The Heltec 5A Active Balancer is a device designed to balance the State of Charge SOC between LiFePO4 Cells connected in series and ensuring that maximum capacity of a bank is available before triggering in high or low cell voltage protections prematurely.

This Active Balancer will only work for 12-16s Li-ion, LiFePO4, and LTO battery banks. It is an equalizer that helps prolong the battery life by making the batteries more durable.

Although it is not a BMS, it can work together with one. This balancer is suitable for use with any capacity of batteries.

The balancer's patented balance architecture fits capacitor mode, which allows the entire battery group to participate in the active balance of energy transfer simultaneously. The balancing current is fixed at 1A when the voltage difference is 0.08V, and the voltage difference is directly proportional to the balance current. The maximum allowable working current is 6.0A.

The balancer can be used with Li-ion, LiFePO4, and LTO batteries, with a single cell voltage range of 2.7-4.2V for Li-ion/LiFePO4 versions and 1.8-4.2V for LTO versions. The voltage equilization accuracy is 5mV (typical value), making it highly accurate in balancing voltage differences.

For undervoltage protection, the sleep voltage is below 2.7V for Li-ion/LiFePO4 batteries and below 1.8V for LTO batteries. The working temperature range is from -10° to 60°, making it suitable for use in various environmental conditions.

One of the limitations of the Heltec 5A Active Balancer is that the balance time for large capacity batteries is slow due to the fixed balance current, while the balance time for small capacity batteries is fast. However, this can be mitigated by using multiple balancers to balance the battery bank. One advantage of this balancer is that it does not require an external power supply, as the entire group is balanced by internal energy transfer of the battery.