IBMS Intelligent Battery Management System

The IBMS is a modern voltage sensing universal battery charger which was
added to the Clansman range in the mid 1990s (the earliest document reference
I have yet seen is 1993). It is of similar size and can be mounted in a
similar way to the RT320, RT321, ATR and DMU. The IBMS comprises:

The battery charger unit known as the IBMU (Intelligent Battery
management unit)
The battery tray (of which three variants for different combinations
of RT349, RT350 and RT351/RT320 batteries were available).

Note that the IBMS does not support 24V 1AH batteries at all.

The IBMS requires about 6A at 24V to charge a full tray of batteries.
The operator controls the IBMS via front panel toggle switches and
monitors its operation via a front panel LED display. The display is in
two parts:

A 4 character alphanumeric display
A pair of red and green LEDs for each of 8 charging positions

The IBMS has three modes of operation

Trickle - also the default mode after other modes have completed
Fast - should charge a 4AH battery in 3 or 4 hours
Conditioning - attempts up to 5 charge/discharge cycles

The normal mode of operation is:

Load the batteries onto the tray
Make sure that the TEST/NORM/TACT switch is in the middle position
Power up the IBMS - all loaded positions should flash red
after the IBMS has finished its self tests
Flick the START/STATUS switch to START
In case of alarms flick the ACK switch
You can monitor individual batteries by using the SELECT switch
to choose the position and flicking the SRART/STATUS switch to STATUS
Wait for the IBMS to finish - at which point all positions should be green
Remove the batteries

The SLOW/FAST/COND mode switch is used in conjunction with the start switch
by holding it in the desired position before operating START.

For all the other possibilities I recommend getting document 4085 from the
Vintage & Military Amateur Radio Society archive at:

www.vmarsmanuals.co.uk

This is only available to VMARS members to satisfy the conditions under
which the documents were released by the MOD.

IBMS front View

IBMS Top View

IBMS 3/4 View

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Last Updated Thu Jul 16 13:38:12 BST 2009