I like using a lipo charger for saftey (based on what others told me) as well as the ability to put my batteries into storage mode since this is not my only board. I did want to go the internal BMS route at some point in the future.
Also, I’m unsure how to wire two 6s balance leads into one 12s set to go into a BMS. I tried once and burned the fuck out of my fingers as soon as I plugged it in, destroyed the BMS as well.
I wouldn’t have been so abrasive about it, but a BMS is probably the best bet. There are some rally tiny BMS’s available these days, charge only or charge & discharge.
Im not sure how I feel about charging at 6s through the balance leads but having them connected in series to 12s through the mains. Im prolly not the best to answer this.
If I can get a crystal clear diagram of how to splice two 6s balance leads into a 12s one then I’ll do it. I looked online for a while and couldn’t find it. When I tried it myself I burned a BMS and my fingers, which is why I’m hesitant.
12p connector won’t do for a 12s battery. You need 13p connector for balance leads and another 2p one for main charge leads. Charging over balance leads is possible but not recommended since you’ll get significant voltage drop on the leads and it will bias the voltage reading for the first and the last cell in the battery pack.
Hey dude! With my PCB that @mmaner linked, it’ll make it alot easier to charge your packs. However you will still need a multimeter to solder the bms leads to the output pins of the pcb. The idea of the pcb is to have less balance leads to join and balance parallel packs.
If you don’t want a bms in your enclosure, you could wire the pcb pins to your plug you’ve bought, then have your bms connect to that plug from the outside of the enclosure and charge through that with a 12s charger. Or, you could have the bms inside the enclosure, and just have the input pin for the power supply on the outside of the enclosure
Just to add my 2 cents to what @mynamesmatt mentioned - you need the meter to make sure your leads to the BMS are in the right order - if they’re not, that can cause the BMS to let all it’s magic smoke out.