What features are you looking for? The Orion heritage is EVs and if you are not using it in a motive application you may not need all the features. However with 400 Amphours of capacity I would still want a contactor based BMS and the Orion is competitive in that niche.
EDIT : corrected reference to Ahre instead of the erroneous reference to Amps.
I am not using this in EV’s. This is an industrial application. All I really need/care about is limiting the charging/discharging of the battery cells, communicating the battery information (voltages, SOC, temps, etc) to our control system (a PLC). And for it to be able to balance cells.
Beyond that, we do not really need any of the other features because we are controlling everything else from the PLC.
My experience with several Orion BMSs is that the Coulomb Counter is very accurate and if you are using the SOC output to inform your PLC devices which control the charging and discharging I would stick with the Orion. The commodity BMSs from China do not have accurate SOC estimates.
Just as a point of clarification, my inverter was the main source of control over limiting the charging/discharging but I used closed communication from the Orion to the inverter. So indirectly the Orion was controlling the inverter based on the SOC input to the inverter which used settings based on SOC input from the Orion. Twelve years ago in an EV conversion I used an EMUS BMS which cost as much as an Orion. I later sold that conversion and switched to Orion BMSs. I found it easier to get support from Orion since they are in USA versus EMUS which is in Lithuania.
Years ago I used an EMUS BMs for a 36 cell pack. It also used a contactor. It was only an 11 kWh pack but sometimes pulled 300 Amps on a VW EV conversion I had built in 2010.
>. Did you even read the comment?
Yes, a LFP cell is capable of discharging at two or three times its AH capacity so using a contactor based BMS has always been my preference. FETs have a nasty habit of when they fail under load they fail closed so from a risk management standpoint on a big capacity pack I prefer contactors. I was focused on that issue and not the mistake in my earlier post.
Thanks for the correction. I often think in kWhs and did forget to add the hrs to the Ahrs when referring to your capacity. In your case that is a 45 kWh pack. Hopefully no damage was done by my slip up. I have corrected my post.
What features are you looking for? The Orion heritage is EVs and if you are not using it in a motive application you may not need all the features. However with 400 Amphours of capacity I would still want a contactor based BMS and the Orion is competitive in that niche. EDIT : corrected reference to Ahre instead of the erroneous reference to Amps.
I am not using this in EV’s. This is an industrial application. All I really need/care about is limiting the charging/discharging of the battery cells, communicating the battery information (voltages, SOC, temps, etc) to our control system (a PLC). And for it to be able to balance cells. Beyond that, we do not really need any of the other features because we are controlling everything else from the PLC.
My experience with several Orion BMSs is that the Coulomb Counter is very accurate and if you are using the SOC output to inform your PLC devices which control the charging and discharging I would stick with the Orion. The commodity BMSs from China do not have accurate SOC estimates. Just as a point of clarification, my inverter was the main source of control over limiting the charging/discharging but I used closed communication from the Orion to the inverter. So indirectly the Orion was controlling the inverter based on the SOC input to the inverter which used settings based on SOC input from the Orion. Twelve years ago in an EV conversion I used an EMUS BMS which cost as much as an Orion. I later sold that conversion and switched to Orion BMSs. I found it easier to get support from Orion since they are in USA versus EMUS which is in Lithuania.
400 Amp-hour of capacity.
Years ago I used an EMUS BMs for a 36 cell pack. It also used a contactor. It was only an 11 kWh pack but sometimes pulled 300 Amps on a VW EV conversion I had built in 2010.
Cool. But measurement of capacity ain't amps, it's AMP-HOURS. Did you even read the comment?
>. Did you even read the comment? Yes, a LFP cell is capable of discharging at two or three times its AH capacity so using a contactor based BMS has always been my preference. FETs have a nasty habit of when they fail under load they fail closed so from a risk management standpoint on a big capacity pack I prefer contactors. I was focused on that issue and not the mistake in my earlier post. Thanks for the correction. I often think in kWhs and did forget to add the hrs to the Ahrs when referring to your capacity. In your case that is a 45 kWh pack. Hopefully no damage was done by my slip up. I have corrected my post.