An integral part of dealing with lithium ion batteries is having a battery management system (BMS). The purpose of this is to balance the cells (or sets of cells) in series to ensure while charging/de-charging the load is consistent across the whole battery. We are using a BMS which includes an android app to monitor the battery status.

This is a screenshot of the BMS app which gives us voltage for each cell in series, it helps us know if our batteries are all functioning properly. The app is really useful because it allows us to set over and under-voltage protection to create a safe battery.

We are making lots of progress with our battery, and we have hooked up and tested functionality of the motor battery BMS. Very soon we will have a completed battery and move onto motor control and auxiliary electrical systems! See our post entitled “Powering the Car: Lithium-Ion Batteries” for information about the battery construction process.