what is the difference between A123 system 26650and Rechargeable battery 32157 Li-ion

[A123rc]

Hello,

I have some general questions about A123 battery (& similar) configurations and wiring.

I'm thinking about hooking two 6s2p packs in series to give me 39.6v, 4500-4600mAh.

My first question is about balancing the 6s2p packs. What kind of balancing plug would the pack have? Someone tells me I should use a 6-way balance plug,
but there are 12 cells in the pack. How can you balance 12 cells with only 6 pins on the plug? If there is a suitable plug for this packs,
are they balanced in pairs? Or isn't that how they work?

If each pack actually needs two balancing plugs then that will mean four plugs in total, which would make the charging and balancing procedure rather cumbersome.

Second question, can 2 such packs actually be connected in series? And if they can, is there a way to do all the balancing on all the cells via one balancing plug?
Thanks in advance! Anyway the A123 is very good, I'm the regular customer !

 

[bobstay]

I would expect in a 6s2p pack that the cells would be connected in pairs, in parallel, with 6 pairs making up the pack. Thus, each pair of cells can be treated as a single cell with double the capacity, and balanced with a single balancing wire. So having a 6-way balance plug would seem likely.

If you connected two such packs in series, you'd need a 12-way balance plug, which I don't think is commonly found (at least on the commercial RC-type balancing chargers, as they don't tend to support such high cell numbers per pack).