A serial communication method and system is provided for use with a battery management system. The system includes a port capable of sending and receiving pulses over a single conductor, serial interface logic compatible with a serial protocol and capable of generating and detecting signals on the port and communicating the signals with an internal bus in the battery management system wherein each signal in the serial protocol is defined by a specific number of pulses. In the serial protocol, a zero signal corresponds to a sequence of two pulses, a one signal corresponds to a sequence of three pulses, an acknowledge signal corresponds to a sequence of four pulses, and a start signal corresponds to a sequence of five pulses.