and implementing much the same on mine.
Just wondering if you would run into a situation where the battery voltage would drop sufficently to cause the relays to close again. Thinking of a long dark winter and current draining the relay coils. Suddenly you have a situation of charge current going into low batteries in sub-zero weather. Perhaps running normally closed connections would be better. A latching relay could help but would require more complex circuitry.
Yes I think there is a risk here, but for me I hope that risk is very low because I regularly check my packs voltage and I have some warnings set through my home automation software if I miss something. Switching so the relays are energised might be sensible if the pack was to be left unattended for a long period of time, but equally powering the relay constantly would speed up the undercharged issue. I’ll see how it goes. Cheers Dale.
The BMS supports a pulse output for driving latching relays
@@StuartPittaway sounds very plan-ish 👍
Excelente caballero!!!
Magnificent...
Nice one Adam, I was curious about the external temperature sensors.
Cheers
👍
Get a large ir emitter array on that other relay leg to warm up the shed!
If it's cold maybe divert the solar energy to some form of heater to keep the frost off the electronics etc? Make use of that energy your not using or possibly a grid tie inverter
Since you're putting relays on the solar outputs is there anyway a switching from parallel and serial connections for cloudy or sunny days? Thanks for the video very interesting
On my solar panels I have noticed that they perform better in series in winter so I now manually change them in summer/winter, doing this via relays is a good idea..
I squeeze an extra 5a (approx) by switching them in winter
Can you not use Logic level Mosfets instead of relays? It would then save you a lot of power draw.
could have the yellow on the relay to supply a heat pad under the batteries but i guess in this weather with so little solar supply its not really worth it. Hydro or wind maybe it would be different. Still havent got around to hooking my pittaway bms to my calbs but ive had alot of things going on.
I am looking at upgrading from flooded batteries to lithium batteries, I currently run 1.2kw 24v panels on my shed
What about adding AI to the DYI BMS sort of like a car's ECU under certain conditions things run a certain way
Just curious why you used the NC connection between the solar panels and the charge controller. Wouldn't this mean that to disconnect the solar panels in low temp conditions you would have to have a constant load on your cells? Is there any potential that the cell voltage drops below the relay threshold, causing it to de-energise and reconnect the solar panels while the temp is too low? If you energise the isolation relay when the temp is in a safe zone, then it could be energised with solar power rather than battery power and would safe guard your setup. The only trick here would be cell drain overnight, and the potential need for bootstrapping the isolation relay. I suppose it comes down to trading off between cell protection and system performance - something you've likely already weighed up.
The above is probably a moot point; I just read a couple of other comments.
Would be great if you could DIY a mosfet based relay that could be switch by the 5v relay board, as I wanting to switch large battery current up to 100 amps, similar to BMS switching current I have tried using SSR but they failed badly over time
Why not use NO to drive a 12V heater jacket for the batteries?
Can we use that 47k ntc thermistor for battry temperature monitoring for ls1024b as well.?
If temperature goes low and charge relay gets open , won't the relays keep draining the battery until the battery is completed drained and then once it drained the relays will open and the battery will start charging again until again relays activated and drain again.
Why dont you use this relay to start heating yours batteries by the solar and/or by itself. You can add and use some heat panel at the bottom of the batteries. imho
Exactly my thought. You don't even need to change circuitry or programming - just have it fed by the yellow lead on that 12v relay so that when solar is disconnected heating kicks in.
would it not make more sense to use mosfets instead relays?
3mixer what do you think? Try finding a 10A MOSFET that doesn't fry
@@simonmasters3295 obviously you would have to paralel them as you require and proper heatsink required. I just thought using relay to activate another relay not the best option.
@@3dmixer552 Sure, and I would say that a year ago my electrical engineer and I said let's do this MOSFET and after six months we were nowhere. In contrast the NO, NC binary choice of a relay makes the choice a no brainer in my view.
@@simonmasters3295 we,ll, the issue i can see is that using a 10A relay will require another relay to be able to handle let's say 60A charging. In this setup you would use a 10A relay to switch a 60A relay. With mosfets you could cut the middle man out
@@3dmixer552 Yes I know that, I'm not daft. Please show me (a) the product you intend to use (b) an estimate of installation time. Then I will scale for 1, 10, 100 and 1000 kW
I need electricity in my house, but I can't save it because of the very high cost.
And I'm from a very poor country.
Solar
Electrolysis of water, and a compressor and pressure tank for hydrogen
Than you can burn hydrogen, and run a little turbine/generator at night
-bbbb-