Beemer wrote:I think everyone will agree your problem is not solved until you are sure all your cells sit at the same state of charge,
I guess I am not everyone.
As long as the scooter has the range required to complete Ian's driving needs then the problem is solved. If Ian wants to have the maximum range possible from his pack then he only needs to insure that whichever cells trigger a low voltage alarm when the pack is completely discharged, get fully recharged. Any further balancing will gain you no further range and so is of no benefit. The range/capacity of the pack will be determined by the weakest cell in the pack. As long as you can work that cell from fully charged to fully discharged, it doesn't matter what the other cells are doing. All that matters is that your bms prevents any cell from getting over charged or under discharged.
preferably from the bottom.
Why is from the bottom preferable? I have never liked the idea of balancing from the bottom. It takes far to long as you need to fully discharge the pack and it is very easy to ruin a cell(s) if you discharge to far. Adding additional charge to individual cells is far quicker. You do it after the pack is fully charged, so if you suddenly find you need to use the vehicle in the middle of balancing, you just stop what you are doing and return to the balancing an other day. Bottom balancing is quite literally a waste of time in my opinion, time I would rather be doing something else. I am interested in hearing about anyone's actual experiences with bottom balancing and most importantly, would they bother doing it again.