Car battery monitor software

This is an example of an Automatic Control System in which the battery provides information about its actual condition to the charger which compares the actual condition with the desired condition and generates an error signal which is used to initiate control actions to bring the actual condition into line with the desired condition.

The control signals form part of a Feedback Loop which provides automatic compensation to keep the battery within its desired operating parameters. It does not require any user intervention.

Some form of automatic control system is an essential part of all BMS. As well as talking to the charger, the Intelligent Battery can also talk to the user or to other systems of which the battery may be a part. The signals it provides can be used to turn on warning lights or to inform the user about the condition of the battery and how much charge it has left.

Monitoring the battery condition is an essential part of all Battery Management Systems. In the first of the following two examples, the control actions are manual, - the power plant maintenance engineer fixes any deficiencies.

In the second example the battery is part of an Automatic Control System made up from several interlinked feedback loops controlling the battery itself and its role as part of the overall vehicle energy management system. The battery management requirements are quite different for standby and emergency power installations.

Batteries may be inactive for long periods topped up by a trickle charge from time to time, or as in telecommunications installations they may be kept on float charge to keep them fully charged at all times.

By their nature, such installations must be available for use at all times. An essential responsibility of managing such installations is to know the status of the battery and whether it can be relied upon to support its load during an outage.

In the case of lead acid batteries the SOC of individual cells can be determined by using a hydrometer to measure the specific gravity of the electrolyte in the cells. Traditionally, the only way of determining the SOH was by discharge testing, that is, by completely discharging the battery and measuring its output. Such testing is very inconvenient. For a large installation it could take eight hours to discharge the battery and another three days to recharge it. During this time the installation would be without emergency power unless a back up battery was provided.

The modern way to measure the SOH of a battery is by impedance testing or by conductance testing. It has been found that a cell's impedance has an inverse correlation with the SOC and the conductance being the reciprocal of the impedance has a direct correlation with the SOH of the cell.

Both of these tests can be carried out without discharging the battery, but better still the monitoring device can remain in place providing a permanent on line measurement.

This allows the plant engineer to have an up to date assessment of the battery condition so that any deterioration in cell performance can be detected and appropriate maintenance actions can be planned.

Automotive battery management is much more demanding than the previous two examples. It has to interface with a number of other on board systems, it has to work in real time in rapidly changing charging and discharging conditions. This example describes a complex system as an illustration of what is possible, however not all applications will require all the functions shown here.

In practical systems the BMS can thus incorporate more vehicle functions than simply managing the battery. It can determine the vehicle's desired operating mode, whether it is accelerating, braking, idling or stopped, and implement the associated electrical power management actions. One of the prime functions of the Battery Management System is to provide the necessary monitoring and control to protect the cells from out of tolerance ambient or operating conditions.

This is of particular importance in automotive applications because of the harsh working environment. As well as individual cell protection the automotive system must be designed to respond to external fault conditions by isolating the battery as well as addressing the cause of the fault. For example cooling fans can be turned on if the battery overheats. If the overheating becomes excessive then the battery can be disconnected. Protection methods are discussed in detail in the section on Protection.

The BMS monitors and calculates the SOC of each individual cell in the battery to check for uniform charge in all of the cells in order to verify that individual cells do not become overstressed. The SOC indication is also used to determine the end of the charging and discharging cycles. Over-charging and over-discharging are two of the prime causes of battery failure and the BMS must maintain the cells within the desired DOD operating limits.

Hybrid vehicle batteries require both high power charge capabilities for regenerative braking and high power discharge capabilities for launch assist or boost. For this reason, their batteries must be maintained at a SOC that can discharge the required power but still have enough headroom to accept the necessary regenerative power without risking overcharging the cells. To fully charge the HEV battery for cell balancing See below would diminish charge acceptance capability for regenerative braking and hence braking efficiency.

