Friday, May 29, 2009

Elite Power Solutions - Not so Elite

I've been waiting some time to post what I feared would be the case from this company, but I think it's time to let as many people know as possible.

As you're aware for those following along I've had a few, to say the least, issues with the BMS system I purchased from Elite Power Solutions. I've emailed them quite a few times along the way but never really got a fix to anything and it always resulted in me figuring out a work around to make the system happy.

Recently, I thought I had two bad cells. It turns out, again, the BMS was misreporting these cell voltages, but only under load (they show fine at standing voltage, but drop quicker in voltage on under load than they really are). Here is the email transaction. It seems to start off fine, but after well over a month, I just feel like I'm getting the run around.

EDIT (Emails Removed):
Turns out the emails sent around clearly stated they were not allowed to be posted anywhere for public view. I was nicely asked to remove these emails from my blog.

This is where it's at now. I'm sure they will not get back to me until I bug them again. They are more than happy to take your order, but don't count on that one year warranty being honored. As far as the TS cells themselves, I'm so far quite pleased. I only ordered them from somebody in the US hoping to get the customer service support if needed.

I'm probably screwed on ever getting this thing fixed and might just design my own or mix and match a few other options out there.

So where should you buy these cells from now? Dave over at EVComponents is offering the cells and a different charger and BMS system. I kick myself, because his cell prices are about 70% of what I paid from EPS. Check out his website at http://www.evcomponents.com/. They are working at keeping these cells in stock! This means no more 2-3 month turn arouund times either. Very promising for the EV world.

Update: Elite is sending yet another module out to replace the defective one. Sadly, I've discovered another issue with another module. This module has a problem with one cell where it will randomly cut the voltage in half (display only, the cell is fine). This in turn is telling the charger, if charging, there is a low voltage condition. To the charger this means terminiate immediately and do not restart. I've been lucky on the timing and so far have not been stranded while I was debugging the issue. I've since reduced my low voltage trigger to just above zero to prevent yet more false alarms. I'll keep you posted on the results of the second module replacement as well.

4 comments:

James said...

Thanks for the mention of our website. I appreciate it.

James Morrison
www.evcomponents.com

Unknown said...

I'm sorry you are having troubles with your BMS. Very frustrating. I've been reading your blog for some time and love the detail, it has been very helpful for me to gather ideas for my build.

My build is just starting. 1987 MR2 with warp 9 and soon to get 48x Sky energy 180ahr. (ordered through evcomponents.com) I haven't decided on a controller yet, I'm hoping Zilla comes back before I have to make that decision.

Thanks again for your blog you are really helping the community.

--Mike

legoman666 said...

I'm glad I'm not the only one having problems with EPS BMS. This thing has been nothing but trouble. The cells themselves are fine, but the BMS itself constantly dies.

The BMS that was sent with the cells never worked. It never recognized that the BMS chips were connected. So EPS sent us a new control board for the BMS (the little black thing wrapped in electrical tape). It didn't work either.

They sent us a third one, which worked for a short time and then died. Finally, they sent us a control board that was designed to work with 12V. It worked for a few months. I use the term "worked" loosely. When the cells were under load, the BMS would lose communication with the cells. This was tolerable. However, the BMS just died again today.

I'm tired of dealing with EPS and the crappy BMS. I want something new and will give EV Components try.

David said...

Here another BMS user from Elite Power Solutions.
The cell boards are not working at all. No communication with the CPU, and the after-sales service only said "cell boards altered".
No other solution.
Please avoid buy from this company!