Have anyone made a good soloution for putting dual batteries in parallell on a BR2?
I looked at SeaviewSystems, but they don’t sell this anymore…
I’m happy to point you to a part that works well, the LM5050MK
The Seaview Systems board was pretty good, but we actually had the board get so hot once that the soldered melted and the part came off.
We use the LM5050MK in a power supply we’re still keeping “top secret” but it is just an “OR-ing Controller”. The difficulty is that you will need to make your own PCB to use 2 of these parts and also the required N-channel MOSFETs. However, it’s not as hard as it appears. When we make our next version of our power supply, we might just upload a simple battery selector design and make it open hardware. If you’re interested, please let me know.
If you do design your own board, please be sure to take into account the following criteria:
-PCB trace current carrying capacity (these days, we mostly design with 3oz copper).
-Select a MOSFET with continuous current capacity well beyond what you need.
-Pay attention to the RDS-ON value on the MOSFET and calculate heat dissipation and be sure to get the heat out of the part. You don’t need to know Thermodynamics, but you will need to keep power dissipation to only a few Watts or use a heatsink.
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Hey,
so the dual battery controller is not out yet? I am looking for something like this that can handle 6s Lipos of different sizes same voltage but have a low voltage cut off and recommendation please?
even if I have to get the board printed myself
I have two 6S packs that I want to share the electronics. I was pointed to this one by PacSubsea, Non-Programmable OR-ing - Perfect Switch
Big form factor though..
Hi @IntoTheBlue -
The BlueBoat uses multiple 4s or 6s packs without any additional complication of devices line this, which are likely unnecessary! As long as the packs, when connected, have within 0.1V of the same voltage, the system can use then in parallel. Adding a component like this in just adds another point for failure and electrical losses? Is there a reason you can’t connect them in parallel, equally charged?
When using 6s with the T200 don’t forget to check the product page for advisements- limiting maximum throttle and duration of high power use is necessary to not damage the thrusters…
I have two 6S parallel in one pod (5” 50cm) with four ESCs and bulkheads out to four thruster. And another pod just like that for another four thrusters.
But all the electronics sits in a third pod and the wires are not big enough for it to parallel (Bluetrail 10-pin hybrids).
What we’ve done is we’ve splitted the electronic sensors somewhat after what we estimate them to draw. Not ideal, likely good enough.
If we’d start over we’d put more energy into one bigger power distribution pod. But the issue with higher current cabling “out in the water” would consist if we didn’t have all thrusters connected to this pod… I should probably try posting in my building thread.
You should use something like this. otherwise you’ll back charge the lower voltage battery and could damage it.