It’s there or it’s not if you have the baud rate and things set up properly, which I believe I do. I use the DieBieMS Tool for the BMS and VESC Tool of the VESCs. Everything seems to be operating as expected except the BMS is not showing up over can.
Here is my mess of wires at the moment (not running the motors with these tiny wires, just getting the rest of the system set up first). There is a Metr Pro plugged in that is not in the photo. I appreciate any tips you can offer.
Do you supply 5V to the CANbus port from one of the VESC (not only CAN_Enable) ?
EDIT : chapter 2.5 of the manual.
Yea, confirmed the CAN IC was seeing a clean 5V.
Are all the CAN IDs different ?
The VESC FW set a random CAN ID.
If you’re unlucky, one of them can be set to 10 (same as DieBieMS should be) and mess everything up.
Can this BMS be wired charge only?
Ive defiantelt read a few manuals, the one that throws me the most is one guide saying, Plug Balence then _ then +
and then another saying _ + and then Balence wires (this one im used to with regular BMS’s)
Not Keen on resodering new pcb parts and long delay times.
This picture to me shows that i could leave out one of my 10 wires… as instead just run it from b-… though id prefer to use alll 11 Balence wires.
Depends if you plugging or unplugging s all manures iv ever seen say main ± should be connected as it damage the balance circuits other wise
This means to
connect + - then balsnce leads
Disconnect the balance leads then main + -
I’m interested to read any links that say otherwise as iv not come acros this yet.
Cable 1 C0-
Cable 2 C0+
Cable 3 C1
Cable 4 C2
Cable 5 C3
Cable 6 C4
Cable 7 C5
Cable 8 C6
Cable 9 C7
Cable 10 C8
Cable 11 C9
I count 11 on the picture.
Everything I’ve seen, and worked with, has had the pack NEG connected first, then POS, and then the balance leads.
When disconnecting just reverse the sequence, first the balance leads, then pack POS, then NEG.
Can’t say iv payed much attention to that part
car industry’s say pos then neg as the chaise is all neg so less chance of user error bashing the pos lead all over the cat sparking every were.
Unlike the car industry it’s common for ESk8 to use the + as the common connection (- as separate load, charger, batery connections) so - then pos makes more safety common sense
The balance leads plunged in with out the main leads has blown quite a few BMS in this forum
Agreed, for autos that is done. I can only speak to the requirements for the chips used by many BMS. 
Seems like the best thing to do is to follow the recommendations for the particular BMS being used as we can’t be sure how they’ve set it up internally.
@JTAG got my DieBieMS back on its feet earlier this year which was unexpected and I am very thankful for. I am finally getting back to wrapping up my built and was in the process of confirming everything was operational. Things seemed to be fine but maybe a little rough in BDLC so I went to try FOC (which I always ran on my last board) and a spark shot out of the FOCBOX near one of the phase wires. Still unable to detect its origin but the FOCBOX is now dead. When I meter it’s power connector it appears to be shorted.
The DieBieMS displayed a precharge error and I got some magic smoke off of the wirewound resistor (R33) and now it appears cracked. It appears this is part of the precharge circuit. I believe this is the part: SMW318RJT
Any thoughts on what could have happened? Could a short at the ESC cause this type of damage to the DieBieMS before it’s protections kick in?
Thanks for any thoughts.
