Balancing an LR Trophy

[Loveclose]

Feel the need for a little clarification on this, as the word 'balancing' had now tested its head in a few threads I've watched......
Until now, I've not known about balancing....
Not discussed at all during the purchase process.

So in a nutshell, what is the correct procedure to achieve balancing... absolute laymans' terms!!!!

I am searching the forum for this - if there's a link that covers this at basic level, I'd be happy to use it.

Cheers!

 

[Jomarkh]

Hi, Yes there are a few threads on this.
Charge to 100% on and AC type2 EVSE (charge point) once a month should cover it.

 

[siteguru]

And once every 3-6 months try to take it down below 10%, leave it for a few hours* (if you can) then charge it up to 100% and leave it to complete/balance. This helps the BMS recalibrate the discharge/charge curve of the battery pack.

* I'm not sure if this is necessary, but I've seen it mentioned elsewhere.

 

[Loveclose]

So if I were to charge it on my house charger to 90% say, then plug in my snail charger and leave it charging beyond the the 100%, that should do it?
How do you know when the balancing is complete?

 

[siteguru]

Just leave it on your house charger ... that's an AC power source, and that's all that's needed. (Just make sure that there are no schedules set, and that your house charge point won't automatically turn off once 100% is reached - it needs to turn off when the car tells it that charging is finished). No need to use the granny lead simply for balancing.

 

[Loveclose]

Just leave it on your house charger ... that's an AC power source, and that's all that's needed. (Just make sure that there are no schedules set, and that your house charge point won't automatically turn off once 100% is reached - it needs to turn off when the car tells it that charging is finished). No need to use the granny lead simply for balancing.

This is most helpful, and raises the next question.
So far, my Ohme charger is in full control,
and I'm assuming cuts power either at what I've programed it to, or when it reaches 100%

What car settings are there for balancing, specifically? In this instance, if be isolating any Ohme programing, and programming the charge via the MG.
How do I supervising get it to'start charging' beyond the 100% to do the balancing?

Thank you all for help with this.....

 

[Jomarkh]

Your Ohme does not know the car is at 10% as it can't talk to the car.
Once it reaches 100% balance will start.
You could put the Ohme in Boost mode.
The car will only draw a few hundred watts

 

[Loveclose]

Most helpful....
If I do manage to programme via the car's controls, did the car automatically balance at the end after say a 95% 'top up'...
If I can get my cheaper rate by programming the charge via the MG, I'll be laughing....
Otherwise, I'll do the Ohme boost suggestion.

 

[Rolfe]

The car only draws a small amount of power while balancing, so it's not really worth stressing about.

 

[Martinonline]

I recently charged from 10% to 100%. The last time the car was charged to that level was in February. I charged to 80% using DC then to 100% using the granny charger; I do not have an EVSE yet. Charging continued for 3 hours after 100% had been reached and I was despairing if it ever finishing as I was to make a long trip.

At first, charging continued at 2kW but then dropped and varied down to <100W (0.0kW on the app but green charging port lights still flashing). I had unlocked the car at 99% so that I could monitor the charge on the info screen and after a little while after 100% it declared 'battery balancing' on the charging screen. Eventually the green lights went out and the app declared charging had ended.

I always let it 'do its thing' when charging to 80% but it may be that I need to charge the NCM battery more often to 100% as the book says.

 

[Jomarkh]

Did you notice if the GOM had increased?

 

[Martinonline]

The car had its first service a fortnight ago and so the accumulated data had been reset. The car gave me a max range of 268 miles which is higher than what a scaling of my previous 80% level would have given.

 

[Rolfe]

The LR battery seems to take longer to balance. I let my SR battery balance every time it's charged, and 30-35 minutes is typical.

 

[Koomi]

Set the Ohme schedule to 100% and a long time into the next day for "ready by" (assuming you are on Octopus Intelligent or another smart Time of Use)
Set the car to accept 100%

Let it charge.

The car will stop at 100% but also "balance" any additional charge that it coming in
The charger will keep pumping out energy until the car tells it to stop, as it thinks it has to supply 100% charge in the time given.

 

[Loveclose]

Which means that is probably done that already on the two times I charged the vehicle to 100% from less than 10%??

Sounds as though I may have done the balancing without realising it.....

 

[dawson2099]

I have a Trophy and decided to do the load balancing today. Car run down to 9% which should mean approx. 6Kwh remaining. I set the car to charge to 100% today and it just reached that, having added 62Kwh. This suggests that the 9% can't be right or am I missing something. Although the car is at 100% it still shows charging, albeit at 0.1Kw. I am just going to leave it charging and see what happens.

 

[MickeySw]

Don’t confuse the two separate procedures:

- cell balancing happens each time the car is AC charged to 100% and left plugged in afterwards [Edit, MG4 seems to be able to balance below 100%, see post #26]

- battery capacity re-calculation requires the car to be slow charged from 10%-100% in one go (coulomb counting).

 

[Rolfe]

Did you factor in the charging losses? The charger will deliver more power than the car actually tucks away.

 

[siteguru]

Agreed. If 62kWh was delivered then at best 56kWh was put in the car. (Which would tie in with a 91% charge addition ... 0.91 * 61.7kWh is just over 56kWh).

 

[dawson2099]

No I hadn't appreciated losses during the process - all good then - thanks