The BMSes have been sent, I expect them in tomorrow.
Meanwhile I found my Fluke and tested the chargers and cells. Just a quick voltage check, no load testing.
All the 3 chargers tested 43.7 Volt. They seem evenly matched, which is nice.
The 36 cells all had 3.36 Volt +/- 0.02. 3.37 and 3.36 were most common.
That was a bit higher than I expected, but then they were charged to max before shipping and probably still are; they'd drop off to 3.2something if they lost even a few % of their charge.
For fun I tried to test fit the battery boxes in the foam filler, and to my surprise they almost did!
If I dent the foam ever so slightly they would.
But I want better ventilation around the boxes and obviously the cables will have to go somewhere, so I'd have to tear up some of the foam then.
Better leave it intact and make my own dedicated battery box frame.
The good news is that there should be ample room for the batteries and what not, even with the boot floor in place and set at its lowest position!
A PHEV conversion that does not reduce practical luggage space, seems like I can charge my cake and eat it after all
Now I made a quick drawing of the connection scheme.
I left out the contactor, fuse, volt meters etc, just the basics here.
The 6 Anderson connectors are identical and obviously fit each other.
Which got me worried, what if I, or anyone else that ever gets hands on these, would accidentally connect two that weren't supposed to be connected?
First, the order in which the batteries hook up to the car is not important.
It would not even be important if the voltages were not equal, just as long as the total voltage is right.
It is just a series string. So any car connector can be connected to any battery connector.
If the battery connectors get hooked up to each other, then they will share their voltage. If one is charged to a higher voltage than the other, they will start evening out. It wouldn't kill the batteries.
The nice thing about Anderson connectors is that you need to turn them 180 degrees to interconnect, so when the plus is on the right for one connector it is too for the opposing connector; because that needs to be turned upside down to connect, undoing the mirroring effect.
But danger lurks when the Anderson connectors on the car get connected.
If for instance the left and middle connect then the right connector would have the full car IMA system voltage on it.
And if the outer two get connected, the middle one would have the full voltage
with the wrong polarity!
The simple yet elegant solution is to bolt those 3 connectors to the car.
Anderson connectors even have holes and nut locking cavities for easy fixture. I'll put them to good use.