The lower limit is set to optimise fuel economy and also to prevent over discharge which could shorten the life of the battery. The diagram below indicates the possible cell failure mechanisms, their consequences and the necessary actions to be taken by the Battery Management System.

Cell Failures, Consequences and Protection Mechanisms. The following diagram is a conceptual representation of the primary BMS functions.

Other configurations are possible with distributed BMS embedded in the battery cell to cell interconnections. There may also be requirements for system monitoring and programming, and data logging using an RS serial bus.

The Battery Monitoring Unit is a microprocessor based unit incorporating three functions or sub-modules. These sub-modules are not necessarily separate physical units but are shown separately here for clarity. The Battery Model characterises in a software algorithm, the behaviour of the battery in response to various external and internal conditions.

The model can then use these inputs to estimate the status of the battery at any instant in time. An essential function of the battery model is to calculate the SOC of the battery for the functions noted above. The SOC is determined essentially by integrating the current flow over time, modified to take account of the many factors which affect the performance of the cells, then subtracting the result from the known capacity of the fully charged battery.

This is described in detail in the section on SOC. The battery model can be used to log past history for maintenance purposes or to predict how many miles the vehicle may run before the battery needs recharging. The remaining range, based on recent driving or usage patterns, is calculated from the current SOC and the energy consumed and the miles covered since the previous charge or alternatively from a previous long term average. The distance travelled is derived from data provided by other sensors on the CAN bus see below.

The accuracy of the range calculation is more important for EVs whose only source of power is the battery. HEVs and bicycles have an alternative "Get you home" source of power should the battery become completely discharged. The problem of losing all power when a single cell fails can be mitigated at the cost of adding four more expensive contactors which effectively split the battery into two separate units.

If a cell should fail, the contactors can isolate and bypass the half of the battery containing the failed cell allowing the vehicle to limp home at half power using the other good half of the battery. To reduce costs, instead of monitoring each cell in parallel, the Battery Monitoring Unit incorporates a multiplexing architecture which switches the voltage from each cell input pairs in turn to a single analogue or digital output line see below.

The drawbacks are that only one cell voltage can be monitored at a time. A high speed switching mechanism is required to switch the output line to each cell so that all cells can be monitored sequentially. The BMU also provides the inputs for estimating the SOH of the battery, however since the SOH changes only gradually over the lifetime of the battery, less frequent samples are needed.

Depending on the method used to determine the SOH, sampling intervals may be as low as once per day. Impedance measurements for example could even be taken only in periods when the vehicle is not in use. Cycle counting of course can only occur when the vehicle is operational.

The Demand Module is similar in some respects to the Battery Model in that it contains a reference model with all the tolerances and limits relevant to the various parameters monitored by the Battery Model.

The Demand Module also takes instructions from the communications bus such as commands from the BMS to accept a regenerative braking charge or from other vehicle sensors such as safety devices or directly from the vehicle operator. One can change the way it displays the data about the sensor's sampling rate, ranges, set audio trigger points, units, and scaling value. ProScan is often sold as a mix with hardware and software and contains all of the necessary cables, equipment, and software to turn any PC into an OBD2 code reader.

This tool is a generic automotive diagnostic scanner and a diagnostics tool that maintain a broad multiplicity of OBD2 hardware interfaces.

It allows viewing, creating charts, logging, and playback of diagnostics data in the present time with the car's OBD2 diagnostic data slot. It supports all US, Asian and European cars built after Users can make a diagnostics of a vehicle using Mac OS and find out the reason for engine indicators without the manufacturer's pack. The connection is simple, and after that user can diagnose and see the results in real-time.

The Auto Doctor allows the user to examine and reset the alert codes. OBD2 Auto Doctor is an excellent tool for people who are interested in understanding more their cars. If one wants to monitor vehicle data in the present period of time or turn off the check engine indicator, this can be very gear.

Reading this information can help professionals to identify the problem and fix a car. For more information on how we can develop connected car software solutions that are right for you, contact our experts at studios-info cprime.

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