No you are not quite understanding what is happening. You are correct when finished you will not know the exact SOC, but there is no need to know exactly what the SOC is as that is not why you are doing it. The point is to get every battery at the same voltage or SOC if you want to call it that. They will not have the exact same capacity. I assume you have 4 cells maybe 8, does not matter. Your low cell maybe 3.2 volt, and high cell might be be 3.3 volts. When you connect them all in parallel the voltage will meet in the middle like 3.25 volts. Low cells will be charged by the high cells, and high cells will be discharged into the low cells. When done will be MIDDLE BALANCED. Sensij gave you the link to David's site how to BULK BALANCE the cells. Make sure you understand what David is telling you. Very first step is connect all the cells in parallel. You walk away to allow them to equalize to the same VOLTAGE. You could careless what voltage that is. You have Winston Cells aka Thundersky batteries and it will take them a few hours to EQ because of the high resistance time constant.
Again does not sound like you have your noodle wrapped around what is happening. You leave the cells in parallel. When in parallel every cell has the exact same VOLTAGE no Ifs ands or buts. You leave them connected in PARALLEL. At this point you either TOP or BOTTOM BALANCE with the cells in parallel. You either discharge them to 2.5 volts or charge them up to 3.65 volts. As of now I do not think you have any equipment to implement either method. I do not recall what AH rating your cells are. But for argument sake let's say they are 100 AH. Once you connect them in parallel to Equalize voltage the SOC ends up being roughly 50% so each cell is around 50 AH. ( I am just picking a number out of the sky) With them in parallel times 4 cells is 200 AH to discharge or charge. So let's say you have a 3.65 volt 20 amp power supply it will take 200 AH/ 20 Amp = 10 + hours to charge until current tapers off to 8 amps.
To discharge is going to take a high wattage Power Resistor, For 20 amps will require 0.15 Ohm 75 watt Power Resistor. Again if the SOC is roughly 50% is going to take 10 plus hours. You want the finish rested voltage to be no greater than 2.5 volts and no lower than 2.4 volts. By rested I mean allow them to sit 1 hour.
You can speed things up a bit with your cells connected in Series. If you decide to Bottom Balance connect them to an Inverter and put a large load on the Inverter and discharge the batteries down to 3 or so volts. Them connect them in Parallel, walk away, then come back and discharge them down to 2.5 volts. For Top Balance reverse the process. Charge them up to 3.4 volts, connect them in parallel, walk away, come back and finish charging with a 3.65 volt power supply until charge current tapers to 8 amps.
My bad, try again with this link., then scroll down to close to the bottom of the ARCHIVE PAGE to November 13, 2009.
If you Bottom Balance, you take the cells apart and put in parallel again, If you TOP BALANCE the BMS will keep them Balanced if you run the voltage up to 14.4 volts
Again you need to understand the difference between BOTTOM BALANCE and TOP BALANCE. With Top Balance the cell voltages are only equal at the TOP. All you know for sure is at the TOP is the cells are 100% SOC. You do not know what the capacity is. Capacity is dictated by the lowest capacity cell. With Chi-Com cells capacity is +/- 10%. So if you have 100 AH cells one maybe as low as 90 AH and one maybe 110 AH. The weakest cell dictates the PACK capacity and in this example would be 90 AH, not 100 AH.
With Bottom Balance voltage of the cells is equal at the BOTTOM, not the TOP. However at 2.5 volt you know the SOC is 0% and you know the capacity is 0 AH. When the cells are wired in series, and charged you will know the Capacity, and the capacity will be whatever the lowest cell capacity is. So if the weakest is 90 AH and you charge to 90% is 81 AH for the pack. When you charge the first time you monitor each cell voltage so you can locate the weak cell. The weak cell will be the highest voltage when charged up. When you see th efirst cell reach 3.6 volts, note pack voltage and stop charging.
Again does not sound like you have your noodle wrapped around what is happening. You leave the cells in parallel. When in parallel every cell has the exact same VOLTAGE no Ifs ands or buts. You leave them connected in PARALLEL. At this point you either TOP or BOTTOM BALANCE with the cells in parallel. You either discharge them to 2.5 volts or charge them up to 3.65 volts. As of now I do not think you have any equipment to implement either method. I do not recall what AH rating your cells are. But for argument sake let's say they are 100 AH. Once you connect them in parallel to Equalize voltage the SOC ends up being roughly 50% so each cell is around 50 AH. ( I am just picking a number out of the sky) With them in parallel times 4 cells is 200 AH to discharge or charge. So let's say you have a 3.65 volt 20 amp power supply it will take 200 AH/ 20 Amp = 10 + hours to charge until current tapers off to 8 amps.
To discharge is going to take a high wattage Power Resistor, For 20 amps will require 0.15 Ohm 75 watt Power Resistor. Again if the SOC is roughly 50% is going to take 10 plus hours. You want the finish rested voltage to be no greater than 2.5 volts and no lower than 2.4 volts. By rested I mean allow them to sit 1 hour.
You can speed things up a bit with your cells connected in Series. If you decide to Bottom Balance connect them to an Inverter and put a large load on the Inverter and discharge the batteries down to 3 or so volts. Them connect them in Parallel, walk away, then come back and discharge them down to 2.5 volts. For Top Balance reverse the process. Charge them up to 3.4 volts, connect them in parallel, walk away, come back and finish charging with a 3.65 volt power supply until charge current tapers to 8 amps.
My bad, try again with this link., then scroll down to close to the bottom of the ARCHIVE PAGE to November 13, 2009.
If you Bottom Balance, you take the cells apart and put in parallel again, If you TOP BALANCE the BMS will keep them Balanced if you run the voltage up to 14.4 volts
Again you need to understand the difference between BOTTOM BALANCE and TOP BALANCE. With Top Balance the cell voltages are only equal at the TOP. All you know for sure is at the TOP is the cells are 100% SOC. You do not know what the capacity is. Capacity is dictated by the lowest capacity cell. With Chi-Com cells capacity is +/- 10%. So if you have 100 AH cells one maybe as low as 90 AH and one maybe 110 AH. The weakest cell dictates the PACK capacity and in this example would be 90 AH, not 100 AH.
With Bottom Balance voltage of the cells is equal at the BOTTOM, not the TOP. However at 2.5 volt you know the SOC is 0% and you know the capacity is 0 AH. When the cells are wired in series, and charged you will know the Capacity, and the capacity will be whatever the lowest cell capacity is. So if the weakest is 90 AH and you charge to 90% is 81 AH for the pack. When you charge the first time you monitor each cell voltage so you can locate the weak cell. The weak cell will be the highest voltage when charged up. When you see th efirst cell reach 3.6 volts, note pack voltage and stop charging.
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