INTELLIGENT METHOD FOR CALIBRATING BATTERY CAPACITY

• US 20160245873A1
• Filed: 02/24/2015
• Published: 08/25/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 02/24/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Quanta Computer
• Original Assignee: Quanta Computer
• Inventors: Lee, Wen-Kai
• Granted Patent: US 10,324,137 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 31/367 Software therefor, e.g. for battery testing using modelling or look-up tables
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 31/392 Determining battery ageing or deterioration, e.g. state of health
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3003 Monitoring arrangements specially adapted to the computing system or computing system component being monitored
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3058 Monitoring arrangements for monitoring environmental properties or parameters of the computing system or of the computing system component, e.g. monitoring of power, currents, temperature, humidity, position, vibrations thermal management in cooling arrangements of a computing system G06F1/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/327 Alarm or error message display
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/81 Threshold

Abstract

Various embodiments of the present technology provide methods for calibrating a full-charge capacity of a battery system. In some implementations, the battery system can be caused to enter into a static learning mode. During the static learning mode, current and past battery cell characteristics for each battery cell of the battery system can be collected, analyzed, and used to build up or update a database of correlations between a full-charge capacity of a specific type of battery cell and cell characteristics of a corresponding type of battery cell. The full-charge capacity of the battery system can be determined based at least upon cell characteristics of battery cells of the battery system, or the database of correlations between a full-charge capacity of a specific type of battery cell and cell characteristics of battery cells in the battery system.

Claims

1. A server system, comprising:

at least one processor; and

memory including instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the system to;

monitor a status and ambient temperature of a battery system, the status of the battery system including current and past battery cell characteristics of each battery cell of the battery system;

in response to a determination that a predetermined period of time has lapsed since a full-charge capacity of the battery system was previously updated, cause the battery system to enter into a static learning mode;

update a database of correlations between a full-charge capacity of a specific type of battery cell and cell characteristics of a corresponding type of battery cell, based at least upon the current and past battery cell characteristics, and determined full-charge capacity of each of the corresponding type of battery cells in the battery system; and

determine an updated full-charge capacity of the battery system based at least upon the status of the battery system, the ambient temperature, or the database.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the instructions when executed further cause the system to:

in response to a determination that the updated full-charge capacity of the battery system is below a threshold battery capacity, generate a battery-aging-alarm signal.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the battery-aging-alarm signal includes a status of each battery cell of the battery system or an identification of a specific battery cell that needs to be replaced.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the battery cell characteristics include cell age, cell temperature, environment temperature, cell resistance, output voltage, and/or charging and discharging cycles.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the instructions when executed further cause the system to:

in response to an input power to the server system being interrupted, monitor a current flowing out of each battery cell of the battery system during a discharging period;

monitor battery cell characteristics of each battery cell of the battery system during the discharging period;

monitor a current flowing into each battery cell of the battery system during a recharging period;

monitor battery cell characteristics of each battery cell of the battery system during the recharging period; and

update the database of correlations between the full-charge capacity of the specific type of battery cell and the cell characteristics of the corresponding type of battery cell based at least upon the currents flowing out of and into each of the corresponding type of battery cells in the battery system during the discharging and recharging periods, and the battery cell characteristics of the corresponding type of battery cell in the battery system.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the instructions when executed further cause the system to:

in response to the determination that the predetermined period of time has lapsed since the previous update on the full-charge capacity of the battery system, and receiving a learning mode command, cause the battery system to be switched to a constant current mode.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the instructions when executed further cause the system to:

discharge the battery system with a constant current for a predetermined percentage of a previously determined full-charge capacity of the battery system;

recharge the battery system to a full-charge capacity; and

determine the updated full-charge capacity of the battery system based at least upon the battery cell characteristics of each battery cell of the battery system during discharging and recharging periods, or the database.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the instructions when executed further cause the system to:

in response to receiving a battery discharge command, cause the battery system to be switched to a fully discharging-recharging mode.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the instructions when executed further cause the system to:

fully discharge the battery system;

monitor a current flowing out of the battery system;

recharge the battery system to a full-charge capacity;

monitor a current flowing into the battery system; and

determine the updated full-charge capacity of the battery system based at least upon the currents flowing out of and into the battery system.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the battery system includes one or more rechargeable battery cells, each of the one or more rechargeable battery cells including at least one chemical selected from a group comprising lead-acid, nickel cadmium (NiCd), nickel metal hydride (NiMH), lithium ion (Li-ion), and lithium ion polymer (Li-ion polymer).

