SP140 - Battery low power cut off mechanism & thresold

Just a comment from the EV world… The pack is never disconnected while driving, except in the case of a crash. The BMS will alert the inverter (speed controller) about low state of charge or low cell voltage, and it will reduce power. If you keep going you will get all kinds of warnings, turtle lights, sounds and further power reduction. Eventually it will stop before you hit the low cell limit.

It worries me a bit to have a semiconductor switch in line - in the case of low cell voltage, sorry I’d rather damage the pack than my legs :slight_smile: And there’s extra failure modes - the FET itself could blow or the logic controlling it could cause a false shut-off.

The “pack protects itself” model is what the e-bike world uses. That’s fair enough, you’re never in danger from losing e-assist. The R/C world uses “BMS warns you” strategy - like those screamer BMS circuits. That’s because people don’t want to lose their model plane! And cars, well, you don’t want to stop dead on the highway or in a junction, but the pack is very expensive so you want to protect it also.

IMO when it’s supporting a human, the safety risk of losing power suddenly is even higher than for cars, and we should aim for the safest strategies from that world (accurate warnings and power reduction).

Just my opinion!

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