Equalisation Charge on Facelift Trophy

[Electrone]

Hi all,

The manual doesn't go into detail about the process for an equalisation charge..

Queries:

1. If using the home granny charger, setting the car to 100% in the app, does the time-to-charge incorporate the equalisation charge?
2. Or does it need to be left plugged in once it reaches 100%, because the granny charger shuts itself off at 100%.
3. Also how does one check that the equalisation charge is happening? Assuming it will only be surfaced on the infotainment battery screen?

 

[Pauly]

I thought similar and have been keeping an eye on it

Car is in garage connected to granny and left plugged in, sometimes when car reaches 100% the car front charge lights change from green to blue and the charger seems to shutdown and battery is full

One more than one occasion now the car reaches 100% and the car lights stay green and keeps flashing the top light, the charger still shows as active, checking the app it shows the car is 100% full with max range but it just stays charging (for hours) and whenever you look at the finish time in the app it always shows the current time ie it always implies there is >60 secs remaining and it just never gets there, i assume this is the equalisation process

When checking the charge current in the app it is generally between 1.9 and 2.1 kW while charging but when its doing the above it drops significantly to 0.1 or 0.2 kW

 

[hmadsen]

I tried letting it get to 100% last weekend, because i wanted to have a known "last equalisation time".

When it went to 100% it just went from full load on the charger to zero and the charger said "Charging complete" which from what i have understood is a signal from the car, that it has finished charging.

I never saw any decrease in charging at that time.

Might just be because it did not need to do the equalisation, being a new car and all.

 

[BarryH]

I thought similar and have been keeping an eye on it

Car is in garage connected to granny and left plugged in, sometimes when car reaches 100% the car front charge lights change from green to blue and the charger seems to shutdown and battery is full

One more than one occasion now the car reaches 100% and the car lights stay green and keeps flashing the top light, the charger still shows as active, checking the app it shows the car is 100% full with max range but it just stays charging (for hours) and whenever you look at the finish time in the app it always shows the current time ie it always implies there is >60 secs remaining and it just never gets there, i assume this is the equalisation process

When checking the charge current in the app it is generally between 1.9 and 2.1 kW while charging but when its doing the above it drops significantly to 0.1 or 0.2 kW

Typically a Balance charge or Equalisation charge, depending on how often you do it and therefore how out of balance the cells are, will take anything from 30 minutes to 4 hours. The Equalisation charge rate will only be a few hundred watts at the end of a full charge to 100% allowing the BMS to trickle charge cells with the lowest voltage to be balanced or equalised with the cells with higher voltage at the end of the charge. The 4 hour limit is set within the BMS as if the low voltage cells have not been brought up to the same voltage as the majority maybe that particular cell has a natural nominal voltage which is a little bit lower than its neighbour. Every cell has a natural maximum voltage as every cell is an individual and age slightly differently. But, as long as the cell is within limits and reasonably matched to other cells in the pack it is no problem. I have one cell (cell number 60) which is always a few milli-volts lower than the other cells for more than a year but as the pack has aged, there are other cells which are now closer to cell 60 so that now when I scan the battery cell number 92 shows up as the lowest voltage.

Balancing/Equalisation also occurs during driving from a Full charge to 100% as the pack Discharges and Regens down to about 95%.

If you noticed that the Equalisation charge continued for 4 hours it could indicate that the battery pack is more out of balance than one Equalisation could correct for. if so then providing you have driven the car and reduce the SOC to below 90%, the charge to 100% and leave the car connected for a further Equalisation charge. I each time you do an Equalisation charge it continues its trickle charge for the full 4 hours then you may have an indication of a defective cell in the pack which the Equalisation is unable to correct. Speak to your dealer and get them to do a battery check.

 

[BarryH]

I tried letting it get to 100% last weekend, because i wanted to have a known "last equalisation time".

When it went to 100% it just went from full load on the charger to zero and the charger said "Charging complete" which from what i have understood is a signal from the car, that it has finished charging.

I never saw any decrease in charging at that time.

Might just be because it did not need to do the equalisation, being a new car and all.

I believe that charging complete means charging to your set level or 100% is complete. Equalisation occurs after charging is complete. Certainly when my Gen 1 shows 100% SOC on the car and the PodPoint Wall box (EVSE) stops delivering 7.2kW it is still metering 0.3kW (ie 300W) for 1 to 2 hours on the occasions I charge to 100%. So then I know that the balance/equalisation is completed.

 

[Lovemyev]

I believe that charging complete means charging to your set level or 100% is complete. Equalisation occurs after charging is complete. Certainly when my Gen 1 shows 100% SOC on the car and the PodPoint Wall box (EVSE) stops delivering 7.2kW it is still metering 0.3kW (ie 300W) for 1 to 2 hours on the occasions I charge to 100%. So then I know that the balance/equalisation is completed.

This is very true.
The car will pull 7 kw’s until it hits around 97% then it will start throttling back to about 3.6 kw’s.
Then when it hits 100% complete, this is when the “Balancing Process” starts.
The car will then only pulling about 500 Watts of juice.
As the car reaches the end of the balance, it will throttle back to 300 Watts and then, just before completing it will only be pulling 175 Watts.
Soon after this, it will automatically close down the wall box / Granny unit.
These figures can be observed on your home energy monitor, if you have one.

 

[hmadsen]

Ok, the display on my wall charger shows the charge, but when it shifted to "Charge finished" it stopped showing the charge, so i naturally thought it would go to 0 watts.

I will test it with an amp-clamp next time to confirm if it does draw current when it says it is finished.