do you just hook up voltage monitors to the balance plugs?
@calibratedmonkey I did that for a while but now I just use VESC low voltage settings as my fail safe. Once you’ve used your lipos for a while you het a sense of how far you can travel before they are depleted.
The problem is that the voltage meters only get power from one cell through the balance port. It’s better to install a meter directly between your batteries and your esc.
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Battery alarm is the easiest and simplist way to go… The more often you ride … The better sense you have abt the power left in your battery…I already know when my battery needs changing before the alarm goes off these days…
You can add a digital meter on the top of your board… But simple it better
I run 10s so the math its easy; if the display says 37.4 volts then its aprox. 3.74 v/cell. and have a 1-150v voltage display mounted on top of my board so I can see it while i ride. The display tells me if im creating any Regen because the voltage increases. Also it tells me a ball park if im over exerting the batteries. as well as telling me how much juice i have left on a scale of 3.0 to 4.2. All this just from voltage.
8 dollars
Why not use BMS for lipo?
Fancy 
20 blah blah blah
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The only time I’ve had the possibility to actually see the current coming from the battery was with this power meter. I only used it to see what it graphed after though. It graphs it in real time too so u could see what ur actually expending and is cheap! But died quickly and don’t trust it enough to get another. And they’re always out of everywhere but Russia!
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/_69085__Turnigy_2_in_1_Power_Meter_Servo_Meter_1_5_TFT_RU_Warehouse.html
Or just get a watt meter and look at the numbers
Damn !! This rocks. Any more informations, plans, code ??
You have to have pretty good soldering skills but I’m happy to open source the whole thing.
DougM
Well, I like challenges. I would very much like to give it a try !! Actually, I am better at soldering than milling aluminium.
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