Is this battery pack actually unprotected?

[KevinL]

I've been looking at some packs. Forget about the light, but look at the battery being disassembled in these pictures:
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showpost.php?p=2815888&postcount=26

We are aware he is working on a 3S2P 18650 LiCo pack.

Third photo from the top he shows a PCB with red and black wires and a bunch of cells. I'm starting to wonder whether this large battery pack is, in reality, completely unprotected - that the PCB is just for wiring and not for protection.

I notice a red wire going to the PCB, black wire for ground. The white wire soldered from a terminal is actually for the charging connector. If I'm not wrong, the blue wire from the charging terminal should also be soldered directly to ground and thus the battery pack. Green wires in the background have been identified as an on/off switch.

As I understand, PCB protection circuits have taps to each individual cell to ensure that they are balanced and one cell is not overdischarging. This pack doesn't appear to have the array of wires required for such a circuit.

Am I correct or totally off base? I just need to know whether it is, so I can manage the pack appropriately - if it's unprotected I need to be more careful that's all (been working with unprotecteds for years, and a little caution is needed.)

Thanks

 

[qwertyydude]

To me it looks unprotected. At the most there could possibly be a low voltage cutoff/high current cutoff. But with multi-cell li-ion you need to be able to balance the pack which it looks like there are no balancing taps or balancing circuits.

 

[VidPro]

yes does look that way.
with a Ballast , the ballast will fail at some low voltage providing for some sort of "default" cut-off, then if the thing is charged ok that just leaves balancing.
something like this start flickering and going down, it has probably reached the low for the balast, and one would prefer to charge it before turning it on again after that occurance.
you know the routine and it does look like it has enough charger conn points for a balanced charge (if they use em proper)