Staged Bring-Up for a Solar Car BMS
I led Orion BMS 2 integration and staged bench bring-up from initial CAN communication through one- and four-cell testing.
Taking responsibility in a rebuilding team.
The Solar Car effort was being rebuilt when I joined. I became BMS Team Lead in a five-person team context and took responsibility for moving the BMS work forward while learning the domain.
Integration, telemetry, and thermal context.
The work used an Orion BMS 2 and Molicel P45B cells. I did most of the BMS programming; teammates contributed documentation and testing. The system work included CAN telemetry toward the CCU, intended load-disconnect/protection behavior, cooling-fan PWM, and precharge control. I also used Simscape Battery Builder for thermal-characteristic work.
Build the test in controlled steps.
- CAN communication
- Empty signals
- One cell
- Four cells
- Low-power / no-signal behavior
- Isolate power-source issue
- Portable 12 V DC supply
- Continue testing
During bring-up, a low-current power source produced low-power or no-signal behavior. The staged approach made the fault easier to isolate: replacing it with a portable 12 V DC supply resolved the immediate power issue and allowed testing to continue.
Incremental testing makes faults easier to isolate.
Starting with CAN communication and adding cells incrementally made faults easier to isolate. Working through the power-source issue reinforced the value of controlled bring-up and disciplined documentation when learning an unfamiliar battery-management system.
Testing reached the controlled one- and four-cell bench stages. The complete battery pack had not yet been built at that stage.