Welcome to the BeVolt BPS documentation!

System Overview

A Battery Protection System (BPS) is a system that makes sure that a battery stays within safe operating conditions.

Another common term for similar systems is battery management system (BMS). The difference between a BPS and a BMS is that a BMS manages the battery to optimize its charging, power output, and other factors.

This project uses a BPS in a solar-powered race car to compete against other universities in the American Solar Challenge.

Why use a BPS?

The car has a large lithium-ion (li-ion) battery. If li-ion batteries don’t have proper protection, they can catch fire and explode, like the Samsung Galaxy Note 7. For obvious reasons, this should not happen with our car.

How does it work?

1. The BPS periodically checks the voltage, current and temperature of each battery module

2. If any of the modules are unsafe, the BPS:

1. shuts down the car by opening the contactor and stopping current flow through the battery

2. turns on a strobe light to alert other cars that the BPS has faulted

Additionally, this revision of the BPS (2020 to 2022) aims to add BMS functionality to the BPS to increase efficiency.