Active Equalizer Balancer REAL or NOT..??? (TESTING)

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Cheap Lithium Battery “Active Balancer” boards have been turning up on Aliexpress and other eCommerce sites.
But there has been some scepticism if they are genuinely active balancing and quite a few conflicting forum posts. Some have even claimed the ‘1R0’ inductors are actually 1 ohm resistors.
The more traditional passive balancer boards will simply dump any excessive charge into a resistor, wasting this energy. For example, if the maximum voltage threshold was set at 4.2V, once the cell’s terminal voltage exceeded 4.2V, any excess charge would be dumped into a resistor and dissipated as heat until the terminal voltage fell below 4.2V.
Active balancer boards are designed to divert excess energy from the cells with the highest voltage into cells that still require charge.
To find out how these cheap boards work, I jumped in and paid $8.26 USD for a 3S version from the Aliexpress Dykbhuang Store.
This board has a PCB part number of JW-3S1.2A V3.0. By decoding the part number, the designer appears to have the initials JW. This is a 3S version 3.0 PCB with a maximum balancing capability of 1.2A.
BMS BOARD on Aliexpress - rb.gy/prtciw
Music - Flames

[@Mandragora1st]

Yes yes yes, finally someone showing actual current flow between cells.

[@andreafalconiero9089]

Thanks for conducting this excellent, definitive test of these balance boards -- the other ones on KZbin that I've seen are either incomplete, inconclusive, or erroneous because they used either defective/damaged test boards or didn't actually measure *all* the current flows simultaneously to show exactly what was going on. In contrast, you took the time and trouble to build a proper test setup to measure things properly. Very well done!

[@EVCustoms]

Thank you very much my friend, through such people as you give me the strength and motivation to do what i do... thanks man!

[@arebear4797]

This is the BEST video so far (yes, i have watch a lot including the Thais and Viets) on how to test and validate this device. Thanks bro for a very GOOD video and it is clear cut whether is it working or not. Thanks.

[@bmulla7]

You have earned one subscription just for buying multimeter and cutting their cutting wires.

[@isaachauser521]

great video, I do think however that you've got the units mixed up as you quote 1.44mA as max amps charge but your multimeters are set to 10A scale so it's actually 1.44A which is inline with one of your tests that showed 1.11A on the 2nd meter, thanks.

[@shimshonjohnson9421]

I was on the fence about active BMS especially that one but I'm convinced it's genuine thank you

[@ZeerobForever]

Hi, thanks a lot for this excellent test! Thumbs up! However, I have some remarks. At 8:22 you seem to be suggesting that cell 2 is charging cell 1 and 3. However, if you take a good look at the currents, you can see that it is only charging cell 1 (from cell 2). The two rightmost meters show no current. So, there is no current through cell 4 and cell 3. Meter 1 show that cell 1 is charged with 0.25A. Meter 3 shows the current to the point between cell 2 and 3. From meters 4/5 we know there is no current through cell 3 and 4. So, meter 3 tells us that cell 2 is charged with 0.3A. The sum of all meters should be 0. So, meter 2 should have -0.57. It is -0.6 due to small meter errors. So, it looks as if the balancer is working, but it seems to transfer only to the next cell. It would be very interesting to see what happens if an extra full cell and an extra empty cell are placed in slot 1 and 4 (and also the other way around). And then see if it will balance between cells further apart. Do you still have the test-setup?

[@EVCustoms]

Hi Henkk123 I understand your question, very good observation.. You are right the high voltage batteries always charge the next batteries, battery 1 cannot charge direct battery 3 or 4 , the only way the circuit can do this is when 1 has the highest voltage and the other 3 low voltages, first charger battery 2, and once it exceeds a little over voltage than battery 3, then battery 3 charges from battery 2 and every following. And sorry for my English my friend..

[@bgdwiepp]

Sorry for the reply to the old post, but you are correct, the method that these specific active cell balancers use is to shuffle charge along a chain, they can only move charge between two adjacent cells, this is better than resistive balancing, but still very in efficiency as the charge will have to work its way through every cell. The IC used is the ETA3000 if you wish to look up a datasheet for the specifics. Not all active balancers use this method though, i believe some of the capacitor based units will directly move charge between the high and low cells.

