User Guide

Programming Battery Setup for the BDS
20-14
Temperature Delta A temperature delta can be set to identify the difference in temperature
between two temperature probes. The desired location of these probes would be one
measuring ambient temperature in the vicinity of the battery and the other placed directly
onto the battery. Entering a 0 will disable this parameter for the analysis for thermal runaway.
Otherwise, a value from 1-99F or 1-38C can be entered.
Note: To apply the Thermal Runaway feature, you must select a High Float Current
mamps value and/or a Temperature Delta value. If both methods are used then both
conditions must be met.
Although only one parameter can be used, it is advised to use both as the float current can be
automatically disabled for a period of time following a discharge event. In the event a thermal
runaway condition occurs during the recharge following a discharge, the temperature delta
will rise indicating a thermal runaway condition. The BDS will now log high float current
and/or temperature.
Latch - When selected, the high float current and temperature Delta alarm stays on until
manually reset. If not selected, the alarm will go off when the high float current or
temperature condition clears.
Reporting - When selected, the alarm will be reported and an alert will be displayed in the
system. If not selected, the alarm will not be reported when a high float current or
temperature alarm occurs on the system.
Critical Alarm and Maintenance Alarm - Two alarm are available for thermal runaway.
Select Critical or Maintenance Alarm to define which alarm will report and appear in the
system. If neither alarms are selected, alarm reporting is disabled for discharge.
Battery Temperature and Ambient Temperature DCM/Probe – These are selections to
define where the probes are physically attached to the monitoring hardware. The system will
know what DCM’s are available but the individual setting the system up will need to know
which probes to use and therefore properly assign them.
There is only one set of Latch/Reporting/Critical/Maintenance settings because either
parameter will cause a thermal runaway event to be created in the alarm logging.
Optional Relay Module - If the system is configured with the optional relay module, each
contact can be configured to a thermal runaway event as shown below. Each contact can be
defined to a particular string and programmable to be latching or non-latching. If the alarm
module is used for the BDS-40, there are only six alarm contacts available. If it is a BDS-256,
then there are eight contacts available.
The Hardware section allows you to configure and generate alarms on hardware faults. At
the time of this BMDM software release, the only hardware fault monitored is a
communication fault between the BDS Controller and DCM’s.
It is required to have Latching enabled. Critical and Maintenance should only be checked if
the indicators on the front panel and alarm relay operation are required. Remote reporting is
not required for this alarm to function properly.