Senior Member
Joined: 12/09/2020
Location: United StatesPosts: 118
| Posted: 06:33pm 24 Mar 2025 |
Hi there-
I wasn't sure where to ask this question exactly, but I figure here would be a good bet. The Heltec customer support is pretty nonresponsive, I haven't gotten a clear answer from them about this.
I picked up a couple GlobalPower GPS12100B batteries for cheap recently, without doing a lot of up-front research (hence my question in the other thread about using Poida's MPPT with LiFePo4 packs)
Turns out, the cells are probably great but the BMS / balancing is trash (see Youtube reviews: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGtoiH5dWSI and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGAc-fQPmNY )
That guy suggests he retrofitted a Heltec capacitive balancer onto the existing BMS, which solved the charging & balancing problems but does NOT fix the over / undercharging or temperature detection issues.
Now, Heltec also makes this BMS , which SUPPOSEDLY includes balancing already. So in theory I should get that, right? I asked Youtube guy, he agrees in principle that this would probably be better, but he hasn't tried it.
Here's the wrinkle. On Aliexpress I can buy a COMBINED package which basically sells the BMS and the capacitive balancer together implying I could use them in parallel. I asked Heltec support, all they said was "Yes, can" but that seems contradictory to me. If the second device link I sent already includes balancing, adding the capacitive balancer would seem unnecessary or even harmful, if the balance theresholds aren't the same between devices.
So - to combine or not? Anyone have experience with Heltec devices?
Cheers,
R
Edited 2025-03-25 04:35 by flyingfishfinger