Orion Documentation

Setting Up the ORION BMS 2 – Raymond J 

The purpose of this doc is to show the procedure for setting up the ORION BMS 2 doc, because the documentation ORION provides is atrociously bad. 

The ORION replaces BPS in the event the BPS blows up. It does the same functions, controlling the 3 contactors based on Voltage, Temperature, and Current.  

Contactors 

We use 2 provided relays and 1 multipurpose input/output called Multipurpose Enable (pin 26).  

• Charge Enable: controls the Array Contactor 
• Discharge Enable: controls the High Side battery Contactor 
• Multipurpose Enable: controls the Low Side battery Contactor 

Thermistors 

We use a thermistor expansion module that we attach to the ORION via CAN.  

The thermistor expansion module connects via the CAN HIGH and LOW on the MIO3 connector shown above (top left) . The connection is already shielded with insulation and requires a 120 ohm resistor between CAN HIGH and CAN LOW.  

The thermistor expansion module connection (top right), requires either Power A or Power B, GND, and the CAN Low and CAN High connected to the CAN L, CAN H on the MIO3 connector. 

We use the provided NTC-10K-B3380 thermistors.  

Link to datasheet: Thermistor datasheet  

Current Sensor:  

The current sensor is attached and housed in the JAE # MX34028SF1 housing. It comes provided and has a giant current sensor donut thingie and 8 thermistors.  

Note: doesn’t need anything special, just plug and play 

Voltage Taps: The ORION comes with a big boi voltage taps connector housed in the TE # 1318389-1 housing.  

There are in total 36 available voltage taps. We use 32 of those. There are 40 connections in total where 1 is not used (N/A) 

The voltage taps are divided into 3 groups: each with 12 taps and a negative tap.  

The taps are hooked up onto each module like this:  

The –1 tap is on the lowside of the entire battery. Tap 1 and –1 measure first cell, tap 1 and 2 measure second cell and …  

Testing the Voltage Taps: for testing the voltage taps, it requires at least 4 cells belonging to the same group to be tested. The rest of the cells in the 12 cell group if not used, have to be tied to the positive terminal of cell #4. Pro Tip: use wago blocks for testing 

VOLTAGE TESTING WILL NOT WORK WITH 3 OR LESS CELLS  

Current and Fuse protection: //TODO 

Programming the ORION: We use the ORION CAN adapter to program the ORION, we hook up a VGA cable and connect it to the VGA female head that we soldered onto the ORION CAN cables. 

To power the ORION, attach 12V to the Ready Power and GND shown above. This can also be used with a WAGO block to power the thermistor expansion module too. Download the ORION BMS 2 Control application and program away. 

Configuring the ORION BMS pain... 

Contactors: Settings should be set to this (according to our specs) 

• Charge Enable (controls array):  

• ENABLED 
• Trip relay if we go over charge current limit: 20 amps 

• Discharge Enable (controls highside battery): 

• ENABLED 
• Trip relay if we when we go over discharge current limit: 75 amps 

• Multipurpose Enable (controls lowside contactor): 

• ENABLED 
• Functions same as Discharge Enable 
• Set setting to low DCL output 

Discharge Current Limit (DCL): 

•  
• Discharge Limits is where we set limits for discharge current/temp. Our hard temperature range is –20 to 60 celsius.  
• The derate settings for state of charge don’t matter(implement state of charge later).  
• The derate settings for temperature also aren’t too important, as long as the blue line labeled Temperature Discharge limit is 75 and within our temperature range 

Charge Current Limit (CCL) 

•  
• Charge Limits are set for charge current limits. Our temperature range here is a hard –20 to 45 celsius. Our current limit is also 20 amps 

Connectors: