Battery performance monitor
First Claim
1. A method for tracking the state of health and state of charge of a particular battery as it experiences numerous charge/discharge cycles over its lifetime, comprising the following steps:
- providing an instrument to be connected to the particular battery and capable of evaluating a parameter indicative of the capability of the particular battery at intervals during charge/discharge cycles over the lifetime of the particular battery and of storing the values of said parameter, and using said instrument to perform the following steps, performed without operator intervention;
evaluating said parameter indicative of the capability of the particular battery at intervals during charge/discharge cycles experienced by the particular battery, yielding a series of values Ca;
tracking the series of values evaluated for Ca during a particular charge/discharge cycle experienced by the particular battery, and selecting the maximum value reached in the series of values as Ce;
tracking the values reached by Ce over the lifetime of the particular battery and selecting the maximum value reached as Cm;
determining the state of health of the particular battery by comparing Ce and Cm; and
determining the state of charge of the particular battery by comparing Ca and Ce, or by comparing Ca to Cm.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
Improvements both in the methods whereby existing techniques for determining the condition of a battery are communicated to a user (for example, to the owner of a private vehicle, or to the service manager of a fleet of vehicles), or the vehicle'"'"'s operating system, and in the methods for evaluating the condition of the battery are disclosed. It has been discovered by the inventors that the difference in internal resistance of a fully charged battery as measured during charging and as measured after charging is greater for a battery in poor condition than for a new battery. The invention relates in part to instruments and corresponding methods for evaluating the condition of a battery utilizing this discovery.
202 Citations
16 Claims
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1. A method for tracking the state of health and state of charge of a particular battery as it experiences numerous charge/discharge cycles over its lifetime, comprising the following steps:
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providing an instrument to be connected to the particular battery and capable of evaluating a parameter indicative of the capability of the particular battery at intervals during charge/discharge cycles over the lifetime of the particular battery and of storing the values of said parameter, and using said instrument to perform the following steps, performed without operator intervention; evaluating said parameter indicative of the capability of the particular battery at intervals during charge/discharge cycles experienced by the particular battery, yielding a series of values Ca; tracking the series of values evaluated for Ca during a particular charge/discharge cycle experienced by the particular battery, and selecting the maximum value reached in the series of values as Ce; tracking the values reached by Ce over the lifetime of the particular battery and selecting the maximum value reached as Cm; determining the state of health of the particular battery by comparing Ce and Cm; and determining the state of charge of the particular battery by comparing Ca and Ce, or by comparing Ca to Cm. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. An instrument for being connected to a particular battery for tracking the state of health and state of charge of said particular battery over its lifetime, comprising:
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a measuring circuit for measuring a parameter indicative of the capability of the particular battery and for providing a signal responsive to a measured value of said parameter at intervals during each charge/discharge cycle of said particular battery, yielding a series of values Ca; and a controller responsive to said measuring circuit for monitoring said series of values Ca, and for performing the following steps without operator intervention; tracking the series of values for Ca during each charge/discharge cycle of said particular battery, and selecting the maximum value reached in each series of values as Ce; tracking the values of Ce over the lifetime of the particular battery and selecting the maximum value reached by Ce over the lifetime of the particular battery as Cm; determining the state of health of the particular battery by comparing Ce and Cm; and determining the state of charge of the particular battery by comparing Ca and Ce, or by comparing Ca and Cm. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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Specification