Orion 2 BMS - 144 Cell Battery Management System Kit

The Orion BMS 2 in a 144 cell kit: the battery management system itself plus the current sensor, four cell tap harnesses, the main I/O harness and the thermistors, so a large pack can be wired without sourcing the parts that make the BMS usable.

A lithium pack without management is a pack waiting to fail. Cells drift apart in voltage, one of them hits a limit first, and the whole pack is then governed by its weakest member. At 144 cells that risk is larger still: more cells means more chances for one to fall behind, and a pack this size is rarely cheap to replace. The Orion BMS 2 watches every cell individually, balances them, measures pack current through a hall effect sensor, tracks temperature through thermistors, and reports all of it over CAN so the charger, the inverter and the vehicle controller work to the same numbers.

Key specifications

Features

• Supplied as a working kit rather than a bare controller, including all four cell tap harnesses a 144 cell pack needs
• Measures every cell individually and balances at up to 200 mA, which is what keeps a large pack usable over years rather than months
• Reports over CAN, so the charger and the vehicle controller act on the same pack data instead of guessing
• Certified to ISO 7637 Class IV, EN 50498 and UNECE Reg 10.05, which matters if the vehicle has to be approved
• Choose the current sensor to match your pack, not the other way round: 200 A through to 1000 A, all at the same kit price
• Documented properly, with an operations manual, a wiring and installation manual, a quick start guide and mechanical drawings

Compatibility

Two choices to make when ordering:

• Current sensor, sized to the highest current your pack will see, including peaks under acceleration rather than the continuous figure. The sensor choice does not change the price.
• Cell tap harness length, 6 ft or 12 ft, chosen by how far the BMS sits from the pack. The 12 ft option costs a little more.

This kit covers packs up to 144 cells in series. Smaller packs use the 24, 36, 48 or 72 cell versions, and larger ones the 144 or 180 cell versions. The 84 to 144 cell units share one enclosure, so a bay designed for one takes the other.

Our CCS fast charging kits require an Orion BMS reporting over CAN, so this is the natural pairing if DC fast charging is in the plan. A CAN adaptor is needed to configure the BMS from a laptop.

In the box

• 1 x Orion BMS 2, 144 cell
• 1 x current sensor in your chosen rating
• 4 x 36 cell tap wiring harnesses in your chosen length
• 1 x Orion main I/O harness, 6 ft
• 1 x current harness with 8 x 2 m thermistors

The CAN adaptor used to configure the BMS is ordered separately.

Downloads

The Documents tab holds the operations manual, the wiring and installation manual, the quick start guide, the specifications, the mechanical drawing for the 96 to 144 cell units, the enclosure 3D drawings, the migration guide and the release notes.

We also publish our own Orion guides, written from building these systems rather than from the manual. If you are not sure which kit you need, start here:

Open the interactive system builder

It works out which BMS, sensor and harnesses your pack needs, and what the kit comes to.

• Quick start guide, eight steps from box to first power up, with the main I/O pin out
• Wiring and installation, sizing, pin outs and voltage taps
• Operations, theory, limits, failsafes and fault codes