Our newly developed BMS system is setUp to be used on boats or in RV´s.
The power BMS Controller is full configurable to your needs.
Power BMS will adapt to your specific batterie by its calibration options.
You can setup all Alarms and CutOffs that are needed to protect your batterie and your loads and charging devices.
You can switch extern devices by:
- Serial commands
- NMEA commands
- RV standard commands over CAN Bus
- Relays
- open MOSFET switches
- CAN Bus
It provides two WiFi connections.
The WiFi will connect to your local network or you use the offered access point of the PowerBMS. The BMS shows you all you like to know about your batterie on any mobile, tablet, Laptop that connects by WiFi.
Bluetooth by App with your mobile will be shortly available.
The power BMS will receive its firmware Updates OTA Over The Air.
You can download your batteries log files over WiFi.
It has a memory card that supports Gb of memeory ready to log your battery data and hold your settings.
It´s exchanging data to common Victron devices like Chargers, Inverters, Solar Regulators and Batterie Monitors.
The PowerBMS monitors permanet the cells of your batterie. You get acoustic ALARM´s in case anything goes wrong and need´s your attention.
It also monitors the temperature of your batterie and handles the charging devices in case of environmental over or under temperatures.
The PowerBMS has various balancing modes if the cells need to get balanced.
[…] LiFePo4 batterie is permanent monitored by PowerBMS. The PowerBMS protects the batterie from overcharge or undercharge and temperature hazards. It is […]
Oliver, I have an Amel 54 (Phantom) and have been active recently on the Amel Forum. No doubt you have seen my posts. I have been very interested in your solution for the refrigerator pump motor issues and have ordered the motor and VESC controller. I have also downloaded the VESC Tool kit, hoping to try and duplicate what you did on Vela Nautica. Anything you can offer outside of the forum would be great directly to my email above. I am an electrical engineer and am relatively good with computers, but not likely to your level for sure. What did you build to control the VESC controller?
Also, I see you have converted to LiFePo4 batteries. I am going to do the same. What PowerBMS did you get, or did you build one yourself?
Hope to hear from you soon. Thanks,
Jamie Wendell
Hello Jamie,
1. fridge / freezer:
I used a MCU ( ARM32 ) to supervise several ship functions.
I created a pcb with several insulated communication ports ( CAN, I2C, Serial )
and sensor ports to setup a ship network with integration of NMEA2000.
One thing of what the MCU does is controll the fridge / freezer setup and repalce the original thermostats.
It also sends serial commands via insulated serial bus to the VESC ( ESC for the brushless motor ) that drives the original quad membrane pump,
by repalcing the old brushed motor with a brushless one.
I used DS18x20 temperature sensors on a one wire bus to sample temperatures in engine room and fridge / freezers.
It also keeps track and provides statistics / logs of the efficency of my setup.
This sytem also coordinates the cooling pump activity according to the compressors cooling needs.
It also comuniates with my Victron devices and sends batterie data to my BMS via CAN bus.
This unit is placed behind the DC panel,
from there I got access to engine room and DC panel with Victron batterie monitor and Victron Venus.
As a more simple solution to controll the VESC to drive the pump.
I suggest a MCU that listens to the original ports of the pump controll box and sends commands to the VESC.
I am not working with relays, we are talking about microcontrollers,
that sensor cooling needs and controll the brushless pump motor by software commands.
With that setup we can´t coordinate the pump operation times,
but we can controll the VESC without too much affords.
And the setup is simple, only like 7 wires need to be connected to the old system.
Last, I am working on a complete new controller that connects the old system and works also as ESC, all in one.
The VESC is actually overkill for this simple and small low power motor.
But that will take time until I come out with a brushless pump with its own controller.
2. Lithium Power:
I designed my Lithium batterie setup myself and developed a BMS,
because I could not find any comercial BMS / Lithium batterie product that was able to do what I expected.
My PowerBMS comunicates also with the Victron devices for better system integration.
The BMS offers loccal WiFi network integration and offers also its own Access Point.
I wrote an operating system with webserver,
now I am possible to access the batterie data from any WiFi device by browser.
You may read more about the BMS on this website.
https://velanautica.org/powerbms-best-ship-and-rv-bms-for-lifepo-or-lipo-batteries/
At this time I am working on the next BMS Version and a complete Lithium batterie setup.
In my opinion I am possible to offer a good quality Lithium batterie setup,
any size the user asks for, for a fraction of the price demanded by the usual competitors.
I use the Lithium batterie now for almost 1.5 years on my boat without any trouble.
It really changed life on the boat for the better.
fair winds Oliver
Hello Jamie, sorry for very late reply
I did not see your comment.
We are on anchor since we arived in the caribbean in January and left Europe at Dec. 29. 2019.
Please check my newest posts concerning the brushless pump. We use that technologie with success, no more wear on brushes.
Other AMEL users also start to copie my project.
How did it work out for you? Did you get it started?
Because its complicated and not optimal to use the VESC, as it is a vehicle controller
I designed a new controller that can be connected to the frigo box or even operate independent.
If you have further question use the comment or contact us by email.
Thanks Oliver
Hi Oliver,
I have been googling around “PowerBMS” software and not finding anything, then I realized, perhaps this is something your wrote yourself? I found a few bms related things on github but nothing that seemed to match what you are describing here.