Please see https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/batmon/batmon-smartify-your-drone-battery/faqs
We plan to have a Lite version of BatMon in the future.
I donāt care itās enough compared as a BMS. Only voltage and current itās not enough to manage a LIPO battery.
For the same reason we are dropping I2C over a wide range of sensor in favour of CAN bus.
Reliability, long bus lines, immunity to interference Ecc Ecc.
SMBus was designed with in mind devices like laptop batteries, where the bus never runs on long lines over strong magnetic fields.
Giving SMBus option is a plus, but not adding CAN is a really shortfall of this product.
Even DJI realised that and stopped using SMBus for their smart batteries.
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I have been interested in something like the BATMon for a while, my question is would the units be able to work with 12S lipo batteries? I run a 800 size helicopter and run a single 12S battery, would it be a simple case of having 2x 6S BATMon devices?
Hi. Yes. You can use two 6s BatMon for two batteries connected in series.
You would need an adapter board for the second Battery. Please PM and we could help with the adaptor board.
Is this a microcontroller? Itās a bit like the BMS on the Tattu drone battery my drone now uses.
Itās a BMS, not just a microcontroller
Iām a backer and hope to receive BatMon!
There is not smart battery in the market. I tried to use BattGo development board but is not a real BMS . Itās very important to monitor the battery , capacity , temperature and efficiency
This is a great news
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I would love to use smart batteries. Especially in bigger drones. But what are my options now? If i am not mistaken, according to arducopter website there are currently 2 options. First is Solo battery, which is good forā¦ you know. Solo drone. The other is Maxell Batteries, which are impossible to buy. So i guess my only option right now is to wait for this product.
@echogee Do you provide a unique ID for each board so users can track in logs? If it does I might suggest supplying QR Code stickers for the ID.
The auto discharge is probably the biggest single feature. Followed by ability to use dumb charger.
Agree that the OLED might be overkill but would need to use it in the field with a bunch of packs to see if itās worth the space.
Your copy is written from an engineering standpoint. You might want to tweak it so your value proposition is on top. E.g. Save time and effort in maintaining batteries which results in more efficient and safer operations.
Yes. There is a unique ID for each board. Currently we are having a way to associate a name to the display. QR code is a good idea!.
The page was written intentionally with a engineering twist since the users would need to have some skills to understand and install the piece.
Great work! I will follow this!
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Made a 6S2P (18650ās) -22,2V 6000Mah battery pack for my droneā¦have huge issues with magnetic kompas interference. Dont know how to solve this ā¦
No sorry
I have never built a pack as yet. Just getting the bits together, however if there is a problem I would maybe use Mu-Metal on the top as a shield from the Magnetic affects of the battery. I have used this material before with great success on other drones with different issues related to magnetic field.
rickyg32 , Yes i contacted them in 2019 ā¦Great support and knowhow !. However for the price of a good shielding in my case , i could buy several LIPOās so my LI-Ion project is on hold for now. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lETyLpXfLPU&list=PL8uudE6pkbWd4qKz1AIghM5HusV72RQ8g&index=5
Nice looking battery. Very impressive. Sorry I donāt recall how much the Mu Metal was so it might not be the solution. I bought it to solve a small mag issue some years back.
Again cool battery
Donāt mind the people declaring this is useless. This absolutely has a purpose and numerous advantages. Maybe not everyone needs it. But the notion that there is no benefit over a dumb power brick is false.
Just having cell voltages monitored by in flight through the GCS is a huge improvement in operator situational awareness. Individual cells going bad can be indicated long before any other signs become apparent. Also, this allows you have the real capacity of the battery automatically populate BATT_CAPACITY on boot. Without a smart battery, that parameter will only be what you hand key in, and resets to full capacity on every boot.
How do you set the batteries full charge capacity and voltage parameters? Also, does this monitor current flowing back in during recharge?
Any word on the drawing files. Getting close to pushing the button on the hardware to build a batteryā¦ Would love to include the smart part.
see that I am a poet and didnāt know it