Sorry, I should have made this post 2 weeks ago: The first production run of Pathfinder BMSs is sold out!
Orders after order number 9025792 (from March 16) will ship from the SECOND production run of Pathfinder BMSs, so they will have some additional lead time beyond the original April 30 estimate.
Pre-order now to save your place in line!
The orders keep coming in, so the lead time will continue to increase for new orders until we get caught up. (Ramping up manufacturing is hard!)
Big thanks to everyone who has placed a pre-order, we really appreciate your support and patience.
Some of the boards for the first run of Pathfinder BMSs have been ordered and are currently in production. A big thanks to everyone who has put their orders in!
I just finished the quick start graphics for the bottom cover of the BMS, what do you think?
The full user manual will have more example drawings for other cell counts.
While working on revisions to the main boards, I decided to add a wiring test feature that will detect faults in the battery wiring before the BMS is even powered up. This should help prevent a lot of mistakes that we have seen in the past when wiring up DIY batteries.
Since the last update We have been coding the Pathfinder BMS firmware every day. It looks the same, but it does a lot more stuff.
What works:
Automatic cell detection from 3 to 16 cells- one BMS model covers it all.
Positive side switching- Easier to set up, and fully compatible with chassis ground electrical systems.
Advanced State-of-Charge monitoring via the BQ34Z100 “fuel gauge” chip.
OTA updates: Over-the-air firmware updates via WIFI.
UF2 Updates: Load new firmware with a drag and drop USB interface.
Bluetooth app.
USB app: no extra dongles- USB-C is built in.
All of the data monitoring is available on the built in OLED screen.
Manual control of the outputs via the screen
All parameters can be set up via the free Bluetooth or USB apps
What will work soon:
Home Assistant integration: The pathfinder will be automatically discoverable by Home Assistant via MQTT (looking into Solar Assistant too)
All parameters can be set up via the OLED screen
SOC: State of Charge
This screen takes data from the fuel gauge chip and displays State of Charge with a confidence level. When all parameters are set correctly for the cell chemistry and the chip has completed a learning cycle, the confidence level will approach 100%. This is much better than other BMSs, which use a oversimplified voltage lookup table. It also calculates the Time to Full and Time to empty based on average current and battery capacity.
SOH: State of Health
The state of health is the ratio of design capacity to measured capacity
Manual Controls and MOSFET Status
This page allows you to manually switch off the charge or discharge MOSFETs (The solid state main outputs), and it shows the actual status of the outputs and the discharge switch input.
Session Values
The max and min for battery voltage, current, and power since the last reset
Battery Voltages
This page monitors the voltage of the cell stack, as well as the system voltage on the output side.
All Cell Voltages
This screen monitors all the individual cell voltages, and indicates the high and low cells and the delta. A similar screen displays all of the cell inputs even if the BMS is configured for fewer cells, and allows manual testing of the balancer for troubleshooting.
WiFi Setup
These screens let you set up the WiFi SSID and password. To use OTA updates or MQTT, WiFi must be connected. The Pathfinder is built with a focus on privacy- the WiFi connection is only used to check our Github for firmware updates or for local network monitoring. Remote monitoring can be relayed through Home Assistant, and in a later firmware update we plan to set up remote monitoring in the mobile app via a relay server, probably using the MQTT protocol. It should also be possible to do this via a local MQTT relay, if you want to set it up on your network.
Firmware Updates
The Pathfinder BMS firmware can be updated in 2 ways: OTA (Over-The-Air) or UF2 (USB Flashing Format). The Overkill Solar website will have the change log for each release, and past releases will be archived in UF2 format.
Over-the-Air updates can update the BMS firmware via WiFi if it is connected. This screen lets you set it for automatic updates, or to always ask first (default), or to never check for updates. You can also opt in to Beta versions of the new firmware.
To flash a firmware update, plug the BMS in a PC via the USB-C port, and put it into UF2 mode via the onscreen menu.
A new USB drive will appear on the computer. Copy or drag-n-drop the .UF2 file into the new drive. When the transfer is finished the BMS will reboot into run mode with the new firmware. The firmware version is displayed during boot up.
As you may have seen on the news, most of southwest Florida got trashed recently. The Overkill Solar main office and warehouse are undamaged, owing to their bomb-shelter-like construction. Unfortunately, the shop is without power (ironic, we know). UPS, USPS, DHL, etc are not making pickups because all the roads are flooded. When the flood waters recede and the carriers start moving again, we will get back to work shipping out your orders, so that you may be better prepared. In the meantime, cells will continue to ship normally from the California warehouse and customer support will be online from the St. Louis office.
Updates
1.) It’s the morning of Friday September 30, 2022. The Overkill Solar Naples office weathered the hurricane beautifully. Parts of Naples have heavy damage from flooding. We got lucky, as 30 miles to the north, large areas of Bonita Springs, Fort Myers, Cape Coral, Pine Island, and Sanibel Island are totally destroyed. We are starting to fill orders today with the office running on Overkill Solar batteries. I don’t know whether any of the carriers will actually be picking up packages today.
2.) It’s the morning of Monday October 3, 2022. Our electricity came back on last night and we are catching up on all of the orders. We expect to be up to date by Tuesday.
3.) Thursday Oct 13, This part of Naples is back to normal, and we are up to date on fulfilling orders.
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