Blog Review: Kimberley Karavan Lithium Battery Conversion

Hi Dave,

Thanks for your question and kind remarks.

With experience, I have found that the balancing charge at 14.8 volts can be done less often than I said in the blog. I do it only when needed now.

The battery management system has two LEDs one red, one green on each cell. A balanced pack will have all LEDs the same colour at full charge. Normally they are all green. If one is red after a normal charge (14.4 volts) I charge at 14.8 until all LEDs are red. That does not take long. When an LED on a cell goes red while charging it means the cell is charged and the charging current to that cell is dumped. Other cells continue to get charge until, in turn, all the LEDS are red, meaning all cells are at the same SOC and therefore balanced.

A balanced battery pack stays balanced for a long time.

Different manufacturers do it differently, but that's how mine works.

Cheers

Frank

Perfect, thanks again for sharing your knowledge.