11. A computer-implemented method for enhancing memory fault tolerance in a server system, comprising:

monitoring a status and ambient temperature of a battery system, the status of the battery system including current and past battery cell characteristics of each battery cell of the battery system;

in response to a determination that a predetermined period of time has lapsed since a full-charge capacity of the battery system was previously updated, causing the battery system to enter into a static learning mode;

updating a database of correlations between a full-charge capacity of a specific type of battery cell and cell characteristics of a corresponding type of battery cell, based at least upon the current and past battery cell characteristics, and determined full-charge capacity of each of the corresponding type of battery cells in the battery system; and

determining an updated full-charge capacity of the battery system based at least upon the status of the battery system, the ambient temperature, or the database.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, further comprising:

in response to a determination that the updated full-charge capacity of the battery system is below a threshold battery capacity, generating a battery-aging-alarm signal.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, further comprising:

generating an update status of each battery cell of the battery system;

or

identifying a specific battery cell that needs to be replaced.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, further comprising:

in response to an input power to the server system being interrupted, monitoring a current flowing out of each battery cell of the battery system during a discharging period;

monitoring battery cell characteristics of each battery cell of the battery system during the discharging period;

monitoring a current flowing into each battery cell of the battery system during a recharging period;

monitoring battery cell characteristics of each battery cell of the battery system during the recharging period; and

updating the database of correlations between the full-charge capacity of the specific type of battery cell and the cell characteristics of the corresponding type of battery cell based at least upon the currents flowing out of and into each of the corresponding type of battery cells in the battery system during the discharging and recharging periods, and the battery cell characteristics of the corresponding type of battery cell in the battery system.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, further comprising:

in response to the determination that the predetermined period of time has lapsed since the previous update on the full-charge capacity of the battery system, and receiving a learning mode command, causing the battery system to be switched to a constant current mod.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 15, further comprising:

discharging the battery system with a constant current for a predetermined percentage of a previously determined full-charge capacity of the battery system;

recharging the battery system to a full-charge capacity; and

determining the updated full-charge capacity of the battery system based at least upon the battery cell characteristics of each battery cell of the battery system during discharging and recharging periods, or the database.

17. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium including instructions that, when executed by at least one processor of a server system, cause the server system to:

monitor a status and ambient temperature of a battery system, the status of the battery system including current and past battery cell characteristics of each battery cell of the battery system;

in response to a determination that a predetermined period of time has lapsed since a full-charge capacity of the battery system was previously updated, cause the battery system to enter into a static learning mode;

update a database of correlations between a full-charge capacity of a specific type of battery cell and cell characteristics of a corresponding type of battery cell, based at least upon the current and past battery cell characteristics, and determined full-charge capacity of each of the corresponding type of battery cells in the battery system; and

determine an updated full-charge capacity of the battery system based at least upon the status of the battery system, the ambient temperature, or the database.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the instructions when executed further cause the system to:

in response to an input power to the server system being interrupted, monitor a current flowing out of each battery cell of the battery system during a discharging period;

monitor battery cell characteristics of each battery cell of the battery system during the discharging period;

monitor a current flowing into each battery cell of the battery system during a recharging period;

monitor battery cell characteristics of each battery cell of the battery system during the recharging period; and

update the database of correlations between the full-charge capacity of the specific type of battery cell and the cell characteristics of the corresponding type of battery cell based at least upon the currents flowing out of and into each of the corresponding type of battery cells in the battery system during the discharging and recharging periods, and the battery cell characteristics of the corresponding type of battery cell in the battery system.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the instructions when executed further cause the system to:

in response to receiving a battery discharge command, cause the battery system to be switched to a fully discharging-recharging mode.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein the instructions when executed further cause the system to:

fully discharge the battery system;

monitor currents flowing out of the battery system;

recharge the battery system to a full-charge capacity;

monitor currents flowing into the battery system; and

determine the updated full-charge capacity of the battery system based at least upon the currents flowing out of and into the battery system.