[@Tore_Lund]

@@bgdwiepp In real life cells are cycled, so a good cell next to a bad one transfers current to to the lower cell when the battery is dormant. However when charging, the bad cell climbs faster in voltage, so during charging the bad cell transfers current to the good cell making it reach a higher voltage than it otherwise would, as well as the charging goes on for longer because the bad cell reaches the end voltage later, so the good battery reaches an even higher voltage for balancing the bad cell when the battery is disconnected from the charger. Secondly, cell voltage differences are increased when the battery is under load or charged, so the cutoff difference of 30mV will be less when the battery is at rest after charging or loading. So I think it is fair to presume that the difference from this current daisy-chaining is not as bad as the datasheet suggests, as adjacent cells "negotiate" suitable cell voltages through cycling over time that provides the smallest cell difference? Did this explanation make sense? Some people are reporting significantly less than 30mV cell to cell difference after using this type of balancer for awhile, so I think this piece of circuit board is cleverer than presumed.

[@kaizzer1414]

a very detailed review. thanxx..

[@gtx2k842]

Thanks for the detailed test! Do you recommend to use this active balancer in conjunction with a separate BMS system?

[@EVCustoms]

Yes my friend..

[@fadajuiceful]

So is it safe to say I can use these balancers on my leaf battery setup

[@andreas3507]

Great test. Thank you that helps very much.

[@TheMrjogas]

There is with capacitors new models now.great video cheers

[@EVCustoms]

Yes and they are extremely accurate... i will make comparing video...

[@inso5078]

So what do these LEDs indicate? Energy transfer in or out of one of two cells? It is confusing

[@payton1284]

Wow you are incredibly good at remember shrink fit

[@angelitotimbang3076]

Can i ask for diagram of tesrter to balancer to cell metee

[@ericvandeee]

Hello !!!! You should win a award for this video, only a bit to long :):):):):) I think you made your point against all non- believers!!!! I also buyed this balancer and i wil install 2 in parallel so there is more current availeble to balance. Did you also tested the HA02 ballancer maybe( on aliexpress)? They claim up to 10 amps. What i understood is that you can use this balancer for different voltages. I live in The Netherlands so i hope you excuse me for my maybe not perfect english writing but i try!! Hoping for more off this videos in the future and maybe test the ha02 because you allready have the setup ready. Again thx for this great video and please go on proving them wrong about these kind of things. There are a lot off people just repeating things they heard without KNOWING i allways say. Eric

[@EVCustoms]

Hi friend.. I will definitely try this HA02. to tell you the truth i'm impressed, because i didn't know there was a balance boards up to 10A! So it will be on my list of videos, after testing active balance circuits in parallel, and a circuit operated by supercapacitors that reach a balance of up to 5 amps.

[@ericvandeee]

I have ordered 1 allready to ballance 3 lead acid batteries in series. A friend buyed a electric quad for his son with 3 lead acid battries and i am building a system that balances and will cut off power when 1 off the batteries is under 11 volt because when its to low it will kill the battery as you probably know. I am looking forward to the video about the ha02 the video with supercapacitors and the video with the two active ballancers in parralel. I hope it will be soon online because we need more this kind videos. ERic

[@Serwis_Elektroniki_]

Good job!

[@arebear4797]

Just a noob question bro; Could we install double or triple just to increase the current balancing? any side effect such self discharge or higher idle current usage?

[@EVCustoms]

This test we will see on next video... You are on my mind.. :)

[@neliosamch3195]

It isn't recommended. Balancer will get over heated and inefficient.

[@42FaLLeNAnGeL24]

Would like to see the outcome of that.... when would u making that video 👍

[@ericvandeee]

i am sure off that.

[@PJWalmsley]

@@EVCustoms On that note, I'd love to see a test with these daisy chined. It should work in theory.

[@GuysUA]

Hi! Friend, I have a question. If I change the current setting resistor from 51K to 25K, will I get the value of the balancing current 2A, as indicated in the datasheet, or do I also need to replace the inductor and capacitance with a more powerful one? I am building a motorcycle battery on the LiFePo4, and the charging current of the motorcycle generator is quite high to make 3.9 volts on one cell, when the other three have only 3.5-3.6V. If this cell is the first or last in the circuit, the current value is not enough to transfer excess energy to the next cell. Thanks.

[@EVCustoms]

Hi.. I didn't try this my friend...

[@EVCustoms]

Try capacitor balancer... Is better from this one... I have video for capacitor balancer...

[@razvyjohn436]

And the final result which was? I mean, did you leave it until stopped balancing? In the end, what was the differences between cells? PS: There is a new version of this active balancer based on capacitors. Did you test it as well?

[@EVCustoms]

In video you can see the result after one day but only for Lead-acid batteries, the result is perfect!, but i also test them on lithium batteries that it also perfect..

[@pasiczer]

The balancer is very inaccurate. After balancing lipo 4s 1=3.85V 2=3.90V 3=3.95V 4=3.95V. It doesn't work well.

[@EVCustoms]

Hi,, let it for all day..

[@pasiczer]

@@EVCustoms Balancing works when the leds are off?

[@EVCustoms]

@@pasiczer No.... when balancing the LEDs is on.

[@pasiczer]

@@EVCustoms kzbin.info/www/bejne/qZippGiFa8d4itU

[@vtorsi610]

@@pasiczer Each cell is within 50mv of its neighbor - isn't that the SPECIFICATION for this type of Cell Balancer ?

[@jirkasirek9059]

Does it work if battery is under some load? Please? Thx:)

[@EVCustoms]

Yes.. for sure!

[@gnif]

Thats 1.44A, not 1.44mA

[@EVCustoms]

Yes..

[@FarmerYuHaden]

Great vid

[@michaelmoore2196]

The real question is the balancing actualing occuring, due to resistance used to dissipate the energy of one or more batteries, or are the energy of one or more of the batteries being transferred to the lower batteries. This is the actual test that I would like to see.

[@neliosamch3195]

It appear to transfer the energy. if it does the capacitor must be very tiny.

[@afurtadouk]

Did you not see the current increase on the multimeters? One cell was discharging and two were charging.

[@ZeerobForever]

If you make an exact drawing of what he has made, and write the currents in it, you can answer your own question. It is drawing 0.32A from cell 2 and it is feeding 0.25A into cell 1. So, it is transfer of energy.

[@vtorsi610]

@@neliosamch3195 But the LINK in the authors comment section is to a SHUNT RESISTOR type DISCHARGE Balancing Board, it is *NOT* an Active Capacitor type Balancing board

[@vtorsi610]

@@afurtadouk But the LINK in the authors comment section is to a SHUNT RESISTOR type DISCHARGE Balancing Board, it is *NOT* an Active Capacitor type Balancing board

[@chuckger1625]

Is it me or did they never balance out?

[@EVCustoms]

All your connections is good?

[@vtorsi610]

@Chuck Ger - Did you not see the Higher Voltage going lower and the lower voltage going higher? Did you actually watch the video? For sure, it was you ...

[@scooterandre]

Really? Just 1.44 mA? I thought they advertise with 1.2 A.

[@EVCustoms]

1400mA or 1.44A maybe i write wrong..

[@diydan6045]

Is this per cell?

[@piotrdabrowski6534]

@@diydan6045 1.44A as a whole module. It can deliver this current per one cell at a time, but it changes quickly. I have tested it and it works great iven with badly unbalanced cells, I am using 2 modules in series with BMS and fuses, it work great. :)

[@piotrdabrowski6534]

@@KleineJoop Yes, exackly. But I have to warn you they are dying quite fastly. At least for me

[@sreekumarUSA]

101922/1418h PST 🇺🇸 Thank you for taking immense amount of time and energy to present this segment. Appreciate that. But the whole procedure is defeated and nullified by the lack of ENGLISH language narration. Many of your movements and connections are known to you and a few numerable Engineers. But your point was to explain your procedure, the purpose to the people all over the world and you failed miserably, to do that. Besides all that, the horrible background music…. Was it necessary to heighten the misery? Once again thank you.

[@EVCustoms]

Sorry about that..

[@hsanyi]

mA?

[@mhmdsaleh3502]

Liked your orgnized brain . Thanks for your efforts

[@vtorsi610]

Beware ... the URL Link in the authors comment section is actually for a SHUNT RESISTOR DISCHARGE / Passive Board, it is *NOT* an Active Balancer

[@EVCustoms]

Because the seller changed his product I became a scammer? You could simply notify me to change the URL so that viewers can find the circuit from other seller, *THANK YOU* by the way....

[@vtorsi610]

@@EVCustoms I did notify you with a comment and I wrote "... oops ..." , interpret that word however you prefer ...

[@EVCustoms]

Sorry my friend.. I misunderstood your comment, because there are many "smart" people on KZbin.

[@bobsnabby2298]

Very bad video, nothing usefull there. Instead of showing up and down jumping readings for 10 minutes to figure out what the heck is happening, you could explain what do you do.

[@vtorsi610]

@7:54 there is TEXT that explains exactly how this Active Cell Balancer works. Did you watch the video ?

[@bobsnabby2298]

@@vtorsi610 I know how THIS active balancing works, the video doesn't make any sense for the ones who doesn't.

[@inso5078]

@@bobsnabby2298 Those who have no idea what a balancer is should be interested in li-ion